Certainly! Below is the translated passage:
“Duke?”
But the Duke just ignored Lina’s question and was simply staring down blankly.
Valige was standing without a word for a while, so Lina, thinking that he was angry because she was late for the appointed time, bowed her head.
“I’m sorry for being late, Duke. Something suddenly came up……”
“What’s that look?”
The Duke cut her off, asking. Somehow his voice seemed more subdued than usual.
“Huh? Oh, this is……”
Struggling to answer, Valige furrowed his brow as she trailed off.
“Did you come from playing in the water?”
At his words, Lina was shocked, waving her hands.
“No! It’s just that I… um. I got wet because I made a mistake.”
Lina, who was about to mention Loen, didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and skirted around it as her own mistake.
“That dress?”
His gaze settled on Lina’s shoulder.
“Ah, this is what Henry gave me to wear.”
The Duke asked, his eyebrows twitching.
“Henry?”
“Yes. The boy you saw in the stable yesterday.”
Was it an illusion that she felt the Duke’s face go cold in an instant?
Suddenly, Henry’s words from yesterday, that the Duke seemed to dislike her, came to mind.
‘Ah… no way.’
A small doubt sprouted inside her, but she shook her head.
“So, would it be okay if I changed my clothes? It would be difficult to attend to you in this state, Duke.”
But no words came from Valige’s mouth. He just looked down at Lina with eyes as calm as the sea.
No. Precisely, his gaze was fixed on the brown jacket draped over her body.
How long did the awkward silence last?
Lina, not knowing why, was standing at the door, having an unknown standoff with the Duke.
‘Why is there no answer?’
Lina, waiting for the Duke’s response, called him cautiously, as if she could not wait any longer.
“Um… Duke?”
The Duke withdrew his gaze from her shoulder.
“Go on. Go.”
“Thank you. Then, I’ll quickly change my clothes and come……”
But the joy of getting permission was brief. Valige grabbed the jacket that had been hanging on Lina’s shoulder.
“Take this off.”
Then the jacket that had been hanging on Lina’s shoulder hit the floor. In the sudden turn of events, Lina couldn’t hide her bewilderment.
‘What’s going on?’
Her shaking brown eyes seemed to have lost their way, wavering here and there. But the man seemed as if nothing had happened, looking at her calmly.
In the oddly flowing situation, Lina swallowed her silence.
Then she quietly observed the man’s mood as she bent over to pick up the jacket spread out on the floor.
But this time, the Duke stepped on the jacket that was spread out on the floor. A sophisticated leather shoe standing on an old brown jacket.
The owner of the shoe standing on the jacket even looked arrogant. At the sight of the man, Lina involuntarily gulped.
She tried to pull the jacket out from under his foot with awkward movements and a tight grip on her hand, but it was a failure.
She looked up at Valige with a troubled expression.
“Duke……?”
“What are you doing standing around? Not going?”
“…Because you are stepping on the jacket, Duke.”
At her words, Valige looked down.
“Oh.”
But, as if to mock her, he now moved his foot left and right, trampling the jacket. The dirt on his shoe stuck to the jacket and it quickly became a mess.
“……”
Lina looked up at the Duke as if to say, what are you doing?
“Leave it and go.”
“Why are you doing this……?”
Why, he muttered, just because, as their eyes met.
“It annoys me.”
The eyes of the man she faced were filled with a cold fury.
[This is the time separator]
“The dam construction is progressing smoothly now. The rain that fell a while ago was blocked well too. Having faced some trials and errors, now it seems we can spread this dam throughout the fief.”
Count Harlen said, pointing to the dam built beside the river.
The Permanence fiefdom was an area particularly prone to heavy rainfall. Especially during the monsoon season, the nearby farmlands were suffering great damage due to the river flooding.
To prevent this damage in advance, they erected a dam filled with sandbags to block the floodwaters. Duke Valige, after touching the dam a few times with his palm, responded.
“Good. I will leave this entirely to you, Count. Report back to me at the castle later.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
It was when Valige was walking to the castle on horseback. From a distance, he saw a young boy walking with a girl.
“What are you looking at?”
Philip, Count Philip Morris, turned his eyes to where the Duke’s gaze was directed.
The girl was wearing what seemed to be the boy’s cloak, holding hands, walking together.
“Hey, it’s a good time. They’re madly in love, dead in love!”
“That? Where do you see that?”
“Don’t you know? Isn’t that girl wearing a man’s clothes?”
A man with dark grey hair pointed with his finger and spoke.
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration, just because she’s wearing his clothes, Philip.”
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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