Shen Qingci, the crown prince of Beijing’s elite circle, is powerful enough to get anything she wants. Everyone caters to her, and what she says goes. The first time she met Lu Yu, his features, so much like those of someone from her past, captivated her. She slapped a contract down in front of him, her voice icy and oppressive, leaving no room for argument. “Sign it. Be my lover, and I’ll find the best doctors to treat your mother.”
Lu Yu’s gaze fixed on the words “kept lover.” His fingers trembled despite himself. When he looked up, he met the barely concealed, surging longing in Shen Qingci’s eyes. After a long silence, he swallowed, gritted his teeth, and signed his name. No one knew that he’d agreed to this transaction with its price plainly stated only because, when she occasionally let down her guard, the vulnerability she showed reminded him so much of his own unattainable love. She had taken him for a shadow, and he had used her to heal his wounds.
But why did his heart still feel as if it were being cut again and again with a dull knife, leaving him struggling to breathe, whenever Shen Qingci drunkenly murmured that person’s name?
When her old flame returned to the country, all the pretense and self-deception came crashing down. Lu Yu’s eyes were red, moisture still clinging to his lashes, and his voice trembled uncontrollably as he stared at the woman he both depended on and resented. “Shen Qingci, in your heart, will I always be nothing more than a substitute?”
Reader’s Guide:
1. My version of a matriarchal world
2. Female lead is inexperienced; male lead is not
