“Ah……”
What came out from behind the frame was a paper with the personal safe deposit box number of a large bank in Chicago written on it.
Even if it didn’t say what was inside the safe deposit box, Jae-in could tell that Mom had put something important related to her inside.
Jae-in, who had been absorbing Mom’s handwriting as if engraving it for a long time, slowly clasped the frame and album. Suppressing the bursting cry trying to escape while holding it tightly, a knocking sound on the window was heard from outside.
It was the time for the cat to finish its nightly stroll and sleep in the room. Surprised, Jae-in cautiously peeked out, only revealing her eyes. Tae-seo was standing in the second-floor garden outside the window.
It seemed she had suddenly returned home from meeting Sang-hwa through the bodyguards. Tae-seo hadn’t even put on her coat in a hurry.
Seeing worry on Tae-seo’s face as she checked Jae-in’s wet eyes and cheeks, Jae-in, who had been holding back tears, got up.
Before the restrained cry could burst, she put down the album and frame and rushed to open the window. Then, as if checking for safety, she hugged the man who was there to embrace her, and a chilly winter wind smell came from him.
“What’s going on? Why…”
“Mom, Mom…”
Unable to continue speaking, Jae-in eventually burst into tears. Crying, she recalled one of the numerous notes Mom had left.
Mom, Sang-hwa, and Kang Tae-seo—You.
When Mom wasn’t in the world, Sang-hwa was there, and now Tae-seo is by her side. The new people Jae-in met through Tae-seo also became her reliable supporters.
Without deliberately searching, Jae-in cried and hugged the man who came to her with open arms for a long time. And after a long bout of crying, she finally opened her mouth.
“Tae-seo, let’s go on a trip.”
“Huh…?”
“Let’s go on a trip.”
“Now?”
“As soon as possible. Even today if possible.”
“…Where do you want to go?”
She realized that her sudden suggestion to a busy person might sound like an unreasonable tantrum. However, Tae-seo didn’t say it’s not possible now or suggest going later because she’s busy.
Putting aside many words and asking where she wanted to go, Jae-in, who looked at Tae-seo with eyes filled with tears, smiled and whispered.
“I want to go to Chicago.”
“…”
“Come with me.”
Staring in surprise at Jae-in, who had been crying so sadly but now suddenly suggested a trip, Tae-seo’s head tilted slowly.
To understand the heart that cried so sadly that it made everyone else hurt but now smiled so brightly, Tae-seo silently met her eyes and eventually smiled gently, following Jae-in’s lead.
Expressing gratitude for suggesting going together, she nodded with both heads, and Tae-seo, who had been hugging her, gently whispered behind her shoulders, making the midwinter sky outside the window seem eerily blue.
“Hey, look, she’s coming out!”
“Who’s the person in that car?”
“Do you know what? I’ve been to that house, said everything. I’m anxious! I can’t live like this!”
“I can’t live! I can’t live!”
Following the slogans of the union leader and the vice president, Gwang-soon raised one hand and shouted. She, who joined the protest in front of the house of the president of Hyeonyang Construction from today, forgot about the cold and passionately raised her voice.
At first, she couldn’t make a proper sound because the abundant police near the protest site was intimidating.
However, the police seemed to be watching the protest of the subcontractor union, which showed a somewhat aggressive appearance. Relatively, they just watched without imposing any sanctions on the protests of the redevelopment area union members and residents from a distance.
At first, Gwang-soon, who grumbled awkwardly, gradually adapted. As she gathered her voice with the people with the same purpose, her courage also grew.
“Hyeonyang Construction! Compensation for relocation! Quickly! Comply!”
“Comply! Comply!”
“Living in such a big house on this expensive land, do you think they’re saying they don’t have money for relocation?”
“Then let’s get it! Can’t we get it!”
“No matter how much Hyeonyang Construction fails, we’ll endure it to the end!”
“Is there a way? If the company fails, won’t the entire family of the head also fail?”
“Even so, if you look, there must be a hidden fortune. You know our son works in the court, right?”
When Mrs. Song gave a nod, Gwang-soon whispered disapprovingly to the others standing next to her, as if she didn’t like it.
“That lady always brags about her son whenever she opens her mouth. Don’t you find it a bit distasteful? It’s a bit too much, isn’t it?”
“That’s true. I heard he barely passed the civil service exam, but do we even know where he works in the court?”
“Who doesn’t have a son who brags about being talented? Lady, why don’t you brag about the son of the dental clinic director!”
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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