The Rose Who Fled Hong Kong and the Sparrow in Her Cage

In 1975, Lai Qinxuan, a young woman from the mainland, narrowly escapes to Hong Kong and finds work in a cha chaan teng. Beautiful and clever, she will stop at nothing to rise above her station. By chance, she catches a glimpse of the world of Hong Kong’s wealthy heir, Sikong Lin. He is refined and gentle, a gifted painter and the prospective son-in-law of a powerful family.

To Lai, he is a ray of light in her bleak life, and she resolves to claim him at any cost.

Starting as a humble waitress, Lai carefully works her way up. Using her remarkable business acumen, she builds capital in the stock and property markets while insinuating herself into Sikong Lin’s life as a confidante and driving a wedge between him and his fiancée, Huo Shan. When Huo Shan leaves heartbroken, Lai believes she is finally about to win everything.

But the bright moon in Sikong Lin’s heart has never faded. To sever his lingering attachment once and for all, on the eve of his flight overseas to find Huo Shan, Lai sets a trap. One dose of drugs, one night of surrender, and she imprisons him in the depths of a villa no one knows about.

From then on, a rose uses love as a lock, caging the moon like a bird. Wealth and power build towering walls that shut out the world and imprison her, too. Years later, twins, a boy and a girl, are born of this twisted love. The stars that once shone in Sikong Lin’s eyes have long since turned to ashes in the silence of his endless confinement.

This is a story of rising from humble beginnings after escaping to Hong Kong, and of a descent that ends in imprisonment. When obsessive love becomes total possession, who is the real prisoner?