Seeking Fragrance: A Gentleman’s Guide

A flirtatious little minx who hates commitment x A proper, steadfast gentleman who pursues his wife

Yu Tingfan is a moderately well-known perfumer. Though still young, the incense she creates is already popular on the market.

A lot of her success can be credited to a secret manual passed down through her family. Its recipes are exquisite, and she has benefited greatly from studying them.

The one flaw is that the book is incomplete.

Its author is unknown.

All that remains is the name "Master Lanxi."

Yu Tingfan is obsessed with fragrance. She has studied the ancient text since childhood, and always imagined Master Lanxi as a learned, kindly old man.

So when she accidentally transmigrates into the chaotic era where the book's author lives, while ordinary people worry about living like driftwood and never knowing if they'll see tomorrow, she thinks:

Yu Tingfan: Are you there, Master Lanxi? Your apprentice, whom you've never met, has come looking for you!

When she arrives at Lanxi's lodging, a night rain is falling. The scent of orchids drifts beneath the eaves as a jade-like gentleman lowers his head and asks whom she is looking for.

Yu Tingfan looks up, her eyes moist as though she has been caught in the rain, and puts on a pitiful expression.

"I'm looking for my husband. I came a thousand miles to find him."

The kind gentleman lets her inside, but she happens to glimpse the handwriting on his desk.

It is exactly like the writing in the ancient book she is carrying.

Yu Tingfan acts at once. She bows low and knocks her head against the floor with a loud thump.

"Please, Master Lanxi, take me as your apprentice."

The gentleman says nothing.

"Didn't you just say you came a thousand miles to find your husband?"

Yu Tingfan is mortified, but keeps her composure.

"I did come a thousand miles to find my husband. The one I'm looking for is... my master."

To complete the incense manual and learn directly from Master Lanxi, otherwise known as Tao Jing, Yu Tingfan tries every trick in the book.

[Study]

Yu Tingfan: "I know a method from Japan for heating incense indirectly. It keeps smoke from filling the room. Why don't you try it, sir?"

Tao Jing politely declines.

"I prefer the sight of incense smoke curling through the room."

[Bedroom]

Yu Tingfan: "I hear you often suffer from headaches at night, and that you enjoy studying incense remedies. I've blended a few new fragrances for you today. Why don't you give them a try?"

Tao Jing refuses.

"I like things clean. I never let anyone else prepare the incense I use."

Yu Tingfan is dejected.

Master Lanxi seems unmoved by what she is good at, and doesn't like her personality either. How is she supposed to win him over, use his ingredients, and learn his craft?

If nothing else works...

Yu Tingfan looks up. In the mirror, her hair is dark and lustrous, her lips red, her features as lovely as a painting. Every gesture of hers is full of allure.

She'll use her beauty!

But Master Lanxi is a gentleman whose conduct is as pristine as the moonlit breeze. Everyone praises his virtue. Would he really fall for her charms?

Yu Tingfan never expected that the tricks she herself thought would never work would prove surprisingly effective on this particular man.

So, on another rainy night, in the study once more.

The rain falls mournfully. He pins her against the desk, and her sobs are just as plaintive.

"You said you were a virtuous gentleman... But you act like this. You're clearly an addict..."

The man before her holds her wrists, smiling as he lowers his head toward her. The scent of orchids, just like him, seeps into her little by little, enveloping her until it fills the world and there is nowhere left to run.

"All right, stop teasing me... You already knew I was an addict when it comes to this, didn't you?"

He chuckles. His long, pale fingers slowly trace her brows and eyes as he speaks gently.

"Besides, I'm only addicted to you... What's wrong with that?"

(1. One-on-one, both leads' first relationship. A sweet story in a fictional setting, so don't nitpick. The incense recipes are mostly drawn from Xiang Cheng and Chen Shi Xiang Pu.

2. Important content warning: A female supporting character has unrequited feelings for the heroine, and they are close friends. Please read with caution if that bothers you.)

Theme: Incense and medicine share a source, and fragrance can heal