The Toy Game

“I love you.” Those words, the most ordinary declaration of love in the world, became Gu Xiyao’s nightmare. It all began with a revenge plot she had carefully planned three years ago. Jiang Chengmin longed for love but didn’t believe in it. He took pleasure in luring people into traps of his own design, then tossing them aside like playthings while mocking them as they sank into the mire. That was, until he met Gu Xiyao, the first person to offer him warmth and tell him not to be afraid, the angel he had always believed her to be. For the first time, he let down his guard and sincerely loved someone. But just when he thought he might finally find the happiness he had always longed for, she cruelly left him and told him it had all been an elaborate trap, carefully laid as an act of revenge. She had built him the strongest of cages with her false affection, and he had walked into it willingly, even locking himself inside. And even after she left, he refused to come out, though the key was in his own hands.