I Was Taking Photos in the Hutongs When I Ran Into Liu Yifei

Chen Mo returned to 2006 with the weariness of his previous life. Quietly, he reshaped the era's opportunities into a capital empire no one knew about, then hid his talents and settled for being an idle man with an old camera. One afternoon in 2010, he was waiting in a hutong for a bicycle to ride into his frame when a familiar face appeared in his telephoto lens: Liu Yifei, a fellow alumnus from his year, was filming on the street corner. She remembered a senior at the Beijing Film Academy who was quietly confident and solid in his craft; he remembered her from his previous life, and all the glamour and storms that were about to come. No scheming, no melodramatic entanglements. Two clear-eyed people slowly fell for each other as they soothed and supported one another through the little moments of everyday life. He kept his talents hidden in an ordinary life, using his impeccable taste, broad perspective, and quiet warmth to protect the people around him and the things he loved. This is a gentle, easygoing journey of being reborn, with no need to fight for supremacy or reach the top, only a wish for peaceful years.