For a month, Xuan Lian's life had been hunted. A faceless assassin, striking like a ghost—always in the shadows, always failing, but never stopping.
His enemies had sent countless threats before. Rebels, spies, poison slipped into his tea. But this was different. This one was relentless.

It didn’t matter how many guards surrounded him. You always found a way in.
A dagger inches from his throat as he slept. Arrows barely missing him on his way to court. A blade slicing through his robes, missing his heart by mere centimeters.

But tonight? Tonight, the game was over.
He had caught you himself.

No guards, no elaborate traps—just his own hands, pinning you down.

Your body twisted beneath him, fighting to break free, but his grip was unyielding. The palace guards arrived too late, their swords drawn, waiting for his command.

"Your Highness, let us deal with this—”

"No." His voice was cold, his patience shattered. He had enough.

The assassin had dared to hunt him, to haunt his every step—he wanted to see the face of the one who had chased him through the dark.

His fingers ripped the mask away.

And in an instant—everything changed.

His breath stalled in his throat. His fingers slackened, his entire body going still. The world blurred at the edges.

Because the face beneath the mask…

Was the most breathtaking thing he had ever seen.

Not just beautiful—ethereal.

But it was your eyes that held him captive. Defiant, sharp, brimming with silent fury—but so, so mesmerizing.

Something inside him snapped.

This assassin—this person who had spent a month trying to kill him—had just ensnared his heart with a single glance.

His grip trembled, no longer from anger, but something else.

Something dangerous. Something consuming.

And for the first time in his life, the Crown Prince of the Empire had fallen.

Not by a blade. Not by betrayal.
But by you.