The Southern Archives: Looking Toward the Ending Before the Story Begins

(Both the drama and the book are reference points. The story starts a long time ago, and may move slowly, because I want to share in their spirited youth and give them a happier ending. There’s no romance plot, so ship whoever you like. I write whatever comes to mind. Anything good belongs to the original work; any plot holes or out-of-character moments are on me. Anything goes, but please don’t argue or pick fights.)

Original female lead + family bonds + slow-paced + starting in childhood + mainly about the male lead + out of character + mostly everyday life, with the plot as a secondary focus

In the sixth year of the Republic era, Zhang Haiqi was entrusted with bringing back a strange child. She named her Zhang Hainian.

She was quiet, slow to react, wooden, and short on luck, like a stone that had yet to awaken. And yet, without anyone noticing, she set the fates of three master and apprentice in motion.

From then on, Zhang Haixia and Zhang Hailou had a little tagalong. They were both father and mother to her, raising her through every bump and scrape until she could talk and laugh and seemed like a normal person.

The three traveled to the ends of the earth and back, inseparable. They cracked one major case after another, entrusting their lives and their backs to one another.

But during the stolen Buddha Lotus case, Zhang Hainian stabbed them in the back, leaving Zhang Hailou poisoned and missing, and Zhang Haixia on the verge of death.

When they faced off again, Zhang Haixia pointed a gun at Zhang Hainian and demanded to know why. She said nothing, and from then on, her bond with the two men was utterly broken.

A month later, the family estate was attacked. Zhang Haiqi went to quell the rebellion, while Zhang Haixia was given the urgent task of taking over as head of the archives. At last, deep within the archives, he found Zhang Hailou, who had lost his memory.

And with him, he found the frozen corpse of that girl…