Yang CaiWei and Pan Yue were childhood sweethearts, and were bestowed an imperial decree for marriage. Unfortunately, CaiWei's father was demoted and posted to a remote area. Enroute to his new position, the family was massacred by bandits. CaiWei escaped death but was defigured and became the disciple of a low level coroner in order to survive, and was despised by the villagers for both her look and social status.

Pan Yue searched for his sweetheart for 10 years, eventually found her in Heyang and proposed marriage. Shuangguan Zhi who was obsessively infatuated with Pan Yue was devastated. Evil as she was, she arranged for a sorcerer to swapped her face with CaiWei and pushed her off a cliff. But on the wedding night, the faked CaiWei was murdered. Rumour circulated that Pan Yue who was later betrothed to Princess Liu Qing murdered CaiWei to free himself from the earlier imperial decree and engagement.

Returning with the face and identity of Shuangguan Zhi, CaiWei insisted on joining Pan Yue to investigate the death of 'CaiWei' when he returned as the new magistrate of Heyang. Did Pan Yue really murder his wife? What was the conspiracy behind the murder? How would Pan Yue deal with the faked Shuangguan Zhi whom he detested?

The plot was intriguing as the duo investigated into the death of 'CaiWei', both suspecting that the other was the murderer. When this was cleared up, the mystery shifted to who was the mastermind behind the series of murders in Heyang and the motivation. The viewers were held in suspense as they inched nearer to the mastermind and at every stage, they faced sabotage, fabricated incrimination, attempted assassinations and defamation.

You would go on an emotional roller-coaster alternating between light-hearted moments, and sadness at the death of the innocence who helped with the investigation especially of the second lead.

I had watched Liu Xue Yi appeared many times in dramas. He was excellent as the second lead in the Blood of Youth and outstanding as the demon king in the Story of White Snake. I am happy to see him finally landing a lead role in a drama of substance and hope to see more of him in such lead roles. Besides being very handsome, he acted well. It is quite regrettable that Chinese actors typically have to pass their 30s before landing lead roles in good dramas.

I was watching the Legend of ShenLi, with Zhao LiYing and Lin GengXin as leads. In mydramalist.com, the Legend of ShenLi was rated higher. But while waiting for more episodes to be released in the Legend of ShenLi, I was hijacked completely by this drama and 'chased' this drama to the end. I kind of suspected that the higher rating was due to the fan base of the leads rather than the story.

Some of the support roles who did very well are worth a mention - Li Ge Yang as the second male Zhuo Lan Jiang, Qi Pei Xin who was outstanding as the villain in the Untamed acted as the third male lead A Ze, Wu Jia Yi as the second female Bai Xiao Sheng, and Zheng He Hui Zi as the 'real' CaiWei, who did very well earning some viewers' comments that she should have been the main lead.

Ju Jing Yi did very well in this drama as the female lead. She was outstanding as the evil Shuangguan Zhi. As the fake Shungguan Zhi, there were lots of comic moments as misunderstandings arose often while she faked her identity.

However, the switching of the faces was laughable - the sorcerer who did this must be the best plastic surgeon in the whole of history - lol.

In summary, I highly recommended this drama.