Li Ruoyi × Xuan Haoqing
A scheming, restrained, orphaned top student × an unruly heir to a powerful family
The day Li Ruoyi was packed off to the Xuan family, she knew she was unwanted.
She was an illegitimate daughter who had to stay out of sight, a beautiful burden living under someone else’s roof.
So she put on the perfect mask:
Always first on the report card, obedient and considerate in the eyes of the elders, the Xuan family’s most useful “ornament.”
That was what everyone thought.
Including Xuan Haoqing, the unruly young master who saw her as a hypocritical intruder.
He tore up her homework, mocked her background, and waited for her to slip up or beg for mercy in tears.
Li Ruoyi merely adjusted her glasses and quietly claimed yet another competition championship he had once been proud of.
Until one night, he caught her sending the birth mother who had been threatening her to the police station, her expression blank.
In her hand was evidence that would ensure the woman never got back on her feet.
Xuan Haoqing cornered her against the wall, his burning breath turning the tips of her ears red.
“Li Ruoyi, just how many faces do you have?”
She lifted her chin. There was none of her usual gentleness in her eyes, only a cool, sharp edge.
“Young Master Xuan, isn’t it a little late to start seeing me for who I am?”
I wore obedience as armor and walked through the thorns you laid for me.
Until you discovered that beneath that armor lay a soul as sharp as yours, and your equal.
