“Prove your capability there.”
“Huh?”
“Give me a reason to bring you on board. Sell your painting at a high price. If it sells well at the exhibition, I’ll consider bringing you over.”
“……Okay.”
Autumn responded, feeling bewildered.
“Give it your best.”
This was an opportunity.
A response to the childish fuss she had made the day before.
It was a response she should be happy about, but Autumn couldn’t be entirely pleased.
Surely, he had asked her to sell her painting at a high price. At an exhibition where paintings from TS Gallery artists were also displayed.
It was a daunting condition.
Anxious, Autumn asked, “What if I can’t sell my painting, or if it doesn’t fetch a high price?”
“Well, we’ll see what happens.”
His ambiguous response left Autumn sighing in frustration.
She thought about the upcoming spring exhibition. The chairman might like her paintings, but that was his personal opinion. Whether her paintings would be well-received outside was another matter.
After much deliberation, Autumn lifted her head to see him sitting across from her, his expression unreadable.
Noticing her hesitation, he suggested giving up.
“If you can’t do it, it’s okay not to.”
“If I don’t do it, does that mean you won’t take me in?”
He didn’t answer this question, merely shrugging his shoulders.
Autumn glanced back down at the paper with detailed information.
A competition.
It was foolish to judge hastily something she had never tried, but she knew enough about the world to know it wouldn’t be easy.
As she hesitated, he urged her for an answer.
“Autumn. So, are you going to try or not?”
“Well, I…”
But she didn’t have another choice.
This was an opportunity he had given her.
Even if it was a trap to justify confidently rejecting her later… she had no choice but to try.
“I’ll try.”
Determination shone in Autumn’s eyes.
Unlike times when she was helplessly swayed without her consent, this was a condition where only her skills mattered.
She wanted to succeed. Despite being an uncertain opportunity, her motivation surged.
“Good. You made the right decision.”
He smiled slightly at his response. Autumn stared at his face for a moment.
She hadn’t seen him smile before.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t smiled at the recent dinner either, always expressionless.
‘Did he just smile?’ Even a faint smile was enough to capture her attention.
His smile, though slight, made him seem a bit more approachable. He still seemed difficult, but not as cold.
Lost in these thoughts, Autumn was brought back to reality as he continued.
“Now that you’ve decided to participate, let’s drop this subject. I wonder why the chairman brought you into our house.”
Startled by his piercing question, Autumn evasively chose to dodge it.
“Didn’t the chairman tell you…? That’s all there is to it.”
“I don’t know why you were brought into our house. He’s not the kind of person to tell me everything.”
“Ah, okay…”
Faced with his persistent gaze, Autumn sighed deeply and responded.
“My father was a famous painter.”
“Who?”
“If I mention Yoon Dae-ho… would you know him?”
Wondering if time had obscured her father’s fame, Autumn cautiously mentioned her father’s name. However, judging by his expression, it seemed Yoon Dae-ho’s renown had not faded.
His indifferent gaze momentarily wavered at her father’s name. Autumn caught that fleeting change.
Shortly after, his interest apparent, he leaned forward, uncrossing his legs, and looked straight into Autumn’s eyes with a sharp question.
“As Yoon Dae-ho’s daughter, you could have lived off the money from his paintings. So, where did all these debts come from?”
“……Well, that…”
‘Does he really not know anything? But do I need to tell him?’
She didn’t want to elaborate on her father’s death.
Struggling to keep her downturned lips in check, Autumn barely managed a response.
“There were some difficult circumstances. It’s hard to explain. …I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
He surprisingly backed off easily, despite her tense anticipation. He then stood up, signaling the end of their conversation.
Autumn reflexively stood up as well.
Following him, she noticed him glancing at her as he walked to his desk. She trailed behind him.
“Why?”
Startled by his sudden halt, Autumn fumbled through her crossbody bag and pulled out a handkerchief.
The handkerchief still had faint red stains.
She extended it towards him.
“I brought this to return it. You gave it to me yesterday.”
He didn’t take it, just looked down at it.
“……?”
Noticing the faint red stain, Autumn quickly added, “I washed it, but the stain didn’t come out. It was there when you gave it to me…”
“Alright, give it here.”
“Ah, yes! Here you go. Then, I’ll be going.”
After returning the handkerchief, Autumn finally smiled clearly and bowed her head, turning to leave the office.
“Autumn Yoon.”
Just as she took a step, he called her again.
She immediately turned back.
A brief silence fell before he spoke in a calm tone.
“Congratulations on your graduation.”
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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