“What do you want from me?”
“Um…… no.”
As Yan shook his head vehemently as if to say don’t worry, a suspicious call fell above the two people’s heads.
“Marianne Cloze?”
“?”
An unfamiliar face appeared before her eyes as she inadvertently looked up. He had gained a bit of weight and looked better since her last memory of him, but it was a familiar face she could recognize at a glance.
A name slipped through Marianne’s teeth.
“Mikael Hindenburg?”
With his hair slicked back with pomade, and dressed in a highend business suit, he stood before her eyes. Marianne looked at him with wideopen eyes, as if she did not understand why he was there.
He seemed just as confused, his brow narrowing as he crossed his arms and stared at Marianne.
Yan, caught in the middle, looked at the two in confusion. Then he whispered to Marianne.
“You know Prosecutor Hindenburg, Marianne? But didn’t the prosecutor just call you Marianne Cloze? You are Marianne Habec.”
“I, that is, he’s… a prosecutor?”
Yan’s eyes widened at her confused expression. It seemed curious that she knew him but didn’t know he was a prosecutor.
After choosing her words for a moment, Marianne replied in a nonchalant tone.
“He’s a school senior.”
“Ah, from the Royal University?”
“Yes.”
“I hear it’s really hard to get in there, but it feels like I’m running into graduates from that place quite often these days.”
At Yan’s words, Mikael scrunched his face, puzzled. Lost in thought and scratching the end of his eyebrow, he mumbled with a flustered voice.
“I stopped by to meet a suspect because of a case. I saw a familiar face on the way and thought it couldn’t be… but it really was you. To meet Marianne Cloze here.”
He then quickly raised his eyebrow. Crossing his arms with a firm stance, he looked down at Marianne. Mikael’s eyes had a crooked glow.
“But what are you doing at the courthouse? Christoph is…”
“Shall we go outside to talk, Prosecutor Hindenburg?”
When she called Mikael ‘Prosecutor’ instead of ‘Senior,’ Yan puffed his chest out with a proud expression.
A title like “senior” isn’t for just anyone. A senior must be someone with talent and good character like me, right?
Yan waved his hands at his cherished junior to go ahead, then squinted at Marianne’s retreating figure.
But who the heck is Marianne Cloze?
(This is a time separator.)
“I didn’t know you became a prosecutor.”
Sitting on a bench in front of the police station, Marianne looked at him calmly. Mikael smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth.
“When have you ever been interested in me, Marianne Cloze? And what’s this about Marianne Habec?”
She had never shown interest in him. Not even once. But it was not Marianne who was wounded by his sarcasm. It was Mikael, himself.
The one who had treated Marianne badly, he had felt like he was hit on the head with a hammer upon hearing the news of her marriage to Christoph.
Only then did he realize that he had loved her. Carrying his father’s name on his back and living like a spoiled brat, he had grown older but was no different from a little boy.
Loving someone was a first for him. Therefore, he didn’t recognize that it was, in fact, first love.
Could there be anything more pathetic? He had met her first, but due to his failure to recognize his own feelings, he had helplessly lost Marianne. And to no one else but Christoph Schneider.
Had the one who proposed to her been someone other than Christoph, Mikael would have had a chance. He was the son of Count Hindenburg and had the money and power that anyone would covet.
But the moment he heard it was Christoph, a deep despair weighed him down. He instinctively sensed that he couldn’t defeat him.
He had nothing that could compare to Christoph. Be it skill, intention, money, power, none of them.
He couldn’t congratulate the two on their wedding like a thoughtless fool, either. He didn’t want to see Christoph triumphantly become a lawyer even more.
So, graduating a year later than him, Michael left the capital. He chose to become a prosecutor, not wanting to work in the same field.
He thought he would be able to live a life unrelated to Christoph Schneider. He thought he wouldn’t think of Marianne anymore.
But ironically, he ended up in Blauburg, the territory of Duke Schneider.
Still, time was a cure. He thought he had forgotten Marianne and Christoph. He thought it was a quite smooth life. Then Marianne appeared before his eyes again.
How cruel fate was.
“It turned out this way. You seem to be doing well.”
You seem to be doing well.
With a bitter smile at those words, Michael turned his eyes to her. Marianne was reflected in his deep green eyes, as dark as the lacquer.
“I’ll take that. Marianne Clozé, what’s the matter with you? What are you doing at the courtmartial here? A detective? No, more importantly, Christoph? Does he know about this?”
The questions poured out randomly like a sudden shower. Marianne hesitated for a moment, not knowing which one to answer first. In truth, she didn’t want to answer any of them.
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
_____
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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