Modern illustrator Lin Minjia went out to sea to collect ideas and fell into the waves. She fell into a coma before being rescued by a strange man. When she woke up, she was Lin Meng, a concubine in a Qing Dynasty teahouse. Because her mother complained and her sister Lin Yue bullied her, she had low self-esteem and was timid until she met Xiao Jingyuan, the legitimate son of an official—whose smile resembled that of the man who saved her from the sea. Xiao Jingyuan often gave her sweet-scented osmanthus cakes and taught her how to draw bamboo and stone. Her friends Lu Heng and Chen Jingming also tried to help her, but Lin Meng was always afraid of being warm and fragile, so she kept avoiding him.
Lin Yue took credit for Shen Ze's advances and deliberately misled Xiao Jingyuan, making him mistakenly believe that Lin Meng's heart was with Shen Ze. Later, Xiao Jinyuan was forced to marry by his family. Although friends persuaded him, he backed down due to the family gap. On the eve of the wedding, Lin Yue once again lied that Lin Meng loved Shen Ze, completely defeating Xiao Jingyuan. Lin Meng, who was hiding behind the door, could only hold the drawing paper tightly, filled with pain.
In the end, Lin Meng woke up in the hospital and found Jamel Xiao in the bed next door. The two of them felt a sharp pain in their hearts when they looked at each other. Osmanthus cakes, bamboo and stone pictures and other fragments flashed in their minds, but they could not remember the miss that spanned time and space, leaving only endless regrets lingering between reality and dreams.
Intent: The pull between inferiority and self-salvation: Lin Meng (Lin Minjia)'s cowardice and avoidance in another world are used to reflect the self-doubt of lower-class individuals amid class differences and emotional temptations. Xiao Jingyuan's warmth is a short-lived light, but it is extinguished due to the concerns of both parties (her inferiority, his family background), implying the metaphor of "self-imposed limitations can easily miss happiness."