Qin Shen, a gifted heir to the art of ancient ceramics, finds his master’s body and ironclad evidence pointing to him at the opening ceremony of a kiln. Overnight, he is hunted, cast out by his family, and condemned by the entire industry… To stay alive, he takes refuge in a run-down shop specializing in the restoration of ancient books. There, he meets a blind old man who uses his craft to open the door to the world of ancient artisans. Qin Shen uncovers a shocking secret about the spark of civilization, one that two generations have protected with their lives.
His former senior apprentice joins forces with a capitalist tycoon, packaging intangible cultural heritage as dazzling luxury goods for the world. Ancient methods and technology, preservation and upheaval, silence and clamor: a “silent war” over the soul of civilization suddenly erupts in a corner no one knows about.
As the lights of a business empire illuminate half the city, Qin Shen sits beneath the dim glow of a restoration lamp, his fingertips brushing a crack that has endured for eight hundred years. At last, he understands that what his master gave his life to pass on was never a piece of porcelain, but the final, fragile sound of a civilization “crackling” at the edge of a historical precipice. Can he make that faint sound carry through the clamor of the age?
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