Dark, obsessive younger man x gentle, resilient older woman
A tender story of healing + forbidden palace romance + some forced love. The heroine appears delicate, but is gentle and strong at heart, clever and kind. The hero is calculating and adept at hiding his true nature. Once he falls for her, he becomes utterly obsessed. The pacing is slow and steady. Also, the heroine is not sexually inexperienced, while the hero is.
Shen Nianshu enters the palace at sixteen and becomes a Beauty.
One day, by chance, she encounters ten-year-old Xiao Xian in the Palace Service Bureau. Born to a lowly palace servant, he is an abandoned prince, unloved and abused by everyone. Moved by compassion, she reaches out to him.
In the cold, harsh palace, they cautiously comfort each other. She has always thought of him as a child who simply lacked love.
Little does she know that the fire in the boy's heart has long since crossed every boundary, burning beyond all restraint.
Over ten years, he grows from a timid little puppy into a calculating wolf who knows how to hide his intentions.
He tests her, draws close, and clings to her. Shen Nianshu retreats step by step, trying to maintain the proper distance between ruler and subject.
When she can no longer avoid him, the once-gentle boy goes completely mad.
He cares nothing for appearances, ignores the court's condemnation, and casts aside every constraint.
His deep, shadowy eyes pin her in place.
"Sister, you can't escape."
She once led him out of the freezing abyss. In the end, that very wolf locked her within palace walls, surrounded by his consuming obsession.
