Burning Sandalwood

Currently writing [Weightless Apple]

Forbidden friendship | Sharing a rental | Secret love comes true | Happy ending

Mystery web novelist x forensic identification expert

Sunny, fiercely protective sweet girl x insecure, unloved scheming man

[Worldly, money-loving con-artist heroine x world-weary, unloved mage hero]

A Tan had known since childhood that she was different from other fortune-tellers. While they were still calculating good and bad fortune, she already knew the fate awaiting her: certain death.

In her dreams, she would die beneath a magical artifact called the Jie Mo Chu.

Before her death, A Tan made the following list of things to do:

First, save her Third Senior Sister's life;

Second, earn some money to indulge her little hobbies;

Third, avoid dying all alone.

A Tan thought that after several hundred years, she had accepted her fate. But when the mage who had always been at odds with her appeared, holding the Jie Mo Chu, she felt the urge to kill for the first time.

A Tan treasured every day she was alive. She thought the blade in her hand would plunge without hesitation into this world-weary, black-hearted fake mage who stopped at nothing.

But in the end, she lowered her blade and turned its point toward herself.

[Burn a stick of incense for me, and let it ease two ounces of your sorrow. May you know little sickness from now on.]

Bei Xin had entered the monastery as a child to pursue enlightenment and save all living beings. He thought he had learned to take life and death in stride.

Even when he was put on trial and sentenced to death by the Three Realms, pierced through the heart by ten thousand arrows, he still thought so.

But when he opened his eyes again, reborn a hundred years before his death, his body plagued day after day by pain that gnawed at his bones, Bei Xin decided he had to strike first. Whoever wanted to die could die. This time, he wanted to live.

Bei Xin had no expectations for this life, until a female con artist broke into his dark and lightless world.

He lowered his eyes to the monk's robes on his body and found them more of an eyesore than ever.

[Choose life or death?, I choose you. I fear neither life nor death.]

Reader's Guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first and only. Bei Xin: Xin is pronounced with the first tone.

2. The heroine was not killed by the hero; there is a misunderstanding. Neither lead is love-struck to the point of irrationality. The story leans toward an ensemble cast, with a plot-driven narrative and a slow-burning romance.

3. The setting is entirely fictional. No profession is based on real life.

4. The main couple gets a happy ending. No guarantees for the side couples. There may be occasional angst later on.

Theme: Love knows no bounds