Story of Tong Yu, Guo Chong, Li Jiesen and Xiang Xiaofei, who are close friends in university.
2020 in Shanghai, artificial intelligence engineer Tong Wu, university lecturer Guo Chong, branded shop manager Xiang Xiaofei and western restaurant chef Li Jiesen have reached the age of maturity. However, they have reached a stage of nadir in their respective careers. Tong Wu faces difficulties in research and development, Guo Chong has lost his passion for his career amidst the stability of his job, Li Jiesen finds it hard to break through the bottleneck, and Xiang Xiaofei is struggling between his ideals and money.
The four men also encountered love in their respective lives, but their relationship problems are far more complicated than their careers. Tong Yu and his company's manager Xu Duo face many ups and downs in their relationship. Guo Chong and graduate Ai Mi seem neither close nor distant. Li Jiesen is pursuing his idol, a weibo author named Yue Ziqian, while Xiang Xiaofei and businesswoman Liu Shengnan enter a lightning marriage.
The four men, who are facing a typical middle-aged crisis, support each other while seeking a breakthrough in the ups and downs.
In the end, the four men decide to embrace their careers and love at their best age, and walk towards a better and more mature version of themselves.
The story starts in 1937 when the war against the Japanese aggression broke. It revolves around Zhang Han Shi/Zhang Song Ling who is a simple man born into a family of scholars. On the eve of his wedding, his wife and family were murdered but he luckily survived. He then embarked in his quest for revenge joining the communist party and the mounting anti-Japanese resistance.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by the writer Jiu Tu.
A love story between a woman who was wronged by a past love and the man that helps her regain confidence.
Ruan Man Jun is a lawyer who was once carried away by her emotions into aiding and abetting a white-collar crime. She helps her boyfriend escape bankruptcy but gets in deep trouble because of it. Not only is she disbarred and her lawyer license revoke but she also has to serve time in prison. After her sentence is complete, she learns that her boyfriend has married someone else and it crushes her to the core. During the darkest times in her life, she encounters Tong Zhuo Yao, a man also bearing emotional scars from his past. Tong Zhuo Yao wants to help Ruan Man Jun, but she remains steadfast in her resolve to stand on her own two feet.
Sui Tang Yanyi begins in the 580s with the conquest of the Chen dynasty (557-589) by the Sui dynasty under Emperor Wen, and concludes with the return of the Tang dynasty's Emperor Xuanzong to the capital Chang'an in 758 near the end of the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763).
The plot is made up of three main story lines.
The first, with Emperor Yang of Sui and his concubine Zhu Gui'er (朱貴兒) as the central characters, covers the events in the political arena and inner palace in the final years of the Sui dynasty.
The second story line narrates a turbulent period known as the transition from Sui to Tang, when heroes such as Qin Shubao,Shan Xiongxin (單雄信), Cheng Yaojin (程咬金) and Xu Maogong rise up to overthrow the Sui dynasty, followed by stories of how Li Shimin (the future Emperor Taizong of Tang) defeated his rivals and eventually solidified the Tang dynasty's sovereignty over China.
The last story line tells of the romance between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Consort Yang, and the events of the An Lushan Rebellion.