140.
Ro hollowed her cheeks and gathered saliva, spitting with all her strength. Yet it barely reached the very tip of Audrey’s shoe. The witch didn’t look displeased at all—only offered a kind, pitying mockery, as if Ro’s appearance were simply amusing and pitiful.
“You’re angry, aren’t you? I understand.”
“F*** you…….”
“But I’m feeling extremely good. After all, something I’ve long desired is finally coming true.”
Ro clenched her teeth. She felt she would sell her soul just to shatter that detestable expression. She spoke each word slowly, grinding them between her teeth.
“I don’t care how you feel, so just take your foul, filthy body away from in front of me.”
Ro saw Audrey’s violet eyes flicker with a pale, icy malice. Soon, her fingers, unable to contain their fury, twisted grotesquely and reached out as if to seize Ro’s hair at once. Yet, perhaps considering the body already hers, the touch that finally landed was surprisingly gentle. As Audrey caressed Ro’s hair with a rapturous expression, she coldly said,
“Don’t act up.”
In an instant, the gentleness vanished. Her soft voice turned into something like nails scraping metal. Ro thought this was closer to Audrey’s true nature—like a hissing snake.
“There are only two days left. When the flower blooms, I’ll regain the goddess’s power and claim eternal divinity.”
“You really think I’ll just let that happen?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll be branded a royal assassin.”
“……What?”
Ro didn’t immediately understand Audrey’s words. Seemingly indifferent to whether she comprehended or not, Audrey rummaged through her clothes and pulled out a thin leather pouch. She then turned her palm upward, completely flipped the pouch over, and shook out every bit of green powder inside. Even so, the amount collected was no more than what could be pinched between three fingers of salt.
“There’s really not much left.”
Audrey brought her palm close to her nose and pretended to inhale. If it truly were powder, she should have sneezed violently—but at that moment, all Ro saw was a thick plume of vivid green smoke suddenly rising. As it briefly obscured her vision and then settled, an unbelievable sight unfolded before her. The woman’s face, tenderly stroking her own cheeks in satisfaction, looked exactly like ‘Leah’!
“It should last me two days, more or less.”
The moment the woman spoke, Ro froze, her face turning deathly pale from shock. A faint chill ran down her spine. Not only the face, but the voice was completely identical to Leah’s.
“How…….”
“It’s an illusion curse. Even if it’s temporary, it’s quite convincing, don’t you think?”
The woman chuckled and opened her mouth, apparently feeling generous enough to explain Ro’s bewildered expression.
“My sister seems to believe causality is an absolute rule, but it’s like a blind blade—pouring down like waves toward a misaligned target, without the power to distinguish truth from falsehood.”
“…….”
“So if you change the ‘object’ recognized by the world, you can also divert its fate.”
The woman cheerfully spoke while smoothing her shortened chestnut-brown hair. She even hummed a little tune, clearly in a fine mood.
“Let me give you a simple example. Imagine the human body as candy wrapper paper, and the soul as the candy itself. If you swap the wrappers, how would anyone know whether it’s a lemon candy or a bitter one before unwrapping it?”
“…….”
“Causality merely sees the lemon candy’s wrapper and destroys it.”
“…….”
“Finally, even your foolish brain seems to understand. That’s right. Just by changing the wrapper, causality won’t touch me.”
Audrey—or rather, ‘Leah’—suddenly turned around after using the iron bars as a mirror to inspect her body from various angles. Her aquamarine eyes, identical to a reflection in a mirror, curved smoothly.
“And you’ll be the one to swap bodies with me.”
* * *
“It seems something’s gone wrong.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
Hugo tilted his head in confusion at his superior’s vague statement. Something wrong? They had just won the war, citizens screamed with joy at the mere mention of his superior’s name, and he was about to receive an honor directly from the Emperor himself. Examining each point, it was nearly impossible to imagine a more perfect situation.
