Pianist Su Yan is caught in an earthquake during surgery, and the lead surgeon, Gu Yu, accidentally destroys his right hand. Forced to live together, Su Yan discovers the belongings of ballet dancer Ruan Qing in Gu Yu’s closet, then is stunned to realize that his scars are in exactly the same places as hers. When he coughs up blood onto the notarized document for Xu Zhe, the recipient of Ruan Qing’s donated heart, Su Yan is plunged into doubts about whether he is merely a substitute.
Xu Zhe’s arrival sends everything spiraling out of control. The transplanted heart holds Ruan Qing’s memories, and the scar on his spine matches her dance injury. The three of them are caught in a vortex of organ memories and trauma passed down across generations. At a medical hearing, a tattoo over Gu Yu’s heart reveals the three of their medical codes. On a rooftop on a stormy night, Su Yan blocks the door with his wheelchair while Xu Zhe stands in the rain and rings the bell. “Dr. Gu, my heartbeat is imitating the sound of rain.”
They are trapped in a closed loop of pain: the doctor becomes a caregiver, the pianist controls the wheelchair, and the heart’s parasite monopolizes the sound of a heartbeat. The ambulance siren circles endlessly through the rain, like an ECG monitor that can never be turned off.
