The Lingering Warmth of Pear Blossom Rain: The Traitor Brother Guards the Nation's Gate

This is a fictional setting, so don’t take it too seriously.

In 2024, Shen Qingyu, a graduate student researching Republican-era history, stayed up late working on her thesis and unexpectedly transmigrated to 1923, becoming the youngest sister of Shen Yanzhou, a “traitorous warlord.” Armed with her knowledge of historical records, she was convinced her brother was a feudal remnant who ruled his own territory and would eventually collude with the enemy. After returning home, she clashed with the Jiangbei Border Defense Commissioner at every turn, denouncing him for amassing power and insisting that “new ideas” could save China.

But a chance discovery while she was confined to the house gradually shattered her understanding of her brother. The Leica camera’s developed photographs revealed not “evidence of his crimes,” but images of him escorting wounded soldiers late at night and secretly using his own fortune to provide disaster relief. A blank page in the Shen family rules concealed his handwritten vow: “I will defend our borders and protect our people, even if it costs me my life.” When the crisis in North China came in 1935, with Japanese troops at the border and Nanjing demanding surrender, Shen Yanzhou signed a commercial treaty under the guise of “colluding with the enemy.” In truth, he was buying three months to help the people migrate south. In the end, he drank deadly poison beneath a pear tree, trading his reputation for the survival of the people in three provinces.

After her brother’s sacrifice, Shen Qingyu changed her name to “Shen Aiguo” and went abroad with a secret letter. Through businesses in arms and medicine, she established the Liyu Foundation and spent decades anonymously donating assets worth 70 billion to the People’s Republic of China. It was not until the 2025 program Sky Screen decrypted the archives and revealed the penciled words on the back of Shen Yanzhou’s telegram, “Counterattack in three months,” that the truth, nearly a century late, finally came to light. He never lived to see the dawn of the new China, but she spent her life bringing its light to his grave.