“I bet that the emperor has no interest in the princesses. If the emperor shows any interest or even gets a little closer to any of the princesses, you win.”
“Isn’t that too favorable for me?”
When Kai chuckled and spoke, Stella shook her index finger from side to side, expressing a firm disagreement.
“No. I’m right. How about it? Wanna bet?”
Kai thought he wouldn’t lose at all. After all, Stella had practically won the bet already.
“Sure.”
“If I win, you have to pretend not to know about my business until the end.”
“And if I win?”
“I’ll give you anything you need among the things I have.”
“Anything?”
Kai asked, looking at Stella intently. For some reason, Stella felt a warm gaze, so she avoided eye contact and nodded.
“But not a pickaxe.”
At Stella’s decisive response, Kai burst into a playful laughter.
A pickaxe here? That was an unexpected answer.
Understanding Stella’s hearty laughter as an agreement, Kai smiled and reached for her offered hand.
“What’s this?”
“A promise of our deal?”
Kai looked at Stella’s small, white hand and hesitated, then gently held her hand. The skin on the palm was smooth, warm, and tender. Kai’s long fingers gently embraced Stella’s hand.
“Now, you’re my business partner. In other words, you’re my accomplice.”
“That sounds grand.”
Stella, who was playfully talking about being an accomplice while selling a few crops in the market, seemed amusing but cute at the same time.
“So, you have to keep the secret until the end. Even if I somehow get caught in the middle, I’ll never disclose your name.”
Watching Stella, who made promises without even knowing her real name, Kai felt both pitiful and worried. How could someone trust people so easily to engage in any kind of business? Kai turned his head and looked at the maid Mila standing nearby. She seemed more cautious than Stella, but seeing them working together didn’t make her entirely trustworthy either.
“I have one question before that.”
“Sure, ask away.”
Now feeling carefree, Stella withdrew her hand from Kai and spoke in a cheerful voice.
When Stella’s small hand suddenly slipped out of his grip, Kai felt a deep sense of emptiness and regret. It was a similar emotion to when he laid the drunken Stella on the bed not long ago.
The desire to touch this woman’s body persistently lingered, and Kai couldn’t gauge how to express it. Kai didn’t particularly enjoy others touching his body. The only acceptable contact was during sparring. It was the first time he found himself regretting someone leaving because of his own disappointment. It was strange.
“Is sugar peanut cultivation over now?”
“Why? Do you want more? Should I give you more?”
“Is there more?”
“Come here.”
Stella thought she needed to make Lois firmly on her side for now.
Stella, who had risen abruptly, urgently gestured towards Lois, who was sitting blankly. Mila, standing nearby, let out a deep sigh.
“Is this all the sugar peanuts?”
The place Stella took Kai to was the warehouse inside Verudra Castle. It served as storage for the harvested crops and held food ingredients used in the castle.
Inside the warehouse, there were five sacks of sugar peanuts remaining.
“Weren’t they all sold?”
“Four of them are dried, so they can be stored and eaten for a long time. The remaining one will be used to plant peanuts again soon.”
The reproductive power of sugar peanuts was tremendous. While the ones brought from the market were just a few, the harvest exceeded twenty bags.
So, if one bag was planted entirely, the quantity would surpass imagination. Despite being a tricky crop to cultivate, sugar peanuts boasted a prolific breeding ability in Stella’s garden, thriving more vigorously than weeds.
Stella looked at the bag of peanuts as if it were a bag of gold coins and smiled proudly.
“I’ll plant sugar peanuts in the remaining half of the garden tomorrow. If you have time, come and help. Oh! Are you busy with training?”
“Or, are you short of hands?”
“Not really. With me, Mila, Bryn, Daelen, Rhian, Dudul, and even Teacher Crot helping, we have plenty of hands.”
“Teacher Crot?”
Kai was taken aback by the sudden mention of the name.
“Do you know Teacher Crot?”
As Stella asked in a somewhat surprised tone, Kai hesitated for a moment and then answered, avoiding eye contact.
“I’ve greeted him a few times on the way.”
While speaking, Kai felt a strange sense of betrayal and jealousy towards Crot simultaneously. Even though he thought Crot only conducted classes in the plant area, it turned out he was hiding such a secret.
It seemed like he should call Crot to the office tonight. Since there was a designated place to find him, calling him wouldn’t be that difficult.
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.”
