“Fragrance concealed in the ashes, luring you into my trap.”
In the Great Yan dynasty, the art of perfumery reigns supreme. The four great incense-making families are headed by women, while men marry into their families and pass their bloodline on under their wives’ surnames. Xie Qingyan, eldest legitimate daughter of the Xie family, was born with an extraordinary sense of smell. She can distinguish every fragrance in the world, but not the depths of a person’s heart. Three years ago, Pei Zhaoxue shook the court with a memorial and placed third in the palace examinations. After being caught up in a palace incense scandal, his whole family was slaughtered. He fell from a cliff, lost his memory, and ended up wandering the streets. Xie Qingyan takes him in as her “incense lure.”
She needs him as a shield on her path to inheriting the family business; he needs the protection of her household to investigate the truth behind his family’s annihilation. They sign a contract, each getting what they need. Neither knows that when incense ash buries the truth, what rises from the embers is a love and hatred powerful enough to set the world ablaze.
Meanwhile, in the shadows, a forbidden romance is quietly eroding the pillars of this century-old incense dynasty: between Xie Ying, the Xie family’s concubine-born daughter, and Xuanying, a guard of unknown origins. It begins with exploitation, becomes ensnared in desire, and ends in destruction...
