The Coroner of Xuanyang

In the thirteenth year of the Yuanwu era, disaster struck the Dali Temple.

From the Minister of the Dali Temple down to the clerks, everyone died suddenly overnight.

Jiang Wu, the only daughter of Jiang Yanfeng, Minister of the Dali Temple, was sent away from the capital in the dead of night.

They were ambushed on the way, and her carriage plunged down a slope. Her fate was uncertain.

That was when Jiang Wu transmigrated. All she remembered was the bus she was riding in crashing head-on into a car driving against traffic. When she opened her eyes again, she had taken over the original owner’s body.

Her father’s old friend rescued her, and from then on she went by the name Xuanyang.

In the fifth year of the Qingchen era, Xuanyang dreamed that disaster had struck the Dali Temple again.

She thought it was just a memory from the original owner’s childhood, but unexpectedly, the dream came true.

The imposing office of the judicial authority had once again become a place of ill omen, and panic gripped the entire capital of Qing.

Her adoptive father received a letter from the capital asking him to return and help.

Xuanyang persuaded him to let her go in his place.

On the way, she came across a murder in a neighboring region, a bizarre and horrifying case.

Drawing on the forensic knowledge she had learned before transmigrating and the coroner’s skills taught to her by her adoptive father, Xuanyang offered her services to the local officials and helped examine the body and solve the case.

A cold-faced man, before whom even the officials bowed and scraped, watched the whole thing.

When he asked her name, she misunderstood his intentions, made one up on the spot, and even claimed she was already married with children.

She thought they would never cross paths again. But after she entered the capital and became a coroner at the Dali Temple, she learned that the prince who had been appointed by the emperor himself to temporarily take charge of the Dali Temple’s judicial authority was the very cold-faced man she had deceived.

To hold on to the hard-won position she had earned as a coroner, she had no choice but to greet him with a smile.

The aloof prince held the appointment form bearing her name and glanced at her with his narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes, a frigid aura surrounding him.

Yet he deliberately pronounced her name, one syllable at a time: “Xuan, yang, ”

*

Yan Qi had thought that after his younger brother ascended the throne, he could retire to the countryside and enjoy a peaceful life.

But after only a few years of good times, he was summoned back to the capital and ordered to take charge of the Dali Temple’s mess.

He was already in a foul mood on the way back, and then he came across an ominous murder case, making him as cold as the King of Hell.

Just as he was about to intervene, a pretty young woman with a fresh face proved remarkably skilled in the art of forensic examination and helped solve the case.

He had intended to ask her name and recruit her.

Who could have guessed she would mistake him for a lecher?

When they met again, it was at the Dali Temple, where the young woman had become his coroner subordinate.

Gone was the wariness she had shown in the other region. She greeted him warmly: “This commoner, Xuanyang, pays her respects to Your Highness.”

Yan Qi raised his eyes slightly and glanced at the smiling young woman, deliberately calling her by name in a cold voice.

But inwardly, he sighed: What a fine name.

[Reader’s Guide]

* Plot-focused, both leads are virgins, happy ending

* The setting is entirely fictional, and the author’s version of ancient times allows dissection

Theme: The truth will always come to light