Interrogation (Mystery)

[A gentle, secretly badass heroine with a career-driven mind x a haughty prince who acts refined in public but is a lovesick schemer]

Everyone says Li Xiyan is cold and ruthless, with a knack for solving strange cases. That's how she became the sharpest blade in the Embroidered Uniform Bureau and earned the emperor's trust.

Li Xiyan has no time to care about gossip. She's busy catching the runaway young prince and bringing him back to the capital!

Fortunately, Rong Lang, the carefree Prince of Changle, steps in to stop the young prince and ties him up, then hands him over.

“I'll escort this unruly nephew back to the capital with Deputy Commissioner Li!”

Looking at the Prince of Changle's full head of hair, she lowers her blade.

Didn't this man shave his head and become a monk two years ago? Was that rumor false, or is his hair fake?

“Thank you for your help, Your Highness.”

What Li Xiyan never expected was that the Prince of Changle could perform autopsies.

This is just what she needs!

Along the way, they solve one strange case after another with his help: a ship full of slaughtered passengers, murders by a city god, skeletons appearing after three days...

Li Xiyan can't help but see him in a new light. She even softens her attitude toward him and shows him an unprecedented degree of patience. She even puts up with his flirtatious, dissolute behavior.

But the real reason isn't just that she needs his autopsy skills. He reminds her of the playmate she had as a child: a quiet little monk.

At the thought, Li Xiyan shudders.

How could this shameless man possibly be that simple, well-behaved little monk?

Rong Lang just smiles. “You're only fooling yourself, big siiiister~”

Rong Lang was sent to a temple as a child. His only playmate was a young lady from the village below the mountain.

She had a red mole between her brows and looked like Guanyin. She would secretly bring him meat pies and talk to him for hours. She even said... she would take him home as her husband.

Then everything changed overnight. He returned to the palace and resumed life as a prince, but lost her. Everyone said she was dead, but he didn't believe them.

He searched for her year after year, until at last he found her.

She had changed, but she still made his heart race.

The only thing he can't stand is all the other men around her! But he's not afraid at all.

What's so hard about fighting for her? Anyone can do that!

Tentative cases: 1. The Massacre at Sea 2. The Three-Day Skeleton Case 3. The City God Murders 4. The Golden Knife Murders 5. The Marquis's Household Massacre 5. The Child-Rhyme Murders at Mingsha Mountain 6. The Evil Spirit Murders 7. The Gambling Ship Case 8. The Crisis of the State

PS: The romance is one-on-one, both leads have no prior sexual experience, and it has a happy ending.

A new story is now being updated! If you're interested, please bookmark it. I promise I won't abandon it.

[A resilient, strong female coroner from a humble background x a proud aristocrat who looks down on everyone]

Wen Chan comes from a humble background, but she refuses to accept her lot in life. With her skill at examining corpses, she earns herself a low-ranking official post.

She does it for one reason only: to avenge her parents, who were murdered!

After the imperial examinations the following spring, Zheng Guanlan, an aristocrat, is parachuted into the Dali Temple as her superior.

Well, well. Isn't this the aristocrat who called her “lowborn, calculating, and eager to climb the social ladder”? What a coincidence!

Wen Chan rubs her hands together.

Now that you're at the Dali Temple, let me teach you a thing or two about the treacherous world of officialdom!

From the male lead's perspective:

Zheng Guanlan comes from one of the most powerful families. He is the most outstanding young man of his generation in the Zheng family. His future wife should be dignified, virtuous, and of equal social standing.

But an accident sends his life in a completely different direction than he expected.

His wife is not dignified. Every day, she runs around with an autopsy kit on her back, without a care for appearances. And she's not virtuous, either. All she cares about is examining corpses, solving cases, and getting promoted. No wonder a marriage between people of unequal standing ends badly. This woman is just...

“My lord, Madam said she's busy today and won't be coming home for dinner...”

Zheng Guanlan slaps the table.

She really has no idea how to take care of herself!

Plot version: A hundred butterflies beat their wings, and behind the painted screen, the dancer turns out to be a corpse. A battle of wits, peacocks flying south, fiction made fact... One “performance” after another unfolds at the mountain villa. A headless corpse with no ears is discovered in a dry well. After searching, they learn there was more than one victim. Missing features, iron nails carved with strange patterns... They piece together the truth, but the fog only grows thicker...

Tentative cases: 1. The Dragon Gate Banquet Murder 2. The Capital's Serial Dismemberments 3. The Six-Aunt Society's Disappearances 4. The Mass Murders at the Water-and-Land Dharma Assembly 5. The Bodies in Five-Colored Lake 6. The Flower Thief's Murders 7. The Nameless Skeleton Case 8. The Child-Rhyme Murders 9. The Floating Corpses in the Imperial Palace

PS: One-on-one romance, both leads have no prior sexual experience, happy ending.

Little scene:

On their wedding night.

Zheng Guanlan raises both hands and looks at Wen Chan.

Wen Chan blinks. “It's not that I don't want to help you undress, my lord~ I only know how to change the burial clothes on dead people~ You'd mind that, wouldn't you~”

Zheng Guanlan's face darkens.

“I. Do. Not. Mind.”

“Then please lie down, my lord, because when changing someone into burial clothes...”

Zheng Guanlan raises a hand.

“I'll do it myself!”

Theme: Justice endures beneath the rule of law.