Spring 1932, Shanghai French Concession. Shen Qing, who had returned from studying abroad, was called into the small study room by his father Shen Shichang on the third day after he got off the ship. Three copies of Geng Tie were spread out on the mahogany desk, and the gilded word "Gu" glowed coldly under the fluorescent lamp. "The eighth day of next month is a good day," Shen Shichang pushed up his tortoiseshell glasses, "The third young master of the Gu family has just returned from Peking. Please meet him." Shen Qingru's fingers holding the hem of her skirt turned white. She knew that she might never have the chance to open the box of oil paints and sketchbooks she brought back from Paris. But when she actually met the third young master of the Gu family who was rumored to be "unsociable and not close to women", she saw in his too calm eyes a hint of sharp inquiry that should not appear in this marriage. Under the cup of black tea that Gu Tingchen handed over, there was a business card from a tailor shop, with a line of words scrawled in pencil on the back: "Thursday at three o'clock in the afternoon, on the second floor of Yong'an Department Store, there is something you want to know about your mother."
