The large hand shaking her shoulder felt damp and trembling, as if it had been searching in the rain just as long.
“It’s alright now. I’m here.”
Through her dimming vision, Kasalyn saw the face of her rescuer.
A pair of golden eyes, reminiscent of a beautiful sunset, gazed at her intensely.
The familiar, rich scent that she once knew tickled her nose.
When she blinked, Kasalyn found herself under Parnes’s fur cloak, fully embraced in his arms on the horse.
The gentle rocking and occasional sighs above her head explained everything.
“Damn it. You’re in this state, and yet…”
To whom was this curse directed?
Kasalyn nestled in his cloak, shivering from the cold.
“Are you conscious?”
“…What happened?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. How did someone who was safely heading to the lodge end up unconscious in a ravine far from the hunting area?”
Her throbbing temples made it hard to comprehend his words.
All she knew was his embrace was warmer than ever.
Relieved, Kasalyn sobbed, uncharacteristically.
Parnes, with a startled breath, hastily stopped the horse and clumsily stroked her head.
“Don’t cry. Are you hurt?”
“It’s not tears. It’s rain.”
“Trying to be strong, huh? You’re a troublemaker. My life expectancy must have shortened by ten years because of you today.”
“…I’m freezing.”
Kasalyn coughed.
Parnes touched her forehead and clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“Your body is burning up! Why didn’t you say anything?”
Realizing Kasalyn’s condition was serious, Parnes hurriedly took her to a nearby cave.
With no end to the rain in sight and darkness hindering their speed, he feared that pushing through the mountains would endanger her life.
Once inside, Parnes set her down and gathered dry brushwood and discarded cloth from the cave to start a fire with flint.
Having frequented battlefields since his prince days, he was no stranger to such emergencies and knew exactly what to do next.
“Kasalyn, you can’t stay in those wet clothes.”
“But, then…”
Kasalyn chattered through clenched teeth.
Kneeling on one knee, Parnes carefully draped his arm around her slender shoulders.
Well past midnight, Shallen was running breathlessly alone through the forest, now invisible in the darkness.
‘How did things end up like this?’
With a pale, panicked face, Shallen gasped for air and frantically searched the forest.
However, the person he sought was nowhere to be found.
“Kasalyn! Come out when I’m asking nicely! You’re hiding from me now, aren’t you?”
As he yelled upwards, a few crows fluttered away, scattering from the trees.
The forest, which had seemed so lush and vibrant during the day, now felt eerily cursed by night.
“Damn it. Damn it all.”
Rubbing his cold cheeks irritably, Shallen recalled the moment he was informed of Kasalyn’s disappearance by the captain of the Rennel guard.
Even as Parnes rode off and soldiers scattered in search, Shallen had thought it not a serious matter.
Kasalyn was healthy, not one to lose her way for a slight ailment, or so he had naively thought until then.
But as night fully fell and Kasalyn’s name echoed unremittingly across the mountain, he began to fear something had gone terribly wrong.
「Do you think I’m faking sickness right now?」
Those words were true after all.
Unaware, he had pushed her into the rain to search for a ring that wasn’t lost, denied her sick leave, and even dragged her to the hunting contest.
Shallen felt an unfamiliar twinge of discomfort in his heart.
He thought maybe he owed Kasalyn a slight apology.
But that was it.
Formal apologies or feelings of regret and torment were emotions ‘now’s Shallen couldn’t fathom.
‘She must be waiting somewhere in the forest, collapsed, for me to find her.’
He was determined to find her first, even if it meant searching all night, to prove himself a savior and change the way she saw him.
With this foolish belief, Shallen continued on.
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.”
