Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay is a 2017 Chinese television series directed by Ding Hei and starring Sun Li and Chen Xiao. The series aired on Dragon TV and Jiangsu TV from 30 August 2017 to 8 October 2017. Background The series is an original script based on the real-life story of Widow An Wu (安吴寡妇), who was known as the god-daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi. Synopsis Zhou Ying is sold to the powerful Shen family by her foster father, yet successfully escapes her childish and bratty master Shen Xingyi by sneaking into merchant Wu Pin's palanquin. After a failed business collaboration that resulted in Shen Yuesheng's (Xingyi's older brother) death, the Shen family suspects that Wu Pin was the culprit behind Yuesheng's death. Xingyi then injures Wu Pin by using a club to hit his forehead multiple times, causing Wu Pin to fall into a coma. After the bride-to-be's father has a last-minute change of heart, Zhou Ying is married to Wu Pin in an effort to dispel bad luck. Miraculously, Wu Pin wakes up on the same night, and the couple share a happy few months together. Wu Weiwen, the patriarch of the family also agrees to educate her in the matters of commerce after witnessing her remarkable business acumen. Unfortunately, Wu Pin is poisoned to death after getting too close to the truth of the failed business collaboration, and Wu Weiwen's imprisonment and death a couple of months later leaves the entire household in disarray. Zhou Ying is determined to turn around their fortune by investing in a cloth factory in Shaanxi. She gains the trust of the Wu family and starts from scratch. Meanwhile, Shen Xingyi has also decided to turn over a new leaf, and starts anew in Shanghai. Shen Xingyi's love for Zhou Ying is initially unrequited, though she eventually acknowledges that she has developed romantic feelings for him. However, romantic affections become of little importance in the face of political upheaval and personal revenge – Shen Xingyi joins the anti-Qing reformist movement and plots to kill the Empress Dowager Cixi while Zhou Ying avenges Wu Pin and her father-in-law's deaths by taking Shen Sihai and Du Mingli head on. After much struggle, Zhou Ying ultimately establishes a business empire, and also lends Empress Dowager Cixi a helping hand when she escapes to Jingyang.