Stealing Her Heart

● Obsessive, tyrannical male lead vs. fallen beauty

● Both pure, happy ending

★ Abduction and forced romance

Xie Rourou was the only cherished daughter of the Chief Minister of the Li Kingdom. She had skin white as snow and a face as lovely as a flower, with an elegant, captivating beauty. On the day she came of age, the emperor issued an edict betrothing her to Crown Prince Xiao Jun, and she was to enter the Eastern Palace on an auspicious date.

But before the bridal sedan could arrive from the Eastern Palace, she received word that her father had been imprisoned on charges of crime.

The Chief Minister's daughter, once so admired, fell into the mire overnight, a flower anyone could pluck.

With her father behind bars and Xiao Jun barely able to protect himself, Xie Rourou pleaded in vain for days before finally turning to the newly appointed Chief Minister, a man she had never met.

Rumor had it that Chief Minister Gu was kind and gentle, a gentleman as warm as jade. If he would help, there might still be a chance to save her father.

On a bitterly cold, rainy night, Xie Rourou knocked on the vermilion gates, only to meet a pair of familiar, icy eyes.

*

The beauty, soaked through by the cold rain, trembled and tried to flee, but he effortlessly pulled her into his arms.

He called her by her childhood nickname, his voice low and intimate, his tone suggestive, yet it sent a chill through her.

Everyone knew that Xie Rourou had been named Crown Princess by the emperor himself. Few knew that before that, her father had gone to great lengths to choose a husband for her: Gu Congyuan, the top candidate in the imperial examinations in the twelfth year of Yanguang, and now the Chief Minister of the Li Kingdom.

*

After Xie Rourou was trapped in the Xie residence, Xiao Jun found her and vowed to take her far away.

Desperate to escape, she agreed without hesitation. But on the day they fled, she watched Gu Congyuan draw his bow and shoot an arrow straight through Xiao Jun's heart.

That night, the man wore a bright red wedding robe.

The delicate beauty sat beneath the hibiscus-patterned bed curtains, her eyes brimming with tears. His large hand gripped her waist so tightly it seemed he might crush her slender frame.

Xie Rourou was horrified, then realized that a warm tear that wasn't hers had fallen onto the back of her hand. Beside her, he pleaded almost desperately: “Duanduan, tell me you like me.”

Reader's guide:

1. In public, the male lead is a gentle gentleman. In private, he's completely unhinged and absurdly obsessive.

2. The female lead is a silly beauty, with a little cunning, but not much.

3. This is truly coercive. The male lead is a bastard.

4. The second male lead is no good person.

5. One-on-one romance, happy ending, both pure.

Theme: Swallows return to the painted hall