The Woman Disguised as a Male Scholar

Xu Yan had learned to dress the dead, wash blood from old sleeves, and smile when people called her trash. As a funeral mourner in the fighting world, she knew how strong fighters broke, what herbs stopped a death rattle, and which wounds looked fake only after the body was cold. That skill kept her alive, but it also made her a target. When a funeral turns cruel and a hidden furnace appears in a tea caddy, she starts using the one thing her enemies ignore: the knowledge that comes from touching the dead. Her mask as a male scholar holds, her temper does not, and the chipped flying sword in her sleeve feels like a promise she made to someone who died once already.