Xie Tianruan, the legitimate daughter of the Xie family of the capital, was gentle and kind in her previous life. Yet her stepmother, Madam Wang, poisoned her birth mother to death, while her half-sister Xie Wanrou and husband Chen Shi'an carried on an affair and joined forces to slowly seize the family estate. In the end, while pregnant, she was forced to drink an abortifacient and died in agony.
Reborn at fifteen, she returns to a time before it all began. In this life, she will no longer be a weak legitimate daughter for others to bully. She takes charge of the family businesses, puts the household in order, and investigates her mother's murder, advancing carefully at every turn. A performance of “The Phoenix Seeks Her Mate” at a palace banquet dazzles the capital, while her historical poems at a poetry gathering make her famous among scholars. She turns the tables and leads her stepmother straight into a trap.
Shen Yanzhi, the legitimate son of the cold-faced but warm-hearted Marquis of Zhenbei, was the only person who ever helped her in her previous life. In this one, fate keeps bringing them together. From testing one another to fighting side by side, from shielding her from an arrow at the Lantern Festival to delivering grain to the northern frontier, the two gradually grow closer amid schemes and sincere affection.
When the truth about the Heartbreak Powder is revealed, Madam Wang is brought to justice, the Crown Prince's palace coup is crushed, and Chen Shi'an is ruined, she reclaims, one by one, all that she was owed in her previous life. With a grand bridal procession stretching ten miles, the phoenix returns to her nest. In this life, she will protect everyone she holds dear and live a life utterly different from before.
