Hello, Police? I want to report a murder. The writer just killed my Happy Ending. Can you arrest her? 

To avoid being disappointed with this Cdrama like I was with “The Heiress,” I waited for the reports to come in before recommending this one. Yes! We have a Happy Ending for this drama.

Here are my five reasons for liking this Cdrama:

1. Because I’m a Pringles eater…errr…viewer.

A compulsive viewer, like a compulsive eater, can’t stop with a single episode. Like many cdramas, this show had no cliffhanger to finish the episode, so the ending naturally rolls on to the next episode. I began with episode 1, and the next thing I knew, I was already in Episode 4.

So what does this tell me about the plot? It tells me that watching the drama wasn’t stressful at all. I didn’t need to pause in the middle of the show to catch my breath or relax my jaw. This is just what I need for a tiring day at work.

2. The female lead, Su Ci

I don’t know whether the Chinese Ministry of Culture (i.e., the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television) has issued a list of preapproved drama content to their writers and broadcasters. But I don’t mind that smart, working and crossdressing heroines are in vogue this year. I’m tired of decorative chicks.

The drama opened with Su Ci standing in the middle of a busy brothel while a story of Prince Qi’s war exploit was being recounted by a storyteller.

I like how the camera shot a close-up of her eyes. At first, I thought it was an odd to begin this way, but I realized now that eyes were one of the themes of this episode. She uses her eyes to solve her cases – like Sherlock Holmes – while the hero is losing his eyesight.

While Su Ci stood there, a voice narrated, “The Green Dragon Sword on his hand was slashing everywhere. He forcefully fought his way out while surrounded by the enemy forces. As Tuo Mu, the enemy general, got closer to him, Tuo Mu took a look and found the situation desperate. He waved the commanding flag and all his guards shot poison arrows at Prince Qi. Although Prince Qi is young, he is highly skilled in martial arts. The poison arrows never did any damage to him….He is our dynasty’s God of War. Every guard who saw him was terrified. Run! The God of War is coming!”

I also like the computer generated graphics here. The viewers see Chinese words superimposed on the male servers and clients of the brothel. But these Chinese words disappeared like pixie dusts as Su Ci eyed the men.

Although I can’t read Chinese, I assumed those Chinese words represented Su Ci’s rapid analyses of the men’s traits. She was listing the characteristics of the men and eliminating them as suspect. I thought this enhanced computer graphics worked well ESPECIALLY since the voiceover kept on droning about scene at Prince Qi’s battle.

You see, it provided contrast. While the storyteller was describing how Prince Qi slashed every enemy with his Green Dragon Sword, our heroine was virtually slashing every male in sight with her brilliant deduction. lol. LITERALLY, brilliant deduction because the Chinese words were written in gold.

In effect, the parallelism between Prince Qi and Su Ci was being established. While Prince Qi was a proven hero in battles, Su Ci was, in her own rights, a formidable investigator in crime scenes.

3. The male lead, Pei Zhao aka Prince Qi

Let’s be honest here. We all go gaga over handsome heroes. Seriously, who would want to strain eyes for 32 episodes for a schmuck?

I like Prince Qi (who goes by his common name Pei Zhao) because he begged for her attention. Usually, in cdramas, the guys would have the upperhand but here, it was Su Ci who ignored him for being an obstruction.

Later she snubbed him again, so he asked her straight up.

Pei: I never offended you. I even saved you. You shouldn’t ignore me no matter what.
SuCi: If you hadn’t saved me before, I would’ve already arrested you for interfering with public duties.
Pei: Did I offend you in any way?
SuCi: A dandy won’t care about the sufferings of the people. But please do not interfere with my duties.

She didn’t know it then, but he was the one who hired her to investigate because a) he was concerned about the sufferings of the people, and b) he did admire her work ethics. She was so determined to think badly of him that he didn’t want to reveal to her that he was in reality that Prince Qi whom she greatly admired and read about in her books.

I also like it that the male lead is genuinely a nice guy. Of course, to our heroine, he didn’t look like a nice guy when they first saw each other. She thought he was a player.

Sidenote: It’s funny how words change over time. In the olden times, a man who was sexually indiscriminate was known as a “rake” or “libertine.” He’d also be called a “Casanova,” “Don Juan,” “Lothario” or “Romeo,” after famous lovers in history or literature. Then the popular word became “philanderer” and “playboy.” But the meaning remained unchanged: he’s a “womanizer” and “cheater,” or “adulterer.” Nowadays, the slang for a man who plays around with a lot of women is “player,” “stud” or the cruder version, “manwhore.”

