The Psychic Consort: Why Do I Wake Up Somewhere Else Every Day?

Shen Niantang is a modern occult influencer with thirty thousand followers

Most of them watch her mess up her chanting.

She's studied the Rebirth Mantra for three years, but can only remember “Om Mani Padme Hum,” and often mangles it into “Om Mani Padme Hum Hum Hum.” Her mom tells her, “Other people chant to guide the dead to the afterlife. You chant to send yourself there.”

Then she dies.

She gets so scared watching a paranormal video that she rolls off the sofa and hits her head on the coffee table.

When she opens her eyes again, she's in the cold palace. A fat Daoist priest is squatting in the corner, sneaking a drink. The first thing he says when he sees her is, “Well, would you look at that, you transmigrated too?”

That's the Perfected One Taiyi. Sichuan-style. He only teaches his apprentices one incantation, because “you wouldn't remember any more than that anyway.” He tells Shen Niantang: You have a spirit medium's body, so ghosts can possess you. Want to stay alive? Get some sun. The darker you get, the stronger you become.

Shen Niantang tans herself black as coal, invents sunscreen, and becomes the palace's most popular “Sunscreen Consort.”

But she has a problem: she can't cry. Since childhood, she's been told, “What's the use of crying?” So she learned to stop her tears before they could fall. But the ghosts need her tears to be reincarnated. So seven ghosts form a “Tearjerker Squad”: the old matron tells moving stories, the young maid puts on a tragic act, the ghost guard reads love letters…

But she just squats in the mass graveyard, eating roasted sweet potatoes with more gusto than anyone else.

The old matron stamps her feet in frustration. “Just cry already!”

Shen Niantang chews her sweet potato. “I want to cry too, but the tears just won't come out.”

The male lead, Xiao Jing, is a socially anxious Imperial Guard by day who can only write “Don't be afraid” on notes. At night, he corners her against a wall. “You smell like a ghost.” Shen Niantang asks, “How many personalities do you have?” Xiao Jing replies, “Guess. If you get it right, I'll be yours.”