When Su Nian was twelve, she stepped in to help someone in an alley and earned a crescent-shaped scar. In return, the young Gu Tingchen promised her something, but her older sister, Su Qing, stole her identity and became the “cherished first love” he had yearned for over the years. Years later, when Su Qing developed leukemia, Su Nian had nowhere to turn. Desperate to raise money for her medical bills, she signed a cold-blooded contract and married into the Gu family as a “substitute,” living as her sister’s shadow.
Gu Tingchen’s indifference, Lin Weiwei’s schemes, the humiliation of being slapped, and the sudden onset of a terminal illness ground her life into pieces. She hid her diagnosis of late-stage stomach cancer and quietly fulfilled the contract, all to give her sister a chance to live. She had no idea that the silver necklace engraved with the character “Nian” and the painting concealing that same character were keepsakes Gu Tingchen had treasured for years.
When her medical records were falsified and the truth concealed, Su Nian was driven toward despair by illness and misunderstanding. It was only after Madam Gu’s advice and Su Qing’s confession that Gu Tingchen realized he had loved the wrong person all these years. The substitute he had scorned and hurt was the very girl who had saved him and loved him back then.
Regret that came too late could not bring her back. Su Nian departed with one last wish: “Don’t mistake me for someone else in our next life.” Gu Tingchen devoted the rest of his life to atoning. He established a foundation, retraced their old paths, and guarded her ashes, keeping his promise to recognize her in their next life. This misunderstanding, spanning twelve years, became a tragic tale of a substitute, written in bone-deep devotion and endless remorse.