The heroine first thought he was a player because he was in a room full of geishas (what’s the equivalent of geishas in Cdramas?) when they first met. She was kicking doors down to hunt for a rapist at the same time that he was playing a game of “Guess Who the Geisha is?” by sniffing the girls. (BTW, there was a reason he was engaging in this game. He wanted his spies to think that he’d given up politics and joined the life of profligacy.)

She burst his door and ended up unceremoniously in his arms while he ended up catching a whiff of her.

Of course, each of us here, blasé viewers that we are, would immediately spot the trope moment. But here’s why it works for me.

One, our heroine, who’s the eponymous Sherlock Holmes of the drama, totally missed the real identity of this guy. Because of this first interaction, she pegged him down as a rake, libertine, Casanova, playboy, womanizer, player, stud….and in her actual word, “pervert” because she saw the many lipstick stains on his shirt.

She had the wrong impression of him from the start.

And that’s funny as she’d been listening to the storyteller describing Prince Qi’s amazing feats. Prince Qi is her idol. But when he was actually standing in the flesh, she failed to recognize him because he was nothing like the stories. For instance, according to the report, poison arrows were shot at him, but they didn’t inflict injuries.

Well, they did. This naked back is brought to you gratuitously.

Also, it destroyed his eyesight. He had a keen sense of smell because he couldn’t rely on his sense of sight alone.

Two, the physical contact or “skinship.” The skinship in the opening scene set the pace of the story because there will be more. By the end of this episode, Prince Qi would have:

a. ordered her to put her hand under his shirt. To him, she was another man and he needed help. She was the one flustered by their physical contact.

b. kissed her under the water. I guess, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is now all the rage in dramas. Didn’t we see this in “Flower of Evil,” too.

c. held hands with her while running. Mind you, his hand was on top of hers.

Why is this interesting to me? Well, she grabbed his hand. Usually, when you grab somebody’s hand, your hand ends up resting on top of the other hand. However, in this scene, she was leading him but he assumed the dominant position with his hand over hers. The dominant hand is the one whose palm is facing down (or backwards).

d. rolled on top of her. She was smaller than him so I’m surprised that he didn’t squish her flat.

and lastly, he unpinned her hair. I found that moment when he undid her hair sexier a scene showing a man disrobing a girl. Maybe it’s because her long black hair looked luxuriant as it swished down?

Or maybe because she looked vulnerable when her hair was down? Too bad that he couldn’t see how feminine she looked because he had blurry eyesight.

So their first meeting – or “meet cute,” as they call it in kdrama — is the sign of things to come.

There’s a role reversal because she’s the cynical one while he’s the one taken with her. His smiles behind her back are really cute. Somebody has to keep a running tally, lol.

4. The sidekicks

They weren’t as annoying as most sidekicks were. In many ways, they were useful to move along the plot. Plus, the lead characters didn’t end up doing everything because the heavy weightlifting was left to the second male lead, Beiming, and the physician role was allotted to the second female lead, Rushuang.

I also like it that there isn’t a love triangle with the two men chasing after the Su Ci. Instead, the love triangle involves Rushuang falling in love with Su Ci herself much to the chagrin of the Beiming.

As for the looks department, Beiming is good-looking enough, but Rushuang? Not so much.

A picture says a thousand words.

5. Lastly, the handcuffs

To stop his interference, she was going to cuff him. But in deft and quick movements, he cuffed her to him. I’m sure the handcuffs will be a metaphor of their relationship.

She can’t help being a stickler for the rules. She took on this job as state investigator with the goal of finding out who murdered her family. While the case is unsolved, she isn’t going to let romance get in the way.

However, Prince Qi can’t help chaining himself to her.

Unlike other cross-dressing cdramas, he doesn’t worry about his sexuality because he thinks he’s falling for someone of his own sex. I don’t know whether or not he recognized very early on (by touch? by smell?) that Su Ci isn’t male; he just doesn’t waste sleep over.

Hence, the handcuffs are a metaphor. He knew how to pick the locks. It wouldn’t have taken him long to release them both. But he allowed himself to be dragged by her all over the place. It must have been exhilarating for him to be in her company.

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And there you have it. My first impressions of another Cdrama, “Maiden Holmes.” I think it’s an enjoyable show with a tsundere (or cool-hearted) heroine and a winsome guy.

I have HEHarry to thank for recommending this show.