1. One Day, My Sister Died
2023.10.01.
Yuan Pelliese scratched at her cuticles, staring fixedly at the tightly closed side room door.
Each time a voice seeped out from inside the room, her face turned deathly pale.
With trembling hands clasped together, she bit her lips until they bled, unaware of the pain, waiting for Count Pelliese to open the study door and walk in.
Only when the Count slammed the study door shut with a loud click, waddled over, and loomed over her feet did she abruptly lift her head and look up at her uncle.
“Don’t you think you’re old enough to greet guests on your own by now? Couldn’t you have gone in earlier, flashed that slick smile of yours, and served some tea?”
“There were just too many people today……”
“How many times must I tell you before it sinks into that thick skull? It’s precisely because of these people that the Pelliese name still holds weight. Can’t you understand that?”
Her uncle’s voice dropped without a trace of hesitation, and Yuan bit down hard on her bloody-tasting lips.
Seeing her hesitate, her uncle began cajoling her with an air of annoyance.
“Do you think you’re the only one suffering? I’m hurting too. But what can I do? This is the fate of the Pelliese family. Do you think I enjoy doing this? Nobles don’t work, but the Pelliese do. Why? Because our power is the sole reason we’ve survived in this cutthroat aristocratic society. You, who were born with this gift, must naturally share your abilities and serve the family!”
The same words she’d heard for ten years.
She knew them well—but knowing didn’t lessen the pain.
Yuan walked toward the side room as her uncle opened the door.
Her steps, anticipating the pain ahead, were slow and heavy.
A dark, dim room.
Through thick cigar smoke, high-ranking nobles in lavish attire played cards.
A woman, cigar clenched between her teeth, shuffling cards, scowled at their entrance.
“What took you so long?”
“Ahaha, my assistant isn’t feeling well today—”
“Enough excuses. Just treat me already. What’s happened to the Pelliese reputation, making us come here in person like this?”
The noblewoman, frowning deeply, urged the Count without smoothing her furrowed brow.
The Count hastily pulled out a stethoscope from his coat and felt along her neck.
Then he gave Yuan a sharp, pointed look.
Yuan’s slender hand grasped the noblewoman’s wrist, taking her pulse and absorbing her pain.
“Ugh—”
A sharp pain burst through Yuan’s head.
At the same moment, the noblewoman’s tightly knotted brow smoothed out as if pressed by an iron.
“Huh? My head suddenly feels clearer. Am I imagining things?”
“When you meet a good doctor, even just an examination can make your stress vanish! Hehehehe! Assistant?”
Yuan tremblingly handed over a prescription.
Her uncle, grinning from ear to ear, pulled out several medicine bottles from his coat. He then used a dropper to add a few drops of medicine into the noblewoman’s teacup.
He didn’t forget to quickly glance at the symptoms listed on the prescription and read them aloud.
“Your head hurts as if needles are stabbing it? Your eyeballs feel like they’re about to pop out. Especially on the left side.”
“…The Pelliese really are different.”
Yuan watched the noblewoman happily sip her tea, pretending to adjust the shawl draped over her shoulders.
Through the brief touch on her shoulder, the noblewoman’s headache completely transferred to Yuan.
It wasn’t just the pain—it was as if the expression itself transferred. Yuan’s pale, smooth forehead suddenly crumpled in agony.
“Good heavens. No wonder Pelliese medicine is so expensive!”
My head feels so clear, and the headache has vanished like it was washed away. Truly amazing!
Amid the noblewoman’s amazement, chaos erupted around the room.
Those lying on makeshift beds in the corner perked up their eyes and began clamoring.
“Me next!”
“Check me first! I’m in more urgent need!”
“Now, now, everyone, please keep your order. And remember this well: you are all very special guests, which is why you’re being treated here in this estate. Therefore, under no circumstances should you ever speak of this to anyone. I would be placed in a very difficult position. I can only use these precious medicines for precious people, and if word of these special treatments spreads, I won’t be able to receive you anymore! Do you understand what I mean?”
