Shen Li, a top modern relic-restoration expert, unexpectedly transmigrates into the Great Zhou dynasty as the much-bullied illegitimate daughter of the Yong'an Marquis's household. She is forced to take another woman's place in marriage to Xiao Yanchong, the powerful Regent known as the "Living King of Hell," who is afflicted with a deadly poison. The wedding is meant to bring him good fortune.
On their wedding night, her relic restorer's gift for "empathy" lets her touch a silver hairpin and glimpse the secret past between her mother and the Regent. She also sees through Xiao Yan's vulnerability when his poison flares up. The two "lovers with nothing to lose," each harboring their own intentions, form an alliance: she uses her skill at restoring antiques to seek clues to a cure and unravel the court's tangled schemes, while he shields her with his power and helps her find her footing amid the treacherous Marquis's household and the imperial court.
From wary probing to standing by each other through life and death, Shen Li and Xiao Yan uncover the mystery of her origins together amid the whirlpool of political intrigue, ultimately becoming each other's most precious one-of-a-kind heirloom.
