In 1939, Shanghai fell into an “isolated island” under occupation. Beneath the neon lights of the French Concession, undercurrents swirled. Fang Shuyun, a banker’s daughter recently returned from studying in France, brought Parisian style and a heart filled with hatred for the enemy and her country’s humiliation as she navigated the forces competing for power in this besieged city.
After she unexpectedly rescues a badly wounded boy and takes him in, the wheels of fate begin to turn. Shi Jingyao, an economics professor returned from Moscow, appears to be a refined scholar, yet his cuffs are always stained with the lingering scent of gunpowder. Xi Hongwen, a smooth-talking playboy, also has a patriotic heart. Even the Xi family, whose late patriarch’s will declared them “worthy of entrusting with life and death,” has countless ties to the Wang Jingwei regime.
Fang Shuyun doesn’t know why the Browning pistol from her ancestral home’s family shrine bears the same butterfly mark as the one on Shi Jingyao’s pocket watch. Nor does she know that a telescope outside has already fixed on her as she works at the hotel on Avenue Joffre.
This is a covert war in which passwords are passed through jade earrings and the smell of gunpowder is concealed with French perfume. When night falls over the isolated island, everyone is a pawn, and every heart hides a secret. True light can only arrive after passing through the deepest darkness.
I read this article before going to bed, and tears flowed down my face...