River of Wine

All members of the wine industry in Jiujiang are busy preparing for the Dragon Boat Festival ritual, yet the Wine Guild Chairman SUNG CHING-YIU has not yet turned up, causing a chorus of grumbles from his uncles SUNG TO and CHU KWOK-HUNG. YIU is actually having an audience with the Canton Prefect CHOW SAI-FUN, in an attempt to enlist his help in fighting against the corrupt Magistrate TSANG KIN-LEUNG. LEUNG CHING-HONG, LEUNG SAU-YIN and KWAN WAI-LAN of the Leung Kei River Food Stall are busy cooking, in the course of which LAN encounters a problem but HONG manages to get it round soon afterwards. Leung Kei and Tsui Yau House are bidding for the catering contract for the Dragon Boat Festival and both agree to take part in a cooking competition. The two entrants are neck-and-neck and YIU is about to cast his deciding vote. Leung Kei ends up winning the bid……

TO reminds YIU that he is no longer a member of the LEUNGs and should stay out of the dispute for the sake of the SUNGs. YIU comes to see LEUNG with the supporting documents, urging him to release HONG as soon as possible. His request is not granted, so YIU offers to pay LEUNG a sum of money, with which he hopes the dispute will soon be resolved. LEUNG is so angry with YIU that he has HONG beaten up severely, in a bid to coerce him into making a confession. PIK is shocked to learn that TO has incited the manager to store up all the necessary food ingredients so that the LEUNGs will not be able to make decent dishes for the Dragon Boat Banquet. LAN has prepared an array of dishes for the banquet but the attendees insist on trying HONG’s cooking. Luckily YIU and HONG manage to come back just in time. The LEUNGs arrive at Sze Yuen Winery which they purchased earlier, and are all surprised by its remoteness and inaccessibility……

CHING burns her dowry after returning home, saying that she has no more expectations of marriage, which worries YIU no end. HONG is heading for Canton to purchase rice. Along the way he runs into CHING again, who has secretly run away from home. To protect her from being harmed, HONG decides to stay with her. YIU discovers that all the essential ingredients for wine making have been withheld by LEUNG. Although LEUNG allows YIU to get them back, the ingredients end up being all destroyed by the magistrate in secret. CHING is sent to the brothel by the abductors, but finally gets rescued by HONG with the money he was going to use for the purchase of rice. YIU locates CHING’s whereabouts and decides to go to Canton at once to look for her. CHING is completely shocked when she sees the famine victims fighting for the rice. Among the famine victims is a little girl, who is wandering around looking for her mother……