On May 17, the drama The Mo (家业) premiered on CCTV-8 and iQiyi. Within hours, its reservation count on iQiyi surged past 2.33 million—up from 2.29 million just a morning earlier. Starring Yang Zi (杨紫) and Han Dongjun (韩东君), the story drops its heroine into a brutal trap: a forced breakup, a “husband-killer” curse, and an order to die as a martyr.
Set in Huizhou (徽州) during the Jia Jing (嘉靖) reign of the Ming Dynasty, the plot revolves around the Gong Mo (贡墨) tribute-ink scandal. Why are so many viewers hooked? Because this is not just another rags-to-riches tale. It’s a bloody fight against prejudice written in ink and fire.
Hellish Start
Li Zhen (李祯), played by Yang Zi, wakes up in a poor family’s home after a mysterious time-cross. Her predecessor faked illness to steal money, so she already has a rotten name. Worse, her fiancé Tian Benchang (田本昌) supposedly fell off a cliff. The village calls her a jinx. They demand she kill herself to prove her “virtue.” She is only fifteen.
Her family refuses to let her die. Grandfather Li Jinshui (李金水) sells his own coffin wood to return the engagement gifts. The clan matriarch, her great-grandmother, steps in to silence the mob. The crisis passes. But the whispers never stop. “A girl who brings death,” they mutter. “Better she had jumped into the river.”
Yet Li Zhen does not hide. To earn rice for her household, she picks up an ink stick and starts grinding. She has no teacher, no manual—only a strange, burning instinct. Soon she recreates a lost formula: Zaihe Mo (再和墨), a layered ink that holds light and dark together. Then she crafts medicinal ink that stops bleeding. The men who mocked her begin to watch in silence.
Gender Trap
When the great-grandmother dies, Li Zhen inherits the Li family ink workshop. The clan erupts. “A hen crowing at dawn,” they sneer. “Unlucky.” Her rival Tian Rongchang spits in public: “A girl showing her face every day—her reputation is already ruined. It’s unseemly for a woman to act like a man in business.” None of these attacks are about her skill. They are about her sex.
The drama amplifies this into a written rule: Women cannot make ink. Not a custom—a law. Breaking it means expulsion, poverty, even legal punishment. Li Zhen does not argue with the rule. She smashes it by making better ink than any man. She studies pine soot, animal glues, and bronze molds. She works through the night until her fingers bleed. When the imperial court demands tribute ink for the new emperor Long Qing (隆庆), she bets everything on a single batch.
She wins. The emperor himself writes four characters: “World’s Best Ink.” But the victory does not end the war. Male merchants still refuse to sit at the same table. Workers threaten to strike if a woman gives orders. Li Zhen learns that breaking a rule is easy compared to breaking the fear inside other people’s heads. Her story is not a fairy tale. It is a mirror for every woman who has been told “this is not your place.”
Ink & Soul
Behind the camera, the creators did their homework. Director Hui Kaidong (惠楷栋) and co-director Wang Chengxin (王成欣) shot over 2,000 takes of just the ink-hammering step. The real Huizhou ink process has 36 stages—from burning tung oil to pressing ash into molds. Every frame shows cracked hands, sweat-soaked robes, and the slow patience of a craft that takes decades to master.
Yang Zi, who already won praise for her businesswoman role in He Weifang, throws herself into Li Zhen’s raw edges. Leaked set photos show her with ink stains under her nails, messy hair, and a stare that mixes exhaustion with defiance. Han Dongjun, her co-star and a “face-changing” actor plays Luo Wenqian (骆文谦) with a quiet fire. Veteran actors Fu Dalong (富大龙), Tian Xiaojie (田小洁), and Wu Mian (吴冕) add weight to every clan meeting.
The production also shot on location in ancient Huizhou villages. You will see white horsehead walls, carved stone lions, and the steam of Huizhou cuisine rising from clay pots. Even a few seconds of Huizhou opera appear in the background. This is not a set dressed with props. It is a buried city brought back to life—and inside it, a cursed girl who refused to die for other people’s rules.