The baby wolf, who had run through the snow field, placed a white rabbit at the woman’s feet.
“Oh my! What is this?”
The woman bent down and rubbed her son’s cheeks vigorously with an excited voice.
“I went a little farther today.”
Though trying to appear nonchalant, a transparent sparkle of wanting praise shone in his eyes.
The 8-year-old son wanted to act more grown-up, but he couldn’t hide his raised shoulders and expectant gaze.
“Oh my, how did I give birth to such a wonderful son? Well done.”
“Has father returned?”
His blue eyes moved busily, scanning the surroundings.
Even as he craned his neck to look around, there was no sign of his father.
That’s when it happened.
“I went out a bit far today.”
Thud! A loud vibration sounded from behind, and white snow powder fluttered over Raoul’s head.
Turning around, he saw a wild boar with its neck torn buried in the snow.
The large man brushed snow off his shoulders and embraced his wife.
“Do I smell of blood?”
As the man stood in front, the mother disappeared from the son’s view.
“No, but look at this. Do you know what our son caught today? Huh? Raoul?”
The mother, who had been boasting about her son’s accomplishment to her husband, looked around.
Raoul was already turning the handle of the storage room with the rabbit.
“Next time, I’ll catch a wild boar too.”
Seeing his sulky appearance, the couple exchanged glances and laughed.
The son’s frequent displays of jealousy were both a source of teasing and joy in their lives.
Father was a strong man.
He was the leader of the village, a faithful husband, and, though not acknowledged at the time, a loving father.
“I can catch a wild boar too.”
“Of course. You’ll catch an even bigger one.”
The man sitting by the fireplace patted his son’s head with his thick hand.
The two were always in competition with Mother between them. Especially Raoul.
“Father, do you like Mother?”
“Any Lycan would love his wife first and foremost.”
“I like Mother too… But it seems Mother likes you more.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I catch rabbits, and you catch wild boars.”
Father looked at him for a moment, then said with a serious face:
“Raoul, there’s something you don’t know.”
At his seemingly grave attitude, Raoul glanced up. Deep shadows fell across his strong-featured face.
‘What don’t I know?’
“Even if I catch a rabbit… your mother loves me more.”
He really was an irritating fellow.
Raoul tried to punish him with his small hands, but as always, he was blocked by the large hands.
“Hey now, don’t fight.”
As Mother separated the noisy father and son, pulling Raoul into her embrace, only then did the two men quiet down.
To Raoul, Father was both a mountain to overcome and a man to respect.
Even when he responded grumpily, deep down he thought Father was admirable.
He often vowed that someday he would become a splendid man like his father and meet a beautiful woman like his mother to live happily.
Father always praised Mother and spoke about the destiny of Lycans.
“Lycans must always be careful in their encounters. That’s how you can be paired with a good woman like your mother.”
His mother was the daughter of an herbalist who lived in a small village beyond the snowy mountains.
She dried spring herbs to prepare for winter and brewed fragrant herbal teas when someone fell ill.
Raoul loved his mother. The scent of wildflowers from her embrace was still vivid.
Though the environment of the snowy mountains was harsh, they were happy because they had family.
Their daily life was peaceful, and they believed it would always be so. Until that day came.
On the night Raoul lost his family, his father threw him halfway up the mountain and left a final instruction:
“If I don’t return by sunset, leave this place without looking back.”
Raoul tried to get up to follow, but his father’s urgent voice rooted his feet to the ground.
“You must live for your mother’s sake. Don’t give up!”
The back as large as a mountain receded towards the burning red forest.
Distant explosion sounds and howling wolf cries. And smoke blackening the sky continued until night.
Waiting for his father who didn’t return, Raoul prayed this wouldn’t be the end.
But such a miracle did not occur.
Where the large-scale troops had swept through, there were only bloodstains.
There, Raoul found his fallen cousins, aunt, uncle, and his mother and father.
He dug the ground for days. He buried all his family members and his own soul along with them.
The place where they had happily conversed just yesterday had turned into a graveyard.
He was out of his mind.
He could no longer breathe there.
As his father had said, he left, wandering wherever his feet took him.
Thus left alone, he sometimes stayed in fairy forests, and sometimes drifted into human villages.
