A remote countryside far from the capital.
In a secluded forest, there stood an old hut.
It would have been hard to tell it was inhabited if not for the smoke from its chimney.
The hut’s elderly owner, Shin Woong, with snow-white hair, was treating a patient lying before him.
A needle threaded with silk weaved through the patient’s skin and the air repeatedly.
Though his fingers were thick and rough, his skill was as delicate as any woman’s sewing.
Soon after finishing the treatment, Shin Woong broke the silence.
“The suturing is done.”
The patient, Kwon Ki Joo, inspected the neatly done stitches and slowly sat up.
As Shin Woong tidied up his medical tools, he continued speaking.
“How did you end up like this again?”
Shin Woong always worried about Kwon Ki Joo, who frequently came with serious injuries.
He asked the details with a sigh, but as usual, only silence followed.
Kwon Ki Joo silently dressed, buttoning up his top.
Shin Woong, used to the lack of response, continued talking to himself.
“You could have bled to death if you were any later.”
Shin Woong clucked his tongue and stood up.
“Lucky the first aid was well done. The finishing is a bit rough, but you’re alive, and that’s what counts. You arrived just in time.”
After finishing with his tools, Shin Woong’s gaze shifted to a neatly folded red headband on a shelf.
“The owner of this headband must have treated you, right?”
He handed the headband to Kwon Ki Joo.
The pink lotus embroidery on the freshly washed and folded headband caught Kwon Ki Joo’s eye.
“This woman is your lifesaver. A close call to death it was.”
Kwon Ki Joo, holding the red headband, recalled the day he met the woman.
She was a peculiar woman.
Seeming frightened yet interacting boldly with him.
Initially, he found her audacity towards him offensive, but now, those memories felt refreshing.
Seeing the treatment’s progress, he wondered if her boldness wasn’t without reason.
Kwon Ki Joo carefully placed the headband in his pocket.
Like the vivid lotus embroidery on the headband, he vividly embroidered the woman’s image in his mind.
The recruitment day for Kwang Ho Army volunteers was approaching.
At a training camp carved out of the lower mountain slopes nearby, applications for the Kwang Ho Army began.
Children, elders, commoners, and outcasts.
Accepting volunteers of all ages and classes, it seemed like a gathering of people from all over the country.
Among them was Song Eun Chae, disguised in men’s clothing, nervously pacing.
Checking her disguise for the last time, she murmured to herself.
“I’ve tied the headband right, and the hat, and buttoned the jeogori correctly.”
Borrowed, or rather stolen.
Song Eun Chae adjusted the hat she had stolen from Yeon Ho’s room, ensuring the knot was tight.
The headband and hat, new to her, surprisingly suited her well.
Though she struggled to adapt to these new items, she was pleased with her appearance, looking as dapper as any young man.
Strengthening her abdomen, Song Eun Chae practiced a low voice in the air.
“Ah, hello there. How do you do?”
It was her attempt at mimicking the voices of men she had heard in the markets.
However, from Yeon Woo’s mouth came a voice that was neither distinctly male nor female.
It could pass for a boy’s voice in the throes of puberty.
“Now, shall we go in?”
Yeon Woo took a deep breath and clenched her sweaty fist.
This was just the beginning.
If her disguised identity was discovered, it wouldn’t end with a light punishment.
This was her only chance. She had to convincingly pass as a man.
Swallowing nervously, Yeon Woo took a step toward her dream of independence.
“The youngest son of the house of Admiral Hong Jae Man?”
At the entrance of the outdoor training camp.
The registrar scrutinized Yeon Woo with narrowed eyes and suspicion.
He had never heard of Admiral Hong Jae Man having a youngest son.
Though the recruitment didn’t discriminate based on status or age, it seemed they were particular about verifying identities.
Faced with this expected difficulty, Yeon Woo calmly delivered her prepared response.
“Yes. I don’t often go out, so it’s understandable you wouldn’t know.”
The registrar had never seen a man with such a delicate appearance in the vicinity.
An androgynous appearance like Yeon Woo’s would have been memorable.
“Your identification token?”
Still skeptical, the registrar demanded Yeon Woo’s token, a proof of identity.
“Well… I haven’t received one yet since I’m only fifteen this year.”
There was no way Yeon Woo, a girl, would have a token that was only issued to men.
But she could claim she was too young to have received it yet.
The registrar was still not entirely convinced.
“I’ve never heard of a youngest son…”
The army needed more soldiers, and there were not enough people willing to serve.
With more people paying to avoid military service, every able soldier was valuable.
“Hmm…”
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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