Childhood sweethearts are sugar, and political schemes are knives. She met him when they were young, never knowing that the fateful game had been set in motion the moment she took her first bite of mint candy.
Xu Muo, daughter of the Minister of Rites, lives as boldly and freely as her name suggests. She can accept a poisoned drink with a grin at a palace banquet, yet somehow cannot see through the warm, smiling eyes of the Fourth Prince, Hai Xing. Everyone says His Highness is a paragon of grace and virtue. Only Xu Muo knows that his greatest talent is hiding his schemes beneath a gentle facade, wrapped in the sweet scent of mint candy.
An imperial edict commanding a political marriage casts Xu Muo into the abyss. The Empress Dowager wants her to marry off to a barbarian land in place of the princess, and her childhood sweetheart becomes the only one who can help her turn the tables. He teaches her to plan every move: secret messages sent by kite, hidden words concealed in sugar frosting, even poison steeped in the nuptial wine. But when the Third Prince is deposed, a Persian delegation arrives in the capital, and a blood-written decree hidden in a secret passage beneath Tang Palace comes to light, Xu Muo finally realizes that the secret behind Hai Xing's gentle mask is far more painful than she imagined. He was born unable to taste sweetness, yet he kept candy for her for twenty years.
