A Record of Protecting the Northern Song: I Spent Li Qingzhao's Whole Life by Her Side

The Northern Song's Guardian: I Spent a Lifetime by Li Qingzhao's Side

Lin Jian, a modern restorer of ancient books, transmigrates to the Northern Song dynasty and becomes Li Qingzhao's childhood friend. Armed with knowledge from nine centuries in the future, he knows what the history books say about her tragic later years, and vows to defy fate and change her destiny.

When the Zhao family offers a marriage proposal with precious antiques, he tears up the marriage contract and presents her with a Map of Survival in Troubled Times. “He can give you a collection. I can give you a way to survive.” On the night of the Jingkang Incident, he carries her through the flames, while fifteen cargo ships carry her beloved artifacts south.

When she discovers what the History of Song records, tears fill her eyes. “So you knew from the very beginning?” He draws her into his arms. “I did. I came to change ‘adrift and alone’ into ‘growing old together.’”

The history books say only that she lived in seclusion in Lin'an and died peacefully. No one knows what they said in their final moments. She asks, “Which do you love, the gifted woman in the history books, or the Li Qingzhao before you, who can grow old and fall ill?”

He kisses her white hair. “I love you at six, pouting as you wrote poetry, and I love you at forty-three, hiding my wine jars.” He pauses, then says softly, “If I'm being greedy, then I hope that thousands of years from now, when people read ‘Do you know? Do you know?’, they can read between the lines... and find the love I've kept hidden all my life.”

[The central premise] I use knowledge from nine centuries in the future to foresee your suffering, but I use the beating heart I have here and now to prove that love has nothing to do with prophecies across time and space. It lives in the moments we share, day after day.