In the seventeenth year of the Republic, Shanghai was shrouded in dark clouds and turmoil.
Shen Zhiyi was the head of the Shen family. Her bloodstained cheongsam and decisive ruthlessness helped her stand alone and hold up the sky in a chaotic age.
Ten years ago, on a cold, rainy night, she found a dying boy and named him Gu Yan Ci, taking him in as her personal attendant.
He was gentle, quiet, and deferential, remaining by her side for ten years. Everyone laughed at him for being a spineless dependent of the family.
She thought he was an obedient shadow, an attendant she could cast aside at will. She never knew that
for all those ten years, he had never once looked away from her.
He concealed his immense power, suppressed his consuming obsession, and became her blade, her shield, and her way out.
He watched her force herself to keep going, watched her loneliness, watched her pine for her unattainable love for ten years, watched her face the whole world alone.
He never imprisoned her, pressured her, or forced her. He only guarded her quietly, watching from afar.
Until, at a night banquet, someone from her past returned, and a long-lost light appeared in her eyes.
That night, the gentle boy tore off his mask. He did not shout or coerce her. He only murmured the words he had held back for ten years:
“Big sister, I’ve had my eye on you for a long time.”
So all that gentleness for ten years had been a disguise, and every act of restraint was for one person alone.
He had never been a weakling in need of her protection.
He was Shanghai’s most secretive power broker, a madman who would clear every thorn from her path, and the man who had loved her to the bone and guarded her for ten years, finally returned to her.
This entanglement began with salvation,
but in the end, she fell for him, and he won her heart.
From then on, they would walk through the chaotic age together, side by side, never to part again.
