In the autumn of 1980, Chen Shi, a lonely bachelor from Qingshiyu Village, meets his match through a matchmaker. With a decisive declaration, "I'll take this woman as my wife," he willingly takes on the Su family's 32-yuan high-interest debt and marries Su Wanhe, a woman whose life has been filled with hardship. Relying on his mountain-hunting skills, he ventures into the treacherous Ghost's Sorrow Ridge to harvest dendrobium orchids and repay the debt. Braving a landslide, he discovers an ancient medicinal herb garden. He then rescues his father-in-law, trapped at the bottom of a cliff in First-Line Heaven Gorge. When the poisonous western winds finally clear, he ventures into the Herb Valley and battles a blind wolf in a freezing pool, eventually obtaining a thousand-year-old nine-leaf ginseng king. He takes it to the provincial capital and sells it for 12,000 yuan, humiliating the local medicinal herb merchants who tried to force down his price. After returning home, he faces village bully Liu Butcher, who conspires with village officials to seize the mountain land contract. Chen Shi fights back by securing the contract and building roads. He then establishes a mountain-produce cooperative, leading the entire village toward prosperity.