[A blind box of karma, and she drew the grand hidden prize: a terrible fate.]
Cheng Yuanzhao has a red thread on her left hand.
Each time she bears a mortal's bad karma, the thread grows longer. When it reaches her heart, she dies.
The Cheng clan bore Heaven's bad karma for thousands of years, only to meet with extinction.
Heaven wants her to die willingly, but she will make Heaven bow its head and confess its guilt.
She turns calamity-bearing into cultivation, repaying mortals' wishes along the way:
A short-lived puppet-maker leaves behind a puppet, and a simple girl guards it for the rest of her life;
A disastrous love brings bitter fruit, and two generations lose the chance at a lifetime of love...
The red thread creeps inch by inch toward her heart, while she makes her moves without regret.
She witnesses the joys and sorrows of others, and finds her own fate along the way.
She finds Shuo Hui, a forgetful Zouyu, and makes a wager with him.
His memories hold evidence of her clan's destruction, and a slender hope that she might survive.
He has lived for seventeen thousand years. He should never have fallen in love, yet he can't help feeling for her.
She invites Xu Qian, who carries a secret order from the clan leader, to travel with her.
Dressed in white and holding a plain umbrella, he looks gentle and harmless.
Caught between his identity and his feelings, he struggles time and again, then says with a smile, "I want to be selfish."
Together, they travel across the Nine Wastes and witness the many faces of life beneath the twists and turns of karma.
In this deadly predicament, she stakes everything on Heaven's defeat.
[In a Nutshell]
Karma has no order, and good and evil go unrewarded. She bears calamity for mortals, endures one tragic love after another, and fulfills the regrets left behind.
[Little Scene]
Cheng Yuanzhao: Heaven, repay the debt you owe me and all the little bitter gourds of the mortal realm!
Shuo Hui [older male lead]: The memories of my first love were wiped by a powerful being, but my body still remembers that I love her.
Xu Qian [younger male lead]: (smiling) I have VIP status from the divine realm from several lifetimes ago, so surely it's finally my turn to take the lead this time... right!?
[Reader's Notes]
· A slow-burn, serious story. Tragic romances in each arc, with hidden currents in the main plot. Not a fast-paced power fantasy.
· Cheng x Shuo, one-on-one romance, both leads are each other's only partner, and the feelings are mutual. The second male lead is a heartbreaking near-miss, not the official match.
· Worldbuilding: karma drops randomly into a shared pool and doesn't follow the rule that you reap what you sow. That's why the mortal realm is always full of unlucky little souls...
P.S. The short title is Forgive Love: May you forgive the sins born of deep love.
The original title comes from the Song dynasty poem "Partridge Sky" by Zhu Dunru: "In olden times there was Tao Yuanliang, who understood the saying, 'My lord, forgive this drunkard.'"
Theme: What is shown leniency is a mistake; what is forgiven is a sin.