Yet, met with a look that seemed to say, “Are your eyes on the soles of your feet?”, Hugo felt somewhat wronged—though he couldn’t show it on his face. Cardier gave Hugo a disdainful up-and-down glance, then opened his mouth with an expression of barely restrained patience, as if explaining something just once to a simpleton.
“Look at the expressions of the people gathering around.”
“Is there some problem?”
“Do they look ‘normal’ to you?”
“…….”
Normal? Well, of course they……. Then what reason could there possibly be for them to seem abnormal? They did appear slightly less energetic than usual, but still diligently waved their hands toward them.
‘Could it be he’s bothered because the cheers for him sound quieter than usual?’
If that were truly the case, it was unfortunate. Though, of course, given his looks, it always felt even more unfortunate……. As if sensing that disrespectful thought, his superior grimaced with perfect brows furrowed and muttered,
“Besides, there’s been an unpleasant smell since earlier.”
Startled, Hugo instinctively lifted his arm to sniff. Thanks to having thoroughly washed with soap for the first time in a while and changing into his only remaining clean new uniform, he carried no odor at all. As Hugo tilted his head in confusion, Cardier scowled as if telling him to drop it.
“Not that smell……. Never mind.”
At that moment, the palace’s iron gates opened. Cardier lightly guided his horse through, receiving salutes from the royal guards. Hugo urged his horse closer, continuing the broken conversation.
“I’m not sure what you mean, but perhaps you’re just feeling strange due to fatigue from the war.”
“…….”
“There’s nothing bad happening. Isn’t the young countess safe now too?”
Cardier glanced at Hugo with sudden surprise. He was dull, yet oddly perceptive at times.
As Hugo said, under the Imperial Princess’s protection, Ro should have been safer than anyone else in the palace. Nick’s death had been confirmed by his own hand, and a discreet investigation revealed no one held a grudge against ‘Leah Valdemore’. Yet, inexplicably, this ominous feeling kept rising within him, time and again.
It felt less like an instinctive detection, more like an old habit suddenly triggered. Cardier tried to separate and analyze his emotions. It must just be fatigue making him overly sensitive.
Perhaps it was because he had endured anxiety for too long. Whether she was strong or weak, as long as she wasn’t visible before his eyes, it would be eternal torment. Like in the past, during her Crimson Dawn days, when he believed no one would dare harm her—yet upon hearing news of her return from a long voyage, he had to see her face to finally feel at ease. In the end, his intuition had been right…….
“Cardier!”
He snapped out of his drifting thoughts and reflexively turned around. It was a sharp, immediate reaction, like a dog responding to its master’s voice. Ro stood on the staircase of the official residence, raising both arms high into the air upon seeing him, letting out a joyful cry.
“You’re here! I’ve been waiting, wondering when you’d arrive.”
Then, gracefully gathering her skirt, she descended the stairs with perfect etiquette. Cardier stared at Ro as if frozen. Normally, he would have rushed up several steps at once, eager to embrace her—yet now, he felt no such urge, and this absence stirred guilt within him. He lightly embraced Ro as she flew into his arms. At the same moment, a strong sense of something being wrong struck him.
“Ro?”
“What is it, Cardier?”
She spoke, gently touching the ornament on his shoulder with a worried expression.
“You look unwell. Did something happen on your way here?”
“…….”
“Cardier?”
He softly and subtly pushed Ro away from his body as he asked,
“No. I was just thinking about something else. How’s your health?”
“Much better. I don’t feel any pain at all now.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Oh, my maid styled my hair in a new way. What do you think?”
“Looks great.”
“I’m glad you say that. Oh dear, look at me—I should’ve changed into new clothes before you arrived…….”
Under his fixed gaze, the woman shyly covered her cheeks with both hands. The sense of dissonance grew sharper. Calling Anna ‘my maid’, her manner toward him, her overly aristocratic tone……. Most of all, none of the expressions or habits Ro routinely displayed could be seen in this woman before him. The conclusion was clear. Cardier stared at the small chestnut-brown nape with cold eyes.
‘That thing’ was not his Rosetta.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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