The Female Detective of the Ming Dynasty

In central Beijing’s Qianyu Alley of Chengqing Neighborhood, a widow named Lu Shanrou lived. Having lost two husbands, she carried a reputation as a “husband-killer.” However, her fame for solving cases far outweighed her infamy. Lu Shanrou was known to crack cases ignored by the authorities—such as identifying the true and false daughters of a noble house or locating the will of a wealthy merchant who passed without time to communicate it. She even solved cases that the government couldn’t handle, such as the mu*der of a newly appointed official in the Chenghuang Temple and a eunuch’s family massacre. There were rumors of a romantic connection between the brilliant widow and Wei Cuicheng,...