Introduction to the story of "The Remaining Photos of the Xiangjiang River"
In the first year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army rose. Zeng Guofan, Liu Rong, and Guo Songtao joined the army and formed the Hunan Army. Their children, Zeng Jize, Liu Zhilan, and Guo Yun, grew up together in Heye Pond, Xiangxiang.
Ji Ze and Zhi Lan, childhood sweethearts, pledged their love with half a Xiang Fei bamboo pen and agreed to get married on a day of world peace. Guo Yun hid his love deeply and gave in silently.
In the past fourteen years, wars and national calamities have torn apart their agreements time and time again: the defeat of Jingang, the burning of the Old Summer Palace, the Qixiang coup, the siege of Tianjing... The court was suspicious of the Hunan Army, and Liu Rong postponed her wedding to avoid suspicion; Zhilan was forced to marry another, and her husband died in the war; Ji Ze was forced to get engaged to Guo Yun, but his heart was always with Zhilan.
After realizing that "he has no self in his heart", Guo Yun took the initiative to break off the engagement and went to Shanghai to become the first generation of intellectual women. With the fall of Tianjing and the dismantling of the Hunan Army, Jize and Zhilan finally got married - in the aftermath of the empire, a belated wedding brought an end to fourteen years of chaos.
History overwhelms love, and they choose to become each other's monuments.
