The Cage of Yu Long and Ruo

Don't read this after you've finished pooping

Leng Ruoyi clutched her crumpled extras' call sheet and stumbled through the scorching sun on the film studio lot. She was the top student in her county in the liberal arts, yet at a prestigious acting school she lived like a weed growing through a crack. Her father had died, and her stepmother, Ma Qiu, treated her like a cash cow, bleeding her dry of tuition and living expenses. Her grandmother, whose mind was failing, spent every day talking about the fifteen-year-old girl who was her only weakness. To make ends meet, she took bit parts and odd jobs on set. Assistant directors gave her a hard time and her colleagues looked down on her, but she gritted her teeth and clung to her dream of acting.

An accident with the props crew sent her tumbling into someone's arms. Her cheap canvas shoes scuffed a pair of designer suit trousers, and when she looked up, she met a pair of calm eyes.

Gu Yu, the Buddhist prince of the capital's elite circles, the youngest actor to win two major awards and a top director, controlled an entertainment empire worth tens of billions, yet lived a distant, detached life. He lowered his eyes to the prickly girl before him, brokenness hidden in her gaze, and asked in a cool, clear voice, “Short on money?”

She bit her lip and nodded, humiliated.

“Come with me. I'll take care of you.”

With red-rimmed eyes, Leng Ruoyi asked him in a trembling voice, “Gu Yu, what do you really want from me?”

He bent down, his fingertip brushing the corner of her eye. His voice was low and husky, hiding a tenderness long kept under control. “You. For the rest of my life.”

This is a story of two people saving each other. He borrows her resilience to melt the ice in his heart; she borrows his light to find her way out of endless darkness.