Shen Yuchu, the illegitimate daughter of the Minister of Revenue, is forced to marry Xiao Beihan, the capital’s notorious playboy prince, so she can survive the household’s vicious infighting and investigate the injustice surrounding her birth mother’s death. She thinks her husband is a useless wastrel who does nothing but listen to music and walk his birds, until one night she finds this “useless” man wiping blood from a sword. He gives her a lazy smile. “My dear consort, help me cover for myself, would you?”
From then on, two people wearing masks are forced to work together. She uses her wits to help him outmaneuver his rivals, while he uses his power to stand up for her. With the crown prince and the favored concubine closing in at every turn, and the emperor’s inscrutable schemes looming over them, they go from a couple bound by a marriage of convenience to soulmates who are evenly matched. At last, amid the bloody struggle for the throne, they join hands to lift the layers of deception, clear the name of the wronged, and confront both the cruelty and warmth that lie beneath imperial power. In the end, they win the empire and the love that belongs to them.
