Ines often visited Meriennes Castle with the Emperor before he left the palace. Every time she went to Meriennes Castle, Louis always said the same thing. Nothing had changed since his mother was alive.
The three people gathered in the reception room did not engage in any particular conversation.
While Louis played with the cats, the Emperor quietly read a book. Ines spent her time sipping tea or knitting.
Occasionally, when she looked up, her gaze met with the Emperor’s as he watched Louis. Each time, he smiled gently.
The once-called Emperor of the Empire exhibited an unbelievably gentle demeanor.
With no particular reaction or expression from Ines, the Emperor, who had not sent letters during his stay at the palace, occasionally sent letters after leaving. The content was not long, but the sentiment deeply resonated.
And at the end of each letter, there was always the same phrase.
‘Take care.’
Although it was just a simple phrase, it always resounded heavily in Ines’s heart.
Carson did not enter Meriennes Castle while the Emperor stayed at the palace. However, Ines did not force him to.
“A reply… Will you send one?”
Ines sneakily glanced at his profile as he walked beside her. He, too, left whatever Ines wanted to do to her.
“Probably.”
He was truly a consistently handsome man. As they walked from the carriage to the Empress’s palace, she fervently prayed that the child in her womb would resemble his father during this short time.
“If you’re not tired, shall we walk a bit?”
In response to his affectionate question, Ines nodded. It was a beautiful day that felt as fleeting as the brilliant spring.
The two of them found a place to sit side by side where the red flowers were most visible. When the palace attendants were barely visible, Carson deeply kissed Ines’s lips. Sounds and breaths mingled through their throats.
For a moment, he passionately kissed her until their minds seemed to fade. Then, he slowly leaned in, placing his ear against Ines’s belly. Ines gently stroked his black hair.
“Have you thought of a name for the baby?”
“It’s not a name, but we’ve decided on a nickname.”
“What is it?”
“Monterey.”
In the end, Ines burst into laughter at the sound.
“Even if it’s not a boy?”
Carson’s forehead wrinkled as if he heard something he shouldn’t.
“That’s not something a woman who established a bank with that name should say.”
“That’s true.”
Carson quietly watched her perfect laughing figure. The setting sun subtly illuminated the back, and flower petals rustled in the wind.
Suddenly, like a breeze, his confession continued.
“I love you.”
Ines’s eye trembled slightly in response to the words spoken while locking eyes. Carson reached out, brushing her hair behind her ear. When he lightly scratched her cheek with his thumb, a smile naturally appeared.
At this moment, there was only one thing Ines wanted to ask.
“Aren’t you lonely?”
“Not for a single moment.”
Without hesitation, Ines reached out and grabbed his cheeks. Her eyes involuntarily closed against his skin that felt warm and comforting. Even with her eyes closed, she found his lips. As their lips touched, Carson’s eyes slowly closed.
As night fell, a fairly chilly wind blew, briefly brushing the faces of the two who were in contact.
Another season was changing.
Ines leaned her head on his shoulder.
“When the baby is born, let’s go to Landhill.”
“Sure, let’s take a train and go to the sea.”
Like an ordinary couple making trivial promises, the two looked up at the rising moon side by side. The moon, which had never failed to illuminate them whether they were together or apart, was shining down on them once again.
As Ines looked at the moon resembling Carson and missed the one beside her, Carson thought of the waves he left by the sea.
Like the moonlight tirelessly illuminating the earth without rest, like the waves that continuously ebbed and flowed without stopping, the seasons continued, where living a single moment without loving each other seemed impossible.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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