A Cage Made of Love

My next contemporary romance novels, The Bird and the Thorn and Caged Beast, are coming soon. Please add them to your library. Weibo: @DiligentLittleHam

Blurb

Wang Sinian has a question.

Ever since an accident two years ago, her boyfriend, Xu Jian, seems like a different person. He's no longer the carefree, macho straight guy he used to be.

Now he's gentle to the core, but his need for control is like an impenetrable net. She's become like lukewarm water, trapped in a tiny cage by his side.

She's close to suffocating, but she can't escape. She owes him this much.

And Xu Jian has a secret.

He loves Wang Sinian like a monster clutching a magic ring, forced to hide beneath the dark water and carefully guard a treasure that doesn't belong to him.

He lives in the dark, constantly on edge.

Because in that accident, he took Wang Sinian's boyfriend's place and stole another man's life.

P.S. A story about a man who loves her so much he's willing to give up everything, even his own life. A deranged substitute boyfriend vs. an unyielding caged bird. Set in Beijing, a true substitute romance. The hero is a substitute and shows borderline personality traits. Contains an extremely small amount of suspense. Realistic setting, not horror. Love is a cage, and both of them are trapped in it. The victor takes all. It's hard to explain; read it and you'll see.

Upcoming book 1: The Bird and the Thorn

[One-sided love / love triangle, mainly set in the city, with a small part at school. Draft in progress, currently 70,000 words. Opening in September. Please add it to your library.]

“Li Yannuoh is coming back to China.” Someone casually mentioned this at a high school reunion.

When Wen Meng heard the name, her hand holding the wineglass trembled. The man beside her wrapped an arm around her waist and took the glass from her.

“How come I didn't know?” Liao Weiming asked with a smile.

He drank it all, his lips touching the bright red lipstick mark Wen Meng had left on the rim.

*

Summer when they were eighteen. The cicadas outside the classroom chirped without end.

Wen Meng looked away from her workbook and cautiously glanced to the right. Her deskmate, Li Yannuoh, had rolled up his sleeves, revealing a wrist tanned from playing basketball. He was so engrossed in studying that all she could see was his handsome profile.

Thump.

A wad of paper hit Wen Meng on the back of the head, interrupting her shy gaze.

“How do you do the last problem?” Liao Weiming asked from the seat behind her. He had unruly eyes and a pair of beautiful, flirtatious-looking eyes.

“Figure it out yourself.” Wen Meng couldn't be bothered with him.

“Mean.” After saying that, Liao Weiming kicked Li Yannuoh's chair from across the aisle. “Hey, buddy, give me a hand.”

A lifelong friendship and a newly budding romance became tangled together, leaving them unsure how to move forward. That summer, amid the clamor of cicadas, none of them took another step.

But birds will eventually spread their wings and fly.

Ten years later, when they meet again, none of the three are anything like they used to be.

And this time, they all run into the same thorny path once more.

*A dramatic love triangle. The title was inspired by The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, but the story is unrelated.

Caged Beast blurb

When Qin Chu walked into the theater, she noticed that the strange, handsome man was sitting in the center of the front row again.

She told jokes and delivered punchlines. The other audience members laughed until they doubled over. He was the only one leaning back in his chair, expressionless.

The man's light brown eyes stayed fixed on Qin Chu, like a beast waiting to hunt.

He hadn't come to watch the show.

He'd come to see her.

*

There's a rumor in Beijing's elite circles that Lin San has a peculiar little fetish.

Plenty of women like him, but the ones who really get close to him all have dimples.

At a dinner party organized by friends, Qiao Zheng held out his phone in front of Lin San.

“This is my new girlfriend,” Qiao Zheng said, deliberately glancing at Lin San.

On the screen, a young woman was doing stand-up comedy. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, she roasted everyone mercilessly.

The others were laughing so hard they could barely breathe, but she kept a straight face. Only when she casually smiled at the end, dimples appeared in her cheeks.

“What do you think, Mr. Lin?” Qiao Zheng asked, needling him for no apparent reason.

As he spoke, the phone was passed to Lin San.

The man glanced at it and handed it back, looking completely indifferent.

“Not bad.”

*

No one knows how long they can live with a secret. Lin San doesn't know, either.

He only knows he's struggled in the mire for fifteen years, and can't stand another minute.

A drowning man has to grab a straw. Now that he's seen Qin Chu again, he can't let go.

Whether they escape together from a boundless sea of misery or plunge together into a bottomless abyss.

*The hero is a virgin. A mutual salvation story with a little suspense. The hero's name will be decided when I start writing; I'm not good at naming characters.

Theme: Love means respect, not possession.