In the seventeenth year of the Republic, Shanghai was veiled in mist and rain. Xiao Xuan was a master thief hidden among ordinary people. Her gentle features concealed a cool, distant nature, and her thieving skills were peerless, yet she used them only to protect the secret her family had left behind. Resilient by nature, she held fast to her principles even when mired in hardship. Skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, she was a rare talent in the eyes of others.
While stealing classified documents, she accidentally fell into the hands of Fu Jingshen, a ruthless man of immense power. He fell for her at first sight, beginning an obsessive, passionate pursuit in which he would stop at nothing to possess her. He kept her by his side, forcing her into his world. Misunderstandings and wounds piled up, leaving her heartbroken. Meanwhile, Xiao Xuan’s close friend Su Man, jealous of her talent and of Fu Jingshen’s favor, repeatedly schemed against her in secret and drove a wedge between them, making an already rocky relationship even more fraught.
Through their endless struggles and tests of one another, Fu Jingshen’s tenderness gradually melted Xiao Xuan’s cool reserve, while her resilience moved him in turn. Beneath all the cruelty, love slowly took root. Together, they fought against conspiracies and, amid the turmoil of the Republican era, wrote a tale of fate-bound entanglement, both sweet and painful.
