Rumble .
Dark clouds filled the sky, heralding an imminent downpour. Even the illustrious Evergale Manor could not escape the clutches of the overcast heavens.
However, unlike the gloomy exterior, the mansion was as bright as day. Inside, the servants bustled about with their duties. Eugene, too, was deeply immersed in work in his study.
A maid quietly entered and left a cup of tea. Eugene’s eyes remained glued to his documents until the rising steam from the cup momentarily disrupted his focus.
“Why do I have to feel uneasy…” he sighed.
Finally, Eugene set aside his pen and picked up the teacup instead. The handle, intricately wrought in pure gold, bore his initials – a gift from Helena about six months after they met.
The name, which she said she had engraved carefully with her heart full to bursting.
Her face, beaming as she gave it to him, seemed blurry now.
‘Let’s get a divorce, Eugene.’
Her calm voice echoed in his mind.
Eugene set the cup down and leaned back in his chair, unable to discern where things had started to go wrong.
It had been a week since Helena left, and he had drowned himself in work as if nothing had happened.
For a week, his trust in her had been slowly eroding.
Outside the door, which had not closed completely, he overheard the maids chatting.
“Will there be no need to make desserts for a while?”
“Seems likely. With the lady gone, the Duke doesn’t really like sweets.”
“It’s a shame, we always got to eat the leftovers.”
“Tch, you have no tact. I’d rather have the lady back than eat desserts.”
“Who says I’m not?”
One maid elbowed her colleague playfully. As the other rubbed her side, the first continued.
“But why did she suddenly go on a trip alone? Was she looking for a change of scenery or something?”
“Stop with your nonsense. Go and receive the groceries at the back door.”
Their voices faded away, leaving Eugene lost in thought, staring at the cooling teacup.
‘Helena liked desserts?’
She usually drank only mild tea when they were alone and never asked for snacks.
He thought she disliked sweets. Was she simply adjusting to his preferences? Avoiding loud chewing noises or strong aromas that might bother him?
“I never imagined this seat would mean I couldn’t even freely enjoy my favorite things.”
She had said it jokingly, but her face seemed empty then.
He recalled the times she had shown such expressions, scenes he now wished to forget.
Trying to calm his troubled mind, Eugene decided to take a walk. As he stepped out towards the staircase, another conversation from the lower floor caught his attention. Maids carrying laundry were talking.
One held up a greenish-brown satin dress.
“Wouldn’t this look good on the lady? She liked this style, though she rarely wore it, saying it wasn’t befitting the dignity of Evergale. But imagine if I wore it, how would I look?”
“Hey, wake up. It suits the lady because she’s the lady. If we wear it, we’ll just look like fallen leaves.”
“Yeah, the lady would look beautiful even in burlap.”
Eugene followed the maid’s eyes as she put the dress back in the basket.
A plain dress, barely adorned except for a few puffed pleats at the waist and sleeves.
Eugene had always gifted Helena with extravagant attire, as was customary for most noblewomen, and as befitting her status as the Duchess of Evergale.
Helena had happily accepted them and filled her wardrobe with these gifts, leading him to believe she had the same tastes as other women. Before their marriage, she must have only worn modest dresses due to financial constraints.
‘It couldn’t have been my misjudgment.’
His head grew heavier with these thoughts. Eugene quickened his pace towards the garden.
Thankfully, the greenery bathed in the midday sun was a not-so-bad choice. As he walked through it, his confusion seemed to settle a bit.
Then, he stopped at a small yellow flower bed in one corner of the garden. It wasn’t a particularly large or special flower bed.
He usually avoided it, disliking the pollen, but today his gaze kept returning to it.
“Hey there.”
“Ah, you came.”
Two men were talking nearby, a gardener pruning a bush and a stable master passing by. Eugene hid behind a bush.
The stable master sniffed around the flower bed and pointed out, “Hmm, how come these blossoms are bigger than the ones you’re tending to? And they smell nicer too.”
“Ah, come on. Compare what should be compared. That’s the lady’s garden. How lovingly she tended to it. Even the plants know it.”
“Ah, did the lady tend to this? No wonder it’s so pretty. To be cherished like this, the Duke must be so happy.”
After their conversation, Eugene was drawn to the flower bed.
‘Helena tended to this?’
He knew her as someone who stayed away from flowers.
She barely accepted the bouquets he gave before their marriage, and even then, she made him stop bringing them.
In the mansion, she never put flowers in a vase, even for tea time, and all the vases, even in her room, were removed.
Helena had whittled herself down to this flower bed.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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