Episode Summary
The Fang family's internal conflicts explode into the public eye when the patriarch, Fang Yangtian, alters his will to disinherit his children, leading to a lawsuit. A year prior, tensions were already simmering, with business rivalries and conspiracies brewing. At a family banquet, a plot to discredit the family's jewelry business with a counterfeit necklace is uncovered by Fang Yangtian. The episode reveals deep-seated resentments among the sons and their wives, who are all jockeying for power and inheritance. The conflict escalates when a public incident involving a fake product and the death of a customer goes viral, further threatening the family's reputation.
Spoiler Alert
The Family Business Is War
The Courtroom Showdown
The show opens with the Fang family heading to court. They are not there for a friendly visit. The patriarch, Fang Yangtian, decided to put the entire family fund into a financial fund. He gave full control to his new wife, Lin Cheng. He also wrote a will that specifically cuts out his own children. So, naturally, the family is suing him.
The family matriarch, the grandmother, shows up looking stressed. Fang Yangtian tries to get her to agree to an out-of-court settlement. She flat-out refuses.
Inside the courtroom, we get a glimpse of the bitterness. The grandmother regrets ever letting Lin Cheng into the family. She thinks it was the start of all this chaos. Fang Yangtian looks miserable. He flashes back to a car accident. His sons were nowhere to be seen while he was recovering. You can tell he hasn't forgotten that.
A Year Before the Chaos
The episode then jumps back one year. We meet a man named Gao Shen who is determined to buy a specific painting. The seller is asking for a fortune. But Fang Yangtian knows the painting belongs to a friend and knows its real value. He steps in and tells Gao Shen to offer only twenty million. He even threatens the seller with a lawsuit if they don't sell. The seller caves.
The painting is a big deal. It's the last work by an artist named Rostov, one of four pieces for each season. Later, a guy named Mr. Kwong suggests auctioning it off. Gao Shen says no. He thinks it's more valuable as a collector's item.
It turns out Mr. Kwong and Gao Shen are secretly plotting against Fang Yangtian. Mr. Kwong is tired of being second-best and wants Gao Shen's help to take the old man down.
The Banquet Blow-Up
The Fang family hosts a fancy jewelry banquet. The tension is thick. The wife of the second son, Jiaxin, and the wife of the eldest son trade fake smiles and subtle insults.
Mr. Kwong bought a necklace for his wife for the party. As he puts it on her, it breaks and diamonds scatter everywhere. He immediately makes a scene. He yells at the eldest son, Fang Xueli, about the terrible quality of his company's products. Fang Xueli rushes over and promises to fix it.
But then, Fang Yangtian calmly walks over. He picks up the diamonds, looks at them, and declares the necklace is a fake. It's not from his son's company. He promises a full investigation to clear his family's name.
Backstage Drama
Things get even messier. A model for the jewelry show suddenly gets a stomach ache and has to go to the hospital. Jiaxin, the second son's wife, sees her chance. She used to be a model and decides to walk the runway herself to make her husband look good.
She gets to the dressing room and finds her sister-in-law, Kwong Shan Tsuen, already in the dress and jewelry. The two immediately start fighting over who gets to walk. The third son, Fang Xuexian, sees the argument and comes up with a plan.
Both of them end up walking the runway, each wearing a different piece of jewelry. The show is saved when the grandmother makes a surprise appearance as the final model.
After the show, reporters ambush the family. Mr. Kwong had tipped them off, feeding them a story about the jewelry being cheap and losing its color. Fang Yangtian, sharp as ever, figures out it's a setup. He challenges the reporter to show proof, and the reporter has nothing to say. Fang Xueli remembers that this same reporter did a special interview with Mr. Kwong, and it all starts to click. Fang Yangtian tells his eldest son to get to the bottom of the counterfeit situation immediately.
Schemes and Grudges
Jiaxin is obsessed with having a son to secure her place in the family. She even consults a master for the best time to conceive. Her husband, the second son Fang Xueqin, reminds her that only the eldest son's son gets inheritance rights. But Jiaxin has a counter-argument. Their father-in-law, Fang Yangtian, was a second son who inherited everything after his older brother died. Since the current eldest son and his wife don't have kids, she thinks her son could be the one. Fang Xueqin starts to see her point.
Meanwhile, the third son, Fang Xuexian, can't stand his father. He blames Fang Yangtian for his mother leaving. He's so full of resentment he won't even eat at the same table.
The Counterfeit Crisis
Fang Yangtian asks his wife, Lin Cheng, to investigate the fake jewelry. She goes to Mr. Kwong's store and immediately spots the knockoffs. Fang Yangtian shows up in disguise, and they pretend to want to buy the piece. The manager, thrilled at first, suddenly recognizes Fang Yangtian and panics. He confesses that a man named Lai Zhongxing designed the counterfeit item.
The crisis gets worse. An old man named Huang Bo storms into the Fangs' flagship store, waving a fake certificate and shouting that their jewelry is fake. The manager tries to explain that he bought a high-quality counterfeit from another shop, but the man won't listen. He causes a huge scene, then has some kind of attack and collapses. Someone films the whole thing, and it goes viral.
Fang Yangtian tells his son, Fang Xueli, to go to the hospital and apologize. But it's too late; Huang Bo is already dead. Fang Xueli is stubborn and feels he did nothing wrong. His younger brother, Fang Xueqin, pretends to agree with him. In reality, he's secretly hoping this disaster will ruin his older brother's position in the family.
