Sweetness in the Salt

SUET pretends to be the daughter of Dr LUI and she follows HIN all the way to Yangzhou. KIN believes that SUET can help cure HIN’s disease so he treats her really kind. KIN’s third son TING FAI misconceives that SUET is a prostitute and SUET scolds him angrily. KIN’s younger sister asks SUET to check the ingredients of a “Forever Young Drug”. During the process, HIN discovers that SUET knows nothing about Chinese medicine. HIN asks his people to follow SUET and they find that SUET stands expressionlessly in the temple for one whole day. HIN decides to question SUET. In the meantime, SUET suddenly learns that the officials have hung the dead bodies of some drug smugglers on the wall of the city tower. She rushes to the city tower and is horrified to see her parents’ dead bodies there. Surprisingly, the official who announces the guilt of her parents is her lover YUEN……

SUET doesn’t want to take everything for granted and she voluntarily asks to work in WU KIN’s salt store. HIN takes good care of SUET in every way and HIN is pleased to see this. Mr CHU, the manager of KIN’s salt store, goes to YUEN’s mother Mrs NIP’s soya sauce store in the evening. He has collected some leftover salt for Mr NIP secretly… YUEN is injured while trying to catch the salt smugglers. Mrs NIP is very worried about him. Her good friend, KIN’s younger sister CHOI TIP, suggests her to find a wife for YUEN so that YUEN will not devote himself completely in his job. TIP suggests Mrs NIP to marry YUEN to KIN’s youngest daughter TING YIN. They bring YUEN to WU’s family to meet YIN without telling YUEN their actual intention. YUEN discovers the truth later and he firmly rejects the plan……

KIN’s eldest daughter TING PIK’s ex-boyfriend CHOI CHI ON is a salt merchant. He makes use of PIK to steal the treasure in KIN’s home. All salt merchants organize a welcome banquet for CHING. ON is not invited but he arrives to send CHING an expensive gift. He declares that he will replace KIN’s position very soon. KIN doesn’t treat ON seriously but HIN believes that somebody is backing ON up secretly. CHING is drunk and he tries to look for his ex-girlfriend LUK NG LEUNG who has already become the owner of a brothel now. Upon arriving at the entrance of the brothel, CHING accidentally meets YUEN and his senior TO YING LUNG who is also his foster father. CHING claims that LUNG is a corrupt official and YUEN is puzzled about it. KIN hides in his reading room to wait for the thief. He finally discovers the thief but… All women in WU’s family are unkind to SUET and SUET decides to leave the place secretly……

CHING suggests all salt merchants to compete for the chief salt merchant position by an open auction and KIN is very worried. HIN and SUET try to console him. YUEN discovers that his secret informer among the salt smugglers has disappeared suddenly. He tries hard to look for him and finally realizes that this informer has captured FAI as a hostage. With the help of CHING’s secretary WONG TUNG PING, YUEN catches the informer successfully. However, the informer is suddenly killed by an arrow when YUEN tries to question him. CHING realizes that YUEN is suspicious on him so he reveals his secret to him… HIN asks the salt merchants to withdraw from the auction for chief salt merchant. The salt merchants agree to do so on the surface but they start raising money secretly with ON. In order to win the auction, KIN asks all staff to help counting his family asset……

SUET sneaks into ON’s home. YUEN discovers her but he lets her go. YUEN finds that LUNG is staying with ON. He questions him and discovers that LUNG is... SUET reveals the details of ON’s auction statement to HIN and they finally win the auction. While YUEN practices martial arts, LUNG suddenly appears to attack him for LUNG believes that YUEN is the one who causes their failure in the auction. YUEN returns home to discover that his mother is committing usury secretly and he is very disappointed. FAI brings YUEN to a brothel. YING UT is fond of FAI but FAI asks UT to serve YUEN instead and UT is very unhappy. KIN finds that HIN is fond of SUET and he continuously persuades HIN to take action. He even buys earrings for SUET on behalf of HIN…

