In 2030, a woman who had spent thirty years in aromatherapy finally got the benzoin blend she had been pursuing for eight years right in her laboratory. The moment she smelled it, her heart stopped.
When she opened her eyes again, she had become the sixteen-year-old illegitimate third daughter of the General Who Guards the North's household. There was half a cup of tea left beside her, and it was poisoned. In her mind lived Xiao Fu, the sharp-tongued olfactory-analysis AI she had trained herself.
Someone wanted her dead without a trace. Her legitimate mother, who had been cold for ten years, carried the scent of her own mother. Outside the wall, someone had caught the fragrance she mixed in the night.
She had no magic, only a nose and thirty years of expertise. The nose was hers; the brain was Xiao Fu's. She could smell who was lying and who had poisoned the tea.
Book One is complete.
Theme: Claim the freedom to choose through expertise and courage.
