[Marriage First, Love Later, Age Gap, Slow-Burn Romance, Sweet Everyday Life]
On an autumn night in an ancient town, the scent of tea lingers in the air. One unexpected reunion stirs years of silence.
Lan Li quietly restores fragments of old books, mending the passage of time and the lonely half of her life that has gone without love.
She thinks their marriage, born from a misunderstanding, is simply a way to fulfill their elders’ wishes. She doesn’t know that someone has kept her close in his heart since his youth.
Zhou Yaoxun is a bright moon hanging high in the night sky, a reserved scholar devoted to research. He seems distant and restrained, yet his eyes hold room for only one quiet young woman who restores old books.
He makes marriage their promise and tenderness his shield, concealing all his devotion in the little things, just to tell her: You are not a substitute, not a compromise, and not a burden. You are the one place I will always call home.
Old memories resurface and misunderstandings pile up. She silently walks away, and he frantically searches for her.
An old photograph holds the unspoken flutter of young love; a bouquet of white balloon flowers remembers a devotion left unfulfilled by time.
One person tends old books, waiting for a promised return; another guards a true heart, waiting for someone to come back.
The inkstone holds the years, the brush records a deep love. After all the drifting and waiting, at last there is a place to return to.
All she asks of this life is the fragrance of books and someone to come home to.
