Beep. Beep.
Summer’s eyes flew open at the loud noise.
A slightly yellowish ceiling. Cheap lighting. The clock alarm blaring loudly above her head.
“……”
Was it a dream? Like a fairy tale of falling into a strange land.
Was it just a bizarre and painful, yet fantastic dream?
Summer abruptly sat up. In the middle of the messy room, a white bottle rolled around.
“…Ah.”
It was the moment just before death. It wasn’t a dream. I really turned back time.
To before drinking the poison in the bottle in South Korea.
“Ha. Haha… ha……”
Summer burst into laughter as if she’d gone mad, burying her face in her hands. It was a trivial ending. Befitting a minor character’s scene.
Summer thought that if she were the director, she would have edited out her entire story.
Summer staggered up and turned off the alarm. She still felt dazed, as if waking from a very long dream.
But she had to check.
Summer grabbed her bag and rushed outside. The hot sun beat down on her head.
Squinting against the glare, Summer looked up at the burning sun.
“…It was summer.”
The season Summer left the world was also summer. A season of stifling heat under the scorching sun.
Summer took a step under the sun.
[This is the timeline separator]Summer caught a train right away. The scenery outside the window flashed by with a rattling sound.
What happened to Russell?
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, moisture welled up in her brown eyes. Soon, a single tear fell.
She didn’t even deserve to cry. Just thinking of him felt like her heart was being carved out.
– This station is…
“…Ah.”
It was her stop. Summer quickly got up from her seat and adjusted her bag.
The station was teeming with people.
Familiar atmosphere, air, and noise.
Summer suddenly stared blankly at the people hurrying through the station.
So this was the world I lived in.
The hometown she visited after so long felt unfamiliar.
Summer left the station, hailed a taxi, and got off in front of her family home.
A familiar building. A familiar floor. The elevator doors opened.
Ding dong, the doorbell rang a couple times and the front door clicked open.
Beyond the open door was the face she had longed to see so much.
“Mom!”
“Daughter? What brings you here! And what are you wearing!”
Mom exclaimed in shock and quickly ushered Summer inside. Only then did Summer realize she was in her pajamas.
Her unfamiliar appearance was reflected in her mother’s worried eyes.
“Mom, just a moment.”
Black hair, brown eyes. A strange yet familiar appearance.
“Mom, what’s my name?”
“What? Daughter, did something really happen?”
“Quickly, Mom.”
“Kim Dan. My one and only daughter.”
She was back. She had turned back time and returned.
Kim Dan burst into tears and hugged her mom tightly.
“Mom, I missed you so much… I came because I missed you so much.”
I came back because I left too many regrets here.
Mom, actually I fell in love there. I experienced pain and cried.
It was wrong to love that world, but I loved someone living under that world.
I came here with that person’s life, Mom.
But Mom, is this right? Is it right that someone I love loses their life because I regret what I did?
Dan bit her lip hard to suppress the heartfelt words she couldn’t bring herself to say.
“Welcome back, daughter. I was just about to have dinner, so sit down. It’s kimchi stew, your favorite. Your dad and I were just talking about that.”
“Hic, sob…”
“Why are you suddenly crying! Are you having a hard time? Hm? Crying is bad for your eyes. Let’s eat first. Who made our precious daughter cry, hm?”
At her mother’s warm voice, Dan finally broke down crying like a child. She threw her head back and wailed.
“You made me… You made me miss you…”
“Mom’s sorry. There, there. Sit down now.”
Mom sat Dan in a chair and handed her tissues. It was difficult to calm her emotions quickly.
It really was reality. Mom was the same, and Dad was the same. She was back. Just as she had wished for so desperately.
But she was sad. She kept bursting into tears. Seeing Mom made her happy, but her chest ached as if someone had torn it apart.
Even though she regretted turning her back on this world. Now she regretted the farewell she left behind in that world.
“Mom, I’m so pathetic, hic… Should I not have done that? But Mom, I’m happy to see you…”
“Mom’s happy to see you too. So stop crying. We just saw each other on the holiday.”
“Hic…”
Summer picked up her spoon, trying hard to swallow her tears. It was a familiar meal.
“Thank you for the meal…”
“Alright. Dan, rest as much as you want before you go.”
“Thank you, Mom.”
Kim Dan nodded with a smile, her eyes swollen from crying so much.
Right. That was just a novel. It was fiction. Let’s just bury it like that. Like that.
Dan entered her room and looked around. Everything was the same, except the white box that had been on the shelf was gone.
Since Dan had turned back time and returned, naturally the box had disappeared too.
Dan flopped down on the bed and took out her phone. She really had gone back two years.
“…Ah.”
As soon as she unlocked her phone, an advertisement appeared.
