In the Name of Blossom Episode 13 Recap
> In the Name of Blossom Recap
He Weifang had gone through great hardship to find the person who poisoned her mother and had originally planned to exact revenge. But to her surprise, Jiang Zhangyang blocked her strike, preventing her from carrying out her plan. She couldn’t understand it—she thought she knew Jiang Zhangyang well, so why had he suddenly become so muddled? Wu Hong was clearly cruel and ruthless, so why had he remained at the orphanage for decades?
Moreover, when she had confronted Wu Hong earlier, he had seemed to have something left unsaid, and Jiang Zhangyang had signaled him not to continue speaking. There had to be more to the story. Just then, Da Fu hurried back. She had investigated Wu Hong’s background and discovered that he had left his hometown many years ago and had been living by the orphanage ever since, with no relatives and barely leaving the premises.
From among the children Wu Hong had taken in, Da Fu found a boy named A Kang, who had been brought from He Weifang’s hometown. She figured A Kang must know something, so He Weifang went to find him with two maids in tow. When A Kang saw He Weifang, he looked at her with disgust and hostility.
He threw pebbles at her, and after being caught by Da Fu, he cried and said that back when a plague had struck their hometown, it had been severe but not without cure. One key ingredient in the remedy was peony bark, which was extremely rare and had skyrocketed in price. Ordinary people couldn’t afford it. Some victims even knelt outside the He family pharmacy begging for help, but even after dying on their knees, they never got any.
A Kang said that while the pharmacy owner had claimed the herbs were sold out, he had personally seen bundles of medicine stamped with cloud patterns being loaded onto carriages. He Weifang was shocked by the truth. She remembered her mother once telling her that she had cultivated a strain of peony that was a rare medicinal primer used to treat epidemics.
Raised under her mother's care, He Weifang had always believed in her character and was certain her mother would never have turned a blind eye to suffering—there must be another reason behind it. Back then, He Weifang had still been a child. Her mother focused on tending her peonies, while her father ran the pharmacy. Wanting answers, He Weifang returned to her hometown to question her father.
When the concubine saw her at the door, her face immediately betrayed a guilty panic. Her father then led He Weifang inside and recounted what had truly happened. During the outbreak, many high-ranking officials had begun hoarding medicine out of fear of infection. He Weifang’s father couldn’t afford to offend them, so in order to keep the pharmacy afloat, he had no choice but to sell all the medicinal herbs to these wealthy families.
He had lied to He Weifang’s mother, saying the herbs had been given out to disaster victims for free. Wu Hong, after watching his entire family succumb to the plague, felt he had nothing left to live for. He managed to sneak into He Weifang’s mother’s residence and poisoned her tea. Upon hearing Wu Hong’s story, her mother was devastated. She hadn’t known her husband had withheld the herbs from the people.
When Wu Hong saw her cough up blood and collapse, he finally realized he had made a terrible mistake and had hurt someone truly innocent without knowing the truth. He Weifang’s mother didn’t report the crime. She endured the pain, returned to the house, found the last bit of remaining medicinal herbs, and gave them to Wu Hong. Then she walked alone to the courtyard, watered her carefully cultivated peonies one last time, and set them all ablaze.
Wu Hong gave the medicine to a sick child named A Kang. That night, A Kang witnessed Wu Hong try to hang himself out of guilt. It was Jiang Zhangyang who arrived in time to save him. He told A Kang to consider Wu Hong his father. From then on, Wu Hong had a new reason to live and never tried anything foolish again. After learning the full story, He Weifang let go of her hatred.
As she was leaving, her father, as always, reminded her to abide by traditional virtues in Jiang Zhangyang’s household and to prioritize her husband’s family. His words triggered painful memories for He Weifang—how she had once fled the Liu family in the dead of night and sought refuge with her natal family, only to overhear her father telling the Liu family to send her back immediately if she was found.
She had been devastated then and fled to the capital that very night. Even now, her father still believed that she and her mother needed a man to survive. Back at Fangyuan, He Weifang found herself filled with doubt. The circumstances of her mother’s death led her to reconsider what it meant to be a merchant. She decided to temporarily close down Fangyuan and take time to reflect before making any decisions.
