Blurb:
At eighteen, Shen Qingge meets Zhou Yanshen after her family falls on hard times.
He's a business legend, a star everyone looks up to, yet he's the only one who reaches out to help her.
From her senior year of high school through college, he arranges everything for Shen Qingge:
expensive tutoring, clothes that fit her perfectly, and just the right amount of "care."
Everyone envies Shen Qingge for her good fortune. Only she wakes with a start in the middle of the night:
how quickly he replies to her messages, how thoroughly he knows her class schedule, and the familiar car waiting beneath her dorm.
On graduation day, Shen Qingge grips a plane ticket to the south, thinking she can finally escape this surveillance disguised as love.
The sun is shining. In her cap and gown, Shen Qingge walks toward the campus gates amid her classmates' laughter.
Then a black Maybach pulls up in front of her.
The window rolls down, and for the first time, his gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses makes no attempt to hide what he feels.
"I've already canceled your ticket and quit your job for you."
Shen Qingge goes cold all over as she watches his long-fingered hand offer her an agreement.
"The game is over. From today on, you'll be my Mrs. Zhou."
The sun is blazing, yet Shen Qingge is cold all over.
"Why?" she asks, trembling. "You said you'd give me my freedom."
He chuckles, his fingertips brushing the tassel of her graduation cap.
"I supported you and watched you blossom from an inexperienced girl,"
"not so I could let you go when you were at your most beautiful."
The crowds are noisy in the distance. Here, his embrace leaves no room for refusal.
Only then does Shen Qingge understand:
this so-called "kindness" was always a carefully planned act of possession.
◆ Seven-year age gap / forced love / groveling pursuit / happy ending
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