I'm a Fake Empress, and I'll Slaughter My Way Through the Palace

Main characters: Zhimeng, Li Chengyi [Classical palace intrigue + mystery and truth + fake empress + lets loose and indulges in food and drink midway through + not a pure couple] A series of brutal crimes in Zhimeng's hometown targeted young women during flower season, tearing out their fingernails. One day, someone reported finding torn-out nails in the spice shop run by Zhimeng and her older sister Zhenxian. Zhenxian was executed, and Zhimeng disappeared from the area without a trace. A year later, Zhimeng transformed into the current empress, the legitimate daughter of Shen Yi, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Bodyguards, a first-rank official at court. It turned out that Shen Yi had struck a deal with Zhimeng. Since she looked like his legitimate daughter, who was ill, Zhimeng would take her place and secure her position as empress, while Shen Yi would investigate the truth behind the case involving Zhenxian... But two years later, a fingernail-tearing case just like the one from the past took place in the palace. Zhimeng reclaimed the empress's seal and used her authority to investigate the truth! At the same time, Zhimeng discovered that Shen Yi had never investigated the old case for her and had been fobbing her off all along. So she stopped observing palace etiquette and let herself go, indulging in food, drink, and fun whenever there were no clues to pursue. She even decided to deliberately flirt with the emperor... Little did she know that Zhimeng had been Li Chengyi's childhood first love. Meanwhile, Zhimeng believed that the man she had fallen for at first sight as a child was Prince Jing, who looked much like the emperor... Who was the real mastermind behind the case from all those years ago? Is Zhimeng's true identity really no more than that of a spice seller's daughter? Did the emperor fall in love with his childhood first love, or with the living, breathing Zhimeng of today?