Beauty's Bone, Scarlet Sleeves

Hongxiu is the reigning courtesan of the capital's pleasure quarter, and she has used that position to get herself inside the palace. Her real name is Dai Qingyin, eldest daughter of the foremost imperial merchant house. Bandits killed her parents in the mountains, and the bandits were wearing Imperial Guard waist tokens, so she believes the Emperor ordered it. Inside the palace she meets a guard, Xiao Yanhe, and the two of them grow close without either saying who they are. He is the Emperor, dressed as a guard. Through a long string of misunderstandings and the digging they each do, the tokens lead somewhere else. Prince Rui was behind the killing. The two of them work together to bring his conspiracy into the open.