[Currently revising, progress: 4/5]
[The strongest female assassin x the most brilliant top scholar]
A raging fire destroys Zhi Han's life of luxury.
Forced to wander far from home, she eventually enters the Qianji Pavilion, where five years of training turn her into an exceptional assassin.
For Zhi Han, being an assassin is not her final destination. She resolves to leave the Qianji Pavilion and roam the martial world as a free woman.
But it's easy to enter and hard to leave.
The Qianji Pavilion gives her one final mission: assassinate the newly appointed top scholar.
Zhi Han sneaks into the residence in the dead of night, only to form a mysterious bond with the top scholar, Yan He. If she kills him, she will die too.
Zhi Han: ...
All she wants is to stay alive.
To save her own life, Zhi Han has no choice but to become a personal bodyguard and protect the man who, in her eyes, can't even fight his way out of a paper bag.
Yan He, who can't fight his way out of a paper bag: ...
Yan He seems frail and weak, but he has an unyielding spirit. He refuses to compromise his sense of justice, even if it means offending the powerful, and is demoted in all but name to become the prefect of Suzhou.
The journey to Suzhou is fraught with danger: people die one after another in a sinister temple, a terrifying nursery rhyme leaves an entire village in fear, and turbulent Suzhou is beset by one crisis after another...
Yan He uncovers a string of strange cases by noticing the smallest details, winning the people's trust.
As Zhi Han witnesses Yan He's abilities while investigating the various cases, she joins him in uncovering the truth behind what happened all those years ago. But the closer they get to the truth, the greater the danger...
Zhi Han: "Knowing how things would turn out, would you still keep investigating?"
Yan He: "For the things my heart holds dear, I would not regret it, even if I died nine times."
1. A series of standalone cases, focused on the main plot, with relatively little romance.
2. Set in an alternate Ming Dynasty, very loosely based on history, with plenty of original worldbuilding.
3. My writing still needs work, and I'm doing my best to improve.
4. I'll do my best to keep the plot logically consistent.
A similar upcoming novel, May the Land Bear Witness: a mystery and investigation novel told through standalone cases. Blurb below:
May the land bear witness: traverse the land and see into people's hearts.
[The law's measuring stick, reason above all, the Dali Temple's chief minister x a highly capable forensic examiner who trusts only evidence]
A murder modeled on a case from ten years ago leaves a bloodstained shadow puppet at the scene.
To solve the case, Gu Shiheng, junior minister of the Dali Temple, seeks out Shen Wangyou, a female forensic examiner living outside the capital.
He is the sharpest blade in the Dali Temple, rational and cold, driven only to solve cases.
She has the steadiest hand in the mortuary, determined to clear old cases.
Their partnership begins with mutual exploitation, but neither expects to end up entrusting their lives to the other.
Two more people join their team: Xie Feiyi, an informant with dollar signs in his eyes, and Yan Zhili, a mechanical genius.
This motley crew, each with secrets of their own, sets out to investigate cases across the land.
The scent of ink in Jiangnan hides a recipe for murder. Who is exploiting Buddhist faith for profit in the borderland caves?
In the Miao frontier's Gu market, it's impossible to tell which of a pair of twin sisters is real. In a high tower in the capital, a deadly trap has already been laid...
Each strange case they solve is like a key, turning the lock on that old case.
When every clue points to the end, they discover that the truth they've pursued for ten years may be no more than the surface of a vast conspiracy.
[Reading Guide]
A strong pairing, mystery and investigation, with the cases at the heart of the plot.
The main cast grows from a fragile alliance into friends who would die for each other. An ensemble story.
I can't let it go. I'm going to try writing it again.
Theme: Uphold justice and fear not the long road ahead.
2.8 Will definitely be updated (although no one may care, but I still want to say it)