My mother, who was critically ill, gave me a brocade box that was incompatible with my poor family, and asked me to take a letter with me to my uncle Xue Qian, a family friend in Chang'an. Before setting off, someone knocked him out and took away the brocade box. The mother also mysteriously disappeared. Lonely and helpless, I had no choice but to seek refuge with the Xue family, where I met the fateful encounter in the prosperous and corrupt Chang'an. The mysterious life experience and the grudges and entanglements of the ancestors are unfolding in troubled times.