A man whose legs were nearly crushed in a carriage accident. An elderly woman near death from chronic illness. A man whose shoulder was nearly severed by a monster-hunting arrow.
The horribly injured and sick smiled faintly from the shadows.
Overwhelmed by sudden dread, Yuan’s spine turned icy cold.
“Yuan.”
“……”
“Just think of this as practice—for your sister’s sake.”
Her uncle whispered to her as she stared blankly into the darkness, her face drained of color.
“Come. We must fulfill our duty.”
The reason her uncle hadn’t abandoned Yuan after her parents passed away, and even after her sister left the estate, was simple:
Yuan was the only person in this estate who possessed the power of the Pelliese.
***
Frederic Pelliese, her cousin, abruptly picked up Yuan, who had been lying on the side room floor like a corpse.
Immediately, the hoarse voice of Frederic’s younger sister, Regina, pierced Yuan’s ears.
“What, does she think she’s the only one doing research? She gets the privilege of freely entering Father’s study—can’t she at least stop acting so weak? Why’s she always making such a fuss?”
“Move out of the way, Regina.”
Regina quickly stepped aside and stuck close to her brother as they walked.
“It’s just not right. After Grandfather passed, this Pelliese estate should belong to us. Why do we have to take care of this crow too? At twenty, most people already have betrothals. Just send her off to marry somewhere. How hard can the family business be that we need to rely on this crow-handed girl? Aren’t Academy students just decorations? Are you or I just decorations? It’s so annoying. They never tell me anything.”
“I don’t know what it is, but seeing her like this, maybe it’s better if we don’t get involved at all.”
Regina, grumbling with drowsy eyes, giggled at her brother’s words.
Yuan, who had only been breathing heavily with her face buried against Frederic’s chest, was suddenly thrown into the room.
Not onto the bed.
She was tossed like baggage onto the wooden floor, where not even a carpet lay.
As Yuan clawed at the floor, trying to rise, Frederic ostentatiously shook his hands as if brushing off filth.
His contemptuous gaze swept across the shabby room.
Dirty, smelly, and cold—a room not even a maid would use. A room fit for the Pelliese crow.
“Brother, let’s go quickly. You promised to help me pick my debutante ball shoe design.”
Regina’s amused voice and Frederic’s resentful footsteps faded away beyond the wooden door as it slammed shut.
Only then did Yuan finally release the pain she had been holding inside.
The agony she had absorbed and suppressed all day burst forth as her tension broke.
Her body stiffened as if punched hard in the solar plexus, then her limbs began to tremble violently.
Down the corridor, Regina covered both her ears at the sound of a pained scream.
“That crazy X is at it again.”
“The unlucky crow.”
“They take in a girl who should’ve been thrown into Saint Yolona’s den and not only let her stay in this beautiful estate but make her work too. Father and Mother are far too soft.”
On the quiet third floor, now emptied of everyone.
Only Yuan’s desperate scream echoed like a mournful cry.
***
One year ago.
Yuan’s older sister, Louise Pelliese, suddenly packed her bags and said her goodbyes.
“You have to leave? Where are you going? Did Uncle force you into something again?”
“Just wait one year for me. Within a year, I’ll find a way to call you. I’ll come get you.”
“But now? Can’t I go with you now? Don’t leave me here alone……”
“Yuan.”
Louise set down the two bags she was holding and gently cupped Yuan’s face.
Her slender fingertips moved as if softly stroking every bit of fine down on her skin.
Tears glistened in Louise’s dark eyes.
“This is for the best.”
Her voice was firm.
On her delicate jawline, instead of tears, only resolute determination settled.
Yuan could only gape, speechless at the strange firmness.
“I’ll come quickly. Maybe next winter, we’ll spend it somewhere warm.”
And so her sister left.
On a small hired carriage.
Without a single farewell from any family member.
Without any explanation.
