Episode Summary
In this episode, Chu Shaohua's rescue of Kang Erniu leads to a massive debt with her in-laws. To pay it off, she develops a new product and stumbles into the high-stakes world of military contracts, forcing her to consider a risky business partnership.
Spoiler Alert
Wild Ambition Bloom: Episode 6 Recap
You can't say Chu Shaohua doesn't look out for her friends. This episode proves she'll go to the wall for them. But it also shows that every big move has a cost.
A Brutal Goodbye
The episode starts with Chu Shaohua's plan to rescue Kang Erniu. It works. She gets her out of that terrible place and encourages her to start fresh. Kang Erniu is incredibly grateful and decides to head to Shanghai to make a new life.
But first, there's some unfinished business with Xiao Wu. Boss Zhao's men find him and torture him, trying to get the "ginseng king" he supposedly has. He doesn't have it, so they just beat him senseless. Then, they dump his broken body in front of Chu Shaohua and Kang Erniu.
Xiao Wu sees that Kang Erniu is free. He starts apologizing and promising he'll never leave her. It's pathetic. Kang Erniu has had enough. She is completely over his empty words. In a shocking move, she walks right up to him and cuts out his tongue. It's a brutal, final statement. After that, Chu Shaohua sees a tearful Kang Erniu off at the train station, giving her money for the trip to Shanghai.
A Debt to Pay
This is where Chu Shaohua's good deed comes back to bite her. Her husband, Chen Dashun, secretly took two hundred silver dollars from the pharmacy's funds to pay for Kang Erniu's freedom. His mother, Mrs. Chen, finds out from an employee. She immediately assumes Chu Shaohua stole it for her own family.
Mr. Chen is furious and confronts his son. When Chu Shaohua gets back from the station, she walks into this family drama. She tells them the truth. She explains they used the money to rescue a friend from a brothel. Her in-laws are not happy. They can't believe she and their son would use the pharmacy's money for something so scandalous.
To smooth things over, Chu Shaohua makes a bold promise. She guarantees she will pay back one thousand silver dollars by the end of the year. That's a huge amount, and it finally quiets them down. Later, she's annoyed with Chen Dashun for taking the money without telling her, but she's also touched that he did it for her.
A New Venture and a Big Opportunity
Now, Chu Shaohua has to figure out how to make a thousand dollars. She develops a new line of beauty products called Jade Beauty Powder. She goes door-to-door selling them and manages to make a hundred and fifty dollars. It's a start, but it's not nearly enough.
Then, a new opportunity appears. A man named Gao Qianyi from the well-known Shouyuan Pharmacy comes to visit. He's heard about their business and is impressed. Chu Shaohua pitches him her Jade Beauty Powder, and he's very interested. He thinks he can make it a huge success. He invites the Chen family to a lavish dinner at the fancy Liuguo Hotel.
Chen Dashun is hesitant to go. The owner of Shouyuan Pharmacy is Xia Yuan, the brother of Chu Shaohua's ex, Xia Chu. Chu Shaohua reassures him that her past is in the past. She's with him now. So, they all get dressed up and head to the dinner.
At the hotel, Gao Qianyi tells them his boss is busy. He's trying to secure a massive military contract for medical supplies. A warlord from Shanxi is buying, and every major pharmacy is competing for the deal. Gao Qianyi mentions that a war between the North and South is likely coming. Chu Shaohua's ears perk up when she hears Shouyuan Pharmacy just landed a 30,000-dollar deal. She wants a piece of that action.
Chasing a Military Contract
After dinner, Chu Shaohua sees another pharmacy owner schmoozing the warlord's envoy. She tells Chen Dashun they should try to get one of these military contracts. He thinks it's a pipe dream.
She doesn't listen. The next day, she goes to the Beijing Hotel to meet the envoy, but the place is swarming with other pharmacy owners. She can't get close. Thinking on her feet, she disguises herself as a hotel attendant delivering water. Inside the envoy's suite, it's chaos. Relatives of the envoy's wife are literally fighting over the contract. One of them, the wife's uncle, gets handsy with Chu Shaohua, and she has to run for it.
Outside, she helps a hotel worker who got beaten up. She buys him a meal and gets some inside information on the envoy in return. But when she gets back to her own pharmacy, Gao Qianyi is there. He tells her it's too late. The Tianjin Tianji Pharmacy already snatched the contract.
An Offer on the Table
Gao Qianyi hasn't just come to deliver bad news. He wants to partner on the Jade Beauty Powder. But his terms are steep. He wants the secret formula and sixty percent of the profits.
Mr. Chen and Chen Dashun immediately say no. It sounds like a terrible deal. They'd be giving away their recipe and most of the money.
But Chu Shaohua sees it differently. She tells them to think about the numbers. Their little pharmacy can only sell about two thousand boxes a year, for a profit of one thousand dollars. Shouyuan Pharmacy has a much bigger reach and could sell six thousand boxes. Even with only forty percent of the profits, they would make an extra two hundred dollars. She thinks they should take the deal.
