May He Be at Peace, Year After Year

--Above the ruins, love and redemption grow wild.

Spring, 1921, Shanghai.

He Siyue, a modern-minded woman recently returned from studying abroad, has two obsessions: running a girls' school so more girls can "see the light," and never marrying a merchant reeking of money.

Especially Shen Yan. He broke porcelain at her teacher's house, talked business on the docks, put a price on everything he saw, and even calculated the discount when giving someone a book.

Yet he insists that she is the only oasis in the desert of fame and fortune through which he wanders.

He Siyue doesn't believe him. Her heart belongs to her childhood sweetheart, until a bright red wedding invitation shatters her dream and one family crisis after another follows. The very "stench of money" she once scorned becomes the wall protecting her last shred of dignity.

Shen Yan calls it an "investment."

An investment in women's education, in a better future, and in... her.

But when a web of conspiracy suddenly tightens, her family fortune is confiscated and her parents fall into trouble. He Siyue tumbles from the clouds into the mud. In the depths of despair, she takes up an opium pipe that can make her forget the pain.

Shen Yan smashes the smoking paraphernalia and holds her trembling in the morning light. "If it hurts, I'll hurt with you. But my oasis can't become a wasteland overrun with poisonous weeds."

This is a love story in turbulent times, one that begins in prejudice, finds refuge in devotion, and ends in redemption.

It is also the story of two idealists who, amid the ruins of their era, build a spiritual refuge for each other and for countless other women.

Thesis: Above the ruins, love and redemption grow wild.