Early on: Clingy Princess X Aloof, Untouchable Official
Later: Cold-Blooded Secret Guard X Devoted, Loyal Hound
A secret imperial decree links Her Highness Anle, the eldest princess of Liangzhen, Xiao Ruoyin, with Yan Heng, Vice Minister of the Censorate.
Yan Heng keeps his distance from Xiao Ruoyin while she recuperates at the Yan residence, but he cannot withstand her relentless advances.
To get away from Xiao Ruoyin, Yan Heng volunteers to travel to Qingzhou to investigate a case. Unexpectedly, Xiao Ruoyin follows without a word. In Qingzhou, Xiao Ruoyin risks her life to rush into a sea of flames and save Yan Heng, stirring feelings for her in his heart.
After returning to the capital, Yan Heng realizes that he is finding it harder and harder to control his feelings for Xiao Ruoyin. But he is already engaged to Yu Xixue and does not want to break his word, so he asks the emperor to bring Xiao Ruoyin back to the palace. When she learns of this, Xiao Ruoyin disappears that very night. Yan Heng eventually finds her at the Yan residence, and the matter of her return to the palace is quietly dropped.
Yan Heng grants almost every request Xiao Ruoyin makes, yet he remains steadfast in his engagement to Yu Xixue. Even though he has already fallen deeply in love with Xiao Ruoyin, the responsibilities on his shoulders keep him from facing his true feelings. He sinks deeper even as he struggles to hold himself back.
But everything changes dramatically on the night Xiao Ruoyin returns to the palace.
Xiao Ruoyin uses wine to stir his emotions and drugs to unsettle his senses, completely shattering Yan Heng's reason and ending his engagement to Yu Xixue.
What he never expects is that Xiao Ruoyin has been plotting all this for a long time, deliberately making it happen...
Xiao Ruoyin is actually a secret guard serving Emperor Xiao Xu. On his orders, she impersonated Her Highness Anle to get close to Yan Heng, with the aim of breaking up the marriage alliance between the Yan and Yu families. Once she succeeds, she fakes her death to escape, but Yan Heng later goes to extraordinary lengths to force her to reveal herself. The two begin another round of emotional entanglement...
Theme: Winning hearts by force and scheming to claim love
