“That’s a universal thing.”
Men also like beautiful women. Lu considered facial attractiveness extremely important.
“I wasn’t just handsome; I was the handsomest person you’d ever seen, you said so multiple times.”
Lu gripped her knife tightly. Why did he have to say it like that, with a touch of shyness?
“Did I?”
Hayden shyly nodded. To any observer, he seemed quite modest.
Lu knew full well that face wasn’t everything, so she decided not to intervene.
Calm down. Isn’t it an objective fact that Hayden has the most perfect face she had ever seen?
“I guess alcohol made you honest. You are handsome.”
Lu coolly admitted it. Acknowledging the fact is a sign of humility and honesty.
“I also fit your taste perfectly.”
Hmm. She vowed not to touch alcohol during her stay in the palace.
“Many people would think the same.”
“You also said you liked the way I kiss.”
No way. If she drank again, she’d be a dog, not a person. Wasn’t this the vow she made when staggering back to the cabin that morning? Lu felt a returning sense of discomfort.
“You also praised how quickly I learned and applied.”
“Did I?”
Impossible. This is a trap. She pointed at herself with widened eyes.
“How could you learn from anyone when that was my first kiss?”
Hayden calmly retorted.
“Haha, you’re joking…”
His thick eyebrows twitched.
“What sounded like a joke?”
“A first kiss at your age?”
“I’ve been saving it because I didn’t want to share it with just anyone. Then you swiftly took it and wiped your mouth.”
“Mutual! Consent! It was mutual consent, Your Majesty, mutual consent!”
In response to Lu’s desperate cry, Hayden leaned back in his chair, smiling.
Having fun? Enjoying this? Her face had been flushed since morning, but this man just looked happy.
That’s so Hayden. Although his status as an emperor might seem unstable, if he successfully consolidates power through strategic marriages and conquests, he will soon become a powerful ruler. He was already steadily reaching that stage.
But a powerful, yet mysterious entity he is. Scary, to be honest. Not to mention the woman who yelled at such a creature while blushing.
“Yes, mutual consent.”
He gave a reluctant nod as if agreeing.
“But I never agreed to a hit-and-run.”
In an instant, her smiling face turned cold. Lu finally put down her knife and fork and rested her forehead on her hand.
“Don’t say it like that after you eat and run off, please….”
“There’s no other word that better expresses my feelings, Your Highness. I’ve been abandoned, you see.”
At this point, the conversation had to be cut off. It just had to be. But what remained vividly in her memory were his strong arms, the intense heat, and his moans. No, she had to think about reality, this cruel reality!
“Your Majesty, you shouldn’t sleep with just anyone in a strange place….”
Lu felt deeply wronged. How could she escape from this correct, irrefutable truth? It was so unfair. She couldn’t even keep a man who was exactly to her taste. The stinging sensation grew stronger.
“You did it, didn’t you?”
“I was living recklessly, having given up on life….”
“Ah, yes. You said back then that you never know when you’ll encounter a good-looking man, so seize the opportunity.”
Lu wanted to punch her lips. Did she have the nasty habit of becoming too honest when drunk? No, that wasn’t it. She drank just enough to be pleasantly tipsy and came home on foot.
But her tongue had loosened because she was too elated by the handsome man and the alcohol. First, it was Uncle Ben’s fault for making such a lethal drink. And secondly, it was Hayden’s fault for being excessively handsome.
Lu felt extremely wronged. The most handsome person she had ever seen was Carlos Arthur Ingram. But then came a man who surpassed that, shyly smiling and saying with his whole body, ‘I like you.’ Who wouldn’t fall for that?
“You’re not planning to sleep with just any handsome man now, are you?”
In the moment Lu was lost for words, Hayden’s gray eyes sharpened.
“I’ve decided to graduate from that kind of life.”
“Good thinking. You just saved several lives with that answer.”
“Saved?”
She cautiously asked, her face clearly indicating her ominous thoughts.
“I really hate sharing, Your Highness. Especially not sharing people. They must all be my subjects and loyal to me alone.”
It sounded like a warning that betrayal would lead to death. It wasn’t like he had to trust Lu unconditionally, or even that he thought he would. A warning at this point seemed a bit late.
“Your Majesty, I….”
“I absolutely won’t tolerate sharing a woman I like with other men.”
Only when his gray eyes flashed did Lu realize. Ah, all the preceding talk was just garnish, and this was the crux of the matter.
“I have no such interests, nor plans to switch.”
“You don’t really plan on killing anyone, do you?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“No.”
As Hayden smiled more brightly than necessary, Lu quickly nodded.
“I’m actually quite generous and a nice person otherwise. I’m even pathetically begging a woman who abandoned me.”
His gray eyes looked at her very tenderly.
It was now confirmed. Lu had touched a man she shouldn’t have that day. She shouldn’t have been swayed by the fancy packaging when the inside was a madman.
“First of all, Your Majesty, anyone who self-assesses as generous and nice is a little off by my standards.”
Rustica Gennes was also not someone to be trifled with, as she was bold enough to speak her mind to a madman.
“Point taken. Anything else?”
Lu lost her words at his easy acknowledgment of ‘I’ll correct it.’ Hmm, it seemed her courage had its limits.
“I won’t say that then, but my face is good, isn’t it? So, was the bedding not up to par?”
Ah, she felt like she was losing her mind.
“Your Majesty, did you come here to talk about this first thing in the morning?”
“Not exactly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about. Because I feel wronged.”
“What are you wronged by, what exactly?”
How unjust this is, as unjust as it could get! Yet, with a calm face, he propped his elbows on the dining table and rested his chin on his hands. Already sitting quite close, leaning forward brought him even nearer.
“You said it was good at the time.”
His secretive voice awakened memories she had tried to bury.
“You said it was so good, multiple times.”
She had to shut that man’s mouth immediately. But with what? She frantically looked around.
“If you can’t remember, I can make you remember. I can also refine the technical aspects that were lacking because it was my first time…”
His jovially laughing mouth, making embarrassing remarks without any concern, abruptly closed. She swiftly shoved a bunch of grapes into those elegant lips, biting her teeth in a grin.
“Please enjoy, Your Highness. The grapes are very fresh and delicious today.”
Compared to the time at the Academy or the Knights, shoving a large loaf of bread into his mouth to keep him quiet, these four small grapes seemed much more polite.
Of course, she hadn’t tasted the grapes herself to know if they were fresh or delicious, but it was unlikely for fruits on the imperial table to not be fresh.
Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, Hayden promptly grabbed her wrist. His gray eyes stared right through her as he chewed the grapes. A small crunching sound was heard as the seedless grapes were chewed between her palm and his mouth.
Her face flushed instantly. She tried to pull her hand away, but the man who had touched his lips to her palm had no intention of letting go.
The strength that held her wrist was firm, but the soft flesh that came into brash contact only seared her with heat; it didn’t push. Just like that night, the first time, a chilling feeling engulfed her.
“…So.”
His low voice reverberated in her palm.
“Tasty.”
His lips mumbled, stealing away even the lingering moisture left by the grapes.
“Sweet.”
Finally, unmistakably, with a smooch, he left a kiss on her palm. Only then did Hayden let go of her hand.
The extended hand of the knight quivered. The man calmly pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled.
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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