In the Shanghai Concession in the 1930s, there was an undercurrent. The robbery of the Sino-French Industrial Bank opened the curtain on the spy world. Sheng Jilin in a fragrant cloud gauze gown and Su Sirui in a moon-white cheongsam, two "scavengers" with mysterious identities, started a life-and-death game that spanned fourteen years using the French Concession as a chessboard. Sheng Jilin was born in a youth gang but was familiar with European ordnance. Su Sirui appeared to be a Paramount singer but was actually a top student at Peking Union Medical College. The two used surgical scissors modified from Miao knives, gilt pocket watches, poison chambers and other utensils to travel among the powers of various countries.
From the potassium cyanide poisoned wine case at the Paramount Ballroom to the bullet hole password wall of the Four-row Warehouse; from the Japanese military's secret blueprints of germ warfare to the Wang Puppet Government's "Sakura Project", every action has hidden artifacts: the microfilm in the buckle of the cheongsam, the germ warfare situation in the acupuncture model of St. John's University newspaper, and the bomb disposal code passed on by the pencil lead of Remy Elementary School... The pair used the distribution of algae in the Huangpu River to decipher the Japanese patrol route, borrowed lines from the drama "Thunderstorm" to detonate explosives at the bottom of the river, and used human body memory to transmit secret codes in the Jisfei Road interrogation room, integrating the espionage battlefield into the fireworks of the city.
With the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the undercurrent continues. The secret files of Tilanqiao Prison revealed the full picture of the "Sakura Project", the Xujiahui library fire hid undeciphered secret volumes, and the ultimate intelligence of 1941 was salvaged from a shipwreck in the Suzhou River. The bullet marks on Sheng Jilin's shoulder and the torn silk of Su Sirui's cheongsam eventually turned into a new pocket watch handed over by Waibaidu Bridge - what rotates between the gears is not only time, but also the nirvana and rebirth of faith.
This novel is based on real historical events, from the robbery of the bank in the French Concession in 1935 to the new regime in 1949
