A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

一间药铺里的善良,和一场灭门之祸
A Kindness in a Medicine Shop, and the Massacre It Brought
HSK 1-3 Chinese listening practice. In the C-drama Overdo (这一秒过火), a Republican-era Shanghai medicine-shop girl saves a warlord's runaway son — a kindness that destroys her family and sets a decade-long revenge in motion.
This is an HSK 3-4 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 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 救、命运、真相 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.
Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
Today, we're opening a new drama, called "Overdo" (Zhe Yi Miao Guo Huo).
The story unfolds in early Republican-era Shanghai, a city both dazzling and dangerous.
First, the male lead, Murong Qingyi.
He was born into a rich and powerful warlord family in Shanghai, and should have grown up a young master with a silver spoon.
But fate played a cruel joke on him from the start — as a baby he was swapped by mistake, and was not this family's true flesh and blood at all.
When his adoptive father learned the truth, he beat and cursed the boy, pouring all his bitterness onto him.
At eleven, Murong Qingyi couldn't take it anymore, and ran away from home alone.
The days on the street were cold and hungry, and one day he finally couldn't hold on and collapsed from hunger by the roadside.
The one who saved him was the female lead, Ren Susu.
Ren Susu was only eleven then too, the daughter of a small Shanghai medicine shop.
She secretly hid this barely-breathing boy in her own medicine shop, fed him, and treated his wounds.
In the darkest days of Murong Qingyi's life, Ren Susu was almost the only light he had, and he carved her face deep into memory for a lifetime.
But no one imagined this one act of kindness would be the beginning of a catastrophe.
Because they took Murong Qingyi in, the Ren family stood in the way of the Murong family's enemies, and became the target of their revenge.
Those people came to the door, and in a single night, the whole Ren family met disaster.
Out of that whole household, only Ren Susu was lucky enough to survive.
Barely escaping death, she was sent to a place of endless suffering.
And from that day, a seed of hatred was buried in her heart.
Many years passed, and the two children of back then both grew up.
Ren Susu hid her identity, changed her name to Fang Mulan, and returned to Shanghai carrying a mind full of schemes.
She came back for one thing: revenge.
Yet she never guessed that, through all the twists and turns, she would run into the very boy she had once risked her life to save.
Only, the two people now were no longer the boy and girl who had once huddled together for warmth in that medicine shop.
One kind thought saved a single life, yet destroyed an entire family.
And the love and hatred of the ten years to come are only now raising the curtain.
If saving someone with kindness ends up costing you your whole family, would you still dare to let your heart go soft for this world one more time?
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
HSK 3. 救他的是任素素 = the one who saved him was Ren Susu.
HSK 4-5. 命运跟他开了个残忍的玩笑 = fate played a cruel joke on him.
HSK 4-5. 养父发现了真相 = his adoptive father discovered the truth.
HSK 4. 这一次善良 = this one act of kindness.
HSK 4. 成了他们报复的目标 = became the target of their revenge.
Beyond HSK 3. 有钱有势的军阀家 = a rich, powerful warlord family.
Beyond HSK 3. 一家小药铺 = a small medicine shop.
Beyond HSK 3. 婴儿时被人抱错了 = swapped by mistake as a baby.
Beyond HSK 3. 养父发现了真相 = his adoptive father found out the truth.
Beyond HSK 3. 仇恨的种子埋进了她心里 = a seed of hatred was buried in her heart.
Beyond HSK 3. 她回来是为了复仇 = she came back for revenge.
Beyond HSK 3. 一场灭顶之灾 = an overwhelming, catastrophic disaster.
Beyond HSK 3. 任素素隐姓埋名 = Ren Susu hid her name and identity.
* beyond level超纲词
本该 … (should have)
本该 = should have (been) — what was supposed to happen but didn't.
本该是含着金汤匙长大的少爷。
再也 + 不/没 …
再也不/没 = never again; emphasizes reaching a breaking point.
慕容清峄再也受不了。
竟 (unexpectedly)
竟 = unexpectedly / to one's surprise, marking a shocking turn.
这一次善良,竟成了一场灭顶之灾的开始。
为了 + 目的
为了 X = for the sake of X / in order to X.
她回来,是为了复仇。
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