General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Maiden Holmes (少女大人)

Maiden Holmes (少女大人) is a 2020 Chinese costume detective-romance web drama in which a young woman disguised as a man works as an investigator while a disgraced prince secretly probes the battle that destroyed his army. It was directed by Li Xiaojiang, written by Liu Ying and Zhang Yaxi, produced by Penguin Pictures and Handing Yuyou Media, and streamed in 32 episodes on Tencent Video from August 27 to October 1, 2020.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	少女大人 / Maiden Holmes
Format	32-episode Chinese costume detective-romance web drama, about 45 minutes per episode¹^•³
Run	August 27 to October 1, 2020, on Tencent Video; two episodes at 20:00 each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday¹^•³
Key creators	Director Li Xiaojiang; screenwriters Liu Ying and Zhang Yaxi; producers Penguin Pictures and Handing Yuyou Media¹^•²
Main cast	Chen Yao as Su Ci; Zhang Linghe as Pei Zhao, the Prince of Qi, in his first lead role; Zhang Jiading as Xie Beiming; Wang Yizhe as Dong Ruoshuang; Huang Yi as Fei Yuan⁴^•⁵
Dual storylines	Su Ci's family massacre case and the Prince of Qi's search for the truth of the Honggu defeat⁶
Audience scores	Douban 6.1/10 (21,732 users, August 2025); Tencent Video 8.6/10 (99,000 users); IMDb 7.4/10 (241 users)¹^•⁷

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The story opens with war. The kingdom of Fanyanna invades across the border, and the nineteen-year-old Prince of Qi, Pei Yanzhi (裴衍之), is given command. He fights hard enough to turn the situation around, but in the final Battle of Honggu he walks into an ambush and his entire army is destroyed; he alone survives.⁸

Back at court, the Prince of Yun holds him responsible for the defeat and strips him of his military command. When the Prince of Yun places a child emperor on the throne and moves to seize royal power, the Prince of Qi and the young emperor reach a quiet understanding, and the prince chooses to withdraw for the time being. Publicly he abandons court affairs and lives under the alias Pei Zhao (裴昭); privately he investigates, determined to establish the truth of the defeat.⁸

Su Ci's hidden identity. While investigating the loss of disaster-relief silver in Qingshui County, Pei Zhao meets Su Ci (苏瓷), a young chief investigator of the Mingjing Bureau, and takes an interest in her cold manner and exceptional skill at solving cases; the two travel together. On the road they meet Xie Beiming, young master of the Feiyun Manor, and Dong Ruoshuang, daughter of the Poison King, and the four form a case-solving team.⁸ Su Ci's own history drives the other main thread: after her entire family was massacred, she disguised herself as a man, concealed her name, and went alone to the capital to investigate the truth of her family's case.⁹ As the cases are solved one by one, her true identity is revealed, the truth of the war surfaces, and the team is drawn into the power struggle at court, facing tests of truth, love, friendship, and family.⁸

Cast and characters

Chen Yao plays Su Ci, described by the production as a reserved young detective who is cold on the outside and warm within. Zhang Linghe plays Pei Zhao, the resourceful Prince of Qi; Maiden Holmes was his first acting role and his first lead, and his casting drew attention from the time the production began.⁶^•⁵ The supporting team pairs Xie Beiming, a chivalrous and good-natured young manor master, with Dong Ruoshuang, an impish daughter of the Poison King, and adds Fei Yuan, a kind young steward whom the Prince of Qi rescued as an orphan during his campaigns and who keeps his household and cooks well.⁶^•¹⁰ Veteran actors including Zhang Yanran, Li Jinrong, and Chang Cheng supported the younger leads.⁶

Production

The producers followed a script-first approach. Producer Miao Luman said the screenplay took about a year and a half to develop and that a project would only proceed once the story and characters were convincing. The series combines detective, romance, court-intrigue, and comedy elements, and the production team described its aim as a "sweet detective" (糖探剧) drama in which the romance grows out of the characters rather than being engineered through gags.⁶

The visual side was treated as part of that quality. The production designed nearly 300 costumes, with more than 20 looks each for the two leads, including one-of-a-kind pieces such as the ethnic-minority clothing Su Ci wears as a child; it also built more than 100 sets. Art director Wang Yu and costume designer Li Limin, whose earlier credits include Shadow, Ip Man 4, Goodbye Mr. Loser-era works such as The Legend of Donggong, and Novoland: Eagle Flag, led the design.⁶ Filming took place in Hengdian, where the production began in May 2019.¹¹

Reception

Three days after launch, the drama ranked second on the Maoyan all-network heat list with a heat score of 9,263.¹ Audience scores settled in a middle range: Douban recorded 6.1/10 from 21,732 users as of August 18, 2025, while Tencent Video users gave 8.6/10 from about 99,000 ratings, and IMDb listed 7.4/10 from 241 users.¹^•⁷ Rakuten Viki, which streams the series with subtitles in English, Polish, French, and other languages, shows a 9.4 user rating.¹²

Trade coverage was favorable. Television Guide magazine wrote that the drama brought new energy to the costume detective-romance genre, praising its acting, production standards, script polish, and costume design, and called it a genuine "sweet detective" drama in which major cases run through the story, smaller cases provide texture, and the romance rises step by step without dragging the pace.¹ Viewer commentary has noted that the drama received little promotion during its run, which limited discussion despite a generally positive response.¹³

Place in the genre

Maiden Holmes belongs to the wave of small-to-mid-budget Chinese web dramas that combine the sweet-romance (甜宠) format with detective plotting, a combination the producers described as popular but not a shortcut, since such projects succeed only with careful writing.⁶ Director Li Xiaojiang had tried the same blend in his earlier series The Chef Lady (花间提壶方大厨), and said of this drama that its cases were substantial and logically tight while also driving the leads from first meeting to mutual love.¹⁴ The series is frequently listed among recommended costume detective dramas of its period, alongside titles such as Mystery of the Imperial Corner (御赐小仵作) and Under the Power (锦衣之下).¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Iv to My

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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