Your Highness, No Falling in Love at a Crime Scene

"Records of the Jinling Cases" is currently being serialized next door

Please add it to your reading list! Sending love!

Story blurb

Pei Zhiwei inherited her father's profession and mastered the art of tracking down clues.

When her father was transferred to the capital, she went with him. Before she could even get settled, a bizarre murder case landed in her lap.

The future bride of Prince Rui had been found dead in her own bedroom on the eve of her wedding, without a sound.

The lead investigator was none other than Prince Rui, Xiao Yunzhan, a cool and dignified man renowned for his paintings.

At their first meeting, he scrutinized her as if she were a piece of evidence, his gaze sharp and utterly cold. "What I need is evidence, not the conjectures of some charlatan."

She remained unruffled. With nothing but half a footprint, she precisely reconstructed the killer's silhouette before him.

Before one case could be solved, another arose.

From that moment on, the gears of their two worlds began to mesh at a frantic pace.

One look was enough for each to know what the other was about to say.

The lines he drew could capture the indistinct shadow she described with uncanny precision;

The traces she followed always confirmed the boldest deductions in his paintings.

As they worked side by side through a string of baffling cases, they became each other's one and only partner they could trust with their back.

Until a far-reaching conspiracy swept in and sent her father to death row.

At court, he treated her with icy indifference and severed every tie with his own hands. Their once effortless understanding seemed like a joke.

Everyone waited to see her fall in disgrace. In front of them all, he played the part of the sternly impartial investigator.

No one knew that, in a secluded corner, he secretly held an umbrella over her to shield her from the storm.

And no one could have guessed that their most brutal falling-out was, in truth, their closest unspoken understanding.

They would use themselves as bait and their love as a trap, vowing to drag the mastermind into hell with their own hands.

Reader's note: The male lead has no romantic feelings for his fiancee. Their engagement was arranged. He remains devoted in both body and heart from beginning to end.

P.S.

This story is set in a fictional world.

Another serialized case-solving novel by the author, "Records of the Jinling Cases". Please add it to your reading list! Sending love!

Rumor had it that Shen Qingyan, the leader of the Xiaoyao Palace, had led her people in surrendering to the imperial court and accepted the lowly post of an unranked censor. Backed by the crown prince, she roamed the streets of the capital, acting outrageously and idling away her days. She had been doing so for three years, and the officials mocked her for being spoiled and incompetent.

No one knew that she was the emperor's own child, born from his long-ago scheme to leave the father behind and keep the child, then abandoned among the common folk. She was the emperor's secret, most treasured jewel.

With her cultivation gone awry and her life nearing its end, she had planned every step carefully, all to secure a safe future for the people of her sect.

Until a murder at the Earl's residence led her to slap a defiant man hard across the face.

Lu Ran, the empress's nephew and the young commander of the Lu army, had speared an enemy general with a single shot in the Battle of Que River, winning ten years of peace on the border.

Yet he was left with injuries that would not heal, a crippled body and a shattered will, then framed as a murderer.

That slap jolted him out of his desire to die.

He had a feeling there was more to this woman than met the eye, and fought to become a vice minister at the Court of Judicial Review so he could investigate her at close range.

But then came the wrongful conviction of a minister's wife, a killing in the crowded streets, strange happenings at the Imperial Academy...

One bloody case after another came right to his door.

He could bear it no longer. "Our soldiers bleed on the border to protect our country, while you people in the capital kill with impunity! Even if it takes every last bit of strength in my broken body, I'll uncover the truth!"

He had once been a god of war who strode across the battlefield. Now, he was flustered and helpless when it came to love.

She teased him in her spare time, watching him bristle like a bamboo ball springing into the air. She was getting more and more hooked.

The court was rife with undercurrents, and conspiracies surrounding old cases kept emerging.

The former demonic cult's enchantress and the gravely wounded god of war stood side by side through their investigations, using justice to protect the peace of the realm.

Bonus scene

The crown prince visited Shen Qingyan every day.

At last, Lu Ran could take it no more. He blocked the doorway and demanded coldly, "Cousin, either marry her properly with the full formalities, or never set foot in the Shen residence again."

The crown prince raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with you?"

Lu Ran's eyes burned as he answered, each word ringing clear and firm. "Because I'm the only one who can marry Shen Qingyan."

Theme: Find the real culprit and clear the innocent.