She is the canary he keeps in a gilded cage, and the only cure for his deadly affliction. When desire tears away the mask of false virtue, love and hate bloom into a flower of evil in a sea of blood.
Lin Qian thought signing the contract would save her father’s life. Instead, she became a prisoner in Shen Yanting’s cage. The man who controls Jiangcheng’s entire underworld measures every inch of her skin with burning hands each night, only to press a cold gun barrel to her temple each morning. “Remember, you’re nothing but a tool for my pleasure.”
But when Lin Qian discovers that Shen Yanting was connected to her mother’s death, when she finds a bloodstained wedding dress hidden in a secret compartment in his study, when the whispers of their midnight passion become dangerous riddles, she realizes she has already fallen deep into a deadly trap woven from desire.
“Trying to run?” Shen Yanting grips her throat and pins her against the floor-to-ceiling window. Thirty stories of empty space yawn below. “Did you really think I didn’t know you were sneaking through my files every night?” He tears open her nightgown and leaves a bite mark on her trembling skin. “From the moment you put on the first piece of lingerie I bought you, every breath you take has belonged to me.”
On a stormy night, Lin Qian stands beside Shen Yanting’s bed with a bloodstained scalpel in her hand. The man who controls the business world lies curled in her arms like a child, murmuring, “Don’t leave me.” The recorder hidden beneath his pillow captures her trembling heartbeat, the signal she agreed on with the police.
When the truth tears through the disguise and gunshots pierce the night, Lin Qian finally understands: in this forbidden game, there are no winners.
