The Powerful Minister Steals His Beloved

In public, Xie Huaijin is a dignified and composed close aide to the emperor, cool and self-possessed, with every move calculated to perfection.

In private, he is a madman who keeps her locked in a waterside pavilion.

He ties a golden bell around her, humiliates her with erotic poems, threatens her with her mother, and flirts with her under the dinner table.

He backs her into a corner and asks, lowering his head, "Why are you running? Every time you run, the bell tightens another notch. Run ten times, and it'll sink into your flesh."

Living under someone else's roof, Liu Yunshu is cautious and careful, wanting nothing more than a peaceful life. But Lord Xie, high above her, insists on pulling her into his game.

She runs, she hides, she fights back, until she realizes he has been mad all along.

He seizes power for her and keeps every other man away. He says, "You can hate me or fear me. I will never let you go in this life."

But what she wants is something he can never give her.

That year, Liu Yunshu stood amid the misty rain of Jiangnan and looked at Xie Huaijin behind her. She asked, "Xie Huaijin, you've pursued me for so long. Have you ever considered that what I want isn't you at all?"