A story about healing a soul.
At its heart, it's about whether a complicated, conflicted person needs a lover who will never be driven away.
Five years ago, Su Nian was betrayed by her best friend and sold to Myanmar.
She tried to escape three times, and each time she was caught and beaten until she was covered in wounds. On the fourth attempt, a Chinese police officer kicked the door open. He draped his coat over her shoulders and said, “Don't be afraid. I'm here to take you home.” She remembered his voice, but never saw his face clearly.
Five years later, he sat across from her in the university library. He had no idea that the prickly girl before him was the same stranger he'd once found covered in blood.
He didn't remember. But she did.
She remembered every word he said, the scent of his coat, and that he was the only person in the world who had ever given her light.
He began pursuing her. She did everything she could to push him away. “Stop coming.” “Stop chasing me.” “You shouldn't like me.” She couldn't tell him the truth or let him know who she was. How could a woman who had been defiled ever deserve someone so pure?
But he wouldn't be driven away. He told her, “Broken things can be mended,” and “You're not the one who's dirty,” and “I've seen what was inside the box. I didn't leave.” In the clumsiest way, he pieced her heart back together, bit by bit.
Until one day, she finally asked him through her tears, “Now that you know everything, why won't you leave?”
He said, “A woman's virtue has never been beneath her skirts.”
