Nasty, Messy Romance [Coercive Love]

/Old-School, Over-the-Top Soap Opera Bloodbath/

/Seizing by Deception/Financial Support/Long-Standing Schemes/Age and Size Difference/Running Away/

[Delicate, Spoiled Greenhouse Flower x Cold-Blooded, Brooding Daddy]

Her father ran off with all their money, her mother vanished without a trace, and barely two months after she went abroad, she received the terrible news. Ding Simin's life was a miserable, chaotic mess.

She struggled to get by in a foreign country, only to have the money she'd painstakingly saved stolen with ease. Her landlord kicked her out, and with not a cent to her name, she was about to end up on the streets when a fleet of cars sent by Zhao Fengcheng pulled up in front of her.

She was startled and afraid, but she had nowhere else to turn. She remembered Zhao Fengcheng, but had never imagined she'd have anything to do with him.

The first time she met him was in Xiangjiang.

It was at a manor-house party. Her father's business was at its peak then, and after exhausting every trick in the book, he had barely managed to get an invitation. They were still just nouveau-riche nobodies on the fringes, while Zhao Fengcheng was the honored guest personally invited and welcomed by the manor's owner, head of a family of generational wealth, with power and influence everywhere.

Halfway through the party, she ran outside and cried in a secluded corner of the garden, completely lost to the world. Zhao Fengcheng stood silently in the shadows, his deep-set brows obscured by the gloom.

The man took a small sip of strong liquor, enjoying the sight of her miserable, childish sobbing.

She didn't know then that their ill-fated relationship had just opened its jaws.

He was many years older than her. She threw caution to the wind and went with him. At first, she tried hard to please him, always on edge, feeling that every day might be her last. Zhao Fengcheng was a cold-blooded man who could turn on a dime, and she was always afraid of him.

Later, he kept her for a whole year, spoiling her until she never had to lift a finger. She was almost back to being the naive young lady she'd once been. Zhao Fengcheng was difficult to read and hard to please, but he was also unimaginably extravagant and domineering.

Luckily, she saw through his sugar-coated bullets and stood her ground, using every wile in her arsenal until she managed to lull him into a false sense of security. Once everything was ready and the time was right, Ding Simin fled back to China without looking back.

Her mother was there, waiting for her to find her, as was her childhood sweetheart, who had always treated her with boundless tenderness and indulged her in everything.

She returned with nervousness and hope, naturally assuming she didn't matter much, completely unaware that the world behind her had already turned upside down.

*

Ding Simin: Ding Simin, Ding Simin, don't you dare let that old Zhao fool you. He's a beast in human clothing, up to no good, a killer and a robber, and capable of every evil under the sun&￥#*...

Zhao Fengcheng: ...Heh.

A few things to know:

1. Both leads are each other's first and only partners, one-on-one, happy ending, eight-year age gap.

2. The blurb is from the heroine's perspective and has her subjective slant. This is not a transactional relationship involving sex and power; the leads' perspectives differ.

3. The male lead is not a good person. He's extremely controlling, very cold-blooded, and deeply sinister.

4. The story is set during a period of economic growth. Regional customs, laws, and other details follow local realities.

5. A short story, probably under 200,000 characters.

(Indulging my preferences. I've been really into this lately. The tags are up top, so come on in if you like it. Heart!)

2026.2.12, screen-recorded and saved

Theme: Live well