When the fingertips of an antique book restorer touch the pulse of capital, is it the salvation of civilization or the beginning of its fall?
He Chuyue is the fourth-generation heir to a declining family of antique book restorers in Macao. Her hands can “hear” cultural relics breathe, but they cannot keep her family’s auction house from crumbling.
Shen Yu is the youngest head of a major Beijing investment firm. With a hand that can turn the tides, he shows no mercy on his acquisition lists.
At an auction in Hong Kong, a surviving fragment of the Southern Song work Shantang Sikao appeared, ravaged by fire, worm damage, and flooding.
He Chuyue staked everything she owned on saving it, but just as she made her final bid, Shen Yu snatched it away for triple the price.
The whole city was in an uproar: Why would a powerful Beijing tycoon spend tens of millions on a pile of “scrap paper”?
Rumors spread:
“That little nobody from Hong Kong and Macao is climbing the social ladder. She must be quite the schemer.”
“Mr. Shen’s been bewitched. That woman doesn’t restore books, she practices witchcraft.”
No one knew that outside the restoration studio late at night, the man who was always so composed and dignified had once knelt on the icy floor and rasped through the closed door:
“Didn’t your teacher teach you restoration?”
“For a broken mirror to be whole again, the pieces have to be willing to let each other go.”
[Reader’s Guide]
◆ Two equally matched leads | Intense push and pull | Marriage first, love later (contract marriage) | A tale of two cities (Hong Kong and Macao × Beijing)
◆ Professional storyline: authentic antique book restoration details and power plays in the auction world
◆ Romance: from using each other as bargaining chips to becoming each other’s armor, two lonely souls “restoring” one another
◆ A well-developed ensemble cast: a secondary couple (a carefree art collector × a gifted restoration apprentice) growing in contrast, family power struggles, and industry upheavals
