Four Lines

In August 1937, Shanghai was in a storm. Zhang Mingde, a medical student, is well prepared for the incompetence of loyalty and filial piety, but his patriotic enthusiasm is always poured cold water on by his teacher, Mr. Huang. At the same time, the Sichuan troops who had received the order had already left Sichuan and were heading to Shanghai in a sweltering train. The car carried curious recruits and slick veterans. Both Chinese and Japanese armies were secretly deployed in Shanghai. In the public concession, Du Yuesheng's Green Gang was disguising barricades in accordance with the government's requirements. A war is coming... But refugees who know nothing about it are still pouring into Shanghai. Among them is a Northeastern family. They have been wandering since the fall of Northeast China, and finally arrived in Shanghai where they thought they had a way to survive. Like other refugees, they lived in Zhabei, a place that would later be repeatedly bombed. Also ignorant are the ordinary people of Shanghai, including the rickshaw driver Lao Zongzi, an old bachelor who adopted an abandoned baby of a comfort woman and regarded it as a treasure.