Dark, obsessive, sickly-sweet seducer × chaste, refined villain | Two powerful leads + coercive romance
"A young man came in to report a case this morning. He says he killed more than fifty people, but he won't talk about the details unless he sees you."
Lin Lan has just finished class when a phone call summons him to the Inspectorate where he used to work.
Through the one-way glass, he sees a frail, pale young man sitting inside. Ink-black hair covers half his eyes, and his porcelain-white skin is so striking it is hard to look away.
"Professor Lin, I've been waiting for you." Jiang Yue looks up, smiling like a withered flower. "I killed them for you."
Lin Lan concludes that the man is mentally ill, and seriously so.
But for some inexplicable reason, he requests that Jiang Yue be transferred to a hospital near his home, and takes on the role of his attending physician on the side.
"Every day I dream of crowds of wronged souls weeping to me. They're all victims from those cases."
His voice is cool, tinged with tears. Lin Lan takes off his coat and drapes it over the young man's shoulders, but the young man takes the opportunity to collapse into his arms. "Professor Lin, save me."
Those words are enough to send Lin Lan investigating the cases alone. After a month of work, he finally clears Jiang Yue's name.
But he feels as though he might be going crazy.
The candy in his pocket keeps disappearing for no reason. His colleagues question things that clearly happened just the day before. He loses his job, and his friends and family all urge him to get examined at a hospital.
Lin Lan gathers his courage and returns to that hospital.
The instant he opens the ward door, countless pitch-black barrels swing up and point at him. The young man at their head is more familiar to him than anyone.
But this time, Jiang Yue has shed his sickly look. He is like a sharpened dagger, freshly polished.
"You're a liar. You've been using me all along, and now that you're done with me, you're going to kill me, aren't you?"
"I could choose not to kill you."
He looks down at Lin Lan, his expression half-smiling, his words icy:
"Get on your knees and beg me."
Reader's Guide:
1. One-on-one, happy ending, with a little coercive romance
2. Romance and plot are split fifty-fifty
3. Mystery + cyberpunk, a wildly imaginative story
4. I beg you, roll around and plead for a bookmark!
5. More to be added if I think of anything
Theme: No regrets once the move is made
