Also known as The Crane Tamer and the Imprisoned Luan
In the first half, the heroine forces herself on the hero; in the second half, the hero forces himself on the heroine.
>>
A crane tamer selects people of breathtaking beauty and keeps them by the bed to please their master.
The most prized crane boy ever kept by Princess Chu Sining of the Northern Dynasty was Xu Zhan, heir to the Northern Border Prince of a neighboring kingdom.
Xu Zhan was handsome and intelligent, and had never lost a battle despite fighting in several campaigns.
But fate dealt him a cruel hand: betrayed by an insider, he fell into the hands of the Northern Dynasty.
More precisely, he fell into the hands of Princess Sining, a woman of the Northern Dynasty with insatiable appetites.
At their first meeting, the heir, his hands and feet tightly bound in iron chains, spat in her face.
Instead of getting angry, Sining laughed and lifted his defiant chin with the handle of her whip. “You hate me so much. I wonder...”
The handle slowly moved lower, stopping three inches below his navel. “Does it hate me just as much?”
The eighteen-year-old heir blushed, but that did nothing to lessen his contempt for her.
As she humiliated and toyed with him in every way, he trembled and endured until he reached his limit, yet still had only one thing to say. “Is that all you've got?”
The more defiant and resistant he was, the more Sining liked him.
Just as she was exhausting every method she could think of without breaking his pride, an accident left Xu Zhan with amnesia.
Facing the boy who awoke in confusion, Sining smiled sweetly. “Have you forgotten? You're my most considerate and obedient lover.”
She patiently coaxed him, stripping away his fangs and claws until Xu Zhan was groveling at her feet, a dog begging at the hem of her skirt.
But she grew bored of him and kicked her now-tamed dog aside.
Several years later, her half-brother seized power. The first thing he did was send her to marry into the neighboring kingdom.
At the wedding banquet, the newly appointed crown prince gave her a casual glance. His clear eyes, slightly slanted and smiling, were unmistakably those of the crane boy who had once gazed at her with devotion night after night.
Remembering all the things she had done to him back then, Sining went pale with fear.
*
To imprison a luan is to lock away a beauty one cannot have until one can. It means using every possible method to pry open her heart, sealed in ice and stone, and make room for oneself inside.
[Reading Guide]
1. The heroine is not a virgin, while the hero is. The heroine is a cold, selfish beauty from the snowy mountains who doesn't understand love. The first half contains extensive depictions of her humiliating and abusing the hero, both physically and emotionally.
2. The heroine is two years older than the hero. In the first half, she forces herself on him; in the second half, he forces himself on her.
Theme: Learn to love others and yourself
