Chapter 1. We Were Nothing More Than Cliché Love and Common Betrayal.
“Love is like a damn dog.”
I remember my eldest sister once told me that.
The swear word she spat out in her refined tone seemed only funny at the time.
“Don’t laugh, and listen carefully, youngest. It might become your story too.”
My second sister gently stroked my head and whispered elegantly.
Although the seven sisters got along well, I always fought with the second sister. Probably because her way of speaking was rather brash.
“Especially, don’t fall in love with a human man. He will use his charming face and cunning tongue to covet everything about you. Before you know it, you’ll have given up your money, body, and dreams. And still, you’ll smile, thinking it’s love.”
My third sister gave the longest and most serious advice.
Of course, I didn’t pay much attention to that either.
There was no particular reason.
I was young at the time, and there were more interesting things in the world than men.
And above all… my sisters’ failures were not my failures.
‘Ah, I should have paid attention…’
Was that just a flash before my eyes?
Vomiting clotted black blood, I blinked my eyes laboriously. For a moment, my blurred vision cleared.
But I knew this was just a phenomenon that briefly occurs right before death.
A candle burns brightest right before it goes out, consuming its wick.
I looked down at the sword that mercilessly pierced my chest and went through the wall of some house.
Slipping my gaze off that sacred, cold instrument of murder, I saw a hand too beautiful and neat to believe it belonged to a man.
It was the same hand I had held in the wedding hall just this morning.
My husband’s hand.
In an instant, strong veins bulged on the back of the hand gripping the hilt.
As if displeased even by the gaze of his dying wife, he twisted the blade.
“Cough!”
Crack. Despite the chaos of dying people’s screams around, the sound of my spine breaking seemed loudest inside me.
It was the very moment my sisters had warned about.
The moment of bitter betrayal.
Black blood surged again, bursting out. At the end of extreme pain, I felt nothing anymore.
“Why did you come down here, darling?”
That despicable man knelt on the bloodied floor beside me.
Tears of blood, thick with the stench of bile, ran down his cheeks as if he still loved the wife he had turned into a wretched sight. It was a ludicrous sight.
“I told you to wait at home… If you had, I wouldn’t have had to kill you.”
Ha!
I wanted to laugh sharply, but it was frustrating that I couldn’t. My body temperature was dropping rapidly. There was no way to revive my flesh.
‘How did I not see it? How!’
That you were the commander of the Crusade, the holy knight order!
A buzzing tinnitus rang in my ears. It felt like someone was cutting off my head and rolling it in a rotten wine barrel.
I had loved him madly.
Golden ripening wheat and slightly cold, crisp air. The high, clear autumn sky. I still remember the shepherd, gazing blankly at the white daytime moon.
He struggled to control his sheep, unable to handle the staff as tall as he was.
“Uh, thank you.”
Unable to bear it, I caught the runaway lamb from under the ditch and handed it to him. He smiled shyly and bowed his head.
Then his straw hat fell off… and his brilliant platinum hair, like waves of rippling grain, was revealed.
That was the moment.
The youngest of the seven lords of hell, the cruel king ruling the lowest layer of hell, the demon Astaroth, fell hopelessly in love.
I treasured that naive shepherd. Through him, I learned the preciousness of human life and how to cherish, not despise, the weak.
It was a behavior unbecoming of a demon, but I didn’t care.
Compared to my lifetime, his was as brief as a flash of lightning, but I was willing to do anything to make him happy.
My sisters warned me that I was losing myself. A proper demon doesn’t settle down, they advised, saying it’s right to have multiple lovers and reign over them. But I didn’t listen.
I even angrily cut off contact, telling them not to interfere.
And then… I wanted to live like a human!
Foolishly, I wanted to marry, have children, and leave a part of him in the form of our offspring.
But normalcy for a demon was nothing but an illusion, and his love turned out to be foul-smelling garbage.
My naive hopes blinded and deafened me, making me see and hear only what I wanted.
This death was the price of a cliché love.
“Enrique!”
It was then.
A human woman with a heartbreakingly beautiful appearance rushed in from somewhere and hugged him tightly.
Her lovely pink hair, like a spirit of spring, fluttered helplessly in the air.
So frail that she seemed to weigh nothing, the woman shed tears profusely.
…I didn’t know who she was.
“Ah, my poor Enri! My love. You’ve suffered so much, haven’t you?”
“…Helene.”
“It’s okay. You did well. If we take this demon’s corpse, His Majesty will surely make you a crown prince!”
The woman, fresh as a newly bloomed flower, spilled information about my husband I didn’t know.
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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