[Reunion after a long separation + redemption + win-your-wife-back-after-she's-gone + rekindled love + both leads have no prior romantic history]
"Clear-headed and resilient heroine x obsessive and quietly enduring hero"
Gu Yao took a job posing as the Zhao family's heiress and became the much-despised fiancée of the Jin family heir.
Whatever everyone else hated, she insisted on doing. She deliberately made herself ugly and acted as vulgar as possible, taking her madwoman act to the extreme, all to force Jin Yizhou to call off the engagement.
But the rejection she expected never came. The young master of the Jin family didn't expose her, question her, or scold her. He let her do as she pleased, played along with her act, and refused to end their arrangement no matter how much she put him through.
When word came that the job was over, she vanished overnight, hiding her past and disappearing for three years.
The day they met again, Jin Yizhou grabbed her wrist, an intense obsession swirling in his eyes. “You've been gone for three years. How much longer are you going to keep pretending?”
Gu Yao's expression was cool as she insisted he had mistaken her for someone else.
She didn't dare admit who she was. She was afraid of reopening the past and humiliating herself, afraid he'd settle the score over her old schemes, and afraid that a relationship born of lies could never have a happy ending.
Just when he thought his hopes had been dashed, he unexpectedly got what he wanted. Just when they thought they might be lucky enough to stay together, they were ultimately driven apart.
Inside that exquisite cage, he nearly crushed her in his arms. “You are mine. You've always been mine, and you can only ever be mine. You can hate me, but you will never escape me in this life!”
Later, he panicked. His domineering facade crumbled in an instant, leaving only the fear of being abandoned lodged in his heart.
He clutched the hem of her clothes in terror, his eyes misting over and their corners turning red. “A Yao, I was wrong. You can do whatever you want, just please don't leave me, okay?”
