Resumo do episódio 4 de The Heir
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Li Zhen began working at Qiu'e's tailor shop, throwing herself into the labor with a desperate intensity. Noticing her exhaustion, Qiu'e urged her to slow down, but Li Zhen insisted she had to earn enough to repay the debts her family had incurred on her behalf. When Qiu'e offered her own meager savings to help, Li Zhen firmly refused.
She reminded Qiu'e that she and Li Zhengliang were soon to be married and would need every penny for their own future. Li Zhen felt enough guilt for how her public broken engagement had already brought gossip and shame upon her brother and his fiancée. As Li Zhen left the shop for the evening, she was intercepted by Tian Benchang.
He pathetically begged for her forgiveness, promising to spend the rest of his life making it up to her and her family. Li Zhen remained cold, telling him that any chance of a future between them vanished the moment he chose to plot against her brother. She demanded the return of her birthday inkstick—the only memento she had of her late father.
After some hesitation, Tian Benchang handed over the precious item, and Li Zhen walked away, severing her last tie to him. Returning home, Li Zhen found her mother talking to the spirit of her late husband, expressing deep worry that Li Zhen would never recover from the public humiliation. Li Zhen put on a brave face to comfort her mother, even joking about her mother's supposed bravery in her youth.
However, once she was alone, she allowed herself to break down. She wept bitterly, finally letting go of her past and the pain of the betrayal she had endured. Later, at the tea stall run by Shui Bo, Li Zhen met with her friend Hua'er. While they were talking, a weary traveling merchant arrived, attempting to sell a batch of ink for one tael of silver.
Other merchants at the stall mocked him, claiming that in Huizhou, only the ink from the Luo, Li, or Chen families was worth anything. Intrigued, Li Zhen asked to examine the ink. She noted the unique inscription and the inclusion of various shell powders, recognizing its superior quality. The merchant explained that the ink was made from dwarf black pine, a rare material from the coast that grew incredibly slowly but produced a jet-black, cream-smooth finish.
Grateful that someone finally recognized his craftsmanship, the merchant gave Li Zhen an inkstick as a gift before moving on. The Luo family’s business was thriving since they secured the rights to produce Tribute Ink, and Luo Wensong was currently overseeing a massive selection of pine wood to meet new orders. When a group of merchants from the Chen family in Lin’an were rudely dismissed by Luo’s assistants without even an appraisal, Li Zhen stepped in.
She followed the dejected merchants and told them she had a way to make Luo Wensong buy their wood at a high price. Li Zhen entered the Luo family workshop and found Luo Wensong in a foul mood because his regular appraiser had fallen ill. She boldly offered her services, but Luo Wensong was skeptical of her abilities.
Li Zhen challenged him to a bet: they would both appraise the wood separately, and if her selections matched his exactly, he would pay her as an appraiser. Luo Wensong accepted, even adding a ten-tael bonus to the stake. When the results were revealed, Li Zhen’s choices—batches from the Zhao, Feng, and Jiang families—were identical to his own. Luo Wensong was impressed, but Li Zhen pointed out that the truly superior wood had already been rejected.
She brought in the Lin’an merchants and their dwarf black pine. Though Luo's men initially called it low-quality due to its rough, dark appearance, Li Zhen cited ancient texts describing its unique properties. She also warned Luo Wensong that this specific wood required dark, humid storage to prevent the finished ink from cracking—a direct contrast to how ordinary pine is handled.
Luo Wensong, a man obsessed with the craft, acknowledged her talent and paid her the twenty taels she was owed. He even apologized for his past ruthlessness and invited her to work for the Luo family. Li Zhen declined, but Luo Wensong reminded her that even his aunt, Luo Mengzhen, had defied gender norms to help build their family's empire.
At home, Li Zhen's mother was distressed because Li Jinshui had insisted on taking Li Zhengliang to the Li family's centennial ritual. Despite being stripped of their clan status, the old man felt he could not abandon his ancestors. Outside the ancestral hall, Li Jinshui and Li Zhengliang knelt in the street to pay their respects, but they were met with vitriol from Tian Jiangyue and Li Jingdong.
The relatives called them "jinxes" and "sinners," blaming them for the family's loss of the Tribute Ink rights and the death of Li Jingqi. Tian Jiangyue even physically struck the elderly Li Jinshui, screaming that they should all die to atone for their failures. Li Zhen and her mother arrived just as the guards were trying to forcibly remove her grandfather. Seeing the old man being bullied, Li Zhen finally snapped.
She confronted Li Jingdong and the others, pointing out that their hatred was fueled by fear—fear of her grandfather’s unmatched skills and the possibility that their branch might one day rise again. She declared that her family had spent years living in the shadows of a taboo, trying to live quietly, but since they were constantly denied a way to survive, she would no longer hide.
In front of the entire clan, she announced that she was officially entering the ink-making industry to reclaim the dignity and glory of her family. Back at their modest home, Li Zhen hung a portrait of the Grandmaster and prepared to establish their own family altar. Li Jinshui was horrified, calling her actions sacrilegious and a violation of the rules.
Li Zhen stood her ground, arguing that it was better to break tradition than to suffer the "blind filial piety" that only led to further humiliation. She knelt before her grandfather and solemnly asked him to break his vow and teach her the ancient secrets of making ink.
