Xu Yanchi, the Xu family's eldest legitimate grandson, is hailed as the "Bright Moon of Harbor City." He holds the lifelines of half the city in his hands, cool-headed and self-disciplined, standing high above the world.
Wen Li, a daughter of a Minnan clan and inheritor of the lacquered-basket craft, was rebellious from a young age and is famous as a wild rose.
They should have remained on opposite sides of a clear divide, with little chance of crossing paths.
But fate twisted their lives into a tangled mess.
In the teahouse, their great-uncle said with a smile, "A Li has come to Harbor City alone. A Chi, look after her."
Wen Li's lashes trembled slightly. The man lifted his eyes and curved his lips. "Of course."
As soon as their great-uncle left, he turned and cornered her in front of the antique display shelf, pressing his prayer beads against her pinky ring.
"Little sister, do you still remember that night, when you wrapped your legs around my waist and stole my wine..."
"That tattoo still burns in my heart."
Her memories kept slipping out of control, taking her back to a rainy night when she was nineteen.
Barefoot, she stepped on the back of his foot and pinched the hollow at his waist.
"Are you made of stone, big brother? You're so hard!"
*
At university, Wen Li was still in her rebellious phase. She scorned the cool, abstinent gentleman, yet found herself fascinated by his mystery and low-key nature.
Until he broke his vows for her.
She teased him for pretending to be a gentleman. He unwound his prayer beads and wrapped them around her ankle.
"How about we see if the Bodhisattva can fall from grace for you?"
He had once been obsessed with kissing the tattoo on her collarbone. He had once climbed through her window on a rainy night to bring her medicine, and once carried her all the way along Nathan Road.
Their love burned through every restraint.
In the end, she was the one who scattered its ashes.
Years later, when they met again, they were strangers.
Everyone said Xu Yanchi was bound by rules and indifferent to love, and would never lose control again.
Yet at an auction, he spent tens of millions to buy the discontinued motorcycle she had once abandoned, his eyes red.
"A Li, come back and teach me how to go mad."
No one knew that in a midnight examination room, he clutched her pregnancy test results and knelt on broken glass, rubbing his face against her palm.
"Couldn't you just turn around?"
*
In the middle of a torrential downpour, Wen Li was repairing a lacquer screen in her workshop when the man, fresh from completing a cross-border acquisition, pushed open the door.
She unexpectedly fell into his feverishly warm embrace, her hand gripped tightly in his.
"I've come to pick up my partner in elopement."
"But the Xu family ancestral hall is still lit."
He held her lips between his as the fetal heart monitor warmed in her bag.
"Then the ancestors can see exactly how rebellion gets passed down."
*
A cold on the outside, passionate within, heir to the throne × wild yet pure inheritor of intangible cultural heritage
A century-long battle between family rules and wildfire
Theme: Loving yourself is a lifelong pursuit
