Ling Yan, Who?

[Beautiful and brilliant young lady # cold on the outside, warm-hearted senior brother] The heroine stays smart throughout; no romance-addled behavior. BE ending. Readers who like HE endings, stay away!

Shen Qianling was the legitimate daughter of the Shen family. Sadly, her birth mother died young, and her father remarried and had another daughter. From then on, no one cared for her.

Luckily, as a child she looked very much like Princess Lin Qian, so the Empress Dowager took her in and doted on her. Later, she became a disciple of the Lord of Cang Mountain, and both her master and senior brother showered her with affection.

She thought this was the start of a happy life, never guessing that it was all part of a scheme years in the making…