A deadly attraction that crosses borders and social classes, a forbidden game that begins with calculation but ends with genuine feelings.
To save her family from ruin, Lin Wan, a Chinese art conservator specializing in painting and calligraphy, enters London’s most mysterious estate, Sternberg Manor, and becomes the private consultant to Heinrich, a German-British collector. The man has glacial blue eyes and an ancient noble surname. He delights in controlling everything and is obsessed with collecting beauty.
At the manor, a long-lost Ming dynasty masterpiece mysteriously reappears. A woman’s singing drifts from the forbidden west wing every night, while Heinrich’s gaze grows more and more like that of someone admiring a one-of-a-kind treasure that must never be defiled.
“You’re the rare edition I’ve spent half my life searching for.” His fingertip brushed her jaw, his voice as gentle as poison. “Don’t think you can escape, Lin Wan. Your name has long since been written in my collection catalog.”
By day, he is a courteous employer who teaches her about art and power. By night, he is a hunter with his mask removed, whispering in German in her ear: “Mein Schatz, you look heartbreakingly beautiful even when you’re afraid.”
When Lin Wan finally uncovers the manor’s deepest secret, a sealed room covered in portraits of the same woman, she realizes that what she has entered is no job, but a cage meticulously woven over ten years. And she bears a striking resemblance to the Chinese pianist in the paintings, who supposedly died in a fire long ago.
“Dominating possession + mystery of a replacement + cross-border romance”
“What he wants has never been love. He wants to pin her to a specimen board, preserving her as eternal beauty.”
