Shen Yu, the young master of the Shen family in Suzhou, listened to "Sifan" in the Lingering Garden, and he could never forget the young man Qitang who sang on the stage. Everyone said they shouldn't be together - one was a young man from an aristocratic family, the other was an actor, and the relationship between the men was even more ridiculous. Shen Yu ignored these. He stole the family's horse, Qitang took off the makeup on his face, and the two fled to Shanghai.
They rented an eight-square-meter hut in Houzaimen. The house was so small that they would bump into each other when they turned around. Ke Qitang said that this is the first home of his own in his life.
Shen Yu was writing articles in the newspaper office, while Qitang was singing "The Drunken Concubine" on the stage. They bought vegetables and cooked together. Qitang taught Shen Yu how to make a fire, but Shen Yu was so clumsy that the smoke in the room made them both cough. They raised a white cat named Xiaoxue and planted a crabapple tree in the yard. Qitang said that when the crabapple flowers bloom, he would drink wine under the tree.
Life is poor, but it is as warm as the flames dancing in the stove. Qitang peeled crabs for Shen Yu to eat, and Shen Yu read a letter to him. They chased each other and had snowball fights in the snow in winter, and clinked glasses and drank under the crabapple tree in spring. Shen Yu said that he would take Qitang to eat hairy crabs every year, and Qitang said that he would make dumplings for Shen Yu for a lifetime.
Houzaimen is very small, with only one room, one tree and two people. But Shen Yu felt that this room could hold their whole lives.
Until one day, they unexpectedly received a letter from Tianjin, and they suddenly realized that some people, some in the past, would not let you go just because you escaped far enough.
In the small courtyard of Houzaimen, the crabapples are blooming. But some flowers fall after blooming for one season.
Intent: It is not about a vigorous legend, but an ordinary narrative about "living". Shen Yu and Qitang escaped their respective shackles and built a city for only two people under the cramped eaves - an eight-square-meter house, a crabapple tree, a white cat, and a hot meal, which was their entire home. The core of the story lies in asking: When a person's love is not tolerated by the whole world, is he still qualified to pursue happiness? In the huge web of rumors and prejudice, how can two ordinary people keep the lights on in a small courtyard? What we want to tell is a courage that is still scarce no matter how the times change - not the courage to fight against the world, but the courage to still choose to hold each other's hand and live on in the face of the most ordinary sunrise and sunset.