“Just to clarify, I had no intention of deceiving you. Those kinds of odd jobs aren’t really recognized as part of one’s career, so I didn’t mention them,” Deborah explained, but Zen didn’t lower the hand covering his eyes.
Frankly, Deborah shouldn’t have had to make excuses or persuade Zen in this situation. Yet, at the moment, Zen seemed not so much angry as hurt. This inexplicably stirred a sense of guilt in Deborah, prompting her to apologize.
“If I have caused you any displeasure, I apologize—”
Zen cut her off mid-sentence.
“Stop. It’s not something I should be receiving an apology for.”
“……”
“……I understand why you didn’t say anything. I know.”
His voice, breaking off intermittently, was heavy with a fog-like deep sigh.
“But still…”
Zen murmured softly and took a deep breath. His eyes, struggling to maintain composure, once again fixed on Deborah.
“……Alright. Let’s move past that.”
“Thank you…?”
Deborah responded as if being swept away by a wave, yet her question remained unspoken.
“Your surname is Johnson, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Both your first name and surname are common.”
Zen let out a self-deprecating laugh. Deborah didn’t think he was picking a fight over her name, but she acknowledged it to some extent.
‘I’ve met more than five other Deborahs so far. Or was it six?’
However, she rarely encountered someone with the same last name.
“Before I was married, my surname was Barker.”
Deborah lightly added this to lift his somber mood.
Upon this casual remark, Zen’s expression changed as if he’d been struck by a stone, his eyes widening in disbelief.
“What did you say?”
“Barker is less common than Johnson, but it still—”
“Wait a minute!”
Zen exclaimed urgently, causing Deborah to blink rapidly.
“Just wait…”
Zen’s beautiful golden eyes wandered aimlessly. His perfectly groomed hair remained in place, but his eyelashes trembled pitifully.
“As if toying with such a simple fact, Zen grappled with it before managing to speak with difficulty.
“You’re married?”
“Yes.”
There was a hint of confusion on Deborah’s face, but her posture remained composed.
“At your age, twenty-eight, it’s not surprising to have a husband, or even children. Like Zen himself, preparing for marriage.”
“…….”
As the warm tea cooled, Zen finally spoke, his lips heavily parting. But it took even longer for his voice to emerge.
“Your husband.”
The effort to form those words was visible, with pauses and hesitations.
Deborah chose to wait patiently, rather than guess what he might say next.
“Where did you meet your husband, or rather, where is that man now?”
Anger tinged his voice.
His flushed face, visible veins, and trembling fists indicated his extraordinary anger.
From Deborah’s perspective, it seemed like an unreasonable confrontation.
Why would he ask that? And why should her husband be referred to in such a manner?
Deborah was not pleased. But…
“Why is that question necessary for this interview?”
Deborah calmly pointed out the irrelevance of his question. Unlike Zen, she was not impetuous or one to hold back her words unnecessarily.
‘It’s not uncommon to avoid hiring married women as live-in maids.’
Understanding why Zen asked if she was married, Deborah found it reasonable. But wondering when they met was a personal matter, wasn’t it?
‘There’s no need to ask. Sure, one could ask out of personal curiosity. But Zen?’
The male protagonist Deborah knew wasn’t someone who would be curious about a passerby’s personal life.
‘Moreover, that reaction was more anger than curiosity.’
Did he think she was hiding the fact that she was married?
Discrimination against married women in the hiring process for a lady’s maid was one of the biases in this world. It was so common that it wouldn’t be a problem even if ‘Married women not accepted’ was explicitly written in the job advertisement. However, this was not mentioned in the current advertisement.
‘Of course, it could be so taken for granted in this world that it wasn’t mentioned.’
Regardless, Deborah had nothing to worry about.
“Anyway, what’s that guy doing now? What’s he so busy with that he leaves you to live as a live-in maid in someone else’s house?” Zen asked with furrowed brows, causing Deborah’s thick eyelashes to flutter slightly.
‘Really, why is he like this? Someone might think I was sold for money.’
While it wasn’t common for a married woman to work as a live-in maid, it wasn’t unheard of. Typically, husbands earn money, and wives take care of the home. It’s the general rule of this world.
Many women in difficult circumstances work, but most earn money with odd jobs in their neighborhood, not living and working in someone else’s house. It’s also hard to find such jobs.
‘So why is he so angry?’
Could it be that, as a fine gentleman, he empathizes with her situation? Is he angry because he thinks her husband is shaming men?
‘You?’
It couldn’t be anyone else, but Zen.
‘There’s no way you have that kind of humanity.’
Deborah remembered precisely how cruel Zen had been to Diya.
‘He’s just picking a fight.’
My Arch-enemy Sealed My Memory and Said That He is My Husband
This is an incredibly captivating story that you absolutely shouldn’t miss! I’ll give a brief introduction here, and below you’ll find a detailed synopsis of the plot.
The female lead is a fierce and powerful demon king. The male lead is a once-in-a-millennium celestial lord, admired by the entire cultivation world.
They are equally matched, legendary rivals who have battled for centuries.
In the final duel, the female lead is gravely injured. The male lead saves her, seals her memories, and hides her true identity. He tells her that he is her fiancé. His entire life has been flawless—except for the one thing he never expected, never controlled, and never wanted to control: falling for his greatest enemy. She is his inner demon, his obsession.
When the female lead regains her memories, she is furious at his deception.
She makes his life a living hell.
And somehow, the male lead—possibly a total masochist—doesn’t mind at all. In fact, he’s happy she’s paying attention to him.
Yep, we’re back to my favorite trope: male lead suffering. If you love this kind of story, jump into the pit with me now!!!
Intro
Dong Xia lost her memory.
Her handsome and extremely powerful fiancé Li Qing comforted her: “It’s okay if you can’t remember. I’ll always be with you.”
Everyone thought Dong Xia’s ancestors must have burned incense to get such a perfect fiancé. He was the number one person in the immortal realm, yet he remained chaste and only loved her.
…
The day before marrying her fiancé, Dong Xia finally remembered everything.
She wasn’t suffering from memory loss at all.
Her arch-enemy had made her fake her death, destroyed her cultivation, replaced her memories, and pretended to be her deeply in love fiancé.
No wonder he said, “It’s okay if you can’t remember”!
Dong Xia laughed coldly as she pulled out her long knife: Li Qing, prepare to die 🙂
*
Li Qing, as the supreme being of the immortal realm, was the people’s shining beacon.
The only unknown stain in his life was his affection for Dong Xia, the ruler of the demon realm.
In the final battle of the war between immortals and demons, the sky collapsed and the earth shattered. The ruler of the demon realm was finally slain under the sword of the supreme being of the immortal realm, and everyone in the immortal realm applauded.
The cultivation world lost a ruler of the demon realm.
And in the back mountain of Li Qing’s cave dwelling, he secretly hid away a fiancée.
Notes:
1. The female lead is white on the outside, black on the inside, and the queen of flattery; the male lead repeatedly tests the edge of darkness, a VIP guest at the crematorium.
2. Fantasy cultivation world setting.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
