Opening the Coffin (Volume 4)

水烟萝Jul 2025

2.8

Word count: 182K words
Chapters: 59

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Summary

By day she is a seasoned practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine; by night, a tomb raider.

Healing the living with one hand and digging up the dead's riches with the other, Yun Qixi's life is nothing if not colorful.

Little does she expect that slipping on a jade thumb ring taken from a tomb will send her traveling through time.

Landing in an unfamiliar ancient era, she returns to her old trade. Tomb raiding: low investment, quick returns, and above all, never obsolete.

But she ends up unearthing a new identity for herself—the second young miss of the Ducal Estate.

She was the crown prince's divinely ordained bride, yet on his wedding day, the one seated in the bridal sedan is none other than this second miss's elder sister.

Ha, how very interesting!

So be it, then—let them have each other. A scumbag paired with a scumbag: a match made in heaven!

But then another imperial decree arrives: since she is not destined for the crown prince, she shall marry the Prince of Jin instead!

Your Majesty, you do love to play matchmaker!

A prince? So what? With that cold, aloof air about him, whoever wants to marry him can have him.

Wait—that jade thumb ring on his hand looks exactly like the one that sent her through time!

And so, from that day on, the Prince of Jin gains a shadow that follows him everywhere.

"My lord, would you sell me that jade thumb ring?"

"You can't afford it." The man raises an arrogant brow.

After cursing his ancestors in her heart, Yun Qixi plasters on a fawning smile. "My lord, name your price—money's no object."

He gives her a glance, utterly unruffled. "This item is priceless. It passes only to my descendants."

Yun Qixi is instantly left speechless, hair whipping in the wind.

Editor's review

The fourth volume occupies a bridging position in the Kaiguan series: Yun Qixi has already taken on the identity of the second young miss of the Ducal Estate, the crown prince's bride swap and the emperor's decree marrying her to the Prince of Jin land in quick succession, laying the groundwork for her entanglement with the prince over the jade thumb ring. The volume's readability comes mainly from two things: first, the heroine uses modern street-smart wisdom to navigate ancient aristocratic rules, and her dual perspective as healer and tomb raider keeps her from coming out behind in either household intrigue or adventure; second, the interplay between the aloof prince and the thick-skinned heroine—centered on "buying the thumb ring"—moves at a brisk pace with witty dialogue. Author Shui Yanluo's prose leans colloquial, and the plot advances through coincidence and satisfying beats, making it well suited to relaxed reading. Readers who demand historical background and accurate wedding customs should lower their expectations and treat it as genre time-travel romance. If starting from this volume, it's advisable to fill in the character motivations from earlier books.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Web-fiction readers who enjoy brisk time-travel romance with witty dialogue and satisfying beats
Readers who appreciate proactive heroines and enjoy watching them spar and banter with an aloof male lead
Casual readers interested in tomb-raiding and Chinese medicine elements but not demanding professional detail
Readers following the Kaiguan series who need to catch up on the fourth volume's plot continuity

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer serious historical fiction and care about accuracy in wedding customs and rites
Readers who dislike time travel, cheat-like advantages, and coincidence-driven plots
Readers who want a complete arc from a single volume and don't plan to follow the series

Reading tips

If starting from this volume, first learn how the heroine traveled through time and became the second young miss of the Ducal Estate in the first three volumes
Pay attention to the bride-swap and arranged-marriage episodes; they are the starting point for understanding the heroine's relationship with the Prince of Jin
Read the exchanges between the aloof prince and the heroine as light comedy, without over-scrutinizing the logic
After finishing this volume, continue to the fifth to see how the jade thumb ring thread advances their relationship

版权信息
第196章她平生最受不了的就是欺骗
第197章欺骗是背叛的开始！
第198章搜查
第199章这不是误会
第200章我永远都不会与你为敌
第201章是我
第202章单连城你要不要脸？
第203章老婆只有一个！
第204章云七夕，你真狠！
第205章天上人间
第206章光有善良不够，得有脑子
第207章砸了场子就想走？
第208章他可以死，但不能死在我七夕号上
第209章待嫁女儿心
第210章竟敢挡着晋王殿下的道？
第211章不要银子要公道
第212章命悬一线
第213章一个男人的担当
第214章去跟殿下告个别吧！
第215章军法伺候自己的老婆，真够男人！
第216章她已彻底被他征服
第217章单连城，你要活着回来！
第218章这世上哪有永远的太平？
第219章原来四皇子这么小气！
第220章我对他问心无愧！
第221章更年期综合症
第222章迷华宫的线索
第223章真相很玄幻！
第224章披着羊皮的狼
第225章京城又有大喜事儿
第226章请新娘子帮忙
第227章京城密信
第228章太子殿下来了
第229章有便宜不占是傻蛋
第230章我想吃肉
第231章除非你想死！
第232章混江湖靠的不是拳头
第233章刺激的游戏
第234章要命的就最好别动！
第235章人的死法有千万种
第236章一日不见，如隔三秋
第237章辎重营到了
第238章乔装
第239章想逃跑就听我的
第240章一个人的孤军奋战
第241章正人君子也是有七情六欲的
第242章执着到死，孤老终生
第243章这才是值得我喜欢的男人
第244章两军对峙
第245章矫情
第246章你能不能正经点儿？
第247章和平就是一场双赢
第248章七夕，一定要救他！
第249章爷心疼
第250章红梅山庄
第251章天下第一美男
第252章这盘棋我解了
第253章三师兄

FAQ

Should I read the fourth or fifth volume first?

In series order, read the fourth volume first. The fourth lays out key turning points such as the crown prince's bride swap and the emperor's decree marrying her to the Prince of Jin; the fifth builds on that to advance the jade thumb ring suspense and their relationship. Skipping to the fifth may let you grasp the gist, but you'll miss the process of the relationships being established, and the experience will suffer.

Are the tomb-raiding and Chinese medicine elements in this book professionally written?

From the synopsis, tomb raiding and medicine function more as devices to shape the heroine's identity and drive the plot rather than as industry realism. The author focuses on the identity dislocation after time travel and the romance line, with professional detail serving entertainment. If you're looking for rigorous tomb-raiding or Chinese medicine fiction, this book may not meet expectations.

What does the heroine's attitude toward the bride swap reveal?

When Yun Qixi discovers her elder sister is the one in the bridal sedan, she chooses to "let them have each other" rather than cry and cling. This shows her pragmatic nature—she won't take a loss or waste energy on inner turmoil—and provides reasonable setup for her later acceptance of the arranged marriage and her pivot to fixating on the Prince of Jin's thumb ring. It's key to understanding her behavior.

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About the author

水烟萝 Author

Shui Yanluo is an author about whom limited public information is available; existing sources contain no confirmed record of nationality, dates of birth and death, or English name. Judging from the ten works held in the collection, her writing mainly falls into two categories: time-travel alternative history and youth literature. Her representative work is the Kaiguan (Opening the Coffin) series, published in various forms including volumes 1 through 6 and a complete eight-volume edition, and she is also the author of Remarriage. Based on the available titles, Shui Yanluo's works tend to be long and distinctly serialized, building stories within alternative settings while also conveying the emotional expression typical of youth literature, and they have drawn attention from the corresponding readership. Owing to the lack of biographical material, her personal history cannot be described in detail, and readers may come to know her writing through the works mentioned above.