This is a novel about the intertwining of sadomasochism and feelings of family and country during the Republic of China. What Xu Wanqing, a young lady from Suzhou, was waiting for on her wedding day was not a sedan chair, but the urn of her fiancé Shen Wei'an - brought personally by his brother Shen Weishen who had been missing for three years. In order to find out the cause of her lover's death, she resolutely went to Shanghai, but was involved in the whirlpool of underground struggles and family secrets.
In the crisis-ridden Shanghai, Xu Wanqing and Shen Weishen went from strangers to fighting side by side, from suspicion to trusting each other in life and death. She discovered that Shen Wei'an's death was not an accident, but was closely connected with the murder of Shen's father ten years ago. In the process of pursuing the truth, she developed a deep affection for the calm and deep Shen Wei, but they were always separated by a high wall called "morality" and "guilt".
The artillery fire at the Battle of Songhu shattered all disguises. Xu Wanqing must make a choice in troubled times: should he hold on to the memories of the dead, or embrace the sincerity of the living? When the hatred of country and family collides fiercely with personal emotions, she finally understands that true love is not a replacement, but the courage to stand side by side in the smoke of gunfire and watch the dawn together.
This is an elegy for love amid war and a growth epic of female awakening. In the cycle of pear blossoms blooming and withering, love and ideals will eventually find their way back.
