Episode Summary
Wen Zhiqiu secures a high-stakes partnership with Xia Yuan by pretending to be an unsophisticated fool. A critical error at the printing press leads to ads that infringe on Tian Ji's product, resulting in a frantic city-wide search to recover them. Just as their direct sales efforts begin to succeed, Wen Zhiqiu and Chu Shaohua are hit with a massive lawsuit from Tian Ji over the faulty ads, putting their entire business at risk.
Spoiler Alert
The Art of the Deal
Playing the Fool
The episode kicks off with Wen Zhiqiu needing to partner with the powerful pharmacy owner, Xia Yuan. He sends Chu Shaohua to start the conversation, but Wen Zhiqiu goes to the actual meeting himself. He walks into Xia Yuan's high-end pharmacy, Jujitang, and puts on a show. He acts like a clueless, unsophisticated guy who's never seen anything so fancy. He criticizes the decor and the products. It’s a bold strategy.
The Negotiation
Xia Yuan agrees to sell Wen Zhiqiu's "Qingshen Wan" pills, but he has some tough conditions. First, Wen Zhiqiu can't use his own brand name. He also has to use Jujitang's raw materials. Then Xia Yuan drops the biggest demand. If the pills fail to capture 30% of the market for similar products, Wen Zhiqiu must hand over the recipe for free.
Wen Zhiqiu immediately refuses. He knows beating their competitor, Tian Ji, that quickly is a long shot. It would be like just giving his formula away. So, he counters with his own offer. Either Xia Yuan cuts the price of his raw materials by 30%, or he gives Wen Zhiqiu 100,000 silver dollars for a 10% stake in his company.
They haggle back and forth. They finally land on a deal. Xia Yuan will give him the 100,000 dollars, but he wants a 20% stake. Wen Zhiqiu cleverly uses this moment to demand he get to keep his "Wen" brand name. Xia Yuan agrees but adds one last clause. If Wen Zhiqiu doesn't hit that 30% market share within a year, he has to buy back the shares at the original price.
The Aftermath
Wen Zhiqiu and Chu Shaohua go out for a celebratory dinner. Chu Shaohua is in awe. She watched the whole tense negotiation and realizes Wen Zhiqiu was just pretending to be a fool. He played a role to get exactly what he wanted. Xia Yuan also figures out he was being played. He's not even mad. He's impressed and sees Wen Zhiqiu as a potential weapon against their common rival, Tian Ji.
A Costly Mistake
The Wrong Ads
With the deal done, Chu Shaohua and Wen Zhiqiu get to work. She's at the workshop managing the pill production, and he's handling the business side. Things are moving fast. Chu Shaohua is so overworked she nearly faints when she goes to pick up 20,000 new advertisements.
This is where everything goes wrong. She gives 5,000 of the ads to her friend Cheng Hui to have students pass them out. Wen Zhiqiu then spots a huge problem. The ads have their brand name, but the design and slogan are copied directly from Tian Ji's product. The printer admits they made a mistake and accidentally used the wrong template.
The Frantic Search
They panic. If those ads are out there, it's a major infringement. They rush to Cheng Hui's school, but it's too late. Some students have already distributed over a hundred of the faulty ads. Wen Zhiqiu and Chu Shaohua spend the entire night combing the area, going door to door. They manage to get 96 of the ads back. Chu Shaohua feels terrible and offers to have her pay docked, but Wen Zhiqiu tells her to just go home and rest.
New Plans and Old Enemies
The Sales Plan
Chu Shaohua stays up all night and writes a new sales plan. Her idea is to advertise in the newspaper and present their "Eastern Brain Tonic" at the Shanghai National Medicine Association. Wen Zhiqiu admits it's a good plan but says it's too expensive and throws it in the trash. He also points out that the head of the association is Tian Tongdao, their rival, so it wouldn't work anyway.
Instead, he buys her a pair of comfortable shoes. Their new plan is to go door-to-door to every pharmacy in Shanghai themselves. While they're out, they get cornered by some of Tian Ji's men. The thugs try to threaten them, but Chu Shaohua isn't having it. She grabs a big stick and chases them off. Wen Zhiqiu grabs a brick to back her up, and the men run away.
The Lawsuit
Their hard work pays off. Sales start climbing in dozens of pharmacies. But their success is cut short. They see a newspaper headline. Tian Ji is suing them. Tian Tongdao found two of the incorrect ads. He and the original Western developer are suing for 200,000 in damages. Chu Shaohua tries to take all the blame, but Wen Zhiqiu refuses to let her.
Meanwhile, Kang Erniu is dealing with her own problems. She overhears coworkers gossiping that Tian Tongxin isn't serious about her. To prove them wrong, she gets a friend to take pictures of her at a Tian family party, making it look like she fits right in. When she hears about Chu Shaohua's legal trouble, she promises to help, convinced her new connection to the Tian family will solve everything.
