In the first year of the Mingdao era under Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song, the wealthy Madam Li moved to Bianjing with her five daughters. This family of merchant women, jokingly known as “the Six Tigers of One Household,” opened the Sifu Zhai teahouse on Panlou Street. They made their name among the locals with famous treats from the Wu Family’s Record of Household Cuisine, such as carved honeyed fruit and plum-blossom soup cakes. Third daughter Li Kangning fell out with Bianjing talent Chai An during a cuju match at Jinming Pond, and a broken jade hairpin marked the beginning of a half-lifetime of entanglement between them. To protect the family business, Kangning set up a “Three Trials for Suitors” matchmaking challenge. Chai An secretly interfered, only to fall into her romantic trap. From business rivalries to joining forces against the crackdown under the Market Trade Law, their pledge over the broken hairpin endured the upheavals of the Qingli reforms. At last, amid the thunderous beat of the grievance drum, they broke through the divide between merchants and scholars.
