The Clouds Clear and the Rain Ends, but You Are Not in This Life

During a chance encounter in a cold alley in Beiping, nine-year-old Xie Yuchen brought a four-year-old child huddled beside a trash can back to the Xie family and casually named her Yun Shuran. Making her cry and then awkwardly comforting her was the only amusement in his otherwise tedious life as heir. No one knew that this little girl, so simple and sweet, would become the obsession that drove him mad for half his life.

She was Xie Yuchen's one and only exception, the only person allowed to touch his scarred body. Facing the disapproval of his entire clan, he fiercely protected her: “Yun Shuran belongs to me, Xie Yuchen. Anyone who lays a hand on her dies.”

No one knew that this seemingly ordinary girl was actually the daughter of Huo Ling and Zhang Qiling. Her blood concealed the Zhang family's secrets and the ultimate truth of the Bronze Gate. She was a target coveted by every faction, and the only sacrifice capable of averting disaster.

When the mists surrounding the underwater tomb in Xisha finally lifted, the chains of fate tightened without warning. As howling winds and snow swept over Changbai Mountain and the Bronze Gate slowly closed, Xie Yuchen's world collapsed completely.

That Xie Yuchen, the unshakable master of the opera stage who believed in neither ghosts nor gods and wielded power with ruthless precision, finally went mad.

He guarded a roomful of her belongings and traveled every inch of land the two of them had ever set foot on. The dazzling brilliance he had once displayed on the opera stage became bloodied kowtows before a lone green lamp and a Buddha statue. He screamed at the gods he could not see, begging them to give him back his Shuran.

But the snow and wind fell silent, and the Bronze Gate stood still. Yun Shuran was gone from the world, leaving only Xie Yuchen's obsession, growing wild until the end of time.