Summary
Nineteen-year-old art history student Xia Zhiyao is lured overseas and sold into a brutal trafficking compound. Her only escape comes when Shen Yu—the feared ruler of Black Wolf and a man whose word is law—takes her under his control. Safety inside his fortress has a price: absolute obedience to the ten rules he sets for her. Xia Zhiyao survives by staying quiet, studying the people around her, and relying on the artistic eye that has always set her apart. Yet as Shen Yu draws her deeper into his dangerous world, her intelligence and unexpected courage begin to catch his attention. Between fear, protection, punishment, and a possessiveness neither of them can ignore, Xia must decide how much of herself she can preserve—and whether the power she is slowly gaining can ever make her truly free.