diff --git a/__tests__/unit/node/markdown/plugins/link.test.ts b/__tests__/unit/node/markdown/plugins/link.test.ts
index 5e4bc7f199c2..6c9e027299d0 100644
--- a/__tests__/unit/node/markdown/plugins/link.test.ts
+++ b/__tests__/unit/node/markdown/plugins/link.test.ts
@@ -53,12 +53,12 @@ describe('node/markdown/plugins/link', () => {
     const env: {
       cleanUrls: boolean
       links?: string[]
-      linkLines?: number[]
+      linkMetadatas?: { rawLink: string; line?: number }[]
     } = { cleanUrls: false }
 
     await md.renderAsync('Intro\n\n[Missing](./missing.md)\n', env)
 
-    expect(env.links).toEqual(['./missing'])
-    expect(env.linkLines).toEqual([3])
+    expect(env.links).toEqual(['./missing.html'])
+    expect(env.linkMetadatas).toEqual([{ rawLink: './missing.md', line: 3 }])
   })
 })
diff --git a/__tests__/unit/node/markdownToVue.test.ts b/__tests__/unit/node/markdownToVue.test.ts
index 1d675f3112c3..b336db00ca5e 100644
--- a/__tests__/unit/node/markdownToVue.test.ts
+++ b/__tests__/unit/node/markdownToVue.test.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,38 @@ describe('node/markdownToVue', () => {
     }
   })
 
+  test('records link path as written for dead links', async () => {
+    root = await mkdtemp(path.join(tmpdir(), 'vitepress-link-path-'))
+
+    const file = path.join(root, 'index.md')
+    const src = [
+      '[a](./a.md)',
+      '[b](./b#hash)',
+      '[c](./中文.md)',
+      '[d](/d)'
+    ].join('\n\n')
+    await writeFile(file, src)
+
+    const siteConfig = await resolveConfig(root, 'build', 'production')
+    const render = await createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
+      siteConfig.srcDir,
+      { cache: false },
+      '/',
+      false,
+      false,
+      siteConfig
+    )
+
+    const result = await render(src, file)
+
+    expect(result.deadLinks).toEqual([
+      { url: './a.md', file, line: 1 },
+      { url: './b#hash', file, line: 3 },
+      { url: './中文.md', file, line: 5 },
+      { url: '/d', file, line: 7 }
+    ])
+  })
+
   test('records source line numbers for dead links', async () => {
     root = await mkdtemp(path.join(tmpdir(), 'vitepress-dead-link-'))
 
@@ -34,7 +66,7 @@ describe('node/markdownToVue', () => {
     const result = await render(src, file)
 
     expect(result.deadLinks).toContainEqual({
-      url: './missing',
+      url: './missing.md',
       file,
       line: 5
     })
@@ -61,7 +93,7 @@ describe('node/markdownToVue', () => {
     const result = await render(src, file)
 
     expect(result.deadLinks).toContainEqual({
-      url: './missing',
+      url: './missing.md',
       file,
       line: 8
     })
diff --git a/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts b/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
index b165744a4495..ba4bfe4aa1d0 100644
--- a/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdown/plugins/link.ts
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
       token.attrGet('class') !== 'header-anchor' // header anchors are already normalized
     ) {
       const hrefAttr = token.attrs![hrefIndex]
+      const rawUrl = decodeURI(hrefAttr[1])
       let [url, frag] = hrefAttr[1].split(':~:', 2)
       hrefAttr[1] = url
       if (isExternal(url)) {
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
         })
         // catch localhost links as dead link
         if (url.replace(EXTERNAL_URL_RE, '').startsWith('//localhost:')) {
-          pushLink(url, env, token.meta?.vpLine)
+          pushLink(url, rawUrl, env, token.meta?.vpLine)
         }
         hrefAttr[1] = url
       } else {
@@ -95,6 +96,7 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
     line?: number
   ) {
     let url = hrefAttr[1]
+    const rawUrl = decodeURI(url)
 
     const indexMatch = url.match(indexRE)
     if (indexMatch) {
@@ -124,7 +126,7 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
     }
 
     // export it for existence check
-    pushLink(url.replace(/\.html$/, ''), env, line)
+    pushLink(url, rawUrl, env, line)
 
     // markdown-it encodes the uri
     hrefAttr[1] = decodeURI(url)
@@ -134,12 +136,15 @@ export const linkPlugin = (
     return str ? encodeURI('#' + slugify(decodeURI(str).slice(1))) : ''
   }
 
-  function pushLink(link: string, env: MarkdownEnv, line?: number) {
-    const links = env.links || (env.links = [])
-    links.push(link)
-    if (line != null) {
-      const linkLines = env.linkLines || (env.linkLines = [])
-      linkLines[links.length - 1] = line
-    }
+  function pushLink(
+    link: string,
+    rawLink: string,
+    env: MarkdownEnv,
+    line?: number
+  ) {
+    env.links ??= []
+    env.links.push(link)
+    env.linkMetadatas ??= []
+    env.linkMetadatas.push({ rawLink, line })
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
index dd0f993a78ff..16761b8af74e 100644
--- a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
@@ -174,8 +174,8 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       frontmatter = {},
       headers = [],
       includes = [],
-      linkLines = [],
       links = [],
+      linkMetadatas = [],
       sfcBlocks,
       title = ''
     } = env
@@ -215,10 +215,9 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       const dir = path.dirname(file)
       for (const [index, rawUrl] of links.entries()) {
         let url = rawUrl
+        const metadata = linkMetadatas[index]
         const line =
-          linkLines[index] == null
-            ? undefined
-            : linkLines[index] + contentLineOffset
+          metadata?.line != null ? metadata.line + contentLineOffset : undefined
         const { pathname } = new URL(url, 'http://a.com')
         if (!treatAsHtml(pathname)) continue
 
@@ -250,7 +249,7 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
           ) &&
           !shouldIgnoreDeadLink(url)
         ) {
-          recordDeadLink(url, line)
+          recordDeadLink(metadata.rawLink, line)
         }
       }
     }
diff --git a/types/shared.d.ts b/types/shared.d.ts
index c1e280b28de1..95c77394bdc5 100644
--- a/types/shared.d.ts
+++ b/types/shared.d.ts
@@ -591,9 +591,11 @@ export interface MarkdownEnv {
    */
   links?: string[]
   /**
-   * The line numbers at which each of `links` appears in the source.
+   * The metadata of the links collected from the page.
+   * - `rawLink`: The url as written
+   * - `line`: The line number at which the link appears in the source.
    */
-  linkLines?: number[]
+  linkMetadatas?: { rawLink: string; line?: number }[]
   /**
    * The absolute paths of the files inlined via `<!--@include-->` and
    * imported via `<<<` code snippets, used for watch invalidation.