Sweet, innocent actress x scheming, devoted big shot from the capital's elite circle
Wen Ran first met Shen Yu at a party she hadn't even been invited to.
She hid in a corner, eating cake. Her high heels had rubbed her heels raw, and blood had smeared onto her skirt. She was as bedraggled as a gray duck that had wandered into a flock of swans.
He watched her from across half the ballroom. The people beside him called him "Mr. Shen" three times, but he didn't hear them.
Later, he walked over and handed her a business card. His voice was as casual as if he were talking about the weather.
"Doesn't your foot hurt?"
The second time they met, she was desperate.
Her father's medical bills were suffocating her, and a termination lawsuit from her talent agency was about to leave her bankrupt. Clutching the crumpled business card, she went to his office. Before she could even speak, he pushed a contract across the desk.
He leaned back in his chair and watched her sign, tapping his fingers on the desk nonchalantly.
Only after she finished signing did he speak.
"From today on, I decide what roles you take."
Wen Ran thought this was salvation.
She later learned it was a hunt.
Shen Yu promoted her and gave her the best opportunities, helping her rise from obscurity to the nominees' list at an awards ceremony.
People in the industry said Mr. Shen had a little canary, and spoiled her rotten.
Only Wen Ran knew...
He would call the entire production to a halt while she was filming a kissing scene.
He would park across from the set late at night when she finished work, leaving the engine running and never getting out, just watching her from a distance.
He would grip her wrist and ask who she was smiling so beautifully for when she acted opposite the male lead that day.
Wen Ran wanted to escape.
But every time she tried, he would pull her opportunities. After the second time, he made sure she couldn't get a single job for three months.
The last time, she finally saved enough to pay the termination fee and slapped her bank card down on his desk.
"Shen Yu, I don't owe you anything anymore, not as a person or as an actress."
He didn't stop her.
He only said, in the final second before the elevator doors closed,
"Wen Ran, you can leave this building, but you can't get away from me."
Wen Ran left.
Shen Yu thought she would come back.
Half a month later, she changed her number.
A month later, she took a role in a low-budget art film and played a couple with a rising movie star. In the candid photos from the set, she was smiling with her eyes curved like crescents, in a way he'd never seen before.
Three months later, she earned her first Best Actress nomination for that film.
The night the nominations were announced, Shen Yu got drunk. Someone photographed him sitting alone in the audience at the awards hall. The seat in front of him was empty, and he clutched a crumpled copy of the contract she'd signed with her own hand three years earlier.
The next day, the top trending topic was:
#ShenYu WenRan#
Clicking on it brought up just one photo.
He stood outside her apartment building, his suit soaked through with rain, gazing up at the window on the twelfth floor that had been dark for a long time.
The caption was a post she'd made herself three months earlier:
"From now on, may our paths never cross again. Don't ask how long or short each other's lives may be."
He'd left a comment under an alt account. The System showed "This comment has been deleted," but a screenshot of it spread everywhere.
"But I never got the chance to tell you: from the day I handed you that card, I never intended to let you go."
Later, Wen Ran ran into him again backstage at an awards ceremony.
He'd grown thinner, and dark stubble shadowed his chin. The hand that had once tapped nonchalantly on the desk as he signed her contract of servitude now gripped her wrist and trembled.
Everyone thought he was going to drag her back by force, just as he had before.
But he only bowed his head, resting his forehead against her shoulder, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"Ranran."
"I give up."
"Please come back... I won't keep you trapped anymore."
Content warning: Coercive pursuit. The male lead is possessive and controlling at first, and spends the middle and later parts trying desperately to win her back. The female lead has a complete career arc from beginning to end. Enter with caution if this isn't your thing.
Theme: A woman's self-growth
