It was past midnight. Alone in the house, I read the letter that had come to me over and over.
Beyond the window, thick raindrops were lashing the ground. The room that had been dark was momentarily brightened by a fierce flash of lightning, only to darken again.
[They are dead.]I had to chew over the sentence once more before it felt real. I had lost all my family. I had also lost my home and lineage. Even though I had abandoned the home and lineage myself, I never thought to push my family towards death.
“Lise!”
Someone’s distant voice reached me.
Without thinking, I got up from my seat and went down the stairs. A man outside was calling my name several times and knocking on the door. I hesitated to open it, then pulled the latch.
The moment the door cracked open, the rainsoaked man pulled me into his embrace. Whether he had been running or not, his breathing was heavy.
“……Are you okay? No, what I want to say isn’t that……. It’s really fortunate that you are safe, too. I’m sorry for being selfish. I’m sorry, Lise.”
He stammered, then stroked my back. Rather than his touch, it was his wet clothes against my bare skin that bothered me more.
“Lise.”
“Always……. I hated my father, but I never wished for his death. I hated my family, but I didn’t want to lose them. I just…….”
“It’s not your fault.”
“……I didn’t have any greed. I didn’t wish for anything. If I had any greed, it was just for a family. I wanted a family.”
“Then…… be with me. Let’s create a family and make a happy ending.”
I felt the man’s hand trembling. But now, I didn’t want to wish for anything.
[This is a time separator.]I was poor. I was.
To be precise, my first life was like that.
Born in South Korea, I was the only daughter raised between a mother obsessed with a pseudoreligion and a gamblingaddicted father.
Since it was not a normal family, life was not ordinary either.
I gave up college and my parents for money. And I died because of money.
Until the moment of death, I dreamed of the life of the male protagonist in “The Hero of Fenton House,” which I had read since childhood, and thought that it would be good to have lots of money in the next life.
Perhaps that was all I wanted.
Money. Cheques.
But who knew that I would really be born into a more miserable life with only a lot of money, that too as a character who appears only in a single line in “The Hero of Fenton House.”
“Lise! What on earth are you doing?”
It had been ten years since I was stuck in this corner of the house.
I looked at the woman who had snatched the book from my hand.
“I was reading.”
I stated the obvious. Isabel looked at the epidemiology book I had been reading and threw it onto the floor.
“Lise, I told you not to read.”
It wasn’t like I was watching porn or reading a book filled with violence, but she was unusually harsh. Isabel always did that.
Among her six children, she was jealous that I had the most outstanding brain. Therefore, she did not provide me with a tutor like the others.
In the end, I coaxed Silke, who was a year older than me.
‘You don’t like studying, do you?’
‘Why are you asking something so obvious?’
‘Shall I do it for you?’
Since she particularly disliked studying and books, we got along well. We devised a plan meticulously, and for six months, I received education instead of Silke.
At first, the tutor, who did not like this, saw that unlike Silke, I understood his words at once and taught me passionately.
But Silke, who had a loose tongue, told everything to Swell, the fourth, and her twin.
‘Liiise.’
‘What?’
‘You want to study, don’t you? Right?’
Swell demanded that I take over his lessons as well. Reluctantly, I entered the room to accommodate Swell’s request, and the tutor, as usual, nagged.
The next day, the tutor told Isabelle everything. In a moment, all my plans were ruined.
After that, she rushed at me if I even glanced at a book.
“But you said I could read two books.”
“You thought wrong. Stay away from books for a month!”
Being scolded for studying was strange, but I understood Isabelle’s feelings. It was only natural to feel pained when five children of her own were overshadowed by a child brought in from the outside.
The foundling, Lise Marsen. Deep red hair and yellow eyes.
A child born between a woman who had worked in a brothel and an earl.
The woman who gave birth to me threatened that if I were not raised as the earl’s daughter, she would spread rumors about the dirty body of the earl she had been rolling with. The earl brought me home, scared of her threat.
“It won’t do, Lise. I need to send you on an errand. Bitty!”
Isabelle called for Bitty, the maid who usually went on errands with me.
“Ma’am, did you call?”
“Go on an errand with Lise. You only need to deliver the goods in the storage.”
While Bitty went to get the goods from the storage, I put on my outdoor clothes. As I stepped out the front door, Bitty came running with the goods.
“Oh my, you dressed yourself again? Miss?”
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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