Obsidian Frame

In 1980s Beijing, at the Institute of Geology, young Zhang Yishi stumbles upon a mysterious black crystal with bizarre physical properties, unwittingly entangling himself in the Soviet-related disgrace that has burdened his mother, Ma Xueqin, for twenty years. Amid the biased archives and pervasive rumors of a turbulent era, everyone is convinced she colluded with experts and stole mineral specimens. When Sino-Soviet academic exchanges resume, Rusanov—who holds the other half of the crystal—arrives in China. When the twin crystals are placed in an ultra-vacuum environment, they tear through space-time, allowing their minds to retrace the past. Zhang witnesses with his own eyes that what happened back then was merely an accidental tumble. However, the anomaly cannot be replicated, and mere testimony fails to convince the public. The mineral is sealed by the state, and the path to clearing his mother's name is blocked. Driven by an unyielding obsession and utilizing the newly opened transnational academic channels, Zhang Yishi sets out to seek overseas physics experts, attempting to validate the space-time anomaly with a complete mineralogical theory and unraveling the decades-old truth buried by the era through the power of science.