A review by stacieladams21
The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua [成化十四年] by 梦溪石

5.0

By the author of Thousand Autumns and Peerless but not wuxia or xianxia. This is a historical fiction novel set during the Ming Dynasty with A LOT of political/palace intrigue, mystery, and crime-solving (but not as complicated as QJJ). Kind of like having a slice of life romance on the side while there is stuff going on in the world. The romance is very slow burn and fade to black so if you need heavy romance, this book is probably not for you. However, their relationship is super sweet and provides a lot of humor. It’s definitely my favorite part of this novel.

Characters:

Tang Fan: young and VERY smart, kind, sweet demeanor, baby girl, foodie and lover of romance novels. Reminds me of Song Qinghsi and Xie Lian.

Sui Zhou: Smart and powerful, from an important family, good at martial arts, icy cold (to most) but loyal, loving, provider, protector, caretaker when it comes to TF (and the people TF care about)

Things I loved:

🔵Their relationship

🔵Cute little formed family. Lovable side characters

🔵Detailed ancient China history and politics but not overwhelming or confusing

🔵Possibly my favorite eunuch character in danmei, Wang Zhi

Things I didn’t love:

🔴A little too long for a slow burn that doesn’t have any wuxia or xianxia aspects IMO. It’s about the length of Tianbao Fuyao and Kaleidoscope of Death but slightly shorter than TGCF. 

🔴The times they were apart. 10+ arcs with maybe 4 with them not together 😩

There is a live action called The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty which I think is on Viki and iQIYI.