Under the plane trees in the old city of Tehran, Li Ming's cafe has been there for fifteen years. He makes tea to welcome guests, teaches Chinese and talks about poetry, and hides his identity as a secret liaison under his gentle appearance - "Old Zhou" on the line only sends encrypted instructions. Hussein from the security department comes to drink black tea every week, and there is a tacit understanding not to ask about the alienation in his eyes.
Fatima is the most vivid accident in eight years. She drank free black tea every day and corrected his Persian with a smile: "Li Ming, 'Thank you' should be pronounced Mamnooooon, and the ending sound is like candy on the tongue." She calls herself a language teacher, but her eyes are unbecomingly sharp, but he is willing to be trapped by this gentleness.
In the late winter of 2026, the Persian Gulf was filled with smoke and the city was in turmoil overnight. The encrypted coordinates brought by Hussein ignited fireworks like fireworks in the night sky of Tehran. After the change of power, local armed conflicts escalated, and Li Ming was ordered to evacuate key figures in the northern mountains.
In the windy and snowy valley, the woman who had been drinking tea for eight years was actually wearing a security department uniform. "I've lied to you more than 1,400 times in eight years," she stroked his cold-red face with her fingertips, her voice trembling, "but there is something that is true even if it is said 8,000 times." Lips and teeth touched, and Feng Huo lost his voice.
Turbulent love is as fragile as fireworks. Li Ming completed his mission and was about to leave. There was a letter from Fatima lying in the drawer of the cafe: "I don't want an intelligence mission in my next life. I just want to be an ordinary person and drink stale tea with you all afternoon."
This deception and flames of love that spanned eight years finally had an echo in Tehran, where the gentle lights were once again - among the crowd at the airport, she grabbed his wrist, her eyes filled with starlight: "Don't leave, your tea hasn't been refilled yet."
