Lin Xiaoxiao is a struggling corporate lawyer in Kyoto. Looking to save money, she rents a room in an old apartment complex beside the Five Emperors’ Tombs. One night, a chilling gust of wind wakes her. When she opens her eyes, she finds herself staring into a pair of deep, black eyes. The ghost, who calls himself Xiao Yin, wears a dark robe patterned with dragons. His handsome, pale face bears no trace of the supernatural, only the weariness and authority of someone who has been dead for nine hundred years. He was the last emperor of the Daxian Dynasty. On the day his kingdom fell, he burned himself to death in the palace. His obsession never faded, and for nine hundred years he has wandered this tiny place.
He thinks she’s noisy and disapproves of her erratic schedule.
“How dare you make such a filthy mess of My bedchamber?”
“Impudent! How dare you come so close to My imperial couch!”
“Silence! Hold your tongue!”
And yet this very Lin Xiaoxiao, whom he calls an “uncouth common woman,” can hum him a long-lost folk song from his homeland when he wakes from a midnight dream. And on a rainy night when evil spirits torment her, he silently makes the lights throughout the building flicker, driving the unclean things away.
“Lin Xiaoxiao, I shall punish you for your disrespect before the throne.”
She replies, “Xiao Yin, your empire fell ages ago. I’m your landlady now.”
