“To think that I could even pretend to have a family like these trash.”
“You, are you done talking? It looks like you were kicked out of Evergail, and yet you act so bold! Aren’t you going to crawl back and beg?”
Matilda’s eyes were fierce and intimidating. Helena relaxed the fists she had clenched tight, feeling the soreness from her fingernails digging into her palms. Perhaps the pain was more from something unseen. She didn’t even know what hurt anymore.
She just spat out her last words like someone who had eaten too much.
“I wasn’t kicked out; I left on my own. And I’ll do the same here.”
The bitter taste of blood was on her lips. Helena stormed out of the manor, slamming the door behind her.
Bang!
The harsh vibration struck her ears once but was followed by silence. Behind her hasty steps, there was only her shadow.
Suddenly, Helena realized.
She wasn’t just trapped in a cycle of regression. It was a perfectly crafted misery, just for her. No matter how hard she struggled, there was no escape. The world seemed to tear its bloody mouth open, mocking and laughing at her.
After the uproar, Matilda collapsed into a chair, fanning her flushed face, while Lord Owen was already passed out on the table, drunk.
“Oh my, that wretch…”
Matilda sighed heavily, then began to pour out her complaints against Helena.
“A few days ago, some well-built madman came looking for her. With her past behavior, no wonder the Duke kicked her out.”
“I thought the Duke wasn’t that kind of person,” Eric mumbled.
“It’s been five years since their marriage. It seems Helena no longer appeals to the high and mighty Duke.”
“But he was quite fond of Helena,” Eric added.
“Hmph. I knew this day would come. A man caught by the legs is like sand slipping through fingers, my son.”
Eric yawned lazily, staring blankly before snuffing out his cigarette.
“Such a short shelf-life for that love.”
To Eric, the Duke had been extremely attentive to Helena at the time of their marriage.
Despite expecting the love to cool eventually, he hadn’t imagined it would be so quick. To someone as high as the Duke, Helena was nothing more than a pretty porcelain doll.
No matter how much she ascended, she remained in the same world as him.
The moment familiarity with love spreads, the doll is discarded to make room for a new one.
In Eric’s view, Helena was destined for that role. Her fate was fixed.
‘Well, at least we benefited a lot from it. But she could’ve held out for about ten years, instead of just five and then causing all this chaos.’
The thought of losing the regular flow of money was unfortunate, but it wasn’t a big issue.
With her pretty face, remarrying wouldn’t be hard.
‘I heard the wealthy Hector is looking for a young bride in his old age.’
“In exchange for clearing my gambling debts, it seems perfect to hand over Helena. Surely, when he sees Helena, he’ll pounce on her like a dog in heat.”
Having concluded his thoughts, Eric brought up another subject.
“But who was that guy?”
“Which guy?”
Eric rubbed his bruised eye with his unbroken arm.
“The bastard who did this to me.”
Five days ago, a man had visited the manor.
Dressed in plain clothes like a commoner, which contrasted sharply with his distinguished appearance, the man barged in, urgently inquiring about Helena.
But aside from looking for Helena, there was something particularly irritating about him.
He had turned the Owen household upside down in a commotion.
Matilda, reminded of that nightmare, grimaced and waved her hand dismissively.
“Helena must have flaunted herself again, acting recklessly. What else would a man with nothing but good looks be to her, if not a lover? The Duke probably noticed and temporarily kicked her out because he was already getting tired of her.”
“Ah, if only mother hadn’t told that guy Helena was dead. He wouldn’t have flipped out like that. Dad and I ended up taking the beating for no reason.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. It was necessary so he would give up and stop coming around. From the looks of it, they probably planned some romantic escapade.”
“Ah, that innocent girl doing something so reckless…”
“Hmph, it’s the quiet cats that climb on the hot roof first.”
Matilda asserted with confidence, but Eric internally scoffed.
‘Helena, involved in adultery and eloping for love? After Basil’s death, she resignedly sent money. If she had that kind of boldness, she would have cut ties with us long ago.’
It sounded ridiculous even to hear, but Matilda behaved as if it were an established fact.
As if she wanted to confirm that Helena was no different from them – vulgar, despicable, and devoid of morals.
Eric shook his head in disbelief.
“What if she really runs away?”
“No, Helena will come back to us.”
Matilda was adamant.
“She has to. Always thirsty for affection and nowhere else to go. If the Duke happens to ask about her whereabouts, we just keep our mouths shut.”
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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