"When the moon is full next year, we will definitely drive out the invaders!"
"When I return victorious, I will hold a grand wedding for you!"
When the ferry whistle sounded in the distance amidst the smoke of battle.
Gu Yunzhou took off the watch chain from his neck and put it into his wife Shen Peilan's hand, smiling optimistically as he spoke.
Amidst their reluctant farewell, the ferry gradually set sail.
With tears in her eyes, Shen Peilan watched her husband's figure recede into the distance by the riverbank, filled with reluctance and worry.
However, right there on the ferry deck, she unexpectedly discovered a shocking headline on the front page of the *Shen Bao* newspaper in someone's hand:
"With the Japanese pirates approaching, Shenyang may fall soon!"
The news struck her like a bolt from the blue, leaving her completely shaken.
Shen Peilan silently removed the long hairpin from her hair and held it tightly to her chest along with the pocket watch left by her husband.
Tears of worry streamed down her face as she silently prayed for her husband who was heading to the battlefield.
And it was from that day on that day.
Regardless of whether the recipient receives the letter, Shen Peilan writes a letter to her husband, who is on the front lines, every day.
And in each letter, a few red beans, scientifically known as "Abrus precatorius", would be stuffed inside.
She used this to express her longing for her husband.
She would also occasionally receive unexpected letters from her husband at the front lines.
Besides recounting the battle and expressing their longing for each other.
At the end of each letter, there is a picture of the moon phase for that day.
From a waning moon to a full moon and back to a waning moon...
This was used to record the number of days the two were apart.
It wasn't until three months later.
After sending the last letter containing a few red beans.
Shen Peilan never received a reply from her husband again.
Just then, while she was feeling unwell and went to see a doctor for medication, she unexpectedly discovered that she was pregnant.
She couldn't wait to write to her husband again to tell him the good news.
However, before she could send the letter again...
The news of her husband Gu Yunzhou's sacrifice on the front lines came through friends from her hometown.
Upon receiving the devastating news, Shen Peilan, clutching the unmailed letter, fainted from grief on the spot.
After waking up, she did not heed the advice of her relatives and friends to terminate the pregnancy.
Instead, she insisted on bringing her husband's child into the world.
She also carried on her husband's legacy and embarked on a journey to explore and restore Chinese cultural relics and architecture.
Or perhaps you could search through historical records to find traces of a particular historical building's existence.
Or perhaps, under the dim light of a kerosene lamp, one might sketch the bracket structure of ancient temples and pavilions…
The ink lines meandered across the rice paper, occasionally spreading out suddenly—
Those were tears she suddenly shed on the drawing because she missed her husband.
Each completed architectural restoration drawing.
She would then draw a red bean on the corner of the drawing, as a way of helping her husband fulfill another wish.
Until the baby girl in her womb was born.
The number of architectural drawings of cultural relics that she has reproduced is countless...
On the very day her daughter was born.
Shen Peilan once again dipped her brush in ink, writing down the good news and her longing for her husband on the letter.
This time, however, the letter was no longer being waited for by the recipient.
It became a sorrowful longing that she could never send out...
...
"My grandmother had such a love story back then..."
The scene on stage is a return to the moving site of the old house.
Holding the dark yellow letter in her hand, Zhao Xinmeng looked at the stories recorded in the letter, her eyes already brimming with tears.
She then opened the last letter her grandmother wrote to her deceased husband years later.
Only then did they discover that the letter contained merely a poem:
Red beans grow in the south; how many branches will sprout in spring?
I wish you would gather more of this, for it is the most cherished symbol of longing.
"Boom!"
As the close-up shot appears.
Those who witnessed this poem felt as if their hearts had been struck.
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