Women sat in a row on the chairs in the corridor. Each wore different attire and had different appearances, but they all held the same thing in their hands.
‘Job advertisements…’
Deborah looked over the job advertisement she had read so many times she almost knew it by heart.
Five hundred crowns. The usual monthly salary for a maid was 20 crowns. But 500 crowns? This was an amount even renowned lady’s maids among the nobility would struggle to earn.
‘Sigh…’
Deborah lifted her head to look at the ceiling. The mansion’s ceiling was lavish. The two houses she had worked at before did not have such extravagant ceiling paintings.
‘They even gilded the moldings. To offer such a salary without hesitation, one must live in such a house.’
Although she was waiting for an interview, Deborah, in truth, did not want to attend it.
‘I tried to avoid it somehow… Sigh.’
She thought of Lady Saint whom she currently served.
Kind and entertaining Lady Saint, who pushed her into this predicament.
‘Of course, she didn’t know this place was a trap. She must have asked me without knowing, but despite my strong reluctance, she insisted.’
If Deborah hadn’t been indebted to Lady Saint, she might have fled mid-way. She wanted to avoid the Baker family that much.
But what could she do? She was already here.
“Next interviewee, please come in.”
A handsome footman called her, and she had no choice but to enter the interview room.
‘It’ll be okay.’
Although Deborah ended up attending the interview, she thought there was no way she would be selected.
There were good reasons for this belief. First, the crowd filling the room. Everyone was dressed in fashionable outdoor clothes, sitting straight. With so many talented individuals, why would they need her, clad in a plain and somber black dress?
“……Please hand over your resume and recommendation letter to me.”
The footman who received her documents also looked at her attire strangely. That proud ‘Gentleman’ would surely not choose her, a flawed candidate.
‘No chance.’
Deborah resolved to do her best not to tarnish Lady Saint’s name, but still thought she stood no chance of being hired.
‘Just like that, just like that…’
She repeated to herself as if casting a spell. Although it did not completely ease her anxiety, it did prevent her from breaking out into a cold sweat.
“Please take a seat.”
As the footman closed the door, a voice came from behind the partition. Low and elegant, yet youthful. Probably in his mid-twenties?
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Deborah greeted lightly and sat on the lone chair in the middle of the room.
‘Nice chair.’
While Deborah enjoyed the chair’s comfort, the footman handed the documents to the man behind the partition. Once the footman left, the interviewer, the man behind the partition, sighed discontentedly.
“What exactly is your relationship with the recommender?”
Deborah didn’t understand why he was irritable right off the bat, but she was not naive enough to be hurt by someone who was quick to get angry.
“I’ve worked for about a year at a villa where Lady Saint stays.”
“Lady Saint? You just call her that?”
The man’s tone continued to be unpleasant, as if looking for a quarrel. However, Deborah focused more on the content than his tone.
‘Just call her that? What would he call the bourgeois then?’
If there is a title, it is polite to address someone by it, but the lady of this modest mansion for the bourgeoisie insisted on being called ‘Lady Saint.’ And in Deborah’s well-memorized notebook of noble names, there was no surname ‘Saint.’
“I just did as the lady wished.”
“Ha, so you are telling me that you didn’t know that the person you kept calling Lady Saint was actually Lady Forea, the Duchess?”
Deborah’s hands, neatly folded in front of her, twitched slightly.
‘Lady Forea is Lady Saint?’
Although her mind was in turmoil, Deborah maintained her composure and answered.
“I didn’t know. Is she really Lady Forea, the Duchess?”
“Ha, so it’s just ‘I didn’t know’ then?”
The interviewer seemed incredulous that Deborah didn’t know such an important fact. He implied that she must have been pretending not to know. Deborah calmly responded.
“Really, I didn’t know.”
“……Anyway, let’s move on from this matter.”
As the man paused, the sound of water gulping down and a glass hitting the table could be heard. Despite the Baker name being relatively new, ‘Jen Baker,’ who would eventually charm the nobility, wouldn’t drink water noisily like this.
So, this person must be…
‘A butler, perhaps?’
Just as Deborah tried to recall the butler’s name, the interviewer spoke again, bringing her focus back to the interview.
“Ha, looking at your resume, you seem quite accomplished. Four languages… Were you aspiring to be a governess?”
“No.”
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
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Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
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