- Era and setting: Winter in the twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign. Heavy snow blankets Baoding Prefecture in Zhili, and the bluestone streets are slick with ice. Inside the medicine shop, the scent of herbs mingles with the smell of mold, creating a bleak, oppressive atmosphere that hints at the hardships endured by ordinary people.
- Character introduction: The protagonist, Zhao Mengyao (Yao'er), is weak with illness and goes to buy medicine with her mother, Madam Li. To treat her daughter, Madam Li takes out her meager copper coins, revealing the poverty they live in.
- Key foreshadowing: The shopkeeper mentions that Yao'er “always talks nonsense after she wakes up.” Madam Li does not explain what this “nonsense” is, but given the novel's title, “Overthrow the Qing and Restore the Ming,” it can be inferred that Yao'er may have said something related to resisting the Qing while sick, foreshadowing her plans to restore the Ming after being reborn.
Any disdain on Haokan's lips is all based on loving you (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎). You just need to love me well and leave the rest to me.