Blossoms of Power

Gu Qingzhi (顾青栀) is the orphaned daughter of a prominent family in the capital. Her family is wiped out, and she dies with her grievance unresolved. She wakes in the body of Shen Xihe, a princess of the Northwest, keeping her memories and her old skill with incense and fragrance.

Under the new name she returns to a court she knows well, where the crown prince has been written off: poisoned as a child, he is thought too frail to matter. He is, in fact, patient and sharp, and he has been waiting.

Fragrance is the heroine's tool, not a decoration: she reads lies by scent and makes poison from incense. The court is crowded with princes, each with his own ambitions and each drawn to her. The story runs as quanmou (权谋, "power scheming"), a genre built on calculated moves among rivals.

The series is adapted from the web novel Wo Hua Kai Hou Bai Hua Sha (我花开后百花杀, "after my blossoms open, a hundred flowers die") by Jin Huang (锦凰), which is where the short title comes from. It keeps the novel's basic outline.

The screen version ran for 36 episodes of about 45 minutes. Hong Kong's TVB broadcast a shorter cut of 27 episodes.

Reaction splits along one fact. A Sina Entertainment review column praised the opening as bu zhushui (不注水, "no padding"), and the same column gathered the opposite reaction, kan bu dong (看不懂, "can't follow"): characters arrive and plot moves on before relationships settle.

Meng Ziyi's Shen Xihe is the clearest dividing line. Some overseas viewers found her too cold and perfect; others argued that being three steps ahead is part of the character. Viewers who enjoyed the show often name the leads' scenes together as the draw. A Sina piece on the finale describes the response as divided between those who liked the complete main storyline and cast, and those who felt the power-struggle plot ended too quickly.