My laughter, which had lost its fear, echoed like a reverberation in the bathroom.
Rinel seemed to be definitely twitching his face, but as soon as he caught my eye, he quickly changed his expression and forced a frown.
“But listen, Zelda, you’re probably the only one in the world who would just sit comfortably and send off the emperor without a greeting as he leaves.”
Ah, upon Rinel’s words, my manners towards the emperor who had briefly left the house came back.
I quickly tried to get up from the bathtub, but realizing my current state, I hesitated and sat back down.
Ah, right. I’m naked.
The sound of water friction inside the bathtub was noisy.
Because of that, a lot of water splashed onto his pants, who was still sitting at the edge of the bathtub.
It was too late to fix the situation, and he was already too wet.
A large earthquake occurred in Rinel’s pupils.
My pupils, watching him, trembled no less.
“…Ah? Ah!”
I screamed a beat late, reaching out to him and then stopping.
“What is this… are you telling me to freeze to death on the way?”
Rinel looked down at his wet pants, which now looked plainly embarrassing to anyone.
“Then see you tomorrow. If I survive.”
He finally lifted his buttocks from the edge of the tub and stood up.
“Your Majesty… you can’t go far. Please return carefully.”
I timidly said goodbye to Rinel.
He turned to look at me with a scrunched face.
“Zelda, are you really going to let me leave… ugh?”
His body wobbled heavily.
“Be careful!”
In a split second, with a splash, the water in the tub surged like a fountain and disappeared.
And before my eyes.
“Your, Your Majesty…?!”
There he was, soaked like a drowned rat.
Though I bet there wouldn’t be such a handsome rat anywhere in the world.
“Ugh, the floor!”
He pointed to the floor with his hand and yelled.
“Yes? The, the floor?”
“Someone left soap on the bathroom floor.”
He spoke, elegantly wiping his wet face.
I quickly stuck my head out of the tub to look at the floor.
The soap I had used before he entered the bathroom was tragically squished on the floor.
That was a very precious soap….
The day I left the Chateau Neil Palace, Bonis, who shared a room with me, secretly took one from the royal bath product storage and put it in my luggage.
Speaking of this soap, it was a rare soap that if used in the morning, the faint lavender scent would last until the evening.
Oh, what a waste.
“Why did you fall into the tub when you slipped?”
I asked him, who seemed to have done it on purpose.
“Sorry about that. You had left soap on the floor, after all.”
“That’s my fault… right. I’m sorry.”
“And I’m sorry I slipped safely into the tub, of all places.”
“…Yes?”
“I should have slipped on the floor and hit my head, right? Don’t you agree?”
“I was careless. I’m sorry.”
Under Rinel’s intimidating voice, I slightly lowered my gaze.
“I didn’t expect to get this wet, but since it’s come to this… it must be done.”
“What is?”
“A bath.”
Suddenly, heat surged through my body.
The temperature of the water in the bathtub also rose.
My blood quickly circulated from my toes to the tip of my head at Rinel’s declaration of bathing together.
“Is there a heat stone in the bathtub? The water seems to be getting hotter.”
Rinel fumbled around, looking for the nonexistent heat stone at the bottom of the tub.
“Rinel? That’s my foot.”
“Oh, really? Then this is?”
“That’s my knee.”
“I see.”
“There’s nothing in the bathtub.”
“Really? There’s no heat stone in here? That can’t be….”
As he was fumbling around, he accidentally touched the side of my thigh.
“There is, none!”
I responded, clenching my teeth.
“Oh, I apologize. It was too soft to be a heat stone.”
“You did that on purpose, right?”
“Would it comfort you if I said no?”
Rinel finally took his place in the bathtub and asked with a playful smirk.
“……In the end, your clothes are all wet.”
“Indeed, what should we do about it?”
I sighed, observing his face which seemed to hint at some kind of mischief.
“You wouldn’t strip someone who doesn’t even have a change of clothes and kick them out, would you?”
Ah, so that’s what you wanted to say?
“The robe you lent doesn’t suit my face with its colour.”
He pointed to a deer hornshaped hanger on the bathroom wall.
There was a pink silk robe hanging on the hanger.
“You could call the servants to fetch your clothes……”
“It’s late. They need to rest too. Isn’t that right? The rumors already peg me as a tyrant.”
Rinel suddenly spoke with a gentle tone.
“I may push them around during the day, but this tyrant has a heart and wants to let them rest at night.”
He placed a hand over his chest, laughing lazily.
“But why does the water keep its temperature?”
He scooped up some of the steaming bathwater with both hands, tilting his head in thought.
“It even seems to be getting hotter?”
“Because it was very hot water from the start, that’s why……”
I couldn’t reveal the truth to him, so I could only deflect vaguely.
Yet his face turned into an even more perplexed expression.
“Even so, when I get in the bath, the hot water cools down quickly. The water temperature drops to almost icy cold.”
“……Ah.”
“So I can’t really stay long in the bathtub……”
He looked at the steam rising from the bathtub surface with a curious gaze and gave me a strange look.
“Zelda, could it be because your heart is so warm?”
He immediately corrected himself after posing his question.
“No, even so, there’s no way the water could maintain its warmth like this, it’s really strange.”
Ah, Rinel’s curse could be a blessing in the summer.
It’d be cooler around him during the hot summer, wouldn’t it?
We both possessed something crucial for each other.
Look now. If he hadn’t fallen into the bathtub earlier, the water might have reached a temperature that would burn.
I used this phenomenon often.
When I was angry, I would immerse myself in the bathtub and when the water temperature began to rise, I’d put two raw eggs in it.
By the time I finished bathing, the eggs would have become delicious softboiled eggs.
The joy of eating boiled eggs after a bath is something someone who hasn’t experienced it wouldn’t understand.
It would be hard to anticipate the birth of boiled eggs if I bathe with Rinel.
He gently closed his eyes and leaned back into the bathtub.
“Haaaa…… this is good. I visited the training ground before coming to the Empress Palace.”
“Did you?”
Hearing his words, I felt an impulse to go to the training ground.
I looked down at my hands.
Imagining myself wielding a sword, my hands began to tremble as if in withdrawal.
I should ask Sharon later about where the training ground is in the palace.
“Yes, it feels like all my tense muscles are relaxing after practicing swordsmanship.”
Rinel’s expression looked truly relaxed, as if all his fatigue was being washed away.
Seeing him like that, I couldn’t tell him to get out of the bathtub quickly.
In the end, I admired his moist face, appearing and disappearing in the steam, and waited for him to open his eyes again.
However, after a while.
I could no longer see him sitting across from me.
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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