Trapped in Tenderness

Possessive pursuit | Marriage first, love later | Suit-wearing brute | Going mad for love

Resilient dancer x deranged tycoon

The male lead has a pathological possessiveness and loves the heroine intensely, intensely, intensely.

Blurb:

Jiang Man has lost her memory. Her memories stop four years ago.

When she wakes up, she finds she has a husband.

He's handsome, wealthy, and gentlemanly.

His shirt is neat and immaculate, and his fine gold-rimmed glasses make him look refined and gentle.

He tells her they are a loving couple, and that she loves him deeply.

But something is strange.

Whenever her husband approaches her, she instinctively feels afraid and wants to get away.

Since losing her memory, Jiang Man often dreams.

In her dreams, the husband who should be gentle and refined becomes obsessive, crazed, gloomy, and unpredictable.

He even takes her to the place where they are to be buried together:

"Do you like it?" The man pulls her into his arms. "You like white, so we'll make our gravestones white one day."

"You're my wife. We'll be together even after we die. Don't ever think you can leave me."

His frenzied words of love leave her in a cold sweat.

Reality or dreams, gentleness or obsession: Jiang Man can't tell which side of him is the real one.

He has woven a gentle web around her. Like a fly caught in its threads, she is wrapped in silk and can't escape.

Until one night, amid the daily torrential rain,

she brings up divorce during an argument.

"Let's get divorced. I don't think I love you."

At her words, the man only lowers his eyes and asks quietly, "Manman, what have I done to disappoint you?"

"You're too gentle." Jiang Man shakes her head. "I hate gentleness most of all."

After a long silence,

the man suddenly lets out a low laugh. Then his laughter grows louder and louder until his shoulders shake.

He takes off his glasses and yanks off his tie with one hand, as if tearing away the mask of refinement.

"That's perfect. I'm tired of pretending, too."

Rain pours down outside.

He lowers his head and kisses the crown of her head, savoring the slight tremble in his arms.

- The male lead is gloomy and obsessive, intensely possessive, and so madly in love with the heroine that he often loses his mind. He uses vile, downright nasty methods, though he obeys the law. If this isn't your thing, read with caution.

- Inspired on 2020.8.14. Blurb written on 2020.11.1, then revised before the story began.

Related novel, Trapped in His Control, blurb:

What does a person with no morals look like?

Perhaps someone who knows a relationship already belongs to someone else, yet deliberately gets involved anyway, using any means necessary to take what they want.

Wen Ling thinks that sometimes, beneath the polished exterior of a refined professional, what lies within is a dark, deranged madman.

"Darling, what are you thinking about?"

The man kissing her grips her chin and studies her expression.

Wen Ling turns her head away. "Nothing."

"Darling, you were distracted for two minutes," the man says indulgently. "So I've decided to have you for two extra hours tonight."

Wen Ling turns pale and presses her lips together.

-

The first time Wen Ling met Qin Size, it was at an industry fundraising event.

She thought he was a struggling entrepreneur. Seeing him smoking alone on the terrace, she went over to comfort him. "It's okay. At an event like this, nobody really cares who we are."

As Wen Ling offers her words of comfort, she thinks of the grievance she'd just suffered at her director's hands, and ends up being the first to burst into tears.

The man looks at her and raises an eyebrow.

Wen Ling doesn't know it yet.

This man is the very guest of honor who has yet to show his face at the banquet, the head of the Qin family everyone is eagerly waiting for.

Later, she accompanies her director to discuss a business deal.

At a luxurious private estate, the down-on-his-luck entrepreneur she thought she'd met has her director groveling before him.

Qin Size strokes his beloved dog and says lazily, "Lucas hasn't had much of an appetite lately. I wonder if his dog food is too salty."

Then

Wen Ling watches her usually high-and-mighty director lower his head and stuff his mouth full of dog food.

-

Wen Ling has no idea Qin Size will fixate on her.

At the time, she already has a boyfriend.

But Qin Size doesn't care in the slightest. She sees the tactics he used on Wall Street turned against an ordinary person, who doesn't even have the strength to struggle.

Three months later, she moves into that private estate.

That night, after they are intimate, Qin Size finds the music box she's hidden away.

It was a gift from her ex-boyfriend when he confessed his feelings.

Qin Size buries his face in the crook of her neck, appearing not to care at all.

The next day, he smiles and says he's prepared a housewarming gift for her.

When Wen Ling opens it, she finds a hammer inside.

Smiling, Qin Size takes her hand and brings it down again and again, smashing the music box to pieces.

"Darling, I think I should remind you of something."

"I'm your boyfriend now."

He smiles and kisses her.

Theme: Love often comes with possessiveness and exclusivity, but it also teaches us to remain independent in intimate relationships.