Together with a mustachioed man in a tall hat pointing skyward—a man she’d never seen before in her life.
That had been a year ago.
***
Louise had married.
No one told Yuan who her sister had married, or where the wedding had taken place.
Not even after a full year had passed—since that winter when Louise left, through four more seasons, until winter came again.
Yuan could only piece it together from snippets overheard from laundry maids and an old stack of newspapers she found near the estate’s incinerator.
[The Depraved Womanizing of the Disgraced Prince Clade Euphris]It wasn’t even a proper marriage announcement.
A list of countless women who had passed through Clade Euphris, the Disgraced Prince.
Among them, at the very end, a single line: ‘Recently reported to have married the daughter of Count Pelliese.’
That was all she had to go on.
Clade Euphris.
Even Yuan, who had never set foot in high society, knew that man’s name well.
A monster with a hideously scarred face.
A lecher who had replaced his wives multiple times.
They said if you stared into his eyes too long and too directly, you’d be cursed—your body would rot, your limbs would wither……
With trembling hands, Yuan traced the news article that didn’t even include a portrait—only the mention of the Disgraced Prince and her sister.
The Disgraced Prince.
Even if she knew little of the outside world, she understood what that title meant.
Louise, then, had become the bride of this monstrous Disgraced Prince.
In other words, she had become the Disgraced Princess.
***
Outside the large window, the clopping of horse hooves sounded repeatedly.
Many people were moving.
The Pelliese estate, located in a remote area on the outskirts of the capital, Ceilo, rarely received visitors unless they were secret patients.
At the unusual commotion, Yuan—who had spent the night replaying the day she parted with Louise—struggled to open her eyes.
“Louise?”
Her heart quickened.
It was just like that day.
The snowy morning when Louise had left.
The bustling sound of hooves, the restless atmosphere.
“Louise. It must be Louise.”
Yuan crawled painfully toward the door.
It took her a long time just to grab the doorknob and open it, but a strange certainty filled her.
It was Louise.
Louise always kept her promises. The year she had promised hadn’t even passed yet.
Gritting her teeth, Yuan rose and staggered down, groping along the walls toward the first floor.
Her entire body ached as if breaking apart, but she didn’t fall.
As if answering her hope, all the family members except her uncle were gathered on the first floor.
Frederic spotted her first, his eyes widening in shock.
“How are you here? You’re still……”
“Quickly, get that filthy girl out of sight!”
Her aunt’s shrill cry shot past Yuan like a sharp arrow.
Overcome by surging anxiety, Yuan instinctively lashed out and pushed away her approaching aunt’s arm.
Her aunt’s eyes widened in disbelief.
On the first floor of the estate.
On the marble floor, faded but spotlessly clean.
A dark wooden coffin stood empty and open.
Inside the coffin.
“Louise?”
Her sister.
Louise Pelliese lay there.
Still so breathtakingly beautiful it felt like her heart was being torn into a thousand pieces.
The sister who promised to return in a year had come back.
“Lou…… ise.”
As a cold, lifeless corpse.
The strength in her legs, which she had forced to hold, suddenly gave out, and she collapsed.
Louise, who had always walked away firmly on her own two feet, even when in pain.
Yuan’s gaze passed over her aunt, who was nervously gnawing at her fingernails, worried that Yuan’s shabby appearance might offend the guests, and landed on the man who had first taken her sister away.
His mustache neatly parted to both sides.
Tall and gaunt, but dressed with great flair.
Though she had only seen him from afar through a window a year ago, she remembered him clearly.
Even the smooth texture of the tall hat he was wearing.
The moment the man met Yuan’s eyes, his own gleamed sharply.
“So the real one is here.”
Stepping past the frightened aunt, the man stood before Yuan, who was kneeling by the coffin.
His long shadow completely engulfed her body.
“Greetings to the next Disgraced Princess, Your Highness.”
Her sister had kept her promise.
The promise to come get her—personally.
But in a way so miserable.
And so revolting.
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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