Tracks in the Embers: Nian'an's Return

On a stormy night in Hong Kong in 1998, the newborn daughter of the Gu family, Gu Nian'an, was kidnapped by human traffickers. Her mother, Lin Wanqing, fell gravely ill from grief and was bedridden for years. Her father, Gu Mingchen, and her three older brothers kept the vast Gu Group running while never giving up their search for her, for twenty years without fail.

Growing up around the docks, Gu Nian'an cut her long hair and disguised herself as a boy to survive. Through sheer grit and cunning, she consolidated her power and became the feared “Brother Ye,” yet she always clutched an old silver lock engraved with the character “An,” holding on to the fragments of her hazy past. By chance, her eldest brother, Gu Jinnian, became suspicious when her features reminded him of their mother. He secretly collected a sample for a DNA test and finally confirmed that she was his long-lost sister.

The road home was not an easy one. Lu Zeyuan, the “brother” she had met while disguised as a man, had already fallen for “him,” and his parents strongly opposed this “absurd” relationship. Then old enemies from the docks struck back, the truth about her identity came crashing down, and her gender was exposed, leaving Nian'an in one crisis after another. It was only when she was injured in an accident that her identity as a woman was fully revealed. Lu Zeyuan was shocked and overjoyed, and the Lu family changed its tune. The Gu brothers carefully protected her past, waiting for her to open her heart of her own accord.

From “Brother Ye,” feared in the dark alleys by the docks, to the Gu family's little princess, lost and found again, Gu Nian'an slowly pieced herself together through the warmth of family and the steadfastness of love. And at last, after twenty years apart, the Gu family found their lost treasure and their way back to wholeness amid the ashes of time.