Farewell in the Light of Passing Time

Synopsis

The stench of disinfectant jolts Lu Yu awake. He stares at the ceiling of the stark white hospital room, his memories a blank. Who is he? Why is he here? The only thing in his pocket is a faded yellow photograph, his sole anchor: a girl in a white dress smiling beneath a plane tree. On the back, words blurred by tear stains read, “Find her. The truth is in her eyes.”

Clutching the photograph, he plunges into the city’s maze: rusty street signs in the old town, an old bookstore owner’s recollection of “Su Nian, who always sat in the corner sketching someone’s back,” and a blue house covered in bougainvillea in the seaside city. Bit by bit, fragments of the past fall into place. Then, in an art studio, he sees an unfinished painting: the back of a man wearing a gray scarf beneath a plane tree. The knot is exactly the same as the one he is wearing now.

A diary on the table reveals the truth. He is Lu Yu, a finance director who embezzled company funds. Su Nian, the girl in the photograph, was his assistant, the love of his youth hidden in his sketchbook, and the woman who went to prison in his place. Beside the verdict, a text message still feels warm: “I never betrayed you. Turn yourself in. I’ll wait for you.”

Autumn winds scatter plane-tree leaves, and at last Lu Yu understands the light in Su Nian’s eyes. It is a road home paved with her freedom, leading him out of the confusion of amnesia and toward redemption through facing his crimes.