The Makeup Artist's Play for Power

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The Makeup Artist's Revenge

A girl born into another world, strong heroine, revenge, totally badass.

Huazhanfang is a makeup artist who's always either rushing around to do makeup or studying makeup techniques.

She's exhausted.

She is born into the family of a high-ranking official in a fictional dynasty.

This family seems tailor-made for her to lie flat:

Her father is the most gifted court painter in a family of painters deeply favored by the emperor.

Her mother is Dongdu's finest calligrapher and painter.

Her three older brothers aren't exactly masters of both letters and arms, but each has achieved something in his own right... Who could have known...

When turmoil strikes, she returns from the estate after taking a break...

The house is still there, but her family is gone...

Only her wet nurse takes her and flees from place to place...

And then!

She is captured and thrown into the government-run entertainment bureau as a criminal's female relative.

Surviving in the entertainment bureau is hard.

Remaining unstained by its murky world is even harder.

Uncovering the truth behind her family's destruction in this place full of all kinds of people...

Harder still!

What kind of hellish start is this?

Huazhanfang, who had wanted to lie flat, has no choice but to wipe away her tears and use her intelligence and exceptional makeup skills...

She moves among various powerful people, forging alliances and finding the truth.

All the while, she pretends to be small and weak just to stay safe... but unexpectedly, she catches the eye of a proud prince whose face was disfigured.

Huazhanfang pushes away the man gazing at her with such devotion.

"Your Highness, all I want is peace and happiness. I don't want you."

Coming soon: Painted Strings

[The nation's war god, skilled in both letters and arms x the beautiful, clever, proud legitimate prince] [Both leads have had no previous partners]

[Difference in status]

Two babies were born on the same day. One arrived beneath a sky blazing red, with a peacock circling overhead for a long time and refusing to leave. The child was hailed as an auspicious sign for the dynasty. The other set fire to the imperial ancestral temple at birth, and the blaze raged without end. That child was branded an omen of evil.

Fifteen years later.

One of the babies has become the nation's war god, guarding Wei's borders and earning outstanding military honors. The other has become a famous beauty and performer in Dongdu. Yet no one knows that the nation's war god is only a young girl who has just come of age, or that the renowned beauty in blue is in fact the dynasty's most mysterious legitimate prince, driven from the palace before anyone had ever seen him.

They love each other, but the constraints of society keep them from being together.

One day, the general is trapped and cannot break through. The performer in blue takes off his costume and stands before the blood-covered general.

"She protects my country. I protect her life."

[Side story]

In the battle at Wild Mountain Ridge, Jin Rao is trapped at the foot of the mountain by rebel forces. Every attempt to break through is driven back. Their provisions are almost gone, the dry rations have run out, and her spear has been broken.

Her trusted companions fall one by one. With nowhere left to turn, a generation's war god is about to perish at Wild Mountain Ridge.

The performer in blue abandons his usual lilting voice, takes on the role of an old warrior, and sings "Dingjun Mountain."

Jin Rao knows he has come. Her spirits rise, and with a single dagger she kills every rebel.

This time, he wears silver armor and holds her, covered in blood, in his arms. "Now it's my turn to protect you."

Theme: Hard times make it all the more important to stand on your own feet and grow stronger.