From Boy Band Pretty Boy to Traditional Chinese Embroidery Artist

An Yu, the pretty face of a boy band, couldn’t sing or dance and was mired in scandals. The whole internet mocked him as a “wooden-faced waste of space.”

At a dinner where he was expected to submit to the investors’ demands, he finally snapped and kicked a major financier into the hospital. Then he promptly announced his retirement from showbiz and vanished from public view.

The entertainment industry was in an uproar. His haters celebrated, and everyone thought the pretty fool had finally brought about his own downfall.

No one knew that An Yu’s body had long since been taken over by a soul from ancient times.

Couldn’t sing or dance? No problem. He could embroider, and he was a master embroiderer.

Back in his remote mountain hometown, An Yu picked up his needle and thread and settled into a quiet life as an embroiderer, far from the world.

One day, on a whim, he tried livestreaming his embroidery. His steady hands guiding the needle and thread, and the serenity of his total concentration, unexpectedly drew in countless city dwellers looking for comfort.

He embroidered landscapes, flowers and birds, and orchids in secluded valleys. Every piece brimmed with life, and commissions soon began arriving.

While filming in the mountains, movie star Lu Chen was caught in a rainstorm and ducked into a farmhouse for shelter.

Through a crack in the door, he saw the boy who had once been hounded off the internet and out of showbiz, sitting quietly beneath a lamp, his needle flashing through the fabric. His expression was calm as still water, nothing like the cold, empty idol he remembered.