A Thousand Bracelets Await the Returning Goose

Ancient Era: Blood on Yan Hui, Souls Bound to a Jade Bangle

In the twenty-seventh year of Yong'an under the Da Sheng Dynasty, Xiao Lin, the great general who guarded the nation, held Yan Hui Pass with a lone army against one hundred thousand Northern Di cavalry. Amid the chaos of war, he and Shen Shu Yue, a gifted young woman from an aristocratic family, fell secretly in love. They shared an unspoken understanding as they listened to music aboard a painted boat, gazed into the distance from the city tower, and tentatively exchanged a plum-blossom handkerchief. But the barriers between them, the general's duty to defend the nation and the talented lady's duty to her family, kept them from confessing their feelings. On the eve of the city's fall, Xiao Lin entrusted his family's heirloom, the Black Kirin Jade Bangle, which concealed a map of the border defenses, to his deputy, Qin Mu. He told him, "Give it to Shu Ying, and keep her safe." Then he led his personal guards into battle and died fighting, his blood staining the city tower.

Qin Mu broke through the encirclement with the bangle, but assassins sent by the treacherous minister Xie Chong pursued him. Before dying, he hid the bangle in a secret cave beneath the Mountain God Temple on the southern slope of Yan Hui Mountain. When Shen Shu Yue learned of Xiao Lin's death, she went to the banks of Qujiang Pond, where they had first met, clasped the plum-blossom handkerchief in her arms, and threw herself into the water. Her despair and Xiao Lin's loyalty and courage became two abiding obsessions, merging with the Black Kirin Jade's spiritual energy. The bangle became a vessel that preserved memories, and slept beneath the yellow earth for a thousand years.

Modern Era: The Jade Bangle Awakens, Two Lives Reunited

In 2025, archaeologists excavating the ruins of Yan Hui Pass unearthed the Black Kirin Jade Bangle and sent it to the Tracing Light Research Institute for restoration. While cleaning it, Shen Ning, a young relic restorer and a descendant of Shen Shu Yue with a natural affinity for ancient artifacts, touched the blood-red stain in the jade. In an instant, she was swept into fragments of Shen Shu Yue's memories: the music aboard the painted boat, her resolve by the lakeside, and her bone-deep longing for Xiao Lin.

At the same time, Zhou Lin, the research institute's newly hired security consultant, felt his heart stir when he saw the jade bangle and Shu Ying. A retired special forces soldier, he shared a spiritual resonance with Xiao Lin. A sharp pain struck his heart...