A Beauty Hidden in Crane Terrace

# Those who look down on them will one day be crushed beneath their feet

[0]

Lu Songyin knows that Cheng Huaijing is the Regent's blade, a demon knife in his hands.

She came to the Divine Capital to use that blade to carve out her own path to success.

[1]

It has been sixty years since Emperor Ruizong allowed women to enter government service.

Yet there are still fewer than one female official for every ten men in the court, and not a single woman holds a post above the fourth rank.

This year, the Dali Temple hired a new female clerk from Jiangnan. She was slender, gentle-looking, quiet, and reserved.

On her first day as Cheng Huaijing's secretary, he took one look at her frail frame, too delicate to lift or carry anything, and scoffed:

How could someone so fragile survive at the Dali Temple, which oversees the courts and prisons?

Then one day, a government official was found murdered in the Divine Capital. Several of the Dali Temple's most capable investigators happened to be out sick, so Cheng Huaijing had no choice but to take the delicate flower with him to the crime scene.

He assumed the sight would leave her pale with fright, and that she would only get in his way.

Instead, as soon as they arrived, she calmly identified the victim's cause of death amid the indistinct gore, then unraveled the mystery, piece by piece.

From then on, she judged cases, solved investigations, and cleansed the government of corruption. From a lowly clerk by his side, she grew into the first female minister of the Dali Temple.

[2]

"My birth mother was once a rebel.

"Because she was a woman, the court would never have heard her voice if she hadn't rebelled.

"And because she was a woman, even though she had been a rebel, the court never learned her name.

"Naturally, then, no one could verify my connection to her.

"That's why I could come to the Dali Temple, and tell you our names."

# A sprawling mystery and political intrigue, with a slow-burn romance and a happy ending

# Set in the same world as my other works, Twin Stars of the Divine Capital and Old Stories of Chengjun, but each story stands alone.

# A few notes about the plot and content, to help readers decide if this is for them:

1. Everyone is intelligent. The female lead is the smartest, but she's no unstoppable genius, and she has no overwhelming combat skills.

2. A touch of ensemble cast, with many female characters: good and evil, ambitious careerists, and devoted wives. There will be hardship, as well as growth.

3. The male lead gets his moments in the spotlight and isn't just window dressing. But 99.99% of the time, he is frustrated by being one step behind the female lead. He's there to show that when one brilliant person is born, another is left in their shadow.

4. Because of the limitations of the mystery-writing perspective, much of the story is told from the viewpoints of other characters, including the male lead. They mainly serve as cameras. More than 80% of the plot follows the female lead's career.

Theme: Though sorrow may stir me, may it not change me; may my purpose find its form.