On a snowy night in Jinling, the Su family is sentenced to execution for treason. Their legitimate daughter, Su Qingyuan, escapes with a secret letter and encounters Prince Jing, Xiao Jue, in a desolate forest. Because she looks so much like his late cousin, he mistakes her for a spy from an enemy kingdom and imprisons her in his manor.
Xiao Jue commands the military but is under the emperor’s suspicion. His attitude toward her swings between cold and warm: he slaps her for hiding the letter, yet secretly brings her medicine to bring down her fever in the dead of night. Su Qingyuan survives under the assumed name “A Yuan.” Seeing him lose himself in a portrait of his cousin, she becomes certain she is only a stand-in, and her heart breaks.
On a snowy night at the border, she risks her life to infiltrate the enemy camp, retrieve evidence, and write a letter in blood. Xiao Jue learns the truth but, for political reasons, lies and claims she is still a “spy.” During the palace coup in the capital, he pretends to send her to Jiangnan for her safety. But when she turns back to save her imprisoned mother, she is forced to offer him poisoned wine. In a rain-soaked Jiangnan alley, she cuts her hair and opens an academy to escape the world. He gives up his power and comes looking for her, but misunderstandings still divide them.
Only when she takes an arrow meant for him during the palace coup does he cast aside his doubts. To protect the child she carries, he destroys his own martial arts. At court, he tears up the edict of succession and gives up his position as regent. At last, the two put their estrangement behind them. In the end, they retreat to Jiangnan with their child. Beneath the crabapple blossoms, she asks, “Do you regret it?” He answers, “With you and Nian Yuan, I have no regrets in this life.” Even within the most agonizing love, the truest devotion endures.