LUNG wants YUEN to return to work but YUEN resorts to drink all the time. YUEN’s mother tries to console him but YUEN scolds her in return. YUEN helps an old woman to catch a thief. The old woman refuses to report the case for she believes that the government officials are even worse than the thieves and YUEN is heart-broken. KIN becomes the chief salt merchant again and he receives a lot of expensive gifts. FAI takes away the gifts for his own use and he damages many of them. KIN is enraged and he starts a quarrel with FAI. YUET hides away from FAI and she agrees to become the mistress of the rich merchant Mr LIU. The Lantern Festival is coming. KIN asks HIN to date SUET but HIN asks SUET to leave work earlier. During the Lantern Festival, PIK asks YIN to arrange a meeting with ON for her. FAI discovers that YUET is acting intimately with LIU. He is enraged and he tries to attack LIU but LIU’s people hit him in return……

YUEN distributes the salt they collected from the salt smugglers to the villagers. LUNG is enraged and he degrades YUEN to gatekeeper. CHING learns that YUEN is degraded and he wants to know the reason but YUEN refuses to tell the details. LIU wants to marry YUET but FAI tries to stop him. NG LEUNG suggests them to compete for YUET. KIN refuses to help FAI so FAI borrows money from others. KIN tries to lock FAI up but SUET helps him to escape. FAI doesn’t have enough money to fight for YUET. YUET and her prostitute friends try to raise money for him but the sum is still not enough… FAI carelessly tells to SUET that everyone knows that HIN likes her. After this, HIN and SUET become very cautious when facing each other… CHING fails to get an answer from YUEN so he questions LUNG. YUEN is drunk at night and somebody attacks him. YUEN is seriously injured and SUET discovers him on the street…

SUET rescues YUEN but she feels uneasy after it. HIN tries to cheer her up by bringing a large group of fireflies to the garden. While CHING and PING travels along the countryside, they discovers ON’s villa at a remote location. CHING tries to tease ON about it and he meets PIK while leaving ON’s place. YIN helps her sister to pass a message to ON and ON sends her an expensive jade bracelet. LUNG is enraged to learn that YUEN is being attacked. He tries to punish the attackers but YUEN steps in to speak for them. The viceroy of Jiangsu appoints YUEN to work for CHING. LUNG doesn’t want to offense the viceroy so he organizes a celebration banquet for YUEN… Yick’s Fort is destroyed by the government and ON persuades the remnant members to rob the WU’s family. SUET’s uncle TAU HUNG was rescued by Yick’s Fort but he refuses to rob the house with others…

The remnants of Yick’s Fort kidnap HIN and they ask for 200 thousand dollars from KIN. SUET runs after the remnants and she meets HUNG. HUNG assures SUET that they will not hurt HIN. KIN is very worried for most of his money was spent on the chief salt merchant auction. FAI tells YUEN about the case. YUEN tries question SUET but SUET refuses to tell the details. SUET tries to deliver HIN’s medicine to HUNG but she is caught by other remnants of Yick’s Fort accidentally. In order to raise money, KIN tries to sell his salt tickets in very low price. The remnants are requested to kill HIN and SUET. HUNG tries to stop them and the group captures him as well. KIN tries to lure away YUEN and FAI so that he could deliver ransom money alone. After receiving the ransom money, the kidnappers try to kill the hostages but YUEN arrives on time to stop them. During the fight, HIN, SUET and HUNG fall down from the cliff accidentally…

HIN helps SUET to take care of HUNG’s injury and HUNG is very grateful. HUNG believes that SUET still loves YUEN and he blames SUET for not taking revenge for her deceased parents. The creditors come to KIN’s home for money. HIN arrives on time to help KIN. He promises to return the money within 10 days. Otherwise, they can take away their salt store. HUNG wants a duel with YUEN and YUEN agrees. HUNG loses the fight. SUET and HIN rush to the site to ask for YUEN’s mercy. A secret that both SUET and HUNG didn’t know is revealed… HIN and YUEN investigate the kidnapping case and they discover that somebody is working behind the scene. YUEN tries to look for hints from different places but he fails to find any useful information. CHING helps arrange a meeting with all salt merchants. YUEN finally discovers that… LUNG realizes that HIN has solved the financial problem of his family. He is very angry and he wants to eliminate HIN……