Wronged to the Bone, She Relies on the Mad King to Stay Alive

(Black-lotus perfumer x sweet-faced, dark-hearted mad king / Unlock a deadly fragrance recipe each chapter / Double revenge in the palace and the household)

“The incense of Guiyuan Hall can save lives, and kill without a trace.”

Fu Yao kneels before her mother Zhao Cheng's grave, digging her fingertips deep into the incense ash. Three years ago, a palace fragrance case led to her mother, the lampkeeper of Guiyuan Hall, being falsely accused of murdering a royal heir. Now Fu Yao has returned to the inner palace as a perfumer, every step bringing her close to the blade, until she meets the notorious mad king, Xiao Ce.

◆ Revenge through fragrance: The Empress Dowager's calming incense conceals a bone-eating poison, while the Empress's beauty balm is mixed with a sterilizing drug. Using the Fragrance Compendium her mother left behind, Fu Yao makes her enemies suffer the consequences of their own schemes.

◆ The mad king takes her side: Xiao Ce crushes a poisoned wine cup and laughs. “No one gets to judge my princess consort.” But then he traps Fu Yao in the fragrance pavilion. “What did you use on the Empress Dowager? Why not let me have a taste first...”

◆ The mystery of her birth: When Fu Yao deciphers the final fragrance recipe, she discovers that her mother's death was tied to the palace coup twenty years ago. The dragon pattern on the jade pendant at Xiao Ce's waist is the token of the crown prince who disappeared that year.