After Falling for My Master's Secret Identity

Ruan Taotao transmigrates into a book, becoming the heroine of an old-fashioned tragic romance between master and disciple.

The male lead, Ji Boxue, is aloof, ascetic, and seemingly emotionless. He cultivates the Path of Compassion, devoted to saving all living things, yet he's even more brutal than the demon lord next door, who cultivates the Path of Slaughter. He cuts down people like he was chopping vegetables, a jade-faced King of Hell through and through.

The very first moment Ruan Taotao opens her eyes after transmigrating into the book, she knows she's doomed.

The original heroine has already confessed while drunk. According to the plot, Ji Boxue will reject her without hesitation and send her to cultivate in the Mystic Crystal Realm, where she'll develop a heart demon and gradually turn dark and mad.

The master and disciple will then go through round after round of a ridiculous game of cat and mouse, until they end up with a miserable double-death ending that's somehow also a happy ending.

Ruan Taotao knows the whole story, and struggles to sit bolt upright in bed. "Master! Don't get the wrong idea! I haven't finished! I, I like your... hairpin! Could I borrow it for a couple of days?"

Ji Boxue: ???

From then on, the plot goes off the rails like a runaway horse.

Every day that follows, Ruan Taotao tries to stay alive and does her best to make sure she and Ji Boxue don't fall for each other.

But she never expected the plot to go so completely off course.

One day, she wakes up in Ji Boxue's bed and then... sees his cool, ethereal face in the mirror.

On her first day in Ji Boxue's body, Ruan Taotao discovers a secret that might get her killed if she ever lets it slip.

Her seemingly aloof and ascetic shizun is secretly a wanted criminal feared throughout the Six Realms. He's even issued a warrant for her secret identity in the name of the righteous world's leader...

Ruan Taotao: Well, now! You're really going all out!

Meanwhile, Ji Boxue finds a stack of survival tips beneath Ruan Taotao's pillow.

"Survival Tip #1: Start your own rumors."

"Pursue every senior brother in the sect, and shut down every possibility of me and Ji Boxue falling for each other. √"

"Survival Tip #2: Always keep a safe distance from Ji Boxue."

"If he goes east, I must go west. If he points to the sky, I must say the ground. Whether in soul or body, we must never be on the same wavelength!"

Ji Boxue: "..."

He finally understood what had gotten into his little disciple lately.

[A cowardly, chaotic, and sweet girl × A once free-spirited young man who was unwillingly made the righteous world's leader and has no choice but to play at being a cold, aloof shizun]

Reader's Guide:

◆ A slow-burn, goofy master-and-disciple romance.

◆ The heroine has an unusual way of seeing the world. The hero is emotionally stable, with a mental state that's both normal and not normal. Once he realizes he likes the heroine, he automatically switches into tragic-romance mode. They each follow their own scripts and put on their own shows.

Coming Soon: [After I Died for My Country, I Became the World-Destroying Villain's Black Moonlight]

Two hours earlier, Nan Jiang had already prepared to jump from the city wall and die for her country.

The view from the tower was excellent, and she immediately spotted Zhong Changshu among the wedding procession.

As if sensing her, Zhong Changshu raised his eyes and met her gaze.

He had looked at her in many different ways.

At first, like most people who knew her, he had looked at her with a cold wariness.

Later, he looked at her with disgust.

Then regret, pity, tenderness... and finally, love.

But now...

Look, he was back to that same cold expression he'd worn when they first met, as if everything that happened between them had been nothing but an illusion.

For some reason, Nan Jiang suddenly wanted to laugh.

Then she really did start laughing out loud. She laughed so hard that even her future husband, a man famed for his scheming, looked baffled and asked, "What are you laughing at, Nan Jiang?"

Nan Jiang replied, "I'm laughing at your delusions. The last surviving member of the Nan imperial clan will never fall into your hands."

With that, she leapt from the city wall.

Later, just as Nan Jiang had expected, her leap became a legend for the ages.

It even made later generations look more kindly on that decaying dynasty.

And Zhong Changshu...

That powerful minister who once ruled over a chaotic age died with a head of white hair on the day he was made chancellor.

On that same day, a divine emperor of the Celestial Realm returned from his tribulation. Nan Jiang, meanwhile, was only one among countless living beings, the faintest stroke in his long life.

At first, everyone thought so.

Until the woman named Nan Jiang returned.

·

Zhong Changshu had never hated a woman so much.

She had plotted to enter his life, used false affection to seduce him, and, once she realized he had nothing to offer her, kicked him aside and decided to marry someone else.

He thought he hated her.

He hated her vanity and selfishness, her cold-hearted ingratitude, and most of all, the way she had vanished from his sight with such utter resolve.

His hatred and resentment became an obsession etched into his bones. In the end, he failed to survive this trial of love, and was willing to pay any price to resurrect her, even if it meant falling from godhood and becoming a demon.

·

He sat on the cold throne, stained red with immortal blood, without closing his eyes for seven days and nights.

He thought that, after living his life over again, Nan Jiang would cling to him and curry favor with him as shamelessly as before. Yet she always treated him as if he were nothing, unwilling to spare him even an extra glance.

Deep in the night, he slipped into her room with the wind. His cold fingertips brushed across her lips, his voice trembling.

"Aren't you best at pretending to care and playing along? Why did you stop lying?"

Theme: When things reach a dead end, change. Change opens the way, and what flows will endure.