[Currently writing. I'll start posting once I've built up a collection. Please add it to your favorites, everyone!]
Gu Ying always thought Fu Shuheng wasn't human... not in the figurative sense, but literally. He was a cold, emotionless... dangerous creature.
When she captured him on the battlefield, he lifted his head through the swirling yellow sand. His handsome face looked almost divine, and his lips were faintly red as he spoke: "General Gu, spare my life, and I'll help you reclaim the nine frontier strongholds of Great Zhao and overthrow the emperor of Great Liao."
The breathtaking sight of him made Gu Ying falter for a moment. She tightened her grip on the knife and marveled to herself: the emperor Fu Shuheng wanted to kill was his own father.
Thus began an alliance that benefited them both. She spared his life and helped him claim the throne of Great Liao; he promised to return the nine frontier strongholds to Great Zhao.
But their alliance was fragile. Fu Shuheng betrayed her, and Gu Ying became a prisoner awaiting execution.
Gu Ying wasn't surprised. She had tried to set a trap for him first, but she'd been outmatched and was willing to die. Still, the nine frontier strongholds remained an unfulfilled wish.
Before her head was to be cut off, Gu Ying broke free of her bonds, pinned Fu Shuheng to the ground, and beat him mercilessly, driving her fists into his head again and again.
Fu Shuheng's mouth was full of blood. The candlelight in the cell cast a film over his pupils, making them look even more unnaturally black. He held Gu Ying by the forehead, forcing their heads together. "Gu Ying, we were made for each other. We should be in love."
What the hell did he mean, they should be in love... Later, beneath Fu Shuheng's sweat-damp chest, Gu Ying gained new insight into his nature: depraved, insatiable, violent, clingy... She died bitterly within a few years.
But when she opened her eyes again, she had arrived eight years later, in the body of a newly widowed general's wife, embroiled in her husband's murder case.
And the man determined to make her pay for her general husband's death was none other than the new emperor, Fu Shuheng.
Remembering Fu Shuheng's obscene games in her previous life, Gu Ying was terrified. She had to clear her name without letting him recognize her.
After finally clearing herself of suspicion, one case after another followed: the ghostly wedding curse, a wicked general's massacre, the haunted brothel, the calamity of the Tai Sui...
Behind the baffling cases, enemies circled like wolves. Fu Shuheng shed every trace of humanity behind his disguise and helped Gu Ying tear the mastermind to pieces.
Gu Ying looked at his brutal methods. "With all those sins clinging to you, aren't you afraid of going to hell?"
Fu Shuheng gazed at the towering pagoda behind her, lit with soul-guiding lanterns, then leaned down and whispered against her ear. "You think you were reborn in a widow's body because you accumulated good karma?"
Reading guide:
1. A seemingly honest heroine who is brutally good at killing ✖️ a seemingly heartless hero with an S streak who can't control himself when physically addicted to her. Expect a passionate, hate-filled romance.
A wickedly charming second male lead is determined to steal her away. The younger third male lead is a dashing, spirited young man. Lots of romantic rivalry and feel-good payoffs.
2. A mystery and detective story, reborn from the start.
Theme: Defend one's homeland.
