After My Crazed Childhood Friend Stole My Life

[A Scholar in White, Meeting at the Summit | HE | New Love Interest | The Love Interest Is Chaste, the Protagonist Is Not | Power Couple, Political Intrigue | Brilliant, Aloof Strategist] [To avoid spoilers, the identity of the true love interest is being kept secret for now. You won’t regret investing! No secondary couples, just the main story] Jiang Miao and his childhood friend and fellow villager Zhou Ge traveled to the capital together to sit for the imperial examinations. Jiang Miao was exceptionally talented and tutored Zhou Ge every night. On the eve of the exam, Jiang Miao accurately predicted the questions and wrote an astonishing essay on statecraft. But when he awoke from a deep slumber, Jiang Miao found himself drugged and had missed the examinations. The man who had once been his lover took Jiang Miao’s answers, placed first in the imperial examinations, rode through the streets in celebration, and became the most celebrated scholar in the land. For the sake of his future, the top scholar married the Chancellor’s daughter. For the sake of his own desires, he took advantage of Jiang Miao’s powerlessness in the capital, shackled his ankles, and imprisoned him as a kept man. “Ah Miao, the world outside is too dangerous. This is the only safe place. I’ll be your support, just as I was when we were children. I’ll shelter you from every storm... as long as you stay quietly behind me.” Deceiving himself, Zhou Ge confined Jiang Miao to the inner courtyard, believing that if he clipped his wings, Jiang Miao would depend on him for the rest of his life, and they could relive the attachment they shared in their youth.