Synopsis
Zuo Shimei, from Shema Village in Wafang Township, Yangbi, has endured two failed marriages. Her first husband died young after abusing her, and her second was lazy, idle, and violent, forcing her to divorce him. Now she struggles to make ends meet while raising her five-year-old son, Maodou. Clever and capable, she has become the object of longing for more than twenty bachelors in the village. Every day, her doorstep fills with gifts meant to win her favor, from mushrooms to cured meat, along with piles of rustic love letters. But after the trauma of her marriages, she has long since shut her heart to love.
Her quiet life is shattered by a series of eerie events. One morning, she finds a snake-shaped wooden tablet tied with red string outside her door. Her son tearfully says he saw a shadow scratching at the window in the middle of the night, and rumors spread that the Snake Immortal wants to take a bride to his stronghold. Wang Laowu, a bachelor who had brought her mushrooms, vanishes in an old mine, leaving behind a blood-written message: “The Snake Immortal’s decree.” Li Erniu, who had been fixing a toy for her son, suddenly goes mad, shouting that there are treasures and evil spirits in the mine. Every night, a hissing sound like a snake slithering comes from beneath the wall, stoking the village’s legend of the Snake Immortal.
Amid the attention of all the bachelors, only the honest, unassuming Wu Qifa quietly stands by her. After a storm, he secretly repairs her courtyard wall and scatters snake-repellent powder. Even when the other bachelors ostracize and beat him, he still protects Zuo Shimei and her son, helps her clear land for a tea garden, and carries water for her fields. Though wary of him, Zuo Shimei gradually learns to trust him through one crisis after another. Together, they investigate the strange events and discover that every clue leads to the abandoned old mine behind the village.
