Splendid Mansion: The Legitimate Daughter’s Scheme

The tranquil estate on the coast of Danzhou holds the childhood memories of Shen Qingyan, the Shen family's legitimate daughter. The orphaned child of Shen Qingmei, the former head of the embroidery house, she was raised by her maternal grandparents. She seems sweet and guileless, yet her soul holds an adult's insight and resilience. Nanny Qin's skill in blending fragrances, Uncle Mute's quiet protection, and the mysterious embroidery patterns her mother left behind have set her on a path of growth with hidden sharp edges.

A summons ordering her to return home shatters the peace, forcing Shen Qingyan into the turmoil of the Shen residence in the capital. Her stepmother, Liu Yuru, hides a ruthless heart beneath her virtuous facade and covets the right to inherit the embroidery house. Her father's concubine, Su Lianyue, uses her reputation for being “considerate” to curry favor with the old madam and secure benefits for her children. Liu Yunxi, the Liu family's niece, and Shen Ruowei, her half-sister, circle around her, each with their own schemes. And the old story that her birth mother died in “childbirth” conceals a bloody secret about the struggle between legitimate and illegitimate heirs.

From encountering an old servant in the Buddhist hall who holds the household's old accounts, to winning first place in an embroidery contest with A Lone Angler on a Frozen River; from seeing through her half-sister's scheme to poison her bird's nest soup, to using “bewitching incense” to draw out the truth about embezzlement, Shen Qingyan wields fragrance blending and poison-making as a blade, and uses coded embroidery as her strategy, advancing carefully through the infighting at home. An arranged marriage to the Li family, secret dyeing recipes among her dowry, and the discreet help of her cousin Gu Yan give her the upper hand in the family's business rivalries and struggles between legitimate and illegitimate heirs.

When the collapse of the ancestral altar's incense burner is used to frame her, followed by the switching of birthday gifts at a longevity banquet, Shen Qingyan finally uncovers the truth about her mother's death. In the end, she conceals secrets in a hundred embroidered dowry pieces, takes charge by modernizing the embroidery house's production line, and makes the dyeing recipes public. She breathes new life into the Shen family's estate and wins herself a lifetime of security.