Shen Jingxue, self-proclaimed greatest con artist in the martial world, with countless secret identities.
He targets the rich and powerful, makes off with mountains of gold and silver, then vanishes without a trace.
Until he meets Xie Hanyi.
That night, flames soared into the sky. A white-robed gentleman, gentle as jade and with eyes like the moon, walked toward him.
He said, "Three years, seven months, and twelve days ago, you disguised yourself as a tea picker and swindled me out of everything I owned."
"I've been chasing you for three years, seven months, and twelve days. Today makes it three years, seven months, and thirteen days."
Shen Jingxue: ?
Wait, what?
He'd thought this was just a simple debt collection, but then Xie Hanyi said something even more outrageous.
"At first, I thought I was chasing you for the money. But, little by little, I realized that wasn't it."
Shen Jingxue: ?
"A-Xue, come home with me and marry me."
Shen Jingxue: ?
How had a perfectly normal person gone insane?
But he had always swindled people out of money, never their hearts.
He did bear some responsibility for the state this man was in.
After thinking it over, he decided to find the best doctor to treat his brain.
Then he went home with him.
But only later did he learn the truth.
Their supposed meeting, and the story of how he had swindled Xie Hanyi, were all lies.
Everything had been a scheme to make him fall in love and become a stepping stone on Xie Hanyi's path of revenge.
And in the end, he was to be discarded.
When they met again, Shen Jingxue wore a purple robe and jade belt. He was the new emperor's "Imperial Father."
Second only to one, above all others.
Xie Hanyi was a wanted "traitor."
Shackled and stumbling with every step.
The iron chains had rubbed his wrists raw, but he looked up and smiled tenderly. "A-Xue, long time no see."
Shen Jingxue lifted his chin with the tip of his shoe, his hem brushing across the rows of scars.
His voice was as soft as falling snow. "Xie Hanyi, look at you now."
Xie Hanyi coughed up a mouthful of blood, then suddenly reached out.
His filthy, bloodstained hands trembled as they cupped the tip of Shen Jingxue's shoe.
As though holding a crescent moon reflected in the water, ready to shatter at any moment.
"A-Xue." He laughed softly, his voice hoarse.
"I've dirtied your shoe... Punish me, won't you?"
He was willing to be a prisoner, a demon, the lowliest dust at Shen Jingxue's feet.
All he wanted was for that person to look down at him again, even if only once.
[Mad Dog Top × Con Artist Bottom]
Reader's Guide:
1. The Top's kindness to the Bottom early on is all an act. He's a real monster, and there's no defending that.
2. The Bottom becomes irresistible to everyone later on.
3. The Top must win back his wife.
4. No changing the Top.
5. Includes imprisonment. Later, the Bottom imprisons the Top.
Theme: ...