Elusive

[Clear-eyed strategist of the realm: businesswoman extraordinaire VS scheming love-struck minister who dotes on his wife]

A growth-oriented female lead, two strong partners joining forces to shape the realm, and an entangled romance between two career-minded people!

[Reading guide: Serious tone, compelling plot and romance, clear romantic storyline, mutually devoted couple, happy ending, political intrigue]

[Book title: Puzzling]

Su Yushu, daughter of the richest man in Shicheng, possesses both wealth beyond compare and extraordinary talent. But because she is a woman, her father confines her ambitions and aspirations to the household.

A private salt case threatens to bring down the Su family.

Luluo: "Miss, are you really going to investigate the case yourself?"

Su Yushu: "The Su family is in danger. Who else but me?"

She set aside old grievances and personal gain, stepping forward only to seek justice.

With money as her blade and people as her pieces, she vowed to play a game of her own and shape the realm.

Censor Lin Changting was the sharpest, loneliest blade in the court.

He bore a secret imperial edict written in blood, and that identity was his original sin. Investigating the private salt trade was the hardest, yet cleanest, path he had chosen for himself.

Yet in the eyes of this young lady who had stepped forward, he saw the same thing:

A flame, shackled by birth, yet determined to burn through its chains.

He sneered coldly. "A mere merchant dares to comment on court affairs?"

She retorted, "With your abilities, my lord, I doubt you can solve the case."

They maneuvered through a web of schemes. He used her trade routes to lay his net, while she relied on his influence to clear her path.

In her "unscrupulousness," he saw the ruthless determination to save the country. Beneath his "cold-heartedness," she found a burning, earnest heart.

Behind the private salt case, the Grand Princess's rebellion slowly emerged from the shadows. The chessboard suddenly expanded, and the wager became the realm itself.

From pieces who distrusted each other, they became the only hands willing to entrust each other with their backs.

Yet for women, this world has never offered an easy road.

She navigates between power-hungry politicians, aristocratic ladies who are both friend and foe, and assassins who are cold on the outside but warm at heart.

Some seek power, others wealth, but she will work alongside them to find a way out of this dead end.

The world sees him only as the imperial throne's lone sword, striking fear into the corrupt wherever he goes.

But Su Yushu glimpses another side beneath his cold official robes.

He seeks more than the truth behind a case. He seeks the source of the calamity that threatens the nation itself. He pursues not power, but the ideal of a peaceful and prosperous realm.

The historian's brush cannot record even a fraction of my bloodline. But the flames of war today will surely record the name "Lin Changting," not as someone's son, but as a servant of this land.

The day after their wedding, he had to head to the front lines himself.

In a long, gray-walled alley, she wore her wedding dress and held his memorial tablet as she swore:

"Lin Changting, if you die in battle, I won't live on alone."

In the Golden Chime Hall, dressed in white, she raised the Stone of the People and wielded public opinion as a sword:

"The people's will is Heaven. Please lend us your ears!"

Only then did the world realize:

The one who had been matching wits with them was neither a virtuous wife behind her husband nor an ordinary person destined to remain obscure.

She was an eagle, freed from the cage of her gender and soaring through the heavens.

"When two rabbits run side by side, how can you tell which is male and which is female?"

She never wanted a cage. She wanted a world of her own.

Theme: From a merchant's daughter to a player in the game of the realm, she will seek a way for women to break through.