It was a familiar title. Dan’s trembling hand hovered in the air. She couldn’t bring herself to tap it. If this was real.
Because there would be no way to suppress the sadness. Dan forcibly closed the screen.
“I just had a strange dream.”
“Meow.”
“Coco?”
Hearing a cry at her feet, Dan quickly picked up Coco.
“Did Coco miss me too?”
“Meow.”
“I missed you too!”
Dan smiled brightly and gave Coco a little kiss.
“You’re letting me kiss you today? You usually hit me.”
Dan said teasingly as she stroked Coco. Coco just stared into Dan’s eyes with her yellow eyes.
“Coco, what are you thinking?”
“……”
“Coco. I left someone I love back there.”
“……”
“I hope that person is reborn in another world like me. Right?”
Dan stroked Coco vigorously. Otherwise she felt like she would presumptuously cry again.
She returned to her daily life.
Dan lounged on the bed resting, ate meals, and watched TV.
Today’s news reported one accident after another.
It felt like a dream. She was happy.
“Mom, I’m going to meet friends tomorrow.”
Dan said, stabbing an apple with her fork.
“Friends? Sure. You should relieve some stress too.”
“Mom, aren’t you going to ask when I’ll study?”
Dan asked casually as she chewed on the apple.
“Honestly, Mom was worried when you came in your pajamas.”
“Why, afraid your only daughter had gone crazy?”
“Afraid you were having hardships I didn’t know about.”
“……”
“Dan. If it’s too hard, it’s okay to quit. If a person sets their mind to it, they can make a living. It doesn’t have to be that path.”
“Okay. I will.”
Why did she think that was the only way back then? She felt dejected.
There were people around her who just wanted her to live in this world, like this.
Well. If she hadn’t entered the book and had that strange experience, Dan would have gotten angry at the current situation.
Saying why Mom was saying such things when she was already having a hard time. Asking if Mom really had to say that.
Whose expectations was she struggling to meet? It was her own greed. In the end. It was her choice.
“I don’t think it was forced.”
Unless it was an impulse one day.
“Hm?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. I was saying something else. That the apple is delicious.”
“Mm. The apple is good, right? Want me to cut more?”
Seeing Mom’s smiling face was enough. She should be satisfied with this.
She won’t let greed consume her and act like Duke Legacy anymore. Self-destructive and selfish.
“Mom, can I have another apple?”
“Why are you asking that at your mom’s house! If you want to eat, just eat.”
Mom lightly patted Dan’s back. Only then did Dan burst into laughter.
She had regained her daily life.
[This is the timeline separator]“……”
Fei, standing on the hill, looked up at the sky. Dawn was about to break as blue light gradually seeped in.
“Did she go back?”
“Yes. She went back in the end.”
Fei replied to Damian’s question, trying hard to kill the emotion in her voice.
Damian lowered his gaze to look at the two people lying in front of Fei.
Russell Bertrand. And Summer Lindsey.
They had long since stopped breathing.
“So even the main character could die.”
“Yes. The original work was greatly twisted after all.”
“……”
Damian fell silent. Only then did Fei turn her gaze to face Damian.
“Damian. Why did you try to kill Julian?”
“I thought if we destroyed the original work, even outsiders could love this world.”
“I see. So that’s why.”
To Damian, who had lost the direction of his anger, Julian, the symbol of the original work, became the object of hatred.
Damian thought that if Julian disappeared, a great change would come to the world.
A world where even outsiders could live. A world without protagonists.
But this time too, the outsider left, and the protagonist remained solid.
Only Russell Bertrand’s death was unexpected. They thought he would never die.
“What would happen if Julian Dudley died?”
“It would go on as if nothing happened. The world doesn’t exist for any one person.”
“But,”
“This world is no different, Damian. The world just moves on. It’s up to us to mark someone as the protagonist.”
“That woman wouldn’t know about the life of a minor character.”
“It’s okay if she doesn’t know. What does it matter? Damian, you still don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“The world chose Summer as the protagonist.”
“…What did you just say,”
“But the protagonist died. Just now.”
Summer was the protagonist?
Summer was always a minor character. As outsiders always are. At most, she thought Summer became a supporting character when the world prevented her death.
Then why was Summer so unhappy even though she had become the world’s protagonist?
Why. Despite being the protagonist, why was she unable to love this world and ended up leaving?
“Is this world so horrible?”
“What’s heaven for some can be hell for others.”
“……”
Damian slowly turned his gaze to the bottom of the hill.
As dawn broke, people began to flip their store signs and move about busily one by one.
Is this world heaven or hell for them? Damian thought he still didn’t understand this world well.
Fei stretched out fully and pulled a small shovel from her bosom.
“Now that time has gone backwards, we’ll have to wait for the children here in the future.”
The morning sun rose.
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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