Looking around, there was a cozy tea table set up between the trees in the garden. It seemed that this was the place where the maid had promised to guide Mariella to rest while she waited earlier.
‘But why are there two teacups?’
Is this Mariella’s share, who was called to the imperial palace? Wondering, Elishia approached Illeon, who was already seated.
There were three types of tea prepared on the table.
“There are three types of tea. Dried orange tea, black tea. The black tea is so thick that it looks black. And the last one is ginger tea soaked in honey.”
Elishia explained the teas to him in detail. Unknowingly, she naturally stayed by Illeon’s side and her face turned bright red.
‘Ugh! Why am I explaining this!’
When Illeon was unable to see in front of him, Elishia always explained everything to him like this. He would wait for Rona’s explanation to finish and then choose a tea. Habit is indeed scary. Elishia looked up in surprise to see Illeon listening attentively with his eyes closed. As soon as the explanation stopped, he opened his eyes.
“Why? Keep going.”
“Oh, well. I, I like tea… so…”
Stammering, Elishia picked up a dried orange tea with tongs and put it into Illeon’s teacup. She mechanically picked up the tea kettle and just poured hot water into the teacup.
“I didn’t say I wanted to drink orange tea.”
Her eyes widened.
Illeon did not like sweet tastes. Therefore, ginger tea soaked in honey was out. And the heavily roasted black tea, which looked so dark as to appear black, was also not his cup of tea. Slowly steeped black tea with tea food was a highclass hobby of the nobility. Illeon, who had to wander the battlefield a long time ago, did not enjoy the bitter taste of black tea that had been steeped for a long time. If he had to drink black tea, he would choose light red leaves and drink it lightly brewed, so he unwittingly avoided it.
“Why did you give me orange tea?”
She felt like cold sweat was running down her back.
“Because I thought it would match the color of your eyes, Your Majesty.”
“Does it?”
“Yes. After red comes orange. Yes, it’s pretty.”
“Is that so? You think it’s pretty.”
Crazy. What are you babbling about, Won Yunji?
Elishia wanted to tear at her neatly dressed hair prepared for the palace outing.
“Lady Elishia.”
“Yes?”
With a feeling that her soul was being sucked out, she looked at Illeon.
“Lady. Haven’t we met somewhere before?”
Red eyes. It was said to be a gift left by one who became a god.
Looking into his eyes, for some reason, it seemed like Illeon could see through everything.
“This is our first meeting, Grand Duke.”
But Elishia still had a thread of reason left.
“Right. Our first meeting.”
He drank the orange tea Elishia made. He emptied the teacup cleanly and then rose from his seat.
“Delicious. Your skills are good.”
“No, I’m glad that my insufficient skills didn’t bother Your Majesty.”
“See you again, Lady Elishia.”
Elishia blankly stared at Illeon disappearing between the garden trees.
“He said see you again?”
She was totally out of it.
Saviel watched his figure from between the trees and ground his teeth. The branch he had been holding in his hand had long since snapped.
“Illeon Clement, you dare touch my woman.”
His eyes flashed menacingly.
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]Queen Seraphina was in a good mood.
She held Mariella in the Imperial Palace with some frivolous talk about a debutante, and sent her off late.
‘Saviel must be with Lady Elishia, right?’
The marriage of a noble family is not a normal marriage. It is virtually no different from a contract and doing business.
A marriage where you divide what to give and receive.
Even so, young noble ladies usually harbored fantasies about ‘pursuing a natural encounter.’ They regarded strategic marriages as the beginning of an unhappy marital life, and love marriages as the beginning of an ideal marital life filled with love.
As Seraphina herself had grown up as a young noble lady, it was not something she could not understand. Thus, she arranged for Saviel and Elisha to spend time alone, avoiding a stiff position in front of the Emperor and Empress where they could only make shallow small talk about the weather. She held Mariella back, and told Saviel to go to the garden at the appointed time.
“By now, they would have gotten to know each other without any prejudice against the Crown Prince.”
Empress Seraphina wore a satisfied smile. Saviel wasn’t a bad child, but because of his excellent appearance, he had had a few romances with young nobles and rumors spread that he was flirtatious. Yet, those who spoke so much in social circles rarely ended up marrying the person they first dated.
Seraphina had no doubt that if they had time to spend together, they would develop a liking for each other and could slowly get to know each other.
“Your Majesty the Empress.”
“Yes. What happened?”
The palace maid, whom she had sent to observe the two people in the garden, had returned.
“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not come to the garden.”
“What… So, are you saying Lady Elisha was alone in the garden all that time?”
“No. Duke Clement happened to pass by and saw the lady, and they had tea together.”
“What? Eleon?”
Seraphina felt as if her blood was rushing backwards.
“That dared to in my palace.”
The imperial palace was Seraphina’s territory. Was she saying that an annoying fly was hovering around her favorite flower there?
“Regaining his sight…”
A cold aura was emanating from the Empress thinking of Eleon.
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]Upon returning to the Duke’s residence, Eleon received a visitor.
“As per your order, I have scraped up everything about Lady Elisha Uter.”
He had commissioned the guild to find ‘Rona’ for 1000 gold, and now he had commissioned them to investigate Elisha’s background.
The information guild, which had appeared incapable when looking for a nonexistent person, excelled in gathering data about a real woman.
“Do you need anything else?”
“Yes. I’ll call you later.”
Eleon couldn’t take his eyes off the thick report.
He carefully took in the life of Elisha Uter.
“Apparently, the lady was severely injured during an attack half a year ago and has barely recovered her health.”
Publicly, it was so. But in reality, it was only two weeks ago that Lady Elisha returned to her mansion after causing an uproar in Haduncha with amnesia.
The disappeared woman and the appearing woman.
A smile appeared at the corner of Eleon’s mouth.
“I’ve found her.”
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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