[Easygoing Jiangnan beauty vs. gentle, refined top diplomat]
A cool-faced, adorable genius and master of traditional Chinese painting × older, guiding lover + romantic, healing love story
Xu Suining has been drawn to Buddhism since childhood. She always wears a string of sandalwood beads around her wrist, loves listening to Suzhou storytelling, and moves gracefully in her plain-colored skirts. Every smile and frown reveals the gentle charm of a Jiangnan woman.
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The bells ring out in the distance. Beneath red walls and gray bricks, incense smoke curls through the air. She clasps her hands and prays devoutly as the fortune sticks rattle in their container. One falls in time with the chanting.
Someone teases her, “Looks like the Bodhisattva has even found your other half for you. You should pay more attention to the people around you.”
She smiles and thinks nothing of it.
Little does she know that from then on, every time she turns her prayer beads, she will count them by his name.
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The old road is cool and quiet. She lifts her eyes and finds herself face-to-face with a man in a Sun Yat-sen suit, standing tall and straight.
In his hands, his jacket seems to transform into a long gown as he climbs the steps.
As they talk, a smile touches his handsome, refined face. His eyes are full of conviction, and he seems warm and gentle as jade, cultured and modest.
His voice is like his bearing: clear and upright, cool and composed, yet irresistibly charming.
The wind stirs the banners and sets her heart aflutter.
Only later does she learn that he is the brightest rising star in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Song Dongyuan.
“After a lifetime adrift, you are my home.”
Before meeting Xu Suining, his life held only the turbulence of the negotiating table. He had already prepared to devote his whole life to diplomacy.
After meeting her, every mountain he saw, every road he traveled, and every letter he wrote became a love letter to her.
“I will never love anyone but you.”
Those eyes, meant to feel compassion for all living things, now reflect only the figure in a plain-colored skirt amid Jiangnan’s misty rain.
