diff --git a/src/node/markdown/markdown.ts b/src/node/markdown/markdown.ts
index eeb90ced..f13e7949 100644
--- a/src/node/markdown/markdown.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdown/markdown.ts
@@ -4,10 +4,7 @@ import {
   componentPlugin,
   type ComponentPluginOptions
 } from '@mdit-vue/plugin-component'
-import {
-  frontmatterPlugin,
-  type FrontmatterPluginOptions
-} from '@mdit-vue/plugin-frontmatter'
+import type { FrontmatterPluginOptions } from '@mdit-vue/plugin-frontmatter'
 import {
   headersPlugin,
   type HeadersPluginOptions
@@ -52,6 +49,7 @@ import {
   type ContainerOptions
 } from './plugins/containers'
 import { eagerFrontmatterInterpolationPlugin } from './plugins/eagerFrontmatterInterpolation'
+import { frontmatterPlugin } from './plugins/frontmatter'
 import { highlight as createHighlighter } from './plugins/highlight'
 import { imagePlugin, type Options as ImageOptions } from './plugins/image'
 import {
diff --git a/src/node/markdown/plugins/frontmatter.ts b/src/node/markdown/plugins/frontmatter.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6f122882
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/node/markdown/plugins/frontmatter.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import type { FrontmatterPluginOptions } from '@mdit-vue/plugin-frontmatter'
+import matter from 'gray-matter'
+import type { MarkdownItAsync } from 'markdown-it-async'
+
+/**
+ * Vendored from `@mdit-vue/plugin-frontmatter` (extracts `env.frontmatter`,
+ * `env.content` and `env.excerpt` before parsing), with one behavioral
+ * change: the stripped frontmatter block is replaced with blank lines, so
+ * every `token.map` stays in the coordinates of the full source instead of
+ * shifting up by the frontmatter height. Blank lines produce no tokens, so
+ * the rendered output is unchanged. Offering this upstream as a
+ * `preserveLines` option is tracked as a follow-up.
+ */
+export function frontmatterPlugin(
+  md: MarkdownItAsync,
+  { grayMatterOptions, renderExcerpt = true }: FrontmatterPluginOptions = {}
+): void {
+  const parse = md.parse.bind(md)
+  md.parse = (src, env: Record<string, unknown> = {}) => {
+    const { data, content, excerpt = '' } = matter(src, grayMatterOptions)
+
+    env.content = content
+    env.frontmatter = { ...(env.frontmatter as object), ...data }
+    env.excerpt =
+      renderExcerpt && excerpt ? md.render(excerpt, { ...env }) : excerpt
+
+    // gray-matter only ever removes lines from the top of the file, so the
+    // difference in line-break counts is exactly the removed line count
+    const removed =
+      src.length === content.length
+        ? 0
+        : countLineBreaks(src) - countLineBreaks(content)
+    return parse(removed > 0 ? '\n'.repeat(removed) + content : content, env)
+  }
+}
+
+function countLineBreaks(str: string): number {
+  return str.match(/\r\n|[\r\n]/g)?.length ?? 0
+}
diff --git a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
index 661af795..ceb67235 100644
--- a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
@@ -174,7 +174,6 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       throw e
     }
     const {
-      content,
       frontmatter = {},
       headers = [],
       includes = [],
@@ -183,10 +182,6 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       sfcBlocks,
       title = ''
     } = env
-    src = env.src ?? src
-    const contentLineOffset = countLineBreaks(
-      content && src.endsWith(content) ? src.slice(0, -content.length) : ''
-    )
 
     // validate data.links
     const deadLinks: MarkdownCompileResult['deadLinks'] = []
@@ -219,10 +214,7 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       const dir = path.dirname(file)
       for (const [index, rawUrl] of links.entries()) {
         let url = rawUrl
-        const line =
-          linkLines[index] == null
-            ? undefined
-            : linkLines[index] + contentLineOffset
+        const line = linkLines[index] == null ? undefined : linkLines[index]
         const { pathname } = new URL(url, 'http://a.com')
         if (!treatAsHtml(pathname)) continue
 
@@ -390,10 +382,6 @@ const inferDescription = (frontmatter: Record<string, any>) => {
   return (head && getHeadMetaContent(head, 'description')) || ''
 }
 
-function countLineBreaks(str: string) {
-  return str.match(/\r?\n/g)?.length ?? 0
-}
-
 const getHeadMetaContent = (head: HeadConfig[], name: string) => {
   if (!head || !head.length) {
     return undefined