It doesn’t take Pan’er long to think of a way to respond to the teahouse that imitates her business model. She seeks out their lead musician and offers the woman a job at her teahouse. This musician, awed by Yinzhang’s talent, agrees right away.
This makes the owner of the other teahouse rage. He’s a grumpy and petty man who can’t stand the idea of competition unless he’s winning. He storms into Pan’er’s shop along with some other tea masters and berates her. They even call her business tactics “brothel-like”.
But Pan’er isn’t taking it lying down. Well if it’s “brothel-like”, why did you copy it, huh? She throws back at the old man.
Things get heated. San-niang starts threatening people with kitchen knives. I’m not sure that’s going to be good for Pan’er’s business, San-niang.
In the end, Pan’er and the grumpy tea master agree to a tea match. The customers will be the judge. The loser will pack up and move his/her business elsewhere.
It’s a pretty close contest.
This man’s tea grinder is gold. Pan’er has elegant tea-grinding dance moves.
The man’s tea bubbles are solid. Pan’er makes a PICTURE of a plant on her bubbles. Never knew tea bubbles were so important. By the way, I have to say that I’m not sure how Pan’er drew this on the bubbles. Is this really an unedited finished product or do the flower and moon appear as an outline for us to follow because the art itself is too hard to see? I need a beginner’s tea booklet here.
The man’s tea tastes professionally good. Pan’er’s tea makes people feel peace and reminds them of good memories.
In short, they are both great tea masters. But Pan’er proves to tea fans that heart is as important as skills in the art of tea. She wins because of this. It’s a close win too.
The grumpy master accepts defeat. He still looks pretty petty, but it seems he will leave Pan’er alone for now.
Qianfan also comes to the teahouse on this day — probably to give Pan’er his “answer”. But once again, he finds himself stuck in a trance as he watches her dance.
When everything is over, people move on to a free-desserts session offered by Pan’er. The clumsy scholar who used to work for Ouyang is also among the crowd. He bumps into San-niang, but because his eyesight is weak, he doesn’t recognize that she’s the woman who kicked him into a lake a while ago. This time, he thinks she has great lady-like qualities, which, by his standards, mean “timid, shy, and soft” – everything that San-niang is not. Well, well… this is interesting.