Han Cuiyin is reborn into her first life after experiencing a second life in the Eternal Life Realm, finding herself in Yan Family Village in early autumn. She is the abandoned daughter of Yan Shunhua and the official Han Zhen, raised in poverty by indifferent maternal relatives. Her mother was sent to a nunnery under the pretext of prayer, and Han Cuiyin has been surviving by cultivating and gathering resources in the Pinglian Mountain Range. Her immediate goal is to accumulate one hundred taels of silver to retrieve her mother and start a new independent life. She has been selling herbs and ginseng, gaining ten taels from a small ginseng. On the eighth of August, she deliberately attempts to avoid the fateful meeting with Luo Jingqian by taking a different path, but a stray crossbow bolt from his battle strikes her right ear, drawing blood. Enraged, she finds him wounded and poisoned. He reveals that she now shares the poison and will die in three days without the antidote. Forced to save him, she carries him to her dilapidated courtyard, treats his shoulder wound with wood ash, and hides him in the cluttered cellar where the stench helps him avoid search parties. She secures a written debt contract for one hundred thousand taels, signed in his blood, and takes his jade pendant as collateral. She obtains the antidote from a copper ball hidden in his shoe and administers it. Han Lingzhi, the legitimate second miss of the Han family and Han Zhen’s daughter from his new wife Xu Mingxia, arrives in the village disguised as Miss Xu. She bribes Yan Xiao for lodging and hires Han Cuiyin as a mountain guide under the pretext of searching for medicinal herbs for her mother. In truth, Han Lingzhi seeks to find Luo Jingqian first to secure a marriage that would save the Han family from political decline. Han Cuiyin immediately recognizes the scheme and decides to profit from it. She charges outrageous fees: ten taels per night for lodging, fifty taels for guiding through the mountains, and thirty taels when plans change. Han Lingzhi pays, hoping to manipulate Han Cuiyin into loyalty. Over the next days, Han Cuiyin leads her and her guards on fruitless chases through the mountains, ensuring Luo Jingqian remains hidden. At night, search parties comb the village but are deterred by the cellar’s condition. The Yan family, led by Yan Dali and Yan Erwen, observes Han Cuiyin’s sudden transformation and her darkened skin. They consult Clan Leader Yan Qingping, who reveals that the blackening of her face is the beginning of a great fortune prophesied by their ancestors. The courtyard she inhabits once housed a great figure, and she is reaping its benefits. The clan leader advises the family to support her secretly and let events unfold. Yan Dali shows unexpected kindness, but Han Cuiyin remains suspicious. Han Cuiyin uses the memories of her past life, where she married Luo Jingqian and suffered a tragic death by drowning in a pig cage while her mother crashed into a pillar. In this life, she is determined to avoid that fate. She continues her cultivation, uses her martial skills to threaten Yan Xiao when he tries to extort her, and listens to Han Lingzhi’s plans from a distance. She overhears the search leader reporting to a Second Miss, confirming that Han Lingzhi is behind the search. She also hears Han Lingzhi’s intention to stage a false assassination to gain Luo Jingqian’s trust. Han Cuiyin resolves to use the silver from her fees and the debt contract to leave the village with her mother and build an independent life, escaping the manipulations of the Han family and the Yan family’s secret prophecy. The provided excerpt sets up the core conflicts: Han Cuiyin’s struggle for autonomy against the Han family’s schemes, her uneasy alliance with Luo Jingqian, the hidden support of the Yan family, and the mystery surrounding her black skin and the prophecy. Her final goal in this portion is to gather enough wealth to free her mother and leave the village, while larger forces gather around her.
