This is a romance about bonds spanning two lifetimes, following the past and present of Qi Yan and Cheng Ruoyu, and Fu Yunshen and Zhu Jiu, as it weaves together regret, reunion, and the pull of fate.
In their previous life in Chang’an, amid the snowstorms of the third year of Yuanhe, Emperor Qi Yan and his personal guard Cheng Ruoyu shared a bond forged through life and death, along with feelings left unspoken. Gravely ill, Qi Yan entrusted her with a jade hairpin carved in the shape of a carp before he died, a token of his concern. He also left behind half a jade pendant engraved with the character “Yan,” promising to find her in their next life. Clutching her vow to “be his armor” and the other half of the pendant, engraved with “Yu,” Cheng Ruoyu held on to their unfulfilled promise to meet among the peach blossoms south of the Yangtze, watching him depart.
In their present life in Shanghai, on a rainy night in the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China, the doctor Zhu Jiu and Fu Yunshen cross paths. Zhu Jiu feels inexplicably familiar with a jade hairpin carved in the shape of a carp, while Fu Yunshen seems troubled by an old illness. At the Lantern Festival, the two discover by chance that the halves of their jade pendants fit together perfectly. They are the very tokens Qi Yan and Cheng Ruoyu shared in their previous life. Similar dreams, inexplicable heart pangs, and a sense of familiarity that transcends time gradually make them realize that they are the soulmates each has been searching for since their past life. Fu Yunshen renews their promise to meet south of the Yangtze. This time, can they make up for the regrets of their previous life and protect this love, regained amid a world in turmoil, becoming each other’s armor and home in this life? Woven together from memories of two lifetimes and the present, their story tells of love and protection that endure across reincarnations.