They never lifted a finger for anything that posed a threat to them.
When an orphan drifted into the village, no one helped, and there were only snake-like people scheming how to exploit him for money.
They bowed and scraped to the strong while constantly yelling at and kicking the weak.
Raoul was once caught by slave hunters and put up for auction for months, and he was also dragged into the army in place of a lame man who had cared for him like family.
They always had ulterior motives, and Raoul was the sacrificial lamb.
So he vowed never to place expectations on anyone again.
Even when he fought like a dog on the front lines in place of the man, even when he was taken as a slave after defeat in war, he thought the same.
‘All humans are the same, except Mother.’
But on the day he first entered the duke’s castle, Raoul saw a girl shouting from afar.
She ran down to the landing of the castle stairs, her black hair fluttering.
Her words were unclear, but the timing was perfect.
It looked as if she was scolding the knight for his sake.
But when their eyes briefly met and then parted, that expectation also felt futile.
‘What are you doing, you fool. All humans are the same.’
He steadied his heart.
However, the two met again that very night, not long after.
Raoul was wandering outside, his mind troubled.
Listening to others’ long-winded past stories made him feel miserable about his own situation.
That’s when it happened.
‘Why is she here…’
He saw the girl he had seen during the day being attacked by a dwarf.
She twisted her wrist in pain, her face contorted.
It wasn’t because he trusted humans, but his body moved instinctively.
His father would have done the same, and no Lycan would have committed the dishonorable act of ignoring a girl in danger.
That was all.
He stopped in the forest because of her heavy breathing.
Human infantry were weak and often made groaning sounds when they overexerted themselves even a little.
But this girl was exceptionally frail.
Her bones were so thin they seemed like they would twist if held too tightly, and her face was pale.
Her eyes shining under the moonlight were as dark as the burnt-out logs from the fireplace where his family used to gather long ago.
“Why did you come here?”
She said she had come to prepare medicine for the slaves, as if doing charity work.
He was suspicious for a moment, but it felt like a justified repayment.
Above all, she didn’t seem capable of harming him.
As she applied the medicine to his back, her touch was so careful that it felt a little ticklish.
‘What kind of girl is she? She’s too confident for someone working at the castle. And her clothes aren’t ordinary either.’
While he was lost in thought, the girl remained silent as well.
Raoul suddenly came to his senses and lowered his clothes. When he turned around, her white face looked somewhat gloomy, unlike before.
“It must have hurt a lot.”
‘Is she worried I might be in pain?’
Not stopping there, she tried to take off her clothes to put them over his shoulders.
Anyone could see that she looked much colder, but she did so even while her jaw trembled.
The sight was both amusing and quite adorable, naturally making the corners of his mouth lift.
Her dark eyes were even more transparent than before. He shouldn’t trust humans, but somehow his heart fluttered.
Worried he might lose her if he wasn’t careful, he held the girl’s hand as they left the forest.
For some reason, her dazed expression kept bothering him.
As they parted, he suddenly thought it would be nice to see her again.
“Shall I go with you then?”
He asked, facing her back, but whether she didn’t hear or not, she just smiled and waved her hand.
He shouldn’t trust humans, shouldn’t think of her as a friend, but he just thought that such a weak being couldn’t possibly be harmful.
He was foolish.
Only after returning to the slave quarters did Raoul hear from the excited dwarf that she was the duke’s daughter.
That nobleman who buys Lycans with money.
His parents had lost their lives to the cowardly tricks of slave hunters, yet here he was, an idiot who had saved a noble girl.
After hearing the circumstances from the dwarf, it was hard to forgive himself for wavering even for a moment.
His mind was already complicated, and the dwarf kept getting on his nerves all day.
He kept swinging his fists, saying they had missed an opportunity to take a hostage.
Finally, things came to a head at the construction site. The agitated dwarf struck Raoul’s back with the shovel he was holding.
Having no intention of just taking the beating, he fought back, and the fight escalated more than expected.
But this was just the beginning.
As soon as it was revealed that he was a Lycan, he was dragged to the duke’s castle.
Seeing the duke, he couldn’t control the anger boiling up from his core.
‘Such words to capture Lycans must have come from the mouths of nobles like him…!’
He charged at him emotionally.
