A Cup of Warm Tea and a Decaying Woodcutter

[Top's Perspective] [Happy Ending] [A Little Love Triangle]

[Gentle, Dark-Side-Hiding TCM Master Top] x [Amnesiac, Cool and Detached Metaphysics Practitioner Bottom]

When the delusions of all living beings weigh upon you, there is no way back to the human world.

"Have we met somewhere before?"

Shen He leaned against the doorframe and asked with a smile.

"No."

Kou Wen's answer was firm and decisive, yet when the other man handed him a teacup, his fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly.

*

On the night of Qingming, at the stroke of midnight.

Kou Wen, cast out by his sect and left with fragmented memories, was kicked by his senior into the middle of a bizarre case.

A family of traditional Chinese doctors, an ancestral home,

a ghostly hand in the well tearing talismans to shreds as if they were wastepaper.

The frail young head of the family, Shen He, was as gentle as jade. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Have we met before?"

Kou Wen's face was cold. "No."

Yet when Shen He drew near, he was transported in a dream to a snowy night long ago:

Someone lay in the snow, blood scorching through the ice, their breath bitter as medicinal herbs.

The ghosts were brazen, the talismans failed, and Shen He alone stood by with folded arms. Yet at critical moments, he always seemed to accidentally move Kou Wen's peachwood sword out of the way.

"Don't be afraid," Shen He always said gently whenever Kou Wen was in danger. "It can't hurt you."

"Did someone say that to me once, too?"

Shen He smiled without answering, but his eyes seemed to hold two hundred years of snow and wind.

Later, Kou Wen finally remembered:

The person who had sealed Shen Wujiu beneath the mountain, condemning him to never be reborn, had been none other than Kou Wen himself.

And now Shen He, smiling gently before him, softly asked by the well:

"Would you like to kill me again?"

[Reader's Guide]

1. A gentle yet deeply devoted and possessive master top x an amnesiac, cool and detached junior disciple bottom. Shen He (top) is Shen Wujiu, whom Kou Wen (bottom) personally sealed away in a past life.

Both are powerhouses, with countless secret identities. Happy ending.

2. Episodic supernatural cases plus a central mystery, a deadly entanglement spanning past and present lives, and redemption.

Theme: Bodhisattvas fear causes, while ordinary people fear consequences.