In Tai'an Year 12, Shen Xingnong, a sixteen-year-old peasant girl from Plum Blossom Village, lies on a long bench in the Futai County yamen, receiving five strokes of the board for daring to file a lawsuit against her great-grandmother, Li Shi. Li Shi, along with her granddaughter Shen Mingzhu, insists that Xingnong and her mentally unstable mother are "vile bastards" whose presence in the ancestral home ruins the family's feng shui and caused Old Master Shen's death a month earlier. They demand the house back, threatening to evict Xingnong, her grandmother Madam Gu, and her younger brother Shen Xinghui. The beating is severe, and the original Shen Xingnong dies from the punishment. At that moment, a modern scientist, killed in a lab explosion, awakens in the body. Disoriented, she sees the words "Justice is Impartial" and realizes she has transmigrated. The original's memories flood in: an unknown father, a mother lost in madness, a tough but loving grandmother, and the village's hostility. Hearing Li Shi's shrill commands to continue the beating, Xingnong kicks the old woman when she pinches her wounded buttock, sending her flying. Li Shi seizes the board from a runner and charges at Xingnong, but Xingnong dodges with agile, unexpected movements, and Li Shi accidentally strikes Shen Mingzhu on the shoulder, then falls onto a line of nail boards, impaling herself. Shen Mingzhu, though injured, feigns concern, still hoping to use the lawsuit to reclaim the house. But Xingnong ignores the chaos and prepares to leave. A runner blocks her, and Magistrate Fang appears. Xingnong calmly argues that Li Shi started the disturbance and that she only defended herself. She questions the magistrate logically, and he concedes that Li Shi is the guilty party, ordering her punished while allowing Xingnong to go free. Xingnong walks out of the yamen, her eyes clear and composed, drawing the attention of onlookers and two men behind a screen. They are the incoming magistrate Ren Zilin and a nobleman in black, Chu Tiankuo. Chu Tiankuo had earlier noticed a man with a scar on his forehead watching the yamen, a man he vaguely remembers as a former guard from the Prime Minister's residence who disappeared years ago. He decides to investigate both the scarred man and Xingnong. Outside, as Xingnong stands uncertainly on the bustling street, Chu Tiankuo drops his Creation Spirit Orb, a golden bead with faint, complex patterns, from his carriage window. Xingnong picks it up and feels a tingling static shock. When she hands it back, the bead bonds with her, giving Chu Tiankuo the ability to hear her thoughts. He hears her think "What a nice voice" when he speaks, confirming the connection. He takes the bead back but remains intrigued. Xingnong, unaware of the bond, follows the original's memory and walks to the city gate, then along the road to Plum Blossom Village. She is tired and hungry, and the walk takes nearly an hour. At the village entrance, she meets Madam Gu and Shen Xinghui, who have rushed back after hearing about the lawsuit. Madam Gu anxiously checks Xingnong for injuries, relieved she avoided the nail board but heartbroken about the five strokes. She forbids Xingnong from ever suing again, and Xingnong obediently agrees, feeling a warmth that reminds her of the old dean of the orphanage where she grew up in her previous life. Madam Gu, who limps and is thin, resembles that dear figure, and Xingnong determines to protect this family. The three walk home, passing villagers who sneer and insult them over the feng shui rumors, with some women saying Xingnong should kill herself. Madam Gu walks faster, gripping the children's hands. Xinghui's face flushes with shame, but Xingnong remains steady. The family's backstory emerges: Madam Gu's son-in-law, a former refugee scholar, married her daughter after she saved him from starvation. He went to the capital for imperial exams and disappeared, then sent a steward to fetch his wife, but left the twin children behind. The daughter was taken but never returned and sent no word. Madam Gu raised Xingnong and Xinghui alone, always telling them their parents served the emperor and would come back. Now the family faces pressure from Li Shi, who refuses to give up the house that Madam Gu bought with her own money years ago. As they near their home, the villagers' scorn grows sharper, and the family braces for the next confrontation. Meanwhile, Chu Tiankuo, seated in his carriage with Ren Zilin, watches the golden bead and senses that this ordinary girl is now tied to his own fate. The scarred man from the yamen has disappeared, but the investigation has only begun. Xingnong, standing in the doorway of her home, sets her mind to protect what remains of her new family, unaware that the bead and the powerful man who wielded it will draw her into a much larger intrigue involving her unknown father and the secrets of the Shen family.
