It was the spring of 1924, and Changsha was soaked in endless rain.
At twenty-four, Lu Yanchuan came from a poor family. His father had died early, leaving behind a large family of younger siblings. He was intelligent and quiet, with a scholar's clear-eyed awareness and the stubbornness of someone forced to bow to life's demands. After one job rejection after another, he had thought he would spend his whole life caught between poverty and responsibility.
At twenty-five, Zhou Jingyi met him in a spring rain.
She came from a privileged family and taught Chinese at a girls' school. She had a job, an income, and a life of her own. At first, she was simply drawn to the young man's exceptionally handsome face. What kept her close, however, was his restraint, his dignity, and the sense of responsibility he never spoke of to anyone.
One was used to shouldering burdens; the other was used to drawing close.
Starting with a shared umbrella and a bowl of noodles, they stepped into each other's lives. In a turbulent era, as the land changed around them, how would a man carve his own path out of poverty? And how would a woman hold on to her choices amid love, family, and the times?
He would travel across the land in this lifetime, and she would always be the person he wanted to turn back to.
Theme: A story about how a man builds his own life amid the era and fate, and how a woman can love someone while still remaining true to herself.
