[Forced love + 1v2 + second male lead takes the lead + virgin male lead + coercion and possession + dark, realistic tone + Stockholm syndrome]
[High-ranking, cold older male lead + seemingly innocent gold-digger heroine + fake playboy, scheming and dark second male lead]
Liu Qingning was born in a brothel district. She guarded her virtue, determined to do better than her mother, Liu Ya'an.
One day, she hoped to catch the eye of a rich man, turn her life around overnight, and escape her current existence of going hungry.
But she never expected Liu Ya'an, whose drinking had become an addiction, to suddenly gamble away an astronomical sum.
She sent her own daughter straight to an underground auction.
She had once been Li Xiyuan's canary, the woman he bought at the underground auction.
She learned piano, etiquette, and how to dye her hair, all to make her look more like another woman.
Obedient and sweet, she became his perfect soul kept in a cage-like world.
He gave her everything she had dreamed of and offered her the illusion of happiness within arm's reach.
He was also the one who cast her into the abyss and broke the wings she had struggled to grow.
Bearing the title of Substitute No. 47, she stayed by his side day and night, until he gave her away to someone else with a single contract. She became a caged bird in another man's arms.
When they met again at a banquet, his eyes reddened as he cornered her and asked, each word deliberate,
“What did that bastard Qi Jibai do to you?”
She smiled at him.
“Daddy, he taught me I don't have to wag my tail in bed.”
