Two years ago, a time now in the past, the weather was as pleasant as today in the spring.
At that time, Ha Hyun noticed that Baek Yeo Heun had not yet emerged from the practice room, which was unusual.
Though it was her own business to worry about, something about it felt strange.
‘So that’s why.’
Deciding there was no harm in checking, he headed for the room where Baek Yeo Heun would likely be.
Perhaps Ha Hyun had anticipated something. The clear sense of foreboding descended through his nerves the moment he received no response after knocking on the door.
Opening the door immediately, he found Baek Yeo Heun sitting in the middle of the room with her head bowed.
And then….
The moment he approached her, she suddenly vomited blood right before his eyes.
Though he had only recently learned martial arts, Ha Hyun could easily infer that something was terribly wrong. Anyone would think of indigestion upon seeing someone vomiting blood in the practice room.
So he promptly picked her up and ran to the infirmary.
‘I must have been half-conscious.’
His remaining half-sanity was what saved the day.
Fortunately, the infirmary was occupied by the head physician, who was also the ambassador to Ha Hyun and Baek Yeo Heun, Elder Jinnung. He was able to immediately attend to her.
Though he received praise for getting her treatment in time, revisiting those feelings even now was nothing short of uncomfortable.
Ha Hyun sighed quietly, rolling his eyes.
After Baek Yeo Heun’s treatment had finished but Ha Hyun was still unsettled, Elder Jinnung had also given him some calming medicine. He had drunk it and reluctantly calmed down, but the sense of crisis he felt then still remained vivid.
‘Is this really okay?’
In hindsight, not just concerning Baek Yeo Heun but his own inability to act decisively, was also part of his confusion.
Still, that situation was resolved, one way or another.
It was not merely indigestion but something more serious, and Baek Yeo Heun also suffered quite a bit throughout. Yet now, everything was fine.
However, sometimes Ha Hyun found that fact itself unsettling.
It was not that he doubted Baek Yeo Heun’s talents or abilities. Rather, since that day, when he saw her practicing, he often thought she had even broken through some wall of enlightenment.
Although he had started learning martial arts a year earlier, despite being older, Ha Hyun had never once surpassed Baek Yeo Heun since he began.
‘…Hmm.’
Thinking it over, Ha Hyun found himself increasingly puzzled by the issue.
‘There’s no reason for it to be uncomfortable.’
He mulled over the question that had unexpectedly burrowed into his mind.
In doing so, he unknowingly stared so intently that Baek Yeo Heun gave him a strange look and asked again.
“Do you really have nothing to say…?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking.”
“What have you been thinking about?”
“Ah, that is.”
It was a personal thought, after all…
Ha Hyun swallowed those words and realized something the moment he made eye contact with Baek Yeo Heun.
Why the phrase ‘it worked out fine’ felt uncomfortable.
‘Hasn’t this occasional gloominess been happening since that incident?’
He hadn’t realized it until now because she was not an easily understood person to begin with.
Although one couldn’t fully define her personality with a simple word, the basic framework of Baek Yeo Heun’s personality could be considered indifferent… no, apathetic.
It meant she was not someone who would suddenly become moody for an unknown reason.
‘…Or not? Maybe I just didn’t know her well enough back then and thought she was apathetic?’
At this point, Ha Hyun found himself scoffing again, wondering what was the point of all this thinking.
“Why are you laughing all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s just… there’s something.”
“Hmm.”
In front of the person in question, he couldn’t say, ‘You really are a strange person,’ or ‘Why have you been acting moody since that day?’ So Baek Yeo Heun, in turn, stared at Ha Hyun as if he was the strange one.
Although it felt a little unfair, Ha Hyun offered no further explanation.
‘At least she’s not the type to dig deeper once you say something.’
As expected, Baek Yeo Heun soon averted her gaze.
“Well, fine.”
Then, picking up her sheathed sword, she stood up. Ha Hyun remained seated and looked up at her.
“Are you getting up already?”
“Yeah. Something came to mind.”
Though she spoke as if it was nothing, even a small realization can lead to significant growth for a warrior. There were many in the world who desperately needed even that small enlightenment.
He already knew this, but seeing her grasp such an insight made Ha Hyun realize once again that Baek Yeo Heun was indeed an incredible genius.
‘I don’t know why she underestimates her own talent, though.’
Setting that issue aside for the moment…
As he watched her head back to the training field, Ha Hyun rested his chin on his knee.
‘It’s difficult.’
It had been truly difficult. There probably wasn’t anyone more difficult than this.
‘If it were impossible, they would’ve called it suffering.’
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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