“What exactly are they?”
Stella gazed out of the half-open window before sliding back under the covers. The night air was quite chilly, but she couldn’t close the window in case they returned.
In the Sun Hall, preparations for the evening’s banquet were in full swing.
Maids were meticulously laying a thick woolen cloth on the table, topped with a snow-white linen tablecloth. Their expressions were serious, almost solemn.
“It looks a bit skewed on that side.”
“Can you lift that end a bit?”
The tablecloth’s edges needed to be perfectly aligned, and the draping folds had to be evenly spaced.
Once a maid finished her task, she stepped back, and others stepped in to set the centerpieces and decorations on the table.
“Check the petals and leaves. We can’t have wilted flowers in the princesses’ view.”
The vases, spaced evenly between the tables, all faced the same direction. The maids handled the flowers with care to prevent petals from falling.
“Do you think it’ll just be a formality again this time?”
One maid asked another as she inserted a lush pink rose into a vase.
“Probably. Last time, all the princesses just went through the motions and left.”
“Why is that? Princess Veronica was so beautiful.”
Veronica was a figure who captivated everyone with her presence.
Her hair as dark as the night sky, emerald eyes finely crafted, red lips, and flawless pale skin.
She was a beauty beyond reproach. Yet, the Emperor remained unimpressed, even with such a woman before him.
“It’s all because of Melissa.”
“Weren’t they old friends?”
“You don’t know the half of it. Their relationship is more than just friendship. From what I see, Melissa is undoubtedly in love with His Majesty. That’s why she saved His Majesty’s life twice on the battlefield!”
Melissa was the first female Marquis of the Credion Empire and also a swordsman who had reached the level of a Swordmaster.
She had fought alongside the Emperor in countless battles, defeating innumerable enemies, leading victories, and saving the Emperor from death twice.
Having risked her own life in the process, their relationship was inevitably special.
“Exactly! His Majesty is especially fond of Lady Melissa.”
There are over a hundred princesses living in the palace, but the Emperor doesn’t meet them unless it’s for regular gatherings.
Although they came as hostages, each princess from their respective countries also had the qualifications to be an Empress.
Kings of various countries sent their precious daughters to a foreign land, perhaps for the faint but thrilling possibility of them becoming the Empress of Credion.
Therefore, it was natural for subtle power struggles and psychological battles to occur among the princesses during such banquets.
“If both of their hearts are set, why does His Majesty hold these banquets every time? If Lady Melissa is the only one destined to be the Empress.”
“That’s politics for you.”
The older maid replied smugly, and the younger maid’s eyes widened.
“Politics?”
“You’ll understand after a few more years of working in the palace. But first, let’s remove that wilted rose petal over there.”
“Ah! Yes!”
The young maid quickly picked a slightly yellowed petal from an otherwise beautifully blooming pink rose.
“I hope Lady Melissa becomes the Empress. Then these meaningless banquets wouldn’t need to happen.”
“But hey, after the banquets, we get to feast on the delicious leftovers!”
“Right! I never understand why the princesses always leave such good food behind.”
The leftovers from the banquets were a treat for the servants or distributed to the poor outside the palace, so many eagerly awaited them.
They finished setting the table, chatting about what food they hoped would be left over tonight.
“Your Majesty, it’s really time to get ready now.”
Chief Steward Harmang repeated the same sentence for the fifth time.
“Yes, I suppose.”
However, Kai responded nonchalantly, his gaze still not leaving the pile of documents he had been engrossed in for hours.
Harmang was getting impatient.
“The princesses have already started arriving in the Sun Hall.”
At last, Kai tossed the document he was holding. Harmang’s eyes sparkled, thinking the Emperor was finally ready to move. But Kai remained seated as if glued to the chair, and Harmang’s face crumpled like a crumpled paper.
“You’ll make yourself cry at this rate.”
Kai finally stood up, smirking at Harmang’s sullen face.
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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