A Caged Bird, Power in Her Palm

⚠️ High-trigger warning. Anyone not ready for this should leave.

This story contains forced love, an age gap, a messy love triangle, an unequal power dynamic, psychological manipulation, and other elements.

[If you have strong moral objections or cannot handle depictions of forced love, confinement, or trauma, please close this page.]

Lin Jinfei’s life was split in two.

The first half was stolen sweetness: kisses with Shen Yan in the alley behind the school building, notes hidden in uniform pockets, and the courage of teenagers who thought they could take on the whole world.

The second half was a knife dipped in honey: the day his father gave him away as a disgrace, Gu Chenyuan bound his wrists with a tie and whispered in his ear, “Your father doesn’t want you anymore, but Uncle Gu will.”

Eight years.

More than 2,900 days and nights: enough time to grind someone into dust, then reshape him into someone else.

He had once been Gu Chenyuan’s most prized possession, and the brightest rose in the undercurrents of the capital. Everyone thought he had been tamed. Even Gu Chenyuan believed that all that remained inside this body was a heart that lived to obey.

Until Lin Jinfei smiled as he took the reins of the Gu Group and personally sent Gu Chenyuan into the abyss…

He was the most obedient prisoner and the most patient hunter.

…

“Lin Jinfei, I waited eight years, two months, and seventeen days.”

“You still owe me a summer.”