A city in the north where rivers converge, the wind and sand outside the city walls are like knives, and the people inside the city walls are like tides. In the aftermath of the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China was founded, warlords competed, foreign aggression suppressed the country, and the new order wrapped around everyone's life like a winter wind. In this city called Beiguan, Liu Sheng was born in a declining scholarly family. His family owned a paper factory, and he relied on pulping paper to eat the remnants of the past. The father's bookishness and humiliation, the sister's flexibility and rebellion, the student Li Wenji's passion and idealism, the officer Zhang Zhicai's ambiguous power, and the actor Xue Xiaolian's laughter and tears all meet, collide, and forget each other in the torrent of the times. The kite flew off the city wall, was broken by the wind time and time again, and had to be mended with thin strings again and again. City collapse and famine, grand gatherings and secret talks, gunshots and bells, history passed through them, and their footprints were so hot that their hearts ached.
This is a story about loss and gain, betrayal and loyalty, sinking and redemption. The fire of a paper factory illuminated the dark alley for ten years, and the applause of the spectators on the stage broke the fragile trust between people. Some people are slowly dulled by silence, some are burned red by desire, and some people spend their entire lives waiting for an answer: where is the wind blowing? The story will not give the answer, it will only write out those people and let you see how they stood, trembled, fell, and stood up again in the wind.
