Republican-era setting, mystery and deduction, episodic cases with an overarching plot, two mature women, equally matched leads, happy ending~
Main couple: A calm, upright younger straight-shooter of a detective (a detective in the International Settlement) x an elegant, aloof, scheming older businesswoman (owner of an opera house)
Supporting couple: A sharp-tongued, goofy, tsundere female reporter (newspaper reporter) x a cool, resilient, gentle young leading actress (the opera house's star performer)
In the twenty-eighth year of the Republic, Cheng Baozhen returned to China to search for her family after being raised by a priest and sent overseas as a child. Seventeen years had passed, and the orphanage she once knew had changed beyond recognition.
A three-story stilted opera house had sprung up, its rooms home to more than a dozen utterly dazzling young women.
The lyrics of the opera drifted out in singsong tones, while the enchanting sights and sounds of nighttime Shanghai filled the air.
Boss Qin, who had taken up opera halfway through life and become a leading performer, carefully ran the opera house. But things refused to go her way, and bloody murders kept occurring there.
A regular at the opera house, Cheng Baozhen produced an arrest warrant and revealed herself to be the only female detective in the International Settlement.
"Boss Qin, you're coming with us!"
*
The next day, Boss Qin was released without charge from the police station. She bought a packet of Eight-Treasure Plums from a street vendor and handed it to Cheng Baozhen.
"?" What did that mean?
Cheng Baozhen popped one into her mouth. It was pretty sweet.
Only when Cheng Baozhen, worn down in body and mind by the opera house murders, ran into Boss Qin again did she find out.
"Eight-Treasure Plums. Ten in a packet, one hundred dollars!"
"Ten dollars for one plum?!"
"Give me back my Eight-Treasure Plums."
Give them back? How? Cheng Baozhen had already eaten them all. On the verge of tears, she could only hand over a hundred-dollar bill...
*
Some time later.
Boss Qin sat at the end of the bed in her dressing gown and raised an eyebrow casually. "If you're staying the night with me, you'll have to pay."
Cheng Baozhen pushed Boss Qin back against the headboard. "I can afford it."
"Eight hundred." Boss Qin murmured the two words.
"Fine. Eight hundred."
The following morning.
Cheng Baozhen opened her eyes. The room was empty except for her. Her hands were tied behind her back, and sixteen hundred dollars lay at the head of the bed.
She trembled with rage. "Qin Xiuzhu! This isn't over between us!"
Uploaded on: October 30, 2022
Theme: Uncovering the truth behind the cases
