Trapped in the Imperial Palace

Yan Lingyin discovers that a madman has fallen in love with her. His blood runs cold and indifferent, yet he speaks in a hoarse voice and vows to make her his wife.

He builds a cage for her and casts a net, while she pretends not to notice and walks toward him step by step.

But though the madman schemes down to the last detail, he still makes one fatal misstep.

Because she is cold and heartless, while he has fallen for her in earnest.

- A resilient, clear-eyed princess x a gentle, unhinged scheming minister

- Two equally matched leads * a love-hate relationship

"History's brush is a blade. Aren't you afraid, Young Master Su?"

"I'm only afraid that historians a thousand years from now won't put Ah Yin and me together."

Plot synopsis:

Yan Lingyin grew up in the imperial palace, spending her days beside her unfavored mother, accompanied only by the green lamp and the Buddha. Her one wish was to leave the palace when she came of age and see the vast mountains and rivers and the bright moon in the open sky with her own eyes.

But in the end, all she received was her father's death warrant.

Forced onto the throne against her will, she saw too many cold stares and hidden arrows. The only person by her side, willing to listen to her foolish dreams of wandering the world, was Su Mi, a hostage prince who, like her, could barely protect himself. He had a pair of captivating fox eyes, their corners lifting when he smiled, and a cinnabar-red mark between his brows, bright as blood.

"When peace reigns throughout the land, I will accompany Your Majesty out of the palace."

She seemed to believe him, and truly did look forward to it. But in the end, she lost her country and family, and that man took her place as the victor, then kept her in the palm of his hand.

With their past affection spent, Yan Lingyin put everything in order and left, lighthearted, leaving Su Mi only a corpse too disfigured to recognize. On that day, heavy snow fell from the sky. They say he stood before her ice coffin for a day and a night, laughing as he coughed blood all over himself.

She could let go as easily as she could take hold, and she had never regretted anything. She simply never expected Su Mi to be a madman through and through.

"The palace couldn't keep you, so I took this whole realm. But if even the realm can't bind you, Ah Yin, what am I supposed to do?"

He would have to do something to force her to come back and kill him with her own hands.

- You are the caged bird I wrongly imprisoned, and the moonlit Guanyin I foolishly dared to desire.

- Escape the cage and live beneath the open sky.

- A completely fictional setting, with many original details. Includes a few witchcraft elements, but it is not a supernatural world.

- One female-female couple among the supporting characters.

The next book, Crane Heart in a Tangle: a cold, sharp-tongued assassin x a smiling, scheming crown prince. If you're interested, feel free to add it to your collection. The blurb is below.

After Xie Zhihan was rescued by Chu Nanting, she became his trusted blade. She moved among the homes of the capital's powerful and wealthy on his behalf, becoming the cold-blooded assassin everyone feared, while quietly paving his path to the throne.

She was used to being coldhearted and unemotional. The only time she ever lost her composure was on the day Chu Nanting got married. She turned down every assignment, put on men's clothes, and went to a brothel to drink. After several rounds, through her drunken haze, Xie Zhihan spotted a delicate, frail beauty of peerless charm.

Already feeling restless and vexed, she simply crooked a finger at the "beauty." "Come here."

After one night together, she forgot all about him and went back to a life of walking the knife's edge at Chu Nanting's side. But fate played a trick on her. During an assassination attempt, she was ambushed and nearly exposed, only to run into that handsome "beauty" again.

More precisely, she ran into Chi Ye, the crown prince of the realm.

Chi Ye raised a brow at her, apparently surprised. She steeled herself and hooked an arm around his neck. "Help me this once, and I won't tell anyone about you... um, that thing."

She, Xie Zhihan, had never been afraid of anyone. So what if he was the crown prince? She had his weakness in her hands. Surely she could make him bow his head and obey.

But why was this "obedient subject"... so clingy?!

On the night turmoil erupted in the capital, she flicked the blood from her sword and turned on Chi Ye. "Are you here to die?"

For the first time, the crown prince, who everyone called a refined and proud immortal, had no smile on his face.

"I'm not here to die," he said calmly. Ignoring her resistance, he took her cold, bloodstained hand. "I'm here to catch someone."

Theme: Freedom is worth more than anything.