Chen Yansheng, a man who lived a regretful life as a crippled, lonely millionaire, awakens in 1987 inside a dilapidated mountain temple. He has returned to the night he was framed for hooliganism, an event that ruined his life, sent him to prison for seven years, and led to the suicide of his lover, Yu Bingjie. In his previous timeline, he blamed Yu Bingjie for seducing him, allowing the village chief's son, Wang Tao, to steal his university placement. This time, Chen Yansheng resolves to protect Yu Bingjie, who is pregnant with his twins, and prevent the tragedies that befell her family.
Yu Bingjie had given herself to Chen Yansheng to preserve her purity before being forced to marry Wang Mazi, a local thug who held a debt IOU against her deceased father. Wang Mazi intended to marry her to clear the debt and exploit her labor. Chen Yansheng realizes they were drugged by Wang Tao, who sought to destroy Chen's reputation and university prospects. When villagers led by Wang Mazi and Wang Tao storm the temple, Chen Yansheng hides Yu Bingjie in a secret compartment beneath the mountain god statue. He confronts the mob, exposing Wang Tao's scheme and forcing a wager: if Wang Tao cannot find Yu Bingjie, Chen will search Wang Tao's home. Finding nothing, Chen Yansheng turns the tables, searching Wang Tao's residence and discovering evidence of his sexual deviancy and theft of women's underwear. The villagers, enraged, beat Wang Tao and hand him over to the police, effectively ending his chance at university and a government career.
With Wang Tao imprisoned, Chen Yansheng faces a new threat from Wang Mazi, who demands the repayment of a 10,000 yuan debt within seven days or he will sell Yu Bingjie to a disabled relative. Lacking the funds, Chen Yansheng relies on his knowledge of the future and a mystical artifact he acquired from the temple—the Mountain God's Decree. This token grants him the ability to sense and identify rare medicinal herbs. He discovers a 75-year-old wild ginseng and travels to the county town to sell it. He encounters Meng De, the owner of the Dragon and Phoenix Teahouse, whose father is dying from blood loss. Chen Yansheng sells the ginseng to save the father, receiving 6,000 yuan. He uses this money to buy supplies for Yu Bingjie's family and begins his business career, determined to earn the remaining funds to clear the debt and marry her.
Chen Yansheng returns to Stone Village and publicly declares his engagement to Yu Bingjie, shocking the gossiping villagers. He visits his family to seek their approval, but his older sister, Chen Yuting, is furious. She had built the family's success through hard work and views Chen Yansheng's university placement as their ticket to a better life. She slaps him and threatens to disown him if he marries Yu Bingjie, whom she blames for the scandal. Chen Yansheng refuses to attend university, proposing instead that his younger brother, Chen Shuisheng, take his place using a visual resemblance and the lax identification systems of the era. His parents agree, seeing the logic, but Chen Yuting remains opposed.
Living with the Yu family, Chen Yansheng learns that Yu Bingjie's younger brother, Yu Jie, suffered brain damage from a high fever as a child, leaving him with the mind of a child despite being twelve. Chen Yansheng reveals that modern neurosurgery can treat such conditions, offering hope to the family. He commits to earning the money necessary for Yu Jie's surgery and paying off Wang Mazi's debt. As he begins his entrepreneurial journey, gathering mountain products with Yu Bingjie's help, he also senses the lingering danger from Wang Mazi, who watches them from afar, vowing to ruin Chen Yansheng if he cannot produce the money in time.
