One can never know what lies ahead in life.
Diana thought to herself as she lifted her silk pajamas and leaped onto the tree.
‘Who would have thought I’d be doing this again.’
She landed on the ground with much clumsier movements than when she was young.
Her palms gripping the tree, her arms with the sleeves pushed up, and even her thighs down to her hip bones were all scratched up.
‘I should have practiced a bit……’
Diana swallowed the pain as she vigorously rubbed her stinging skin with her palms until it heated up.
Her tree climbing skills from childhood had long been dulled by the comfortable affection that was spoon-fed to her.
Even after growing up, Raoul, who used to support her knees and back as he dashed to the castle walls when they were young, never called Diana outside.
As if it was proper manners for a Lycan man, he naturally carried her up and down or waited outside the terrace for her to come in.
So she had completely forgotten the tension of this secret and unfamiliar outing, the knack for climbing trees.
But now, time was of the essence.
‘I need to see with my own eyes that Lu is safe.’
She hastily scanned her surroundings and headed deeper into the woods. She could have gotten lost in old memories, but now was not the time for that.
Hiding behind a tree and glaring at the slave camp, two soldiers who happened to come out the door were having a gloomy conversation.
Diana stood behind the tree and waited for the soldiers to disappear. The conversation lasted quite a while.
“Hah…… I want to stop doing this kind of thing now too.”
The man who was crouching down and doing a dry wash of his face said with a sigh.
The man leaning against the building wall with a slightly hollow expression also raised his eyebrows and asked back as if he understood.
He asked playfully, but in a tone of certainty as if he already guessed the reason.
“Why, because of the doomsday theories about divine punishment and all that?”
“Yeah. I feel like this is something we’ll be punished by the heavens for.”
“We’ve already done hundreds of things deserving divine punishment. What’s the point of regretting it now? We’ll just be branded as rebels and put on trial.”
“I don’t know which side we should be on anymore. When neighbors are accused of being rebels, even the adjacent houses get tortured for not reporting them, so it seems like pledging loyalty to the imperial family is the wise thing to do.”
“Don’t carelessly wag your tongue and make your wife and kids suffer, let’s just quietly do what we have to do.”
“Right. And if a war breaks out…… people like us will just serve as meat shields and die first.”
“Aren’t you being pessimistic.”
They looked back at the slave camp several times with uncomfortable faces. And soon they disappeared around the building.
Diana waited for the footsteps to fade away and moved as quietly as a shadow.
She slowly backed up to the entrance, leaning against the wall and surveying the surroundings, then twisted her body as she pulled the iron door handle.
With a creaking sound from the old hinges, the door opened, revealing the barren and eerie slave quarters.
‘The stench is terrible……’
She covered her nose at the immense stench of rotten food waste mixed with feces and urine.
She could understand why Raoul wandered the woods every night as a child. She searched for Lu amidst the smell that was hard to get used to.
And before long, she found a child clinging to the corner of the wall, making low crying sounds.
Under the high window barred with iron bars, the moonlight shone in, revealing the child’s disheveled appearance in the white light.
“Lu……?”
Grrrrr.
There were numerous marks of being beaten for resistance on the child’s white skin. Especially the neck. The moment she saw the neck, Diana’s head turned cold.
The bright red mark engraved on the neck was clearly a cursed stigma.
There was no doubt that when Lu resisted fiercely, his father had tortured him to restrain him.
For the first time, Diana felt an unbelievable anger and a twisting contempt towards her own father.
‘Trash. You’re trash that can’t even be recycled……’
She never knew she could be so unrestrained in considering the parents who gave her life as someone who deserves to die.
She slowly approached Lu in a kneeling position.
“Grrrrr.”
“Lu……. It’s me, your teacher. Do you recognize me?”
The child glared at her with fierce eyes, then as Diana got closer and closer, he wrinkled his nose.
After sniffing a few times, the child recognized Diana even amidst the stench and let out a whimpering, heartbreaking cry.
As soon as Lu let his guard down, Diana quickly approached him and embraced the child fully in her arms.
Her heart shattered at the desperate seeking of warmth in his gestures, when he had been so fierce before.
“You were in a lot of pain…… You were scared…….”
“Mommy, mommy……. Mommy!”
Lu just repeatedly cried out for his mommy without answering. The sorrowful voice created a large lake in Diana’s heart.
Each word Lu threw out sank heavily and poignantly like large rocks.
“Yes, you can call me mommy. Call me whatever you want. Right now, do whatever Lu wants. Everything…….”
She didn’t want to point out titles at a time like this. Right now, she wanted to be Lu’s mommy or daddy, whatever he wanted.
She wanted to be this pitiful child’s one and only place of rest, even if just for a moment.
