The Matchmaker Wants to Fall in Love Too

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Chuunibyou Version:

A loyal, seemingly harmless immortal matchmaker who plays the fool but is actually a tiger × a ruthless, unhinged Meng Po

Meng Wang, the most beautiful flower in the underworld, rarely visits the mortal realm. This time, she runs into the legendary master of romance. But this matchmaker is nothing like she imagined. Not only is he strikingly handsome, he also... has a screw loose.

Legend has it that the Matchmaker ties red strings, while Meng Po erases love and hate. One brings people together, the other severs their ties to the past. Every string the Matchmaker ties will eventually be cut by Meng Po herself. One immortal and one ghost, they are natural enemies.

Yue: Oh, this is so angsty! They suit each other so well, and they're such enemies! This is delicious! You and Meng Po are both in the underworld. What's she like? Is she pretty? Is she really as cold and heartless as they say?

Meng: Heh. That's me.

Nobody ever said Meng Po had to be a woman, and nobody ever said Meng Po or the Matchmaker had to be old and ugly.

So why are there suddenly rumors in the mortal realm about Meng Po and the Matchmaker? After I came down to earth, I ran into my rumored boyfriend? Then the rumors kept getting wilder, as if they were about to spread across all three realms.

What should I do? Help!

And then that heartless immortal under the moon came right up to me, all captivating charm and peach-blossom allure. "Senior, when I was alive, you weren't mine. Now that you're dead, you have to be my ghost, don't you?"

Serious Version:

A gentle, carefree beauty with a peach-blossom aura × a hellish ghost who has endured humiliation

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During the great ritual at the altar, he wore a long robe and a bell at his waist as he climbed the platform. Back then, he thought that once people no longer needed to pray for blessings, the great war would finally be over, and the ancient souls who had not yet passed on could rest in peace.

No one was born, and death stretched for thousands of miles. The long years had cooled the flames of that time.

Many years later, after meeting Yue Yuchuan, he heard the name he had once borne as a high priest. Yue Yuchuan toyed with a strand of waterweed between his fingers and asked, "What was that high priest really like?"

He would tell anyone who asked that question the same thing: "A monster guilty of every evil, a criminal beyond redemption."

Yue Yuchuan heard the answer everyone agreed on. He, too, had once despised that high priest. But when the altar's sacred flame leapt again, the rotting wood and broken branches came alive, and he went from inheriting the high priest's will to inheriting his love.

And he had once secretly promised the high priest: "If I live forever, I will sing your praises for a thousand generations."

★ Slow burn! Secret identities, serious tone, with a plotline that serves the romance. Two strong leads, mutually devoted, happy ending.

★ I write about ghosts and gods, but believe in science. Happy reading!

------------ Blurb for the upcoming novel set in the same world, "The Difference Between Ruler and Subject" ------------

"A cute, clueless Judge of the Underworld who creates heaven, earth, and everything else × a demonic B-king Hades who thinks he is the greatest under heaven"

"Naturally clueless meets passive-aggressive"

Gu Changnian has one wish: to die. But everyone wants him to live. He also bears a mission: to become an immortal.

In the end, he dies, and becomes a ghost as well.

Everything goes the opposite way.

But whatever. He takes it all in stride. Just a tiny taste of sweetness is enough to buy him off. He'll do whatever spares him the most suffering.

Unfortunately, as soon as he arrives in the ghost realm, he gets caught up in a great upheaval in the underworld. He becomes the target of everyone's anger, a sacrifice in the chaos, and, even worse, manages to offend the ruler of the ghost clan.

Gu Changnian can only lament his wretched fate.

To keep a low profile, Gu Changnian works diligently and complains about nothing. He only hopes the King of the Underworld will see him as a loyal subject and let bygones be bygones.

At the same time, he secretly searches for a way to stop being a ghost.

His ill-fated destiny follows him even after he becomes a ghost. Later, some other mistake must have happened...

The King of the Underworld slowly approaches and offers him a branch of the flowers of the other shore, as if presenting death itself. He smiles with wild abandon. "Poor little Asura, since you're so unwilling to accept your fate, I can be kind and point you toward two paths."

"Either climb onto the throne, or climb into my bed."

Gu Changnian really does stop to think. He can't climb onto the throne, so...?

He answers with complete seriousness: "I'll climb into bed."

Why does the King of the Underworld look so strange now? Is he unhappy? Did Gu Changnian get the position wrong?

*

The ghost realm says that the King of the Underworld sits securely on his lofty throne, arrogant and untouchable, his blood-red eyes forever full of amusement. He likes watching the people below him squabble, as if enjoying one fascinating play after another.

He holds the power over life and death, and rules all nine levels of the netherworld. It is all terribly dull.

Until Gu Changnian.

If you become an immortal, I will help you defy heaven.

The world is fleeting, and years have passed since we last met.

Theme: The mortal world is gentle, and the spring breeze is free.