[A ruthless beauty and her dog]
[Business building in the middle arc | Intangible cultural heritage | Villainess | The male lead falls for her on his own]
Su Dianchun had been a makeup artist for three years, and was famous throughout the capital.
She was known not only for her masterful floral forehead designs, but also for her shamelessly awful temper.
The highest-ranking official she'd offended so far was the third-rank Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, who was investigating a case by imperial decree.
He ordered her to kneel for questioning. She sneered, "You dare arrest me without solid evidence. Why should I kneel to you?"
He tried to threaten and intimidate her. She spread her hands. "My entire family tree is dead. You'd better hurry up and send me on my way, sir."
Only when he had no choice but to back down did she curl her lips into a smile. "If you want me involved, then everything goes my way."
And so, using this major case as her opening, she turned the capital's powerful families upside down. While the waters were still muddy, she rode off at full gallop.
When she returned to the capital, she was the wealthy proprietor of Qiao Zhuang Workshop, invited to paint floral designs for the noblewomen in the palace.
What surprised her most wasn't the envy in everyone's eyes, but the way the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, with whom she had a long history of grudges, was looking at her... Why did he look so drunk?
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Lu Chengyuan considered himself a man of ruthless methods and a cold heart. He had weathered the ups and downs of officialdom only to solve the bloody case that had destroyed his family when he was a child.
When a case in the capital proved remarkably similar to that old one, he immediately began investigating. But the first person to land in his net was a beautiful makeup artist.
Even though she was sharp-tongued and gave him a cutting look, he thought of her as nothing more than a woman with a bit of a temper.
That was until she threw herself into the case, nearly strangled a royal to death with her own hands, then stole his official seal and identity token before swaggering out of the city on horseback.
All she left behind was his desperate subordinate and a mess that gave the emperor a splitting headache.
He'd been outplayed. For a man who had always planned for every contingency, his feelings were decidedly complicated.
"So this is what it feels like to have someone pull one over on you. Is that why my heart's beating so fast?"
He looked at the venomous beauty who had returned to the capital in triumph, determined to get to the bottom of it.
[Note: This isn't a detective story, but focuses more on political intrigue. The male lead is sexually pure. I'll add more details if I think of any.]
Theme: Women standing on their own two feet
