Untamed

Tang Zhinian is the daughter of the Jin family's housekeeper. The main family's mansion is like a maze, and she moves in with her mother for a while.

On her first day there, Tang Zhinian sees the family's most beloved son playing basketball in the backyard.

At the time, Jin Yushen is seventeen, arrogant and untouchable, with a strikingly handsome, rebellious face.

Before long, Tang Zhinian becomes Jin Yushen's little personal maid.

Tang Zhinian does the homework Jin Yushen can't be bothered to write.

When Jin Yushen is too lazy to turn down love letters, Tang Zhinian plays the villain for him.

When Jin Yushen craves desserts from a shop dozens of kilometers away, Tang Zhinian braves a torrential downpour to buy them for him...

Just like that, Tang Zhinian works as his little maid for two years and saves up quite a bit of money.

Just before high school graduation, Jin Yushen tells Tang Zhinian to work hard and get into that famous university abroad with him.

Tang Zhinian cheerfully says, "Sure, sure, sure."

Once the school year starts, Tang Zhinian leaves without a word, carrying her luggage to the university farthest away from Yushen. They end up on opposite sides of the world.

No one knows that, in the height of summer before classes began, Tang Zhinian did more than kiss Jin Yushen. She slept with him, too.

*

They meet again several years later.

Tang Zhinian is headhunted by another company to work as the CEO's secretary, where she runs into Jin Yushen.

Jin Yushen is the CEO of that company.

After a reckless night together, Tang Zhinian wakes up sore all over and tries to sneak away.

But the man behind her says coolly, "Where are you planning to run off to this time?"

*

Shen means arsenic, an old term.

There is a reason for the male lead's name.

A blurb for Xie Pengyue's novel Wet Heat:

At seventeen, Li Shan moves into the Xie household with her mother and is told to call her soon-to-be stepfather's son, Xie Pengyue, "Brother."

Xie Pengyue is of mixed Chinese and German heritage, and his family is powerful and influential. He is kind, excels at everything, and seems to have no flaws.

The two "step-siblings" live under the same roof, each keeping to themselves.

But no one knows that, late at night, Xie Pengyue corners Li Shan and kisses her fiercely.

"Kiss me. Kiss me hard."

"Baby, wear the outfit I bought you tonight."

"If you dare bring up breaking up, I'll lock you up and put you in handcuffs and shackles."

*

Li Shan approaches Xie Pengyue with an ulterior motive. Only after they secretly get together does she discover that he is nothing like he seems.

Xie Pengyue is a complete "madman." He's obsessive and insanely possessive, wishing he could keep her by his side every second.

Li Shan knows there's no point asking to break up, so she decides to run far away.

On the night before she leaves, they spend the whole night tangled together. Unaware of what is going on, Xie Pengyue drops to his knees and proposes to her with all his heart. "Baby, let's go register our marriage tomorrow, okay?"

Li Shan smiles and nods.

But the next day, she vanishes without a trace.

*

They meet again on a street in Germany.

Xie Pengyue's eyes are unfathomable as he closes in on her. Li Shan stays calm in the face of danger and acts as if he isn't there.

Until one night, she plants her high-heeled foot on his chest and looks down at him.

Later, after three days and three nights of frenzied entanglement, Xie Pengyue holds her carefully, his voice trembling with the joy of getting back what he had lost. "Wife, playing hide-and-seek isn't fun at all."

Li Shan kicks him out of bed without mercy. "As expected, once a man is over twenty-five, he's basically fifty-two."

Then Xie Pengyue proves his point through action, cuddling and nuzzling against her limp body. "Again?"

Theme: Freedom, self-reliance, and selfhood