this drama is adapted from du liang's novel "a century of past". during the xianfeng period of the qing dynasty, songzhuzhai, a century-old paper shop in liulichang, beijing, was loved by literati and poets because of its high quality and complete goods, and was famous all over the beijing gate. during the second opium war in 1860, the shopkeeper of songzhuzhai used gu mo to stop bleeding and heal general zheng yuanpei and save his life. general zheng gave thanks to the monk huaisu's "holy mother's tie" and the "luyuan tu" by emperor huizong of song dynasty. the second-generation shopkeeper zhang shanlin (played by ma weifu), was addicted to play, and even his nephew zhang youlin (played by li bin) was not interested in studying. qiuyue (played by yang si), a descendant of the zheng family, fell into chaos and was rescued by lord yang xianji (played by liu weiming) from the ministry of justice to come to the capital, and finally recognized the zhang family. zhang youlin was imprisoned for beating someone, but in disguise, he met the northwest swordsman huo zhenxi (played by wang xinhai). during this period, songzhuzhai, which was poorly managed, was on the verge of bankruptcy. fortunately, the new shopkeeper zhuang huchen (played by liu peiqi) made great efforts to innovate, and songzhuzhai was changed to songhezhai, which was able to recover from the dead. although adult zhang youlin (played by zhang jiayi) was in love with qiuyue, he eventually married he jiabi (played by yao chen), the daughter of rice shop, as his wife. time flies, the next generation of shopkeeper wang renshan (played by zheng xiaoning) and the zhang family continue to work hard to manage songhezhai. the century-old store witnessed a bloody and tearful modern chinese history.
