Begonia Blossoms in Her Hair

In the rainy lanes of Shanghai in 1931, she is the daughter of a family of traditional Chinese doctors, fleeing with her ancestral medical texts. He is a concession detective with a secret. When they first meet, he is looking for a doctor to treat an informant bitten by a snake. She takes a silver needle from her medicine chest, a begonia petal clinging to it. The moment their fingertips touch, even the rain seems to turn warm.

He shields her from a warlord’s search, and she brews medicine for his old wounds. The begonias on the windowsill bloom and fade, and their feelings quietly grow amid the scent of herbs and the smoke of war. But when her family’s blood feud comes to light, and his true identity is exposed, where should the silver begonia hairpin engraved with both their names be pointed: at their enemy, or into her own heart?

“Doctor Su, in these troubled times, I cannot protect our country. I only hope I can protect every gentle, healing herb in your medicine chest.”