Bending the Brocade-Clad Garment

Cen Jing, a coroner of low status working in the Imperial Prison.

Born into a low-status register, all she wanted was to be a useful, unnoticed presence in the Imperial Prison.

She worked diligently examining corpses and saved money one step at a time.

She thought her days would pass this way, without any ups or downs.

But after staying away from the prison during an investigation, she woke to discover that she had lost several days of her memory.

Even stranger, after she lost her memory, her superior, Li Zheng, a man with power in his hands and a heart of ice, gradually began acting strangely. For no apparent reason, he paid more attention to her, and his special consideration for her increasingly exceeded what he showed others. At times, he even said ambiguous things that invited misunderstanding.

Cen Jing didn't understand. Born into a low-status register, all she could do was guard her heart and keep herself from losing her composure and falling into an abyss.

But as time went by, she suddenly realized:

She could resist a man's flirtation, but not someone who could truly see her soul.

Only when she uncovered clues about her lost memories did she realize that this scoundrel had been deceiving her all along.

By imperial decree, he oversees the officials.

Li Zheng, the Embroidered Uniform Guard who commands the Northern Branch of the Imperial Guard, has spent half his life walking through the darkness of power.

He thought his whole life would be spent bearing the name of a demon and acting as the blade that did the dirty work.

Then he met Cen Jing.

The low-status coroner he had brought back to the Imperial Prison a year ago, who was always quietly examining corpses.

He had never imagined that he would have anything to do with the coroner beside him.

That is, until an investigation away from the prison led him to accidentally drink a tea that stirred desire, and end up in bed with her.

Once clearheaded, he loathed how uncontrolled and shameless he had been with her.

So he coldly told her, "Didn't you know some kind of acupuncture technique that makes you lose your memory with one prick? Use it on yourself."

When he made that outrageous request, she remained quiet and respectful, and really did use acupuncture to forget what had happened over those two days.

He thought that once she had forgotten, the matter was over and would never come up again.

But afterward, he kept finding himself looking her way a little more often.

Who could have known that this casual extra attention would make him realize that beneath the mask of calm indifference, quiet restraint, and impeccable decorum she wore every day, there was a soul so brilliant and brave? She only had to focus on her own work to draw him in, little by little, until he was in too deep to escape.

The demon glimpsed pinpricks of starlight in the darkness and tasted the shiver of having his soul seen through. Suddenly, he began to loathe the cold of hell. A greedy thought arose in him: to take her hand and walk with her into the human world...

Li Zheng was eaten up with regret.

What was he supposed to do when the woman before him had forgotten what happened between them and treated him with indifference?

#An intellectual romance, a couple dancing on the edge of a blade#

This novel brings together every deliciously angsty trope: the male lead winning himself over, a groveling pursuit of his wife, love and hate tangled together, mutual salvation, and intellectual companionship.

Reading notes:

1. Set in a fictionalized late Jiajing-era Ming dynasty. Neither lead is based on a real person.

2. Neither lead is a good person in the traditional sense. Both have their flaws.

3. A slow-burn romance focused on the relationship, with a somewhat serious tone.

4. One-on-one pairing, daily updates, no common triggers. Please use your own discretion for anything else.

5. The corpse examinations throughout the novel are based on and quote from The Washing Away of Wrongs. This will not be noted separately in the text.

Blurb written on December 25, 2023

Theme: True love means loving someone's one-of-a-kind soul.