Shen Shuying is the least remarkable concubine-born daughter of the Shen family.
The only things her birth mother left her were a damaged book of incense recipes and a clear-headedness unsuited to her time.
The day her stepmother smashed her third teacup, Shuying was forced to marry into the Marquis of Zhenbei's household in place of her elder half-sister.
Outsiders envied her advantageous marriage, but she knew that the marquis's household was rotten beneath its gilded exterior.
The heir, Xiao Yan, was a notorious playboy in the capital.
On their wedding night, he lifted her veil, took one look, and said, "You're thinner than you looked in the portrait."
Then he turned and left.
Shuying neither cried nor made a scene. When the marquis's household ran out of money and could no longer pay its servants, she quietly prepared a batch of calming incense.
As soon as it was lit, the old madam slept soundly, the servants began minding their manners, and everyone in the household finally treated Shuying with respect.
But incense could calm the mind, and it could also reveal a person's nature.
Her stepmother's makeup smelled unusually strong: she was feeling guilty.
The stewardess's sandalwood incense was tainted: she was embezzling money.
The smell of alcohol on Xiao Yan had faded, while the scent of ink had grown stronger: he was investigating his father's death.
And one page was missing from the incense recipe book her mother had left behind.
That page described an incense called "Spring's Embers."
They said that once it had burned to ash, even the most tight-lipped person would speak.
"Making incense is like being a person. Too much and it's excessive, too little and it's insipid. It all comes down to getting it just right."
Shuying thought she was only keeping a hollow marquis's household afloat.
Then Xiao Yan placed the missing page of incense recipes before her.
"Who did your mother make this batch of Spring's Embers for all those years ago?"
She looked up and caught the faintest scent of blood on his sleeve. Suddenly, she understood.
This marriage had never been a cage for her alone.
