Cao Xinyue, a poor young girl from a Yi ethnic mountain village, grows up with only her father Cao Aiguo. Through relentless diligence, she earns the top provincial score in the national college entrance exam and wins admission to both Tsinghua and Peking University. Yet the day the good news arrives marks the start of her nightmare. Village Chief Chen Fugui intends to force Cao Xinyue into marrying his mentally disabled son Chen Hu. He publicly tears up her admission letter and brutally beats Cao Aiguo, crushing the last glimmer of hope for the father and daughter. With secret help from sympathetic villagers, Cao Xinyue flees, only to be captured by patrolmen colluding with the village chief and forced into a bridal gown for a coerced wedding ceremony. To cover up his crimes, Chen Fugui breaks Cao Aiguo’s legs as he tries to shield his daughter, then drags him to the back mountain to bury him alive. While Cao Xinyue is trapped, Chen Xiuhua, Chen Fugui’s own daughter, steals her identity: she accepts honors as the provincial top scorer and fraudulently secures enrollment at Tsinghua and Peking University. Learning of her father’s supposed death, the imprisoned Cao Xinyue breaks free from confinement and crashes the celebration banquet, ready to risk her life to prove her innocence. At the critical moment, Cao Aiguo, who narrowly escaped death, appears alive and exposes the whole plot. With support from villagers and township officials, the entire Chen family is brought to justice. After enduring countless hardships, the father and daughter travel to Beijing. Right outside the university gate, wealthy heir Liu Shao deliberately runs them over with his car, leaving Cao Aiguo severely hospitalized and draining all of Cao Xinyue’s scholarship money. Forced to work odd jobs to cover medical expenses, Cao Xinyue suffers endless humiliation from Chen Xiuhua, who has gotten out of prison and attached herself to Liu Shao’s circle. The scheming girl even has her blacklisted from jobs across the city. Cao Xinyue’s birth mother Wei Fang, absent for fourteen years, suddenly reappears with feigned affection. Her true motive is to curry favor with the powerful Liu family: she tricks Cao Xinyue into a hospital under false pretenses and pressures her into donating part of her liver to save Liu Shao’s father. Just as Cao Xinyue is about to be wheeled into the operating room, Gu Sheng, an elite academician who has been searching for her to recruit her into the world’s top artificial intelligence research program, arrives in time to rescue her. Revealing his status as a distinguished academic, Gu Sheng cooperates with university administrators and local police to thoroughly investigate the conspiracy and punish all wrongdoers. The Liu Conglomerate collapses completely, while Wei Fang is arrested after the poison she used leaves Cao Aiguo in a vegetative state. In the end, Cao Xinyue overcomes all adversities and enrolls at Tsinghua and Peking University.
