The First Jasmine about Lishan Mountain

Spoiler Alert:

I'm a little confused about the timeline surrounding what happened at Lishan.

From what I understood, Ye Li spent years training under the scholars there. Some of the senior members even seemed to leave the mountain at different points, and people like the man who later managed her shop in the city and the strict young disciple clearly came from Lishan as well.

But then I keep seeing comments saying that "Ye Li had been completely alone for eight years."

If that's the case, how did she spend all those years training with her masters? We also saw in the early episodes that Prince Li lived at Lishan with Ye Li when they were children. And with all the broken engagements, how did the order for Ye Li to come down from the mountain reach her? Who delivered it? Didn't the guards at the entrance go up the mountain to pass on the message?

Maybe I'm missing something, but the timeline is really confusing me.