The first time Qing Tang met Yan Shen, she was still a soft little bundle clutching a rose and asking, “Can you eat this?” Fifteen-year-old Yan Shen had already planted the seed of a secret plan in his heart: he would wait for the little girl to grow up and then shelter her beneath his wings.
Years flew by. Qing Tang grew into a young woman who would wait outside the racing club to bring him warm milk, while Yan Shen kept his affection hidden for years: shielding her from trouble, bringing her late-night snacks. Even his friends teased him for being “an old bull eyeing a tender blade of grass.”
But then disaster struck. The Qings' biological daughter returned, and her parents' favoritism turned Qing Tang into an “outsider” in her own home. Her older brother was too busy with the company to look after her, so her best friend could only drag her to a bar to cheer her up.
Yan Shen happened to be there. Seeing her red-rimmed eyes, he finally revealed the tenderness he'd been harboring all along. “Be with me. I'll protect you.” The innocent Qing Tang nodded, unaware that this was the “abduction” he'd been waiting years to carry out.
From then on, Yan Shen made pampering his wife part of his everyday life, standing up to the Qings' biological daughter on her behalf and staying by her side as she moved from school into the working world.
His friends called him a “beast,” and her older brother berated him for “having planned this all along,” but everyone could see the truth: he hadn't been waiting for Qing Tang to grow up, but for the chance to love her openly.
The scheme he'd set in motion when they were young finally reached its happy ending at their wedding. “The best thing I ever did was steal you away.”
