Jiang Ming, a special forces soldier from the modern world, transmigrates into the body of a famine refugee in the Great Qian Dynasty’s Yan Kingdom. Stranded in Chen Family Village, he witnesses a brutal ritual: the village selects an unmarried woman each month to be “married” to the Mountain God, a tiger that has killed hundreds. The village head’s daughter, Chen Ermei, is the latest sacrifice. Jiang Ming, starving and desperate for a foothold, volunteers to impersonate the bride, promising the village head fifty catties of rice and the two daughters as rewards if he succeeds.He pretends to be Chen Ermei, enters the palanquin, and is carried up Yan Mountain. After the escort flees, he sets a trap to pit the tiger against a larger mother bear, the Mountain Ancestor. The plan works: the bear kills the tiger but dies from its wounds. During the hunt, Jiang Ming discovers a naked woman, Murong Xue, in the tiger’s cave—she was trapped as stored food. She is the daughter of a treacherous official, fleeing from a political marriage. Over three days in the mountains, Jiang Ming and Murong Xue grow intimate, and she agrees to be his concubine, hiding her identity.When Jiang Ming descends the mountain, he finds that Chen Ermei has already been married off to the county magistrate’s son, as the Chen family assumed he had been eaten. Instead, he is forced to marry Chen Damei, the village head’s timid elder daughter, as his wife, with only twenty catties of coarse rice as dowry. Jiang Ming becomes the village’s Ting Head, responsible for public order. He moves into the dilapidated old house where Chen Damei’s mother died, and brings Murong Xue from the county posthouse as his concubine.The story continues with Jiang Ming’s conflict with the Chen family, who try to cheat him, and his growing bond with Chen Damei, who is devoted despite her father’s deceit. The tiger and bear pelts and other spoils still hidden in the mountains give Jiang Ming potential wealth. The narrative weaves his struggle to survive, his romantic entanglements, and his determination to rise from a famished refugee to a figure of power, while the kingdom teeters on war and famine. Chen Ermei’s return seems imminent, hinting at future complications. Throughout, Jiang Ming uses his modern knowledge and strategic cunning to navigate a brutal feudal world, aiming to secure his own family and land. His relationships with Chen Damei’s meek loyalty and Murong Xue’s passionate devotion form the core of his new life, as he prepares to face the challenges of a society ruled by corrupt officials and superstition.
