General Murong Xing returns victorious from his northern campaign against the Xiongnu. At the victory banquet, someone sets him up, and he accidentally trespasses into a consort’s bedchamber.
The emperor is enraged and throws Murong Xing into prison.
Li An then accuses Murong Xing of plotting treason and rebelling against the throne as a great general.
The emperor orders a search of the general’s estate, where they find a jade imperial seal Murong Xing carved in secret, as well as a dragon robe he had made.
The emperor orders the entire family executed.
Empress Wang is related to the Murong family by blood. Her pleas for Murong Xing fall on deaf ears, and she is implicated as well.
Qinghuan is the general’s daughter. On the day the family is arrested, she narrowly escapes with her maid.
In their desperate circumstances, they are rescued by the rural couple Han Zhaoyu’s parents. But this brings another disaster upon them: Han Zhaoyu’s parents are killed, as is Qinghuan’s maid. As Qinghuan and Han Zhaoyu hide in a cellar in a moment of crisis, Jiang Yanzhi, the only son of Chancellor Jiang, arrives just in time to save them.
In view of his years of friendship with Murong Xing as fellow officials, Chancellor Jiang takes Qinghuan in as his adopted daughter.
To keep her out of danger for the time being, however, he has his son personally escort her to the Western Frontier to lie low, and gives his adopted daughter a new name: Qingzi.
Several years later, Qingzi is brought back to the chancellor’s residence. She vows to clear her family’s name and avenge their humiliation, and to make those who framed them and sent them to prison suffer the punishment they deserve.
