Sickly Moonlight

When Chen Li was twelve, she moved with her mother into the Lu family home in the capital, a powerful household so imposing that people lowered their voices in awe at the mere mention of it.

She thought she would finally get a glimpse of a brighter world, but instead she found herself trapped in a cage.

In front of outsiders, her brother Lu Zhixu was an exemplary student, praised by everyone: gentle, courteous, and impeccably refined. No one could find fault with him.

But around her, he dropped the act. He was careless, sinister, and utterly vile...

Then an unexpected turn of events left the vast Lu family with only Chen Li and Lu Zhixu, who were not related by blood.

He tried to abandon her, but she refused to let go. She called him “Brother,” and he was so furious his eyes nearly bulged, yet in the end he kept her by his side, locking her up.

He dictated what she wore, what she used, and who she smiled at. He even had a say in the colors and styles of her underwear and bed sheets.

In front of Lu Zhixu, Chen Li had no secrets left. She pretended to be docile, and he believed she would keep obeying him forever.

Until, after the college entrance exams, Chen Li secretly applied to a university in a city far from home without telling him, finally escaping him for a little while.

She began to grow bright and sunny, make friends, and dress up.

When a kind upperclassman confessed his feelings to her in public at a music festival, she thought her life was finally getting back on track.

That very night, Chen Li was dragged into a car, and a storm of kisses came crashing down on her.

The man before her gripped her waist, his hands trembling with rage and the corners of his eyes red, nearly crazed.

“Have we not always had only each other to rely on?”

“Didn’t you say you’d stay with me forever?”

“Would it kill you to stay faithful to one person?”

She did not know when his dislike of her had changed into something else.

He began to show her his vulnerability and sensitivity:

He would take her roughly on rainy days, then curl up against her shoulder and cry, begging her to stay and keep loving him, even if she was only pretending.

Later, she finally understood. He had hated her because he had fallen in love with her even before that.

And love was crazier and more unreasonable than hate.

But she did not want to love him.

She thought there was something seriously wrong with him, and that he was far gone.

1. Both leads are each other's first and only, one-on-one romance, no age gap.

2. A cold-hearted, gentle and obedient darling girl versus a lovesick young master who pretends to be a jerk.

Theme: Love means protecting someone and not wanting to let them go