At his clandestine and overt touch, Marianne’s shoulders shuddered, tensed. Christoph’s eyes darkened slightly the moment his fingers passed her waist.
“Gasp!”
Marianne suddenly straightened her back. Every place his touch reached felt as though it was scalded. Her heart raced madly, her breathing quickening.
“It’s okay now.”
At her gentle refusal, Christoph’s hand slowly withdrew. Marianne pursed her lips, seemingly angry, trying not to betray her fluttering emotions.
Christoph’s stern voice shook the air.
“Among the five human senses, the sense of smell is most susceptible to fatigue. Meaning, even the foulest smell can become so familiar that we don’t notice it.”
Marianne’s eyes widened at that. How did he know that? Had he ever seen a corpse before?
Detecting her question, Christoph answered slowly as he straightened his knees, and Marianne’s gaze followed him.
“Forgot? I’ve handled criminal defense cases before.”
“Ah.”
Marianne thought she knew a lot about him. At least more than he knew about her. But now, she thought that might not be the case.
“Wait here for a moment.”
With those words, Christoph turned his back. Marianne absentmindedly watched his retreating figure enter the house.
Then, a creaking door sound was heard.
“?”
Turning her head, she saw a young boy peeking through the slightly open back door.
About twelve years old.
The boy, who had been staring at Marianne, sucked his thumb and tilted his head. He seemed slow and immature for his age.
His sparkling brown eyes observed her with a mixture of curiosity and caution. Then, hearing approaching footsteps, he quickly hid inside the house. The door connecting to the kitchen slammed shut.
The uniformed officer just gazed blankly at Christoph bustling about the house, seemingly overwhelmed by his presence, unable to ask who he was.
Christoph, too, paid no attention to the officer.
“Drink.”
He handed Marianne a glass of water.
“…….”
She hesitated to reach for it, staring at it intently. Swallowing the sorrow welling up inside, she finally took it and slowly brought the glass to her lips.
She felt pathetic. Miserable.
His indifferent voice fell over her head.
“There’s no need to blame yourself, Marianne. It’s a rite of passage for anyone who sees a corpse for the first time. Male officers are no different. I’ve seen an officer run away crying.”
“…….”
Marianne lifted her eyes silently at that.
Was it comfort?
She couldn’t be sure because the person before her was none other than Christoph Schneider, the epitome of cool logic and reason.
A lawyer who, rather than empathizing with a victim’s pain, would relentlessly attack his opponent with ruthless arguments.
Christoph was looking down at her with his usual indifferent expression, as if he was simply stating the facts.
So she felt more at ease. Marianne, who had taken her mouth off the glass, got up from her seat. She hesitated, looking down at her steps, and whispered softly.
“……Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. If you feel like you should resign, you’re always welcome to.”
Marianne smiled slightly, pulling up the corners of her mouth.
“Thanks to you, I’ve calmed down. Now I’m really okay.”
Looking at her defiant attitude, Christoph casually raised his eyebrows as if he knew she would do so.
“Here.”
He handed her a mint leaf. The sharp, cool fragrance filled the air.
“Chewing on mint will make you feel a little better. Sometimes, it’s the way I use. ……Of course, there are scenes where even mint doesn’t help, but it’s better than doing nothing.”
“Thank you.”
Marianne, following his advice, put the mint in her mouth and chewed. Her sense of smell seemed paralyzed by the cool scent. Afterwards, her mind felt more at ease.
Taking a deep breath and relaxing her shoulders, she walked briskly. The coroner, who had been standing next to the corpse, sneered with a malicious expression.
“Already back? I thought you wouldn’t make it today. Hmm, looking at that face, it seems like you weren’t crying. It’s a shame, I thought I could have a good laugh.”
His intention was clear. That Marianne would tuck her tail and run away.
She couldn’t give him that satisfaction.
Marianne looked at him, pulling up the corners of her mouth. A graceful smile that she couldn’t casually approach, just like when dealing with the ladies.
The coroner narrowed his eyes with a suspicious expression.
“Thank you for worrying about me.”
“Who said I was worried?”
Marianne let his words go in one ear and out the other as she walked towards the corpse. The lifeless, cold body was waiting for her.
She tightly closed her eyes, then opened them, her eyes full of force, and examined the corpse. It was a young woman. A woman who had not yet married.
Perhaps sixteen years old.
She was face down on the floor, lying on the carpet. The blood stuck to the back of her head had already turned brown. Compared to the wound, the carpet was fairly clean.
Marianne, suppressing her desire to run away, examined the corpse carefully. The coroner spoke in a taunting tone.
“There’s nothing to look at so hard. It’s just an accident. She clearly fell down the narrow and steep stairs. Well, a beginner like you wouldn’t know.”
At that, Marianne threw him a questioning look. How could he know that fact just by looking at the corpse? The coroner pointed with one hand to the woman standing next to him.
A middleaged woman, so pale that she might collapse at any moment, was leaning against the kitchen wall, trembling. She was struggling with all her might to suppress her surging sorrow.
“She’s the victim’s mother. She saw it. She saw the victim falling down the stairs.”
Marianne’s gaze turned to her. She couldn’t bear to look at the body and was holding her hands tightly together. Her trembling hands caught Marianne’s eyes, and her gaze returned to the corpse.
Her voice, filled with doubt, seeped out.
“She died lying face down. If she hit the back of her head on the stairs, shouldn’t she have fallen facing the ceiling?”
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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