Tempering the Red Kite

She is the sharpest blade of the Hall of Eternal Life, code-named “Yuan.” She kills and leaves a flower behind, cold-blooded and merciless. After a failed mission, she is abandoned as expendable, only to fall by chance into the hands of her target, Prince Jing, Zhao Yan.

He is the most esteemed prince of the Great Jing Dynasty. He appears lazy and carefree, but is actually the master of the Shadow Pavilion, a man who conceals his true abilities. He saw through her disguise long ago, but calmly kept her at his side. She is his maid, his prisoner, and, above all, his fascinating prey.

The torture and probing in the dungeon are his warning to her. The protection and closeness after her inexplicable release are a gentle trap he has laid. “Is this prince’s dungeon comfortable?” he asks playfully, lifting her chin.

From “little wildcat” to “Little Yuan’er,” he closes in step by step, watching her carefully play the weakling and reveal her sharp edge in the dead of night.

When the arrows of betrayal come from someone she once loved dearly, and the organization’s assassins pursue her one after another, he comes to her aid, but also fastens a golden bell anklet engraved with “Heart-Locking Bell” around her ankle. She doesn’t know that the golden bell anklet he put on her himself does not bind her freedom, but rather his own heart, which has long since slipped out of his control. “Serve this prince, and I can keep you alive.”

In this dangerous game where lives and true feelings are at stake, beneath the testing and teasing, two lonely hearts quietly draw closer. She gradually discovers that this man, who seems to control everything, is hiding a shocking secret tied to her own birth...

From clashing swords to standing together through life and death, from a cold weapon to a treasure in his palm. See how the cold-faced assassin is devoured by the cunning prince as they join hands to lift the veil of mystery and weave a legend of power struggles and love.