Gathering Scenery

In Republican-era Shanghai, the foreign concessions and bustling streets hide surging undercurrents.

Su Lian, a renowned Kunqu opera performer, is charismatic, charming, and graceful onstage, a theater actor everyone feels free to tease. No one knows that beneath his alluring facade lies a blade lurking in the dark.

Wen Jingci, the legitimate son of a Jiangnan tea merchant, returns from studying abroad with a gentle, refined air and takes charge of a century-old tea business in Shanghai. At a chance meeting in the theater, one glimpse of Su Lian onstage steals his heart, drawing him into a carefully laid web of romance.

He thinks the actor is flirting with him, unaware that behind that flippant mask lies a love too deep to confess.

Rumors, suspicion, a rival's schemes, and spies closing in: their love is torn apart by a turbulent age. To keep Wen Jingci safe, Su Lian willingly destroys his reputation, accepts the charge of betraying his country, and pushes his beloved away with his own hands. Trapped between love and hate, Wen Jingci loves until it eats him alive and hates until his heart breaks.

Tea smoke curls, embroidered sleeves sweep through the air, and tenderness kept secret teeters on the edge of a blade.

When the truth finally comes to light, their brief time together proves to be only the prelude to parting.

With flames of war filling the sky, Su Lian gives his life for peace across the land.

Years later, the land is safe and every year is peaceful.

Spring rain falls on the tea fields of Jiangnan year after year. All that remains is Wen Jingci, holding an old folding fan and keeping watch over a bygone theater dream no one else knows about.

They met in a time of chaos, but their love was not destined to last. He loved once in this life, and the rest of his days are filled with regret.

Theme: Amid the flames of war, two lovers find themselves on opposing sides. Through restraint and entanglement, they witness the joys and sorrows of an era.