Dali Princess

On the eve of the 1911 Revolution, a time of troubles, Nanshanzhuang owner Duan Muhai is making preparations for the fire/flare festival. Muhai is very wealthy. With the help of the Qing government he looted people's wealth, and his family lives in extravagance. Muhai's favorite is his youngest daughter Aiyue, bright and intelligent, empathetic towards others while being very clear on the lines of love and hate. She is not like other family members always ordering people around, shouting at the servants. Enmity developed between Aiyue and servant girl A'ci due to a small matter. A'ci is silly, she likes to dance with a bamboo pole and smoke box at all hours of the day and sing folk songs. Her singing infected/influenced Aiyue, always being mischievous with A'ci. At the fire/flare festival is a handsome bright young fellow named Liu Bo'en and his friend Long Chulai, and the after the four young people meet, they get along very quickly.

Aiyue gradually falls for Bo'en, but she is too proud to reveal her feelings. This lets A'ci have an opportunity at him, and A'ci too is passionately in love with Bo'en. Long Chulai admires Aiyue, but because of his ugly looks he keeps it to himself, and feels he can only secretly love Aiyue.

As the 1911 Revolution erupts and Muhai's family falls on hard times, Bo'en is assigned to Beijing, and Aiyue is forced to fulfill a childhood marriage contract - then sold by her heartless husband to a notorious opium lord. The ruthless Wang Kun, however, is moved by Aiyue's Sandao tea, and a friendship forms between the two, and he also finances Aiyue's tea garden. When Muhai suddenly dies, the burden of the Duan family is put on Aiyue's shoulders; on one hand she has to develop the tea garden, on the other she has to temper internal frictions. For a while she becomes mentally and physically exhausted, and fortunately A'ci and Long Chulai come out to help. As time goes on, Aiyue develops subtle feelings for Long Chulai, who cannot tell whether it is love or friendship.

The tea garden becomes a success, with Sandao tea becoming a sort of a local trademark. The members of the Duan family, under Aiyue's training, each learn survival skills, and they are no longer useless as people. At the same time Bo'en returns, while Aiyue discovers that her relationship with A'ci has grown apart.

In 1915 Yuan Shikai proclaims himself the new emperor. The movement to protect the country starts in Yunnan, and Aiyue donates a massive amount of money to help the new army bring Yuan down. Long Chulai and Bo'en join the movement together, heading off to Yixing, defeat the northern army in the famous "Battle of Luna", but news about Bo'en's is killed at the front. Aiyue and A'ci continue to manage the tea garden, both of them reconciling. Aiyue gives the tea garden to all the workers unconditionally; as time passes, people start to forget Aiyue's name, only remembering that she comes from Dali and so they call her "Dali Princess."