Modern pastry chef Su Tang opens her eyes and finds herself in ancient times, inhabiting Shen Zhiyi, a concubine-born daughter who was tortured to death. In a pool of blood on her wedding night, she clenches her fists. Her predecessor was tricked by her stepmother into marrying the scum Gu Yanxi, then bullied by his favored concubine and mistreated by her husband. Even the dowry her mother left her was stolen. She'll settle that score for her!
She puts on a meek, harmless act, then turns around and uses a plate of “laxative candy” to take down a cruel servant, employs “shadow-painting” to capture evidence of her husband visiting a brothel, and smiles as she hands him divorce papers at a family banquet. “Young Master Gu, let's never meet again. May we each find peace.”
On her path to revenge, she crosses paths with Xiao Che, Prince Jing, whose power reaches across the court. When he sees the half-jade pendant at her waist, his eyes turn red. “Xiaoyi?”
It turns out she is his childhood sweetheart, lost to him many years ago! A conspiracy caused him to be kidnapped and lose his memory, while she was drugged and brainwashed. They should have grown up together, but fate kept them separated by mountains and seas.
“If you want revenge, I'll help you.” Xiao Che clears the obstacles in her path, while she helps him uncover the mastermind who tore them apart all those years ago. From joining forces to find evidence that her stepmother plotted to seize the family fortune, to exposing the shocking truth about the prime minister's embezzlement, her pastry shop becomes a blade aimed at their enemies, while his power becomes armor to protect her.
When her stepmother is jailed and the scoundrel is exiled thousands of miles away, Su Tang thinks everything is finally settled. But Xiao Che drops to one knee and holds out the other half of the jade pendant. “I owed you candied hawthorn when we were children. Now that we're grown, may I repay you with my whole life?”
She smiles, her eyes curving as she pops a piece of candy into his mouth. “First, try my cooking. Is it sweet?”
From a desperate plight stained with bridal red to a blissful union in a prosperous age, this is the story of a sweet girl wielding a blade to cut through conspiracies and schemes,
