The Wolf-Smoke Youth

Synopsis of Wolf Smoke: A Boy's Journey

In the chaotic years of the Republic of China, bandits plagued the black-soil frontier. The Xiaomiaozi hamlet on Xinzhan Street, in what is now Zhaoyuan County and was formerly called the Rear Banner of Guoerluosi, struggled to survive amid the tide of history, yet became a blazing stage on which a generation of youths came of age.

The eldest daughter of the Yin family, Yin Qingyao, seems gentle and frail, but is in fact highly skilled. When disaster strikes her family and bandits grievously wound her loved ones, she resolutely disguises herself as a man and ventures into the martial world. Outside Zhaozhou City, she meets Lin Mushí, a righteous bandit famed for his twin pistols. They discuss swordsmanship beneath the moon and talk of the world over wine, and their two souls spark a passionate flame amid the chaos.

Meanwhile, sparks fly in the blacksmith's shop. Yu Guodong, the young son of the Yu family, and Shen Huaijin, the third young master of the Shen family, are each brilliant in his own way: one is a master strategist, the other a gifted craftsman. From competing to secretly learn from each other to joining forces to develop homemade guns, they forge a bond of brotherhood through life-and-death trials. Yu Guodong and Qingfu of the Yin family fall quietly in love, while the fiery, forthright Miss Li becomes a bickering but devoted couple with Shen Huaijin, a renowned craftsman of the time...

The mute Third Granduncle has extraordinary skills, the eccentric Second Granduncle understands the yin and yang, the Fourth Uncle has miraculous healing hands and a compassionate heart, the storyteller hides many secrets, and a mysterious monk lends his aid to help them overcome their trials. Sheltered and guided by the older generation, the youths mature quickly through hidden treasures in cellars, public trials at the ancestral hall, and bloody battles to protect their hamlet. Love takes root amid gunfire, and friendship is tempered by life-and-death ordeals.

Facing one bandit attack after another, the youths grip their guns and grow amid the blood and flames of war. Yin Qingyao and Lin Mushí fight side by side with twin pistols, while Yu Guodong and Shen Huaijin unleash one ingenious trick after another to stand against the bandits.

This is the most blazing coming-of-age epic on the snowy plains of the northern frontier, and the most stirring tale of love and hatred in a time of chaos.