Liu Shi, an overworked office drone, finds her only comfort in trading poems with Li Qingzhao, who lived a thousand years ago. One day, an accident sends her following the rhyme of “Like a Dream” into the “depths of the lotus flowers” in the third year of Jianyan, during the Southern Song dynasty.
There is no carefree “too drunk to find the way home.” Instead, war ravages the land, and the country lies in ruins. She meets a Li Qingzhao utterly unlike the one she imagined: no longer the aloof figure from her textbooks, but a fifty-year-old woman who, amid chaos, protects her late husband’s legacy and hides precious bronzes and ancient texts. Her eyes are weary, yet an unyielding fire still burns within them.
From the romantic fantasy of “playing chess and spilling tea” to the brutal reality of “in life, be a hero among men,” Liu Shi brings her modern knowledge and spirit into the turbulent latter half of Li Qingzhao’s life. She questions Li Qingzhao’s stubborn convictions and aches for the strength she shows. In the end, she stands beside her, and together they find redemption for themselves, their era, and their fate amid the torrent of history.
Their story proves that some souls can resonate across a thousand years.
