Turbulent Times in the Republic of China: The Return of Ancient Artifacts

[Republican-era espionage]+ [double agent]+ [Marriage Before Love]+ [antique expert]+ [feuding families]

She restores ancient books; he restores identities. Shanghai, 1936. Gu Qingyan, a genius antiques appraiser, recognizes the unique “Bronze Inscription Renewal” technique on a bronze ding. It is the Shen family’s secret art, and the entire Shen family was supposedly lost in a sea of flames long ago.

Zhou Huaian, deputy chief of police in the foreign concession, is chatting amiably with foreigners below the stage. Yet behind his left ear is a mole identical to that of “Brother Yanshu.”

He is a French-Chinese elite, the childhood sweetheart she remembers dying in the fire, and the deeply embedded, top-level intelligence agent “Shadow” working for the Communist Party.

Because of her family’s secrets, she has become a member of the “National Treasures Protection Group.” The treasures she appraises are now targets of his mission.

All he can do is push her away with icy indifference. “Miss, you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

Yet when she is caught up in danger, he takes a bullet for her, then murmurs her childhood nickname while unconscious.

When the truth behind their families’ blood feud tears them apart, and his mission demands that he use her father, she smashes her ancestral jade pendant before him. “I can restore thousand-year-old books, but I can’t restore your rusted soul.”

Amid the artillery fire of the Battle of Shanghai, he cuts a path to safety for her through the smoke and flames. “A Yan, trust me. I’ll take you, and these seeds of civilization, home.”

Every time they draw close, they tread on the edge of a battlefield. Every time they part, the pain cuts to the bone.

Between faith and love, can they piece together a way home for each other amid a shattered land?

“Zhou Huaian, who are you, really?”

“Your comrade, your husband, a man who walked in darkness for far too long and finally found the light.”