Diana grabbed the shoulders that were writhing to cling to her and examined the back of the arm that was twisted in an uncomfortable position.
‘Those bastards! They left restraints on him!’
If she hadn’t brought the key, Lu would have slept all night with his arm twisted.
Diana had the key to the restraints used to lock up Raoul. She brought it just in case, but she never thought she would actually use it.
“Just endure it for a bit, okay?”
Fortunately, the castle didn’t use a wide variety of keys for the restraints.
It was because it would be inconvenient to manage if different keys were used when there were hundreds or thousands of slaves.
Before long, with a clicking sound, the restraint that bound the thin wrist opened its mouth.
As soon as his hands were free, Lu immediately embraced Diana’s neck.
Diana also didn’t reject the small body rushing to her and hugged him back. She gently stroked his small back, careful not to hug too tightly for fear of hurting the child.
Unlike earlier when he was growling, Lu was now trembling and moaning in pain.
“Mommy, Lu hurts…….”
Diana quickly lifted the child up. She didn’t know where that strength came from, but the child who was as heavy as a sack of rice felt as light as a feather.
She swiftly opened the heavy iron door with one hand, as if the child would evaporate.
Ah, wait…….
And she didn’t forget to pick up the restraints sprawled on the floor.
It wasn’t that she sympathized with the soldiers, but if it became known that the restraints had been removed, all the servants with keys would be in an awkward position.
Diana came out of the slave camp and stared at the nearby castle wall where no one was.
She had to make a hole so it would seem like Lu had escaped on his own.
Fortunately, she saw a weak spot in the stone wall that had been filled in before but was still loose.
Diana struck the wall several times with the round part of the restraint.
Watching from the side, Lu must have thought Diana wanted to escape, so he dragged his aching body and started digging the ground under the wall.
And before long, a small hole was created that could lead outside.
“That’s enough, Lu! Come to mommy’s arms!”
Without realizing it, Diana referred to herself as mommy and reached out her arms to Lu. Like a baby kangaroo, Lu leaped into Diana’s embrace, and she hurriedly headed deeper into the woods holding him.
Naturally, the two headed towards the land where the castle’s power flowed.
‘Father won’t be able to do anything to Lu here…… The castle’s power will protect Lu, so even the curse won’t be able to exert its power!’
Diana flung open the door to the inner quarters and laid Lu on the silk bedding to examine his wounds.
“Even if it hurts, just endure it for a bit. Okay?”
“Mm…….”
Fortunately, Lu didn’t even whine and endured the pain well.
Especially the wound on his neck must have stung unbearably, but even as he shed a few tears, he didn’t make a sound and just tightly held Diana’s hand.
Diana also felt her nose sting at the firm grip of his hand mustering strength. Fortunately, the medicine worked well and the wound on his neck started to fade.
If lucky, it might not even leave a scar.
As soon as the treatment was over, Lu clung to Diana’s arms again.
He sniffed her scent, burying his nose in the nape of her neck, then pulled away to check her face, then put his ear to her chest to listen to her heartbeat.
It was as if he was confirming that she wasn’t a wax doll, but a living person. Lu repeated the same actions for a while, then shouted.
“It’s really mommy! It’s not a dream!”
“That’s right…… It’s real…….”
Diana bit the inside of her cheek hard so as not to shed tears in front of the child who had not forgotten her and waited.
Otherwise, it seemed she would burst into tears in front of the child.
‘No. If I cry, Lu will get anxious.’
To avoid that, she restrained her facial muscles that were on the verge of collapsing.
And she didn’t know that because she was focusing on managing her expression, it looked scary to Lu, as if she was angry.
The child timidly fiddled with his hands and sat near Diana’s knees with sorrowful eyes.
“Lu was good and waited like mommy said……. But mommy didn’t know where I was, so she just left……. So I tried to let mommy know I’m here……”
“……Yeah. I see.”
“Did Lu do something wrong? Are you mad at me……”
The child knew that he should use polite speech when he did something wrong.
His clumsy mixing of polite and casual speech was so cute and pitiful that laughter and tears came out together.
Diana held the child in her arms and put her cheek against his soft cheek.
“No…… You did well. Thank you for waiting so well. And I’m sorry for not finding you sooner. I’m sorry for hurting Lu.”
“No! Mommy is nice! Mommy couldn’t see Lu! Mommy is nice!”
Only then did Lu feel relieved and comfortably nestled in her arms.
And he didn’t leave Diana’s side for a moment until dawn.
Diana also didn’t leave his side for a moment until the morning sun rose, laying Lu on the fluffy bedding and even offering her arm, periodically opening her eyes to take care of the child seeking her embrace.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
