Reading the Mountains and Rivers with a Brush [Mystery]

A strange thing happened in Bianjing. After the disgraced official Li Chongming killed himself to escape punishment, a fire broke out in the Li residence in the middle of the night. Rain fell steadily that night, but the water could not put out the flames. The fire burned until dawn.

Sixteen years later, Bianjing was still prosperous, with fine carriages and bright lights stretching for miles.

All of the above had something to do with her, and nothing to do with her.

Li Chaoyan, a traveling physician who moonlights as a coroner, learned how to kill before she turned ten. After meeting her master, Pei Ji, she traded her butcher’s knife for silver needles used to save lives.

Her master, who had spent his life treating and saving people, was murdered, and his body was dumped at the market entrance.

Li Chaoyan picked up her butcher’s knife again... only to be stopped.

Shen Xingyun: "I have a lead on the person who killed your master. Put down the knife and examine the newly dead first."

Shen Xingyun had been entrusted with secretly looking after someone. He just hadn’t expected the task to be so difficult. If he wasn’t careful, she could put a hole in the sky.

If looks could kill, Shen Xingyun would have already been buried in the coffin Li Chaoyan had custom-made for him.

Shen Xingyun suddenly turned around and looked at Li Chaoyan, who was carrying her coroner’s case, with a half-smile. "Aren’t you coming?"

Caught red-handed, Li Chaoyan tightened her grip on the willowwood case without changing expression. "Coming."

Plans have changed. Assassination called off. Want to know what happens next? That’ll be ten copper coins!

[Reading Guide]

1. A long, comedic mystery with episodic cases.

2. The romance develops slowly.

3. The dynasty is fictional. Please don’t nitpick the history.

4. The autopsy details aren’t professional. I’ll do my best to find reference materials.

5. Place to store the author’s brain.

Coming Soon: Where the Vastness Lies

Blurb: In a single day, Jiang Lanyue, a twenty-first-century master obstetrician, transmigrates into the body of Jiang Lanyue, who has just lost her parents and is the daughter of a general in the Southern Wing Kingdom.

To protect her younger brother and preserve the family estate, Jiang Lanyue puts her hair up herself. Unfortunately, through no fault of her own, she possesses something valuable, and schemes and plots keep coming her way.

Just then, the Southern Wing Kingdom loses a war. Jiang Lanyue is pushed into the position of a commandery princess and sent to the grasslands to marry in place of a royal princess.

Jiang Lanyue: "Perfect. I’m done playing your game anyway."

Who can understand? These noble ladies all have eight hundred tricks up their sleeves.

Every morning, Jiang Lanyue opens her eyes and automatically comes up with N different solutions to whatever her maid says, as if by reflex. The grasslands sound great: wide open spaces, few people, a breeze, and galloping on horseback. What more could you ask for?

So she clapped her hands, packed up the family fortune overnight, and climbed into the wedding sedan with her younger brother, who still played in the mud.

Bayan Mandu won a battle and successfully brought himself home a Central Plains bride.

A Central Plains bride sounded wonderful: delicate and sweet. Like his second brother, who complained of one ache or another every day. Don’t think he didn’t know his second sister-in-law was the one who beat him.

Bayan Mandu had finally married the one he’d long been scheming to make his own. His darling looked so delicate she might blow away, and spoke in such a gentle voice. He thought to himself, "This one’s in the bag!"

On her first day on the grasslands, Jiang Lanyue decided that since saying too much could lead to trouble, she would speak little and smile often. Inside, she was overjoyed. "Grasslands, here I come!"

Her future husband looked strong and handsome, and seemed honest. She’d just make do with him. Once she got back to work and established herself, she’d take Jiang Fang and live a carefree life.

Neither knew what the other was thinking, but they hit it off at once.

Years later...

Sitting on a hilltop, Jiang Lanyue wondered again and again how she could ever have thought this scheming wolf was honest.

Bayan Mandu: "Wife, I have another gold mine to my name. Shall I take you to see it tomorrow?"

Jiang Lanyue immediately wiped away her sadness. She decided she was fond of him again.

Theme: Repay kindness, and return harm in kind.