The maid asked with a furrowed brow. Deborah quickly waved her off.
“No, it’s just that I couldn’t sleep. I want to rest a bit more.”
“Oh dear. I’ll wake you up then, so sleep comfortably.”
“Could you wake me in three hours?”
“Of course.”
The maid drew the curtains and quietly left the room. Deborah, nestled in the cloud-like bedding, closed her eyes and thought idly.
‘I don’t even know the maid’s name.’
She was no longer a guest. She was an employee just like that unnamed, kind maid. She shouldn’t be treated so lavishly anymore.
‘And I should say goodbye to this luxurious room too. Later, I must speak to Mr. Baker…’
She remembered Zen’s pale face.
His words implied that her background in maid work and factory labor was all too clear.
It wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear, but it wasn’t chillingly offensive either.
‘Quite gentle for Zen Baker, isn’t it?’
Considering Zen had a tongue that had angered countless people, a tongue from hell itself, this was nothing. Really, it was less painful than a thorn in the finger.
‘Anyway, it worked out well.’
In fact, Deborah had never told Saint Lady that she would return to her if Zen didn’t accept her conditions.
In other words, she had used Saint Lady to lie.
She had been worried that Zen would be persistent about when they had such a conversation, but it was a relief it had gone smoothly.
‘But I feel a bit sorry for Saint Lady. Still, she’ll understand, won’t she?’
Deborah tightly clasped her fists, praying for understanding from Saint Lady. Then she welcomed the sleep that slowly overcame her. She was tired. And there would be plenty more tiring days ahead.
Deborah dreamt for the first time in a long while. It was more of a peculiar trip down memory lane while being half-asleep than a dream.
From the moment of her birth, Deborah had to live a life filled with hardships.
Her father had died in an accident before she was born, and her frail mother, after entrusting newborn Deborah to her sister, passed away.
Deborah’s aunt was poor. She already had five children of her own, and as expenses increased without an improvement in earnings, taking responsibility for one more child was too much.
‘Can’t do it!’
Eventually, when Deborah was three, her aunt sent her to an orphanage. Keeping her until she was three and telling her about her parents was the aunt’s way of showing affection.
The orphanage where Deborah stayed wasn’t in great condition. The number of children guiltily left there kept increasing, while donations steadily decreased.
Thus, the orphanage operated frugally, saving and reducing everything, running like a systematic factory.
But Deborah didn’t find life in the orphanage entirely painful.
There was no abundance of warm kindness or love, but neither was there abuse or favoritism. She had no reason to be dissatisfied with life.
Growing up little by little, young Deborah realized one ordinary day at sunset that she had known this world before she was born.
‘Perhaps this is the world from the books I read.’
If someone asked how she could know this, Deborah wouldn’t have an explanation. It was just a natural certainty, like believing in another continent across the ocean without seeing it.
She seemed to have read many stories before. And in most of those stories, the lives of ordinary people like her were dismissed like grains of sand, lives that could disappear without anyone mourning.
It might be the same here, but it wasn’t too bad.
‘No magic, no dragons suddenly appearing to gulp me down, and unlikely to be caught in a war.’
Yes, she was chosen for not too bad a world.
Unable to pinpoint which story she was in, she couldn’t yet predict what would happen, but that’s life. What’s the use of knowing the future?
Deborah grew up satisfactorily and content in every moment. Although she had few opportunities to learn, Deborah, perhaps due to her past life, seemed to know a lot and quickly became a distinguished child.
‘If only I could remember who I was and what life I lived in my past life.’
…Or maybe not. Perhaps remembering that would be more painful, longing and weeping for people she could never meet again.
Regardless, the orphanage director wrote a special recommendation for the well-raised Deborah. Thanks to that, she was able to go up to the capital at a young age and apply to the Heder family, recently migrated Grosian from Geman.
“From an orphanage. And you’ve never even worked in another household.”
Mrs. Heder, with Deborah in front of her, nodded her head.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
