The Fragrance of Yun Qian Is as Ever

Ji Yunqian transmigrates into the daughter of the second branch of a family, living under someone else's roof.

The original owner's fall into the water was no accident. The household is rife with undercurrents. Her aunt, Madam Chen, seems kind and gentle, but privately resents the burden of Ji Yunqian and her two sisters. She quietly watches and secretly plans for a way out.

While staying with her maternal grandmother in Lingling Commandery, she learns the art of making incense and improves rouge and lip color. She partners with her cousin Zeng Ji to open a shop. As business begins to take off, she discovers that her uncle's supposed "tea business" is more than it seems. The young Kuang Yanche, who often visits the shop, turns out to be the son of her uncle's accomplice.

After her eldest sister marries, she accompanies her father to the Prince of Ning's residence in Qingzhou. The prince's guard, Zuo Huaian, is the very same young man she met in Lingling. She continues running her business and learns to use a soft whip to defend herself. Impressed by her clear judgment, the princess consort takes her as her adopted daughter.

Later, the Third and Fifth Princes rebel, and Prince Ning manages to win against the odds. She secretly helps through her network in the incense and cosmetics trade, while Zuo Huaian fights on the front lines and Kuang Yanche uses trade routes to transport supplies. Once the rebellion is quelled and Prince Ning ascends the throne, she is made a princess.

After her enfeoffment, Yanche confesses the feelings he has harbored for years, but she turns him down. Lan Yuchu, the Chancellor's fifth son, falls in love with her at first sight. At the queen's urging, she tries seeing him, but the suffocating rules make her feel trapped, so she chooses to leave.

Under the pretext of seeking rare fragrances, she travels far to the Western Regions. On the way, she encounters Zuo Huaian's army. Amidst the raging sandstorm, they share life and death, and at last she touches a kind of love she has never known before: love that is free.

After Zuo Huaian fulfills his father's wishes and returns to court, her cosmetics business has spread across the trade routes of the Western Regions.

She finally understands: her true home is not being someone's princess, but freely walking her own path.

She has passed through a great mansion, through the imperial court, and through the sandstorms of the Western Regions.

The fragrance alone remains as it was.

Theme: Fragrance is her craft, but it also reflects her character. Yunqian makes her living with her own hands and establishes herself through her own resolve. From a lonely girl living under someone else's roof, to a princess, to a woman traveling far to the Western Regions, her identity changes, but her clear-eyed determination to rely on herself never wavers. It isn't that she has no chance to depend on others. Yanche's secret love and Lan Yuchu's devotion both offer paths she could take. But she tries, suffers, and ultimately chooses to leave. What she wants is not simply to be loved, but to be loved freely.