The Incense Sachet Turns to Ash

In the autumn of the twenty-third year of Yongchang, Su Mingtang was forced to drink poisoned wine on the night of her elder sister’s wedding. As she lay dying, she glimpsed the truth behind her family’s downfall: she was nothing but a discarded pawn in the Dragon-Phoenix destiny. Reborn three years earlier, she wielded her pieces like blades, unaware that she had already fallen deep into a scheme for eternal life spanning a hundred years.

She knew:

The tonic that had nourished her for ten years concealed a dose of rhodiola that would leave her barren.

The man posing as a tea merchant wore a dragon-patterned jade pendant at his waist, engraved with secret messages from a former dynasty. His sword had been stained with the blood from her heart in her previous life.

He said:

“Since you saved my life, miss, the least you can do is make me a gold-threaded sachet.”

Fourth Prince Rong Heng toyed with half a tiger tally, the tip of his sword lifting the collar of her crabapple-embroidered robe.

But he didn’t know she had seen that sword before. Its gilded pattern, which had pierced her heart in her previous life, matched the cracks at the scene of the crown prince’s case exactly.

On the night of the blood moon, the bones of a hundred thousand infant spirits became crimson lotuses, while a dragon’s skeleton lifted a star-chart board into the sky.

She pressed her crimson lotus birthmark into the star position called “Endless,” burning away the heart-piercing pain of The Record of the Burning Sea.

And he came through the flames, a tear mole reflecting the newborn crimson lotus. “I’ll take this boundless sea.”

Reasons to read:

✦ Two dangerously unhinged leads who love and destroy each other

✦ Three identity twists: fake illegitimate daughter/true legitimate daughter × fake wastrel/true descendant of the former dynasty

✦ A historical romance version of The Missing Family: every loved one is the one handing you the knife

✦ Both leads are reborn: the heroine’s body returns to life, while the hero retains his memories of his previous life

Memorable lines:

“Rong Heng, you want the world, and I want to burn away every illusion. We were made for each other.”

“No. I want a world born from the ashes, and you are the ashes themselves.”