Across all Time
In the nineteenth century, Cora Marshall has set her affection on Wang Qin, who works for her father’s rubber plantation in Malaysia. Qin is hesitant to reciprocate her love due to his poverty and lack of status. Meanwhile, Xiao Mi, the young woman Qin’s mother has chosen for him, is determined that nothing will stop her from having Qin—even if she must sell her soul to do it! Sorrow comes and the ties holding all of them together in life have been broken. But some things transcend time. Reincarnation is their only hope of ever meeting again.
In modern day, Ava Marshall survived a car crash but is left with a recurring dream of a Chinese man from the nineteenth century asking for her help. Her newfound interest in Chinese culture leads her to earn an undergraduate degree in Chinese studies. Upon her graduation she leaves America to earn a Master’s degree in Chinese Language at NUS in Singapore. There she meets new friends and a challenging academic environment.
She also encounters Dr. Lawrence Wang, whom she is immediately drawn to. To her embarrassment, the next day she realizes he is no ordinary man, but her history professor. Dr. Wang at first feels frustrated with Ava and her bubbly personality but comes to see her for the intelligent young woman that she is. He also can’t help but sense that he knows her from somewhere. Just as they are beginning to know one another, tragedy strikes.
Ava is left shocked and bereft when Lawrence is involved in an accident that ends his life. She feels in her heart that something isn’t right. Everyone assured her that foul play is the least likely scenario in peaceful Singapore, but Ava refuses to relent.
On the seventh day of his death she encounters his parents at the columbarium. They recognize her to be the woman Lawrence had spoke to them about. That night Lawrence’s spirit comes to his mother in her dreams and asks her to help him accomplish an old traditional, but outdated custom. Fueled by grief and love for her son, she tricks Ava into a ceremony that will bind her to their family—and to Lawrence, for all eternity.
Ava is frustrated and angry with the Wangs. But she still feels that Lawrence’s death was more than a simple accident, and she will stop at nothing to prove it. But will her tenacity cost her more than she bargained for? Can budding romance and mystery survive across time?
PearBlossom · Urbain
