Drowning in Love! Keep Me Bound to Your Heart

[A dark, aloof, mysterious black-lotus powerbroker + a sweet, gentle beauty with a mind of her own]

[An intense emotional push and pull between the leads + unspoken feelings + an age gap of seven years + faux G + a little angst + political intrigue on the side + one-on-one romance]

In a single night, Qiao Yu becomes the daughter of a disgraced official. Her father is sent under guard to the capital, while she is sent to the government entertainment house.

On a snowy night, a masked man in black brings her to the Xie residence in the capital, where she becomes part of Xie Nanzhou's family. Knowing she is the daughter of a disgraced official, she is careful to keep a low profile in Langzhuo.

…

Xie Nanzhou is Emperor Linyuan's adviser, cold and heartless, with no interest in women. Rumor has it he is a madman who stands alone in the world. Yet for her, he gets embroiled in court intrigue and secretly unsheathes his sinister claws, all to uncover the truth for her.

The year Qiao Yu comes of age, Xie Nanzhou is granted a marriage. She asks him, timidly,

“Brother Nanzhou, do you like her? Will you marry her?”

He stands by the window, cool and distant, tenderness hidden in his ruthless, foxlike eyes, as if seeing that autumn years ago… red leaves beneath their feet in the mountains, and the long cries of an infant in their ears.

At last, unable to contain his feelings, he gently strokes her brow, pain and sorrow filling his foxlike eyes. “Yu'er, how about becoming Crown Princess? The place of empress will be yours. That way… I can finally be at ease.”

This is a fictional world, though it occasionally draws on historical and cultural research!!!