The story kicks off with Meiyan being kidnapped by Han. Han suspects him of being involved in the recent mu*der of one of his close friends and trusted workers. Han had seen Meiyan speaking with a police officer and another crime boss named Chen.

Chen, by the way, is another powerful syndicate leader and someone who’s obsessed with Meiyan. Their relationship has a very toxic, abusive history. So, naturally, Meiyan is caught in the middle of two dangerous men with very different motives.

After the kidnapping, Han subjects Meiyan to a traumatic interrogation that includes a deadly twist of Russian Roulette. He then keeps Meiyan under house arrest, intending to use him to get information about Chen and the mu*der. A few days later, Meiyan is unknowingly used as bait. When he returns to his apartment, he’s attacked by an assassin. Han saves him and gives him a choice: return to his abusive past with Chen, or work for Han as his personal barber. From there, the story picks up and explores their evolving relationship.

The pronoun usage for certain characters was all over the place. The MC (Meiyan) is very clearly a man and for reasons you may find out, he hates being referred to as a woman, but in the TL, MC sometimes has she/her pronouns. I've only seen it in a few places which is not as bad as one FEMALE character using he/him pronouns for the entire rest of the novel after they were introduced with the correct (she/her) pronouns. It really hurts to read because this character is the other half of a lesbian couple, an important side character, so she shows up often and she's always referred to as "He did this.." or "He said that..." Even in parts where the author mentions the character entered the women's restroom, wears feminine makeup, or even directly calls themself a woman, they still use he/him pronouns. Other characters, like maids, have had their correct pronouns used once and then the rest of the novel for whatever reason it turns into he/him AGAIN. One of the maids who is mentioned more often is turned into a guy even after her rouge lipstick was mentioned (this is the 1940s in a regular household, no man is gonna be wearing makeup, I mean come on...). I know MTL novels can slip up the pronouns once in a while but for 95% of the novel? Even if this was done in MTL, it was a sloppy editing job. Well that's my 2 cents on why I think the rating for this novel is so low.