In the 18th year of the Republic of China, Ye Qinglan, the legitimate daughter of the Ye family, a wealthy textile businessman in the south of the Yangtze River, was reborn from the tragedy of the fire in the year after her wedding, just three days before the family finalized her engagement to Gu Shaoting, the son of a warlord. In her previous life, she was a victim of family interests, and eventually died amidst the suspicion and war of her husband's family; in this life, she vowed to break away from her fate and find stability and sincerity.
Following the memories of her past life, Ye Qinglan found the second-hand bookstore called "Moxiangzhai" in the concession, and met the down-and-out but upright shop owner Lu Xiuwen - she remembered that this man who insisted on inheriting ancient books would be unjustly imprisoned in the future for refusing to join the powerful. In order to avoid bad luck and protect her close friends, Ye Qinglan hired Lu Xiuwen in the name of studying, and used modern business thinking to help "Moxiangzhai" come back to life; Lu Xiuwen, in order to repay the kindness of his acquaintance, used a "pretended love" contract to help her resist the pressure of family marriage.
In the ups and downs of troubled times, they jointly faced their stepmother's schemes and Gu Shaoting's troubles, and gradually fell in love while restoring ancient books and holding cultural salons. From keeping a contract to being dependent on each other in life and death, the two not only changed each other's tragic fate, but also maintained the glimmer of cultural heritage and the happiness of a lifetime in the turbulent era.
