Due to time constraints, I can only write a short story. The main text is only about 30,000 words, but there will be a little more extras. Readers, please forgive me.
In late autumn in Shanghai, ginkgo leaves fall all over the long streets. He Changqing, a 25-year-old botany graduate student, and Wen Yan, a 32-year-old ancient book restorer, reunited because of a batch of century-old ginkgo specimens. Behind the seemingly accidental encounter was a deep love and curse that spanned four generations and lasted for a hundred years.
Wen Yan is the only "memory keeper" who searches for his reincarnated lover in the long river of time with his complete memories of his past life. She witnessed with her own eyes that He Changqing died for her at the age of 25 in all three previous lives: at the end of the Qing Dynasty, he went to justice for his ideals, during the war, his blood spilled in the sky, and on the eve of the new century, he died in a car accident. She tried to change her destiny in every life, but could only watch her lover fall on the line between life and death again and again. In this life, she deliberately distanced herself, but it was hard to resist the pull of fate.
He Changqing gradually awakens the memory of his past life, and the scene of the golden horse and the burning ginkgo in his dream becomes more and more clear. He discovered that his name was engraved on Wen Yan's collection of golden calligraphy brushes, and that the family pocket watch hid secrets from his past life. All clues pointed to a traitor codenamed "Dead Leaf" and the vicious curse of the Lin family that had lasted for hundreds of years. When the sweet daily love between sister and brother is intertwined with the cruel prophecy of fate, and when the moonlight shines on the century-old ginkgo tree again, the gears of fate turn again.
"If I am destined to lose you in every life, I will still choose to love each other." Jin Zhi can repair broken ancient porcelain, but it cannot repair the destiny that is destined to be broken. In the ultimate showdown between love and fate, Wen Yan sacrificed a hundred years of memory and life in exchange for He Changsheng's survival, but he himself died. In the end, the recovered He Changqing regained all his memories, but lost his lover forever. He could only move forward alone in a world without Wen Yan with a longing that spanned a century.
Intention: Even if fate is impermanent, the light that bursts out during a brief intersection can become eternity beyond the cycle of life and death.