A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
她救了他，却害得全家人都没了
She Saved Him, and It Cost Her Whole Family
About this story
In the C-drama Overdo (这一秒过火), Ren Susu hides the abused runaway Murong Qingyi in her medicine shop; her kindness gets her whole family killed, and years later she returns for revenge. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 13 key vocabulary words such as 故事、救、打 and walks through 4 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today, we're telling a new story.
This story, from long ago, takes place in Shanghai.
Back then, there was a boy named Murong Qingyi.
His family was rich and powerful.
But as a child, he was swapped by mistake — he wasn't this family's child.
So the people at home treated him cruelly, beating him every day.
One day, Murong Qingyi ran away all alone.
He had no home, no money, nothing to eat, and collapsed from hunger by the roadside.
Just then, a girl saved him.
The girl was named Ren Susu; her family ran a small medicine shop.
Ren Susu hid Murong Qingyi in the medicine shop, gave him food, and tended his injuries.
Slowly, Murong Qingyi got better.
In his darkest, hardest time, Ren Susu was his only light.
Murong Qingyi remembered her, and for many years never forgot.
But this one act of kindness brought disaster.
Because she saved Murong Qingyi, Ren Susu's family offended the enemies of the Murong family.
Those people came for revenge, and Ren Susu's home was wiped out in a single night.
The people of the household were all gone; only Ren Susu survived.
Later, Ren Susu was sent to a place of terrible suffering.
She kept all of it locked in her heart.
Many years passed, and the two of them grew up.
Ren Susu changed her name to Fang Mulan and came back.
She wanted revenge.
But she never expected to see, again, the boy she had once saved.
Only, the two of them now were no longer the two children of back then.
One kindness saved a life, yet destroyed a family.
What will happen to these two?
If someone saved you, but you lost everything because of it,
would you hate him, or remember his kindness?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 2. 说一个新的故事 = to tell a new story.
HSK 3 (taught here). 一个女孩救了他 = a girl saved him.
HSK 2. 天天打他 = beat him every day.
HSK 4 (taught here). 你会恨他吗 = would you hate him?
HSK 2. 不是这家的孩子 = not this family's child.
Beyond HSK 2. The male lead — a warlord's swapped, abused son.
Beyond HSK 2. The female lead — the medicine-shop girl who saves him.
Beyond HSK 2. 一个小药铺 = a small medicine shop (Republican-era pharmacy).
Beyond HSK 2. 他家很有势力 = his family was powerful/influential.
Beyond HSK 2. 他被人抱错了 = he was swapped (picked up wrongly) as a baby.
Beyond HSK 2. 那些人来报仇 = those people came for revenge.
Beyond HSK 2. 任素素是他唯一的光 = Ren Susu was his only light.
Beyond HSK 2. The alias Ren Susu takes when she returns for revenge.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法被 + (人) + 动词
被 marks the passive: the subject has something done to them (was swapped).
他被人抱错了。
把 + 宾语 + 动词
把 fronts the object to stress what is done to it (hid him; kept it in her heart).
任素素把慕容清峄藏在药铺里。
她把这一切都记在了心里。
因为 …，得罪了 …
因为 X 得罪了 Y = because of X, (someone) offended / made an enemy of Y.
因为救了慕容清峄，任素素一家得罪了仇人。
却 (yet / but)
却 = yet / however, marking a sharp reversal from what you'd expect.
救了一个人，却毁了一个家。
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
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