Synopsis
Shen Du, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the late Ming dynasty, is tortured despite being falsely accused. Su Nian, a musician in the Imperial Music Bureau during the mid-Tang dynasty, refuses to perform at an execution by imperial decree. The two destinies that should have ended there are drawn by the same ancient bronze mirror and plunge into modern-day Suzhou together.
A rainy night, an old street, a world of strangers. Two people who have fallen through cracks in history meet beneath the osmanthus fragrance of Pingjiang Road. He is an Embroidered Uniform Guard who has lived by the blade, cold and alert, unable even to use a phone. She is a musician from the depths of the imperial palace, gentle yet resilient, carrying a thousand-year-old guqin. Cast aside by their own eras, they are also the only people like each other in this unfamiliar world.
From testing each other’s intentions to standing side by side, from secret messages hidden in the guqin’s notes to the warmth of a milk tea cup, they learn to balance on shared bikes and find a sense of belonging amid the herbal aromas of an old apothecary. With an elderly doctor taking them in and a hanfu shop owner sheltering them, this city of canals slowly becomes a second home.
But their transmigration was no accident. Antique dealer Gu Yuanzhou uncovers the thousand-year-old secret of the Guixu Society: eight magical artifacts, one bronze mirror, and a plot spanning time that has been a century in the making. They are not the only visitors. The forces of the Time Ruins are close behind, while a mysterious organization led by Jin Caiwei covets the artifacts and seeks to traffic in temporal matter, turning history into a commodity.
Modern life is sweet as honey, but their pursuers have arrived. Faced with the cruel rule that only one of them can return, the uncertain fate of Shen Du’s former comrades in the Ming dynasty, and threats against Su Nian’s master’s keepsake, will they choose to return to their own eras, or build a home for each other in a world that was never theirs?
One thought spans a thousand years, or a lifetime together.
Even if the way home remains a mystery, I would still choose to
