The guy who holds a grudge against Qianfan frames Pan’er for treason and has her arrested.
San-niang goes look for Qianfan for help. Yinzhang runs to Shen Ruzuo – her new admirer from the music place — to see if there’s anything he can do.
But our girl Pan’er is well prepared for this. She found a strange note in one of her books a few days ago and worked it out with one of the scholars who are a fan of her teahouse.
Long story short, Pan’er manages to void this so-called evidence and exposes this man in front of his subordinates while he’s trying to torture her.
When he is about to drown her, Chen Lian and Qianfan rush in and turn the situation around. Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. That purposely put-out chin tells me everything I need to know about the level of this guy’s “villain-plotting”.
In the presence of his subordinates, Qianfan pretended not to know Pan’er and has Chen Lian send her home.
Chen Lian and Qianfan arrive a bit later to check on Pan’er. Qianfan calls her out for being so reckless and thinking that she could handle everything by herself.
There’s nothing wrong with his reasoning; but since Pan’er is already pissed with his mixed signals lately, she snaps back. She asks him to figure out where they stand with each other before saying things like “you’re my weakness”, cause it’s confusing.
If being together is what they both want, then they have a whole lot of grounds to cover, considering they are not exactly an ideal match by the standards of the time.
Chen Lian also advises Qianfan to have an answer reading before talking to her, to which Qianfan agrees. This drama is so mature, even a sidekick is mature.
Once Qianfan has left. San-niang comes in with another lecture for Pan’er. She also doesn’t like how Pan’er keeps running off on her own and scaring everyone like that.
One day, Shen Ruzuo visits Yinzhang. He gives her a subtle warning that their teahouse has competition. Another shop is copying their recipes and designs. Hopefully this guy cares about Yinzhang for real.