The next morning, Freddie personally guided me to my family. It was certainly not the butler’s job to welcome guests unless they were of utmost importance. Yet, his personal involvement meant that it was an order from Ricardo.
Even after a long carriage ride, I still couldn’t reach where my family was.
It was then I understood why Ricardo said last night that I couldn’t meet my family.
The Bluehill he mentioned wasn’t the name of an annex inside the duke’s residence. In fact, the place I had lost my way in a few days ago was just a small part of the duke’s residence.
Bluehill was literally surrounded by blue hills.
Opening the half-open window wide, I couldn’t quite discern whether I was inside the duke’s residence or traveling on a quiet country road of the empire.
I was astonished twice, first by the enormous size of the mansion and second by how similar the place where my family was staying resembled Lesothia’s home.
As if they had heard of my arrival, all my family members were standing at the door, even Lady Penelope. Seeing them, I jumped out of the carriage even before it completely stopped.
“Lienne, be careful!”
Hearing Sabrina’s voice, always scolding me for my lack of caution, I truly realized that all my family was here.
Jonathan ran towards me faster than I was running.
Thump, he fell into my arms. No, more correctly, I embraced him since he was now taller than me. I had thought we would meet again, but I never imagined it would be in Dermaier and not Lesothia.
Once again, our family’s fate had been completely overturned.
“You even brought Coco and Kio?”
“Yeah, do you know how much time we lost because we had to bring those chickens?”
I couldn’t help but be surprised at Sabrina’s words that our chickens had come too. Of course, I had mentioned the chickens several times while traveling with Ricardo. Still, to think they had actually brought the chickens…
“Was there any trouble on the way? The lady must have had a hard time…”
“She stayed inside the carriage the whole time. She struggled with being outside.”
Meeting Lady Penelope again, I noticed she looked more haggard than before, perhaps due to the strain of the carriage journey. She briefly locked eyes with me, gave me a light hug, then tapped me on the back with trembling hands before returning to her room.
She still struggled with being in open spaces for long.
“How was Jonathan?”
“That boy, as always, was just worried about you. But he was thrilled knowing he would see you.”
The house where my family was staying was undergoing major repairs. Just seeing this, I knew Ricardo had hastily arranged things. Jonathan stayed briefly in the drawing-room with me before rushing outside to help.
His nose turned red as he talked, as if he was struggling to hold back tears.
“Was it about five days after you left? The people from the duke’s house came back to ours. We thought we were really going to die…”
I calmly explained to Sabrina the recent events. That Emperor Dermaier had rediscovered the Penel family and ordered their execution, and Ricardo had stepped in to protect us.
However, I couldn’t tell her the full truth, that I had helped awaken and manifest Ricardo’s powers.
“Of course, I know it might not all make sense.”
“Obviously.”
Sabrina shook her head and stood up from the chair.
“But if I had to grill you about it, I would have done it seven years ago. Ricardo came to save you back then, too. Thanks to him, we all survived.”
She aimlessly wandered around, sweeping her hands over things. I knew this was a habit of Sabrina’s when she had something difficult to say or was in a troublesome situation.
“What’s taking so long? Just say what you want to say.”
At my words, Sabrina bit her lip hard once and then opened it again.
“Lienne, do you remember?”
“What?”
“When we lived at the Earl of Penel’s residence.”
I was momentarily puzzled by the sudden change in topic. Our family generally avoided discussing that period.
“A trade merchant used to come to our mansion, remember? The one with a mustache that reached his ears.”
“Oh…”
As soon as I heard ‘trade merchant,’ unpleasant memories surfaced, making me frown involuntarily. Despite being in civilization, Lesothia was still a land of desert and sandstorms.
For this reason, the duchy didn’t have a developed trade sector, and there were merchants who carried goods not produced in Lesothia to the noble houses.
Among them, a merchant who had many rare imports was particularly popular among children.
“Why bring up that despicable man?”
Even in a noble household, unimaginable things could happen in the absence of adults.
Sabrina used to be excited from the morning when the merchant was expected. After becoming friends with her, I would always accompany her, and that day, I rushed to the main house because of her insistence.
“It was later that I found out Justin was actually behind that merchant who had deceived me.”
“What?”
This was news to me.
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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