Su Jinning, legitimate daughter of the Duke Who Guards the Nation, trusted the wrong people in her previous life: her half-sister Su Wanrou and her betrothed, the Third Prince Zhao Heng. The two conspired to accuse her of adultery and frame her family, before she was finally forced to drink poison and died a miserable death in the cold ancestral hall.
Reborn, she returns to the humiliating day her engagement was broken off. When Su Wanrou offers her soup laced with laxatives, she exposes her on the spot. When Zhao Heng humiliates her in public, she throws out his private letters to another woman and turns the tables, leaving them both disgraced.
Unexpectedly, an imperial decree from the Empress Dowager betroths her to Xiao Che, the “useless prince” mocked by everyone in the capital, the late emperor's youngest son, rumored to be mad and incapable of even looking after himself.
At their first meeting after the wedding, Xiao Che grabs her hand, calls her “Tangtang,” and gives her a rag doll. He seems insane, but his eyes are clear. Only then does Su Jinning learn that the “useless prince” has been feigning madness to avoid danger, and that in her previous life he died beneath the Crown Prince's poisoned wine while trying to save her.
From then on, the reborn legitimate daughter and the prince who has regained his wits join forces for revenge. She uses the memories of her rebirth to gather evidence, tear apart her scheming half-sister, and kick her treacherous former betrothed to the curb. He draws on the power he has patiently built over the years to help her secure her position and stand against the Crown Prince, who holds sway over the entire court.
From a daughter cast aside in the ancestral hall to the Princess of Jing, from a prince pretending to be mad to an emperor ushering in a golden age, they protect one another through household strife and political machinations, and save each other amid bloodshed and turmoil. When the ledgers expose the Crown Prince's embezzlement and collusion with the enemy, and the schemes of her half-sister and former betrothed are laid bare, Su Jinning finally protects her family's honor, while Xiao Che rises to the pinnacle of power.
In this life, she will not only avenge her family's blood, but also join hands with the man she loves to protect this vast realm, leaving behind none of the regrets of her previous life.
