During the Jingkang Incident, guard Lin Jingtao protects Zhao Gou as he flees south for eleven years. With the physician Su Qingzhi and the Beiwei Guards at his side, he fights Jin general Wanyan Zongbi time and again, traveling from Bianjing to Yangzhou and Jiankang, then by sea to Lin’an. He witnesses the court groveling before its enemies and Yue Fei’s wrongful execution. In the end, he resigns and withdraws into the martial world, using his swordsmanship and medical skills to rally the survivors. Caught between loyalty to the emperor and protecting the people, his story captures a generation’s exile and choices: history lives among the people, and hope refuses to yield.
