I Beg You, My Lord, Have Mercy

[Two male leads | A love forged in hatred | Power struggles and revenge | Equally matched, devoted to each other | Older top, happy ending]

Two-faced, venomous beauty bottom × cold, haughty marquis top

In Xie Ming'an's eyes, Lu XiaoChi was an ungrateful wretch who could never be tamed.

He had personally sent Xie Ming'an to the imperial prison, then secretly ordered the guards to torture him in every way imaginable.

The emperor had clearly issued an oral decree sentencing Xie Ming'an to commoner status while sparing his life.

Yet Lu XiaoChi defied the emperor's wishes, tossing him into the snow-covered wilderness in the dead of winter and burying him alive.

Xie Ming'an thought he had died, but he survived.

He swore he would make Lu XiaoChi wish he were dead.

*

Six years later, the two met again in the pleasure quarters of Jiangnan.

The once bold and spirited heir to the prince's estate had concealed his true identity and hidden himself among the common folk as a pipa-playing entertainer, all his former sharpness subdued.

With a single glance, Lu XiaoChi saw through every layer of his disguise and understood that he had spent years lying in wait for the sake of revenge.

He despised Xie Ming'an's deliberate show of weakness and false flattery, yet couldn't help feeling something stir at the sight of that familiar face.

After three years together, Marquis Jingning, whose power dominated the imperial court, thought he had the other man firmly in his grasp. Little did he know that he had long since fallen into the web of love the other had laid for him.

When Xie Ming'an finally set his schemes in motion and brought down the marquis's estate, Lu XiaoChi was consumed with resentment.

Xie Ming'an looked up at him, years of accumulated bitterness and pain surging in his eyes. “Lu XiaoChi, you don't have to look at me like that. I hate you just as much.”