Nan Guo You Jia Ren 南国有佳人

Description:

A lover by her pillow may be her father's killer; two sisters bound by blood yet torn apart in the world of business. Hong Kong's own tale of a "Gone with the Wind" beauty, a modern-day Scarlett O'Hara of the East reborn. The shifting tides of the Pearl of the Orient, the joys and sorrows of a glittering dynasty! This is the story of a "Gone with the Wind" heroine set in Hong Kong. In the 1960s and 70s, Chen Jia-Lin, a descendant of a wealthy Shanghai family, is exceptionally clever. Overnight her family is shattered: her parents die, and the sisters are separated. In a desperate attempt to save her father, she is left with a lifelong line of fortune on her palm, its omen impossible to read. She struggles to survive in the streets, danger never far away, yet fate has never been kind to a woman blessed with both beauty and wit. Jia-Lin endures the pursuit of her childhood sweetheart, her cousin Xia Qiu, and the promises of the gentle, refined rich boy Zhang Shao-Wen, but never finds ordinary happiness. When word suddenly comes of her lost little sister, Jia-Lin chooses to face reality and fight for a family reunion, whatever the cost. The appearance of the tycoon Zhang Mo-Bai offers her a shortcut, but standing at life's crossroads, she finds a greater secret beckoning her forward. To uncover the reason for her family's downfall, Jia-Lin is willing to give herself to Zhang Mo-Bai, and with her extraordinary intelligence and effort she earns his trust. Through Hong Kong's decade of rapid growth, she helps him expand his power and rise swiftly to the top. After years of sharing honor and disgrace, Jia-Lin and Zhang Mo-Bai's lives are tightly entwined, and the truth behind her family's ruin grows ever clearer. As the truth is revealed, her heart grows ever more tangled and painful. On the other side of life, the little sister she cares for so tenderly cannot understand her devotion and willingly sinks into ruin; while her timid elder sister is swept up in the feud between two great families, nearly turning against her, and even family ties cannot mend the rift. Amid the storms of a great era, can a woman's tightrope-walk of desperate striving ever lead to peace and happiness?