My Sanctuary

Four retirees spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but their casual sleuthing takes a thrilling turn when they find themselves with a real whodunit on their hands.

This is a guy who has been tortured and abused since childhood, who lives with daily chronic pain, who has never once been treated kindly by anyone and who has only ever known people who want something from him (his power, to kill him, whatever) and do not care about him as a person.

And then he meets Liao Tingyan, is slowly charmed by her and comes to cautiously trust her...

And then she refuses to leave him to die to save herself and then actively saves his life and his soul. She proves without a doubt that she has no ulterior motive and cares for him as a person without wanting/expecting anything from him.

And he just... transforms.

He goes from 0-100 in 0.5 seconds, from hard and cold and angry to soft and sweet and supportive. He smiles, he teases, he coddles. He is so soft with her, so cheeky with her, so passionate with her, so dedicated to her.

This is a man who has never known anything but cruelty and pain and when he experiences genuine affection for the first time in his life he embraces it 1000%.

Sure, he is still working to both avenge his mistreatment at the hands of the palace masters and to keep himself and Tingyan safe - and if you cross him he will FUCK you over - but whenever he is with Tingyan he is all gentleness and fondness and acts of devotion.

This man - who literally never knew a kind touch his entire damn life - wakes up from nearly dying, and having had his life saved by magical soul manor sex with Tingyan, and fucking snuggles into her touch. I am dying.

And what's with your hands? What did you do? The glue...

You've become even prettier. Oh, stop. Right? She gets prettier every day.