Spring's Rich Rain-Soaked Tresses

[Realistic entrepreneurship | Both leads are emotionally reserved]

Theater producer x Older investor

Some say the theater is the highest artistic sanctuary for actors. Xu Yuan earns just over three thousand yuan a month, so it's hard for her to believe that's true.

No publicity, no star power, just memorizing lines, training, and performing day after day.

Her only comfort is being among young people who share her dream, gathered in a run-down theater.

//

Many people don't understand Xu Yuan. She's highly educated and beautiful, yet insists on throwing herself into an industry in decline... and even pays out of pocket to keep her theater company running. With rent of 100,000 yuan and limited box office revenue, the fledgling Wusheng Theater Company is on the verge of closing. Just when every road seems to have reached its end, she steps into the Linfeng Arts Foundation and meets the most unforgettable benefactor of her life, Li Shaoze.

When she asks why he invested, she assumes Li Shaoze must have liked Wusheng's productions.

But he says, "It's fun watching you rush around. You can't put a price on my own enjoyment."

"..."

He attends every Wusheng performance. Even where Xu Yuan can't see, Li Shaoze quietly paves the way for her. She is drawn to him, yet finds him dangerous. She thinks Li Shaoze is attracted to her looks... but when she backs away, he only leaves his hand suspended in midair, never trying to hold her back.

Xu Yuan asks Li Shaoze, "Aren't you afraid I'm just using you?"

Li Shaoze answers frankly, "I am, but you can use me however you like."

//

It isn't until the night before she flies to Saint Petersburg that she finally understands the kind of love Li Shaoze has given her.

At that point, his closest family have betrayed him, his old friend's family has been destroyed, and he is still mired in a power struggle.

He helps her put on her thick winter coat as snow falls heavily outside.

"Xu Yuan, you've always been so much braver than I am. Follow through on your convictions. A wider road lies ahead of you."

"What about you?"

"Forget me," he says. "Don't stay for anyone else."

//

After Wusheng disbands, Xu Yuan spends a long time in despair. But when she sees the lights come on in a theater in a foreign land, she resolves to start over.

Even though this time, nobody is standing beside her.

The road of faith has never been smooth. Now she is ready to cut through the thorns and live by her convictions before the world.

//

Years later, snowflakes drift down at the Moscow Theatre Festival's award ceremony. Xu Yuan holds her trophy and gazes toward Jincheng, thousands of miles away.

The person hidden in her heart is rising from before a gravestone.

Li Shaoze has just finished purging his household. His expression is grim, and he turns to gaze down from Zhongshan, looking with sorrow at the bare branches of winter trees.

Beneath the interwoven gray and white lies the crossroads where they first met.

"Will you still think of me?"

[Highlight] The leads' careers feature heavily.

1. Both leads are each other's only ones and are straightforward about their feelings. Mature adults with an old-school romantic sensibility; no love triangles, and a beautiful heroine with a gentlemanly hero.

2. The male lead is a privileged heir, but not some detached aristocrat. There is a power-struggle plotline.

3. Includes some theater-company management. Suggestions are welcome wherever the details could be more rigorous.

Theme: Love is a hand that reaches out, then draws back