Jade Spirit

Reunion after a long separation | An old flame rekindled | A thousand-year love | A battle of destiny

(An optimistic, wildflower-type heroine with a sunny disposition vs. a gloomy, protective hero who takes the lead)

[A seemingly carefree spirit medium who just wants to lie flat × a sharp-tongued, tsundere, soft-hearted jade spirit]

While eating instant noodles in her officially registered studio, laid-back photographer Ke Le gets a call saying her adoptive mother has died in an accident. That very night, on Tomb-Sweeping Day, she rushes back to the photo studio her adoptive mother ran while alive.

There, she encounters once more the man no one else can see.

He wears a moon-white, high-collared robe patterned with bamboo, and a string of beautifully colored jade beads around his neck. With his handsome face and bright eyes, he looks like a man from the last century.

Jade can house spirits invisible to the human eye. They are known as jade spirits.

Shen Jue is the jade spirit inhabiting the blue jade ring of the Ke family.

Ke Le had planned to lie flat, inherit her adoptive mother's wealth, and live like a rich second-generation kid. But her unusual blood makes her an easy target for her enemies. For her own sake, and out of loyalty, she has no choice but to form a spirit pact with Shen Jue and follow his guidance to become a proper spirit medium.

The bell rings, and the spirit arrives.

From then on, a human and a spirit embark on a journey as spirit mediums, delivering the final messages of those who died unnatural deaths and guiding them into reincarnation to restore balance between the worlds of yin and yang.

As they bicker day after day, something subtle seems to change between them.

Ke Le praises the handsome ghost of a male celebrity. Shen Jue scoffs and calls her a shallow fangirl with no taste.

Ke Le chats and laughs with another man. Shen Jue appears gloomily behind him and blows cold air down his neck, saying the man looks terribly weak.

Ke Le goes out to eat with someone else. Shen Jue not only disrupts their meal, but also sneers that the man looks like a bad person.

But... he's a police officer...

At the end of her tether, Ke Le corners Shen Jue against a wall, raises her fist, and demands, "Shen Jue! Have you no respect for your elders? Spit it out! What exactly are you after?"

Shen Jue looks into her eyes and stammers, "Would you... mind if your boyfriend... were a thousand years older than you?"

"Or, to put it another way, would you like to have a twilight romance with me?"

Ke Le: ...

Ke Le: "Maybe spend less time online. What kind of twilight romance lasts a thousand years? That's way too twilight! Hey, don't show this to a thousand-year-old!"

When the jade spirit dies, the jade ring shatters.

But Ke Le refuses to believe that all is lost. She transmigrates a thousand years into the past, all to find her beloved again.

Shen Jue: I can give up everything I've accumulated over a thousand years, as long as Ke Le is safe, happy, healthy, and free of worry.

Ke Le: If becoming a spirit medium is my destiny, then so are you, Shen Jue. I won't accept fate, but I accept you.

...Reader's Guide...

1. The heroine isn't a traditional underdog. She's naturally gifted (forgive me, I just love all my heroines), but she does have a character growth arc. The hero is the guiding type of lover.

2. This is a collection of connected stories, and each story has its own main characters.

3. Each story ends on a bad ending, since they involve spirits of the dead who are separated from the living forever. Expect regret, bittersweetness, and plenty of tender moments, too.

4. The heroine isn't a self-sacrificing saint. Everything follows her own beliefs, and whether or not she becomes a spirit medium is her choice.

5. Both leads are each other's only ones (I don't write unfaithful heroes). Their romance develops gradually, and they're both devoted romantics, so the story may lean more toward plot than romance.

6. The hero was only 23 when he died, so his appearance has remained that of a 23-year-old. He's lived for a thousand years as a jade spirit, but deep down he's still a man from the past, so he has always kept his love for the heroine in check and treated her with great respect.

7. The hero has been with the heroine since she was little, so this is a genuine growing-up-together romance.

8. Please don't read pirated copies, everyone. Support the official release. I often revise the story, so pirated copies aren't my latest version!

...I'm a dividing line...

The blurb for my next book, expected to launch in September. I'm working hard to build up a stockpile of chapters.

[A chaotic, split-personality comedian heroine vs. a fragile, approval-seeking introverted hero]

[Up-and-coming popular online fiction author vs. top-selling manga artist]

An unexpected collaboration brings Yan Xiao back in touch with Lu Cheng, the idol she's had a crush on for five years. She thought they'd never cross paths again after graduation, but who could have guessed that the male lead she confessed to twice in college, running away both times, would become her new book's collaborator!

Yan Xiao figured she must have hit the jackpot. It was practically like a pie falling from the sky.

To bring the fluttering heart of her youth to a perfect close, Yan Xiao decides to confess to him for the third time after they sign the contract.

But...

She has a habit of laughing whenever she gets nervous, so all her confessions come out like this...

"Senior Lu Cheng, I liheeheeheeheeheeheehee..."

"Lu Cheng, I lohahahahahahahahaha..."

"Oppa Lu Cheng, sarangheheeheeheeheeheehee..."

The more nervous she gets, the louder she laughs. Every confession gets interrupted by her own laughter. Will she ever manage to get through one?

Will she ever get the chance to say her confession out loud?

Lu Cheng is a well-known, top-selling manga artist who has worked with many famous writers. Everyone says he's gentle, easygoing, and never fights for the spotlight.

This time, though, he went out of his way to secure a collaboration with an up-and-coming hit author. Lu Cheng just couldn't understand why Yan Xiao laughed every time she saw him.

Was she laughing at him? Or... did she hate him?

With his approval-seeking heart shattered to pieces, Lu Cheng takes the advice of netizens and bravely moves into the apartment opposite hers, both to make the collaboration work and to put an end to Yan Xiao's supposed dislike of him. The two become neighbors.

He invites her to dinner, and she nearly burns down the kitchen...

He goes with her to an amusement park for inspiration, and she laughs so hard the haunted-house NPC wants to quit...

While completing an assignment to confess to him, Yan Xiao clings to his back, laughing as she says, "Hahahaha, Lu Cheng... hahaha... I... hahaha... fell for you..."

Hearing the terrifying, ghostly laughter of a woman from a horror game right behind him, Lu Cheng breaks into a cold sweat, his legs trembling. "Did you... fall for me... or did you develop a murderous grudge?"

Now Lu Cheng is sure of it: Yan Xiao absolutely hates him, and she hates him a lot!

So... how are they supposed to keep working together?

Can their relationship find a new turning point?

Theme: See things through to the end, and give the dead a dignified final journey.