The Burmese Python's Beloved in the Palm of Its Hand

After a borderland wager, Ling Mo wins himself a pampered little princess. Even as Su Wan is slung over his shoulder, she keeps kicking. “You savage! My father won’t let you get away with this!”

The soldier king bounces her on his shoulder. “Perfect. Your future father-in-law can see just how capable his son-in-law is.”

He teaches her how to survive in the rainforest, and she teaches him to appreciate fine wine and opera.

She complains about his scars, yet sneaks out to put medicine on them in the middle of the night.

He says, “You city people are such a hassle,” but builds her a glass greenhouse and learns to make tiramisu.

When foreign forces join together to hunt them down, he shields her behind him. “You want to touch my wife? Ask the gun in my hand first!”

Later, when the Su family bodyguards storm the base, they find their young lady curled up in the soldier king’s arms, eating strawberries, while a row of internationally wanted criminals lie beaten at their feet.

Ling Mo: 28 years old, a legendary soldier king in northern Myanmar who controls the border’s underworld. His bronze skin and six-pack abs, along with a scar from brow to jaw, give him a rugged air. Equally skilled in brains and brawn, he speaks several languages but prefers to talk rough. “All I want is a pretty wife to warm my bed. Anyone who gets in the way gets beaten.”

Su Wan: 22 years old, heiress to the Su Group and a ballet star who graduated from Cambridge. With fair skin and stunning looks, she has never had to lift a finger. Even while being kidnapped, she holds her chin high. “My father’s worth hundreds of billions. You dare touch me?”