“Say it again.”
“Ah, Miss……”
“You chatter with your open mouth, but when I tell you to speak in front of me, you shut it tight? Are you ignoring me?”
“Ah, no, ma’am!”
On a dazzlingly brilliant summer day.
Before me stood a line of maids, shivering as if it were winter even in midsummer.
Because they had been gossiping behind my back without noticing my presence.
‘If you’re going to do it, do it secretly.’
I was well aware that the servants of the mansion looked down on me and despised me, but hearing it directly with my own ears was different.
If I ignored it after hearing it, they would blatantly disregard me in the future.
ads
I glared at the maids with fierce eyes.
“I’ll give you a chance. Repeat what you just said.”
“That, that is……”
“You can’t do it? You, a bastard, dared to play all sorts of tricks, didn’t you? Ah, or maybe you said that I might not be the real daughter?”
After being ill for a week and going out for the first time, I was more irritable.
The maids kept their mouths shut till the end and exchanged glances among themselves, and finally, my patience wore thin.
“Kneel.”
“I apologize, Miss!”
“Didn’t you hear me say kneel?”
“I will never do it again!”
ads
“Kneel!”
At the moment I tried to force the maids down.
Daringly, the maids dodged my touch and struggled, and it was rather I who was pushed.
And then, at that moment.
‘Huh?’
My body wobbled, leaning backward.
The faces of a few maids, who, surprised, backed away, slowly came into view, and the pendant I always wore fell helplessly to the ground.
Crack.
It was the instant my mother’s only relic broke.
In an instant, strange memories surged like a flood.
ads
“Yoon Gaeul.”
“You may regret it someday.”
“Take my hand!”
“You’ll die if you do!”
Bang! ……Thud.
“……Eul. Yoon Gaeul!”
Amid the panoramalike waves of memories, I couldn’t regain my composure.
Scenes passing by without rest and the voices of various different people.
‘What is…… this?’
Yoon Gaeul.
ads
A name both strange and familiar, with a scene of someone desperately reaching out to me, was replayed as vividly as what I had just experienced.
Apparently, it was a memory right before death.
In a completely different landscape from where I lived now.
I was momentarily confused, but the pieces of the scene soon found their place in my mind.
Then I realized that it was the memory of a previous life.
I, Yoon Gaeul, who was born and raised in South Korea, met death at 21 and was reborn as Elodie Ferdia.
Even after realizing that fact, I sat there dazed by the shock as the maids, who had been watching, nervously approached.
“Miss! Ar, are you all right?”
“It wasn’t intentional…… please spare us a beating!”
“Don’t be like this, you have to get up now……”
ads
Without daring to touch me and stammering, the maids looked up at me, and my face seemed to pale.
Suddenly, a most important fact came to mind.
“……It’s ruined.”
“What? Ou, our lives?”
“It’s ruined. It’s ruined……!”
“Please spare us, Miss! We were wrong!”
Screaming!
Whether there were maids around or not, I was in agony, tearing at my hair.
That’s right.
This place was the world inside a book.
ads
And my future was destined to be dark!
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]Elodie Ferdia.
The only daughter of Duke Ferdia and a bastard, Elodie carried the prestige of the family on her back, showing off all sorts of bad temperament, simply a character causing annoyance.
Even when Elodie committed various atrocities, the family didn’t care, so her personality became more and more eccentric.
The fortunate thing might be that she was physically weak, so she couldn’t wander outside, and mainly tormented only the servants of the house.
The title of the novel I read was .
“Is the adopted daughter in the title me?”
“No.”
Unfortunately, there was a separate protagonist in the original work.
Estelle Ferdia.
ads
Adopted into the Ferdia family for political use, it was a healing romance fantasy, in which she conquers her brother, father, and even mother with the typical charm of a sunshine heroine and welcomes a happy ending.
In the book, Elodie was not a villainess who tormented her sister and was caught and killed… but rather just a supporting antagonist.
That wasn’t the only shock.
“I’m not their real daughter…”
The saying about a bastard is that it’s half mixed with blood.
But Elodie was not Duke Ferdia’s real daughter. Her birth mother had pretended she was.
Sigh. I sat at the table and let out a deep sigh, resting my chin on my hand.
“…Real mom.”
Having lived without memories of my previous life, I had always resented my real mother in my heart.
How could I long for a mother who took money from my father and sold me off?
ads
In the Duke Ferdia’s house, talking about my real mother was taboo.
Because my father hated talking about her.
Because of that, I grew up without knowing anything about my real mother.
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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