He had already exhausted himself once, but the man before him was an incredibly strong expert.
He was hit again and again, but thinking of his family who had died unjustly, he got up time after time.
How much time had passed? He was clearly standing on two feet, but his body had no sensation.
As his vision blurred and his breath caught in his nose, someone blocked his path.
A thin, trembling voice, one he had heard somewhere before.
In his fading consciousness, he heard snatches of words.
‘Lycan… I discovered… He’s my person…’
Ah. As expected, humans shouldn’t be trusted.
When he opened his eyes again, the wounds on his body were healing.
And by the bedside, he saw that girl from before, holding his hand as she slept.
Male lead Asks for a Divorce Every Day
It’s not often you come across a plot like this in the female-dominant genre — make sure to check it out!
This is a novel I’m planning to reread as well.
The male lead is strong, skilled in martial arts, and not the usual fragile type you often see in matriarchal novels.
Meanwhile, the female lead is a scientist—rational and logical. Even when she falls for the male lead, she doesn’t let her emotions cloud her decisions.
If you push through the first few chapters, you’ll gradually find the story really intriguing.
It has a mix of mystery, detective elements, and romance.
The author’s writing style is like crafting a puzzle—except they deliberately leave out a few pieces, making it hard to predict what happens next, yet keeping you hooked.
In the end, everything will come together and be explained.
One-sentence summary: Wife, stop playing with beakers and look at me!
In a laboratory accident, research scientist Zhu Wansheng accidentally travels to a matriarchal world. The original owner of the body is an eighteen-year-old only daughter of a wealthy rouge merchant, already married with a handsome young man.
Zhu Wansheng grins: Nice! She always said she was heaven’s favorite granddaughter. After a life of toil in her previous life, she can enjoy blessings in this one.
However, her joy lasts no more than three seconds as bad news arrives: the original owner’s family is about to go bankrupt, and her husband wants a divorce.
Even worse, she’s stuck with a research system full of restrictions.
Zhu Wansheng: ? Is this the destiny of a research dog?
——
Faced with this mess, Zhu Wansheng pours herself a bowl of wine to drown her sorrows. In her drunken haze, her husband arrives.
His figure is imposing, holding a long sword, with a dignified air that captivates Zhu Wansheng.
Gu Yingqing, however, looks at the alcohol-reeking Zhu Wansheng with undisguised disgust and coldly asks, “Divorce or not?” The intoxicated Zhu Wansheng mumbles vaguely, “I think… it’s not… it’s not… impossible!”
——
The next day, after sobering up, Zhu Wansheng is full of energy, rolling up her sleeves ready to make a big move. As for yesterday? She has no memory of it.
Zhu Wansheng is ambitious; a research dog fears nothing!
Upgrading rouge, extracting fragrances, producing perfumes, researching lipsticks… all shall bow to the power of modern technology!
The original owner’s dying rouge shop is revitalized. Her mother is pleased and with a wave of her hand, passes on the family business to her. As she takes control and her experimental results gain popularity, it’s the pinnacle of her life…
——
But there are always those who can’t stand to see her doing well. Jealousy, scheming, assassination attempts – they want nothing less than her life.
The person who has always kept his distance from her suddenly holds her tightly in his arms, eyes full of concern.
She is unharmed, but he falls into a pool of blood…
Zhu Wansheng feels guilty, “I can grant you one wish.”
Gu Yingqing tentatively circles his arms around her, carefully resting his head in the crook of her neck, pleading softly, “I regret it. Can we not divorce?”
Zhu Wansheng: ? When did I agree to a divorce?
[Small Theater]
The newly developed rouge is beautifully packaged, and Zhu Wansheng is eager to try it.
Gu Yingqing suddenly appears: “My lady, may I apply it for you?”
Cool fingertips lightly brush her lips. His Adam’s apple bobs as he leans in for a light bite.
Zhu Wansheng: ?
Gu Yingqing: It smells so good, I wanted to taste it…
On a warm spring day, Zhu Wansheng tries a new perfume: “Spring Night.” Gu Yingqing corners her against a wall.
Warm breath lingers on her neck.
“My lady, from now on, may I test the fragrances for you?”
[Humorous female scientist vs scheming live-in son-in-law male lead]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
