Gone with the Bullets

Ma Zouri and Xiang Feitian plot to stage the Flower Nation Beauty Pageant as a cover to launder money for General Wu's son Wu Qi. They assemble contestants from several countries and court public intrigue with every round of the competition. The Beiyang Shanghai setting provides a backdrop of rumor, power plays, and a city-wide gaze on the contest.

Wan Yanying, the former champion courtesan, is guided toward victory in the final round. She publicly pledges to auction her right to marriage and donate all her wealth to worthy causes, an act that intensifies the pageant's spotlight and the political stakes surrounding it. The moment elevates her profile in the theater of power and rumor.

On a date with Wan Yanying, Ma Zouri is pressed into marriage; when he refuses, she draws a gun and upends their night. The confrontation erupts into a tense chase as they drive away, their relationship spiraling into danger. The moment marks the start of a fateful night of recklessness and intoxication.

The night spirals into opium-fueled haze, and a countryside crash leaves Wan Yanying dead. Ma Zouri escapes into the dark, his future now framed as a suspect in the tragedy. The incident kicks off a city-wide manhunt and a collapse of personal and public facades.

Public fascination turns to a manhunt as tabloids brand Ma Zouri the prime suspect. Desperate for protection, he travels to the Wu residence hoping the powerful General can shield him from the press and police. The encounter forces him to confront the network of loyalty and danger surrounding him.

At the Wu residence, Ma Zouri reunites with his former teacher, now General Wu's wife Qin Sainan, and his former lover Wu Liu, the General's daughter. He learns that Xiang Feitian has already drawn the General's wrath for visiting prostitutes with Wu Qi. The personal and political lines blur as danger tightens around them.

To save Xiang Feitian, Ma Zouri proposes a bizarre gauntlet-like ritual, where touching the ground with both hands might bend fate. The gambit succeeds in sparing Xiang's life, yet Ma Zouri senses that his broader aims remain out of reach and danger still stalks him. The ritual deepens the sense that luck and fate operate under hidden rules.

During Ma Zouri's two-year odyssey on the run, theater troupes adapt his story into plays and a film titled Execution of Ma Zouri. In these dramatizations, he is recast as a merciless money-driven criminal, a portrayal that gnaws at him as public perception hardens into legend. The city and stage become his new battlefield for reputation.

Ma Zouri confronts Wang Tianwang in disguise, attempting to bribe and threaten him to halt the performances, but the actor refuses. The confrontation culminates in a live show where Ma Zouri strikes Wang Tianwang and is seized by police watching the scene. The line between performance and reality collapses in a dramatic moment.

Wu Liu's loyalty is tested as she grows fond of Ma Zouri, deepening the strain with her mother and father. Meanwhile Wu Qi and Xiang Feitian remain convinced he must pay for Wan Yanying's death. A ritual fracture marks a new turn as General Wu marries a Russian aristocrat as his concubine, altering the power dynamics at home.

Pursuit intensifies as General Wu's retinue closes in. Wu Liu helps Ma Zouri escape, slipping away in a car, and even shoots a loudspeaker mounted on the pursuing vehicle to aid their escape. The couple finds tenuous shelter as the net tightens and the chase resumes.

They reach a windmill house where Ma Zouri knocks Wu Liu unconscious and surrenders himself. In front of a crowd of newlyweds, he publicly confesses to Wan Yanying's death and argues that he has been misunderstood and demonized by society. He is shot multiple times and dies as the crowd looks on.

In the closing moment, Wu Liu envisions a train station farewell as Ma Zouri departs, a bittersweet meditation on rumor, power, and mischaracterization. The dream hints at the price paid by those entangled in the era's violence and public judgment.