Li Zhen was an orphan from the eighth branch of the Li family. After an old family case got her cast out of the clan, she endured humiliation over her betrothal. On the day the engagement was broken off, she vowed before everyone: women can make ink, and women can restore a family’s fortunes.
Starting with a single oil lamp and a scrap of ink, Li Zhen apprenticed herself to an ink maker, recreated lacquer-soot ink lost for many years, and founded the Little Li Ink Workshop. She saved lives with medicinal ink and broke through business rivalries, carving out a path of her own in Huizhou’s ink trade.
Meanwhile, the mysterious investor Qi Jiu entered the business with enormous wealth. He appeared to help her establish her workshop, but secretly carried the burden of the Luo family massacre and an old grudge of revenge. The Tian family pressed her at every turn, infighting plagued the Li family, and the rights to produce tribute ink, political schemes, and family secrets piled up one after another.
When the old clan drove her out, when her enemies tried to cut off her future, Li Zhen insisted on wielding ink as a blade and writing her own name.
This time, she would not beg the Li family to accept her.
She would make all of Huizhou know that the spirit of Li ink need not live only in the ancestral shrine. It could also take root in her own hands.
