In 1938, Chen Cheng, a National Revolutionary Army soldier, finds a gold-embossed codebook amid the scorched earth of the Battle of Xuzhou. The original text, which records the Japanese army’s “Black Wind Plan,” draws him into a manhunt that lasts more than a decade. From the battlefield in Shanghai to the fog-shrouded city of Chongqing, from a secret residence in occupied territory to a remote village amid the civil war, Chen Cheng must evade the blades of the Japanese Special Higher Police while also guarding against ambushes by the Military Statistics Bureau’s “Anti-Traitor Squad” and the Central Bureau of Investigation’s “Investigation Section.” In several brushes with death, he develops complicated feelings for the Japanese spy Kawashima Yoshiko, codenamed “Sakura” (a fictional character sharing the same name). She is the bait meant to trap him, yet also the only confidante who can see the cracks in his soul. As the codebook’s secrets are gradually revealed, they expose treasonous deals by military and political leaders, as well as a bloody contest of covert operations between the Communists and Nationalists. Amid the smoke of the War of Resistance against Japan and the artillery fire of the War of Liberation, Chen Cheng transforms from a naïve soldier into a survivor navigating the gray areas. In the end, the coveted codebook reflects humanity’s greed and redemption amid the ashes of history.
