Confessions of a Tomb Raider

They call me Chen Sanmo, because my master says that anyone who enters a tomb risks being haunted by one more ghost for every unnecessary word they say.

My trade is grave robbing. The Northern School has its rules: if the candle goes out, everyone must retreat; if the coffin makes a sound, don't look back. I believed this without question, until I met Su Qingci in a Tang dynasty general's tomb.

She wasn't a tomb raider. She was an archaeology student, bound up like a “zongzi” and about to be silenced by her fellow tomb raiders. For reasons I couldn't explain, I saved her, breaking a major taboo in our trade and getting myself into enormous trouble.

Her despairing eyes as she watched the artifacts being carried away, and a blood-red corpse line that inexplicably appeared on my wrist, became the nightmares that haunted the rest of my life.

From then on, my world was turned upside down. The old-school brothers came after me relentlessly, accusing me of breaking the rules; a criminal investigation captain suspected she was an undercover agent and kept closing in. And Su Qingci, the woman who should have been my sworn enemy, became the only key I had to deciphering the symbols in those mysterious tombs.

Now we're forced to balance on the same tightrope, with an abyss of competing forces beneath our feet. I need her skills to stay alive, and she needs my blade to uncover the truth.

But we both know the question: is this relationship, born of betrayal and rescue, a scheme she laid to use me, or the only salvation I have left to hold on to?

On this road of no return, we walk it together.