“Does what Jenny said make sense?”
“Yeah. Your energy has improved lately, but you’ve been sleeping a lot, right?”
“How did you know?”
Tyreen flicked her long, slender snake tongue.
I wanted to give her a slap for that pleased expression, even though she didn’t actually compliment me.
“Okay, okay. It’s evidence that the power of the spirit is settling well in you. Spirits are originally nature-friendly beings. To living creatures, nature itself appears extremely beautiful.”
“Fine. But what about feeling sleepy?”
Yawning, I asked with a mumble. My eyes kept closing.
Tyreen’s peculiar, clattering voice resonated like a lullaby, intensifying the drowsiness.
“Your body is not entirely human yet. As a fragile body hosts the mighty power of nature, it instinctively chooses to sleep. Isn’t your body refreshing every time you sleep and wake up? …Oops, you’ve already fallen asleep.”
My mind drifted away.
It felt like I vaguely heard the sound of someone sleeping.
When I opened my eyes, something felt strange. The sensation in the air was different from usual.
“Jenny?”
I called, rubbing my eyes, but there was no response. Looking at the lit candle, it seemed like she had come in and gone out.
I got off the bed and put on my outerwear. While walking with my shoes, I felt an unusual sensation once again.
It couldn’t be described in words, but if I had to express it, it was a chilling and ticklish feeling, as if cockroaches were crawling.
“I wonder if something happened to Jenny again?”
Without realizing it, my steps quickened. As I approached the door and placed my hand on the doorknob.
“Don’t go out.”
A desperate, whispering voice. It was Tyreen.
“What did you say?”
I turned my head. At the same time, the doorknob turned.
‘I didn’t move it?’
An unsettling feeling. Rather than reason, instinct moved faster than anything else.
Quickly stepping back, the door creaked open.
A group of men rushed in.
Thud, thud.
At the forefront, a man walked into the room.
In the imposing presence of the armed men, I froze. He opened his mouth with a businesslike expression.
“Igraine Lorenst?”
Without saying anything, I nodded in acknowledgment.
“All right. Igraine Lorenst, you are immediately arrested on charges of colluding with the Empire’s spy.”
What?
There was no room for objection in other words. Soldiers rushed towards me.
I woke up from sleep only to find myself imprisoned.
It was a perfect expression.
‘In my past life, whether I was thrown into prison or directly to the gallows, there was nothing to be done about it. Should I say things have gotten better or worse?’
Squeak!
A chilly wind brushed past my ankles as something passed under my feet.
‘That damn rat, long time no see.’
Thump!
As I rolled my foot on the floor, the rat squeaked and disappeared into the hole.
‘It’s colder than dealing with rats.’
As I hugged my knees, the bleak scenery of the prison caught my eye.
My body involuntarily shrank in the cold air seeping through the cracked gray stone walls.
“How long do you intend to keep me like this?”
Even if I were a sinner, isn’t this treatment too much, especially before the interrogation? Despite the situation being completely different from my expectations, I strangely felt calm.
I stared at the bars that confined me.
The bars were made of wood. Other prisons, excluding Grade 1 detention centers for heinous criminals, used wooden bars. Seeing this, it seemed like my guilt was not definitively confirmed yet.
‘I wonder what tricks Aris used.’
It was a predictable matter.
I approached the wooden bars.
‘If the situation gets seriously out of hand without me being able to intervene, I should be able to escape.’
The bars looked old. Without an axe, it seemed difficult to escape by my own strength.
‘I wonder if it’s possible.’
I absentmindedly grabbed the bars and applied force to see how strong they were.
‘I wonder how sturdy this is.’
I exerted more force. It was just an intention to test, with no other motive.
Creak!
‘…Why is it like this?’
The broken wooden bars fell down. Cold sweat broke out.
Even if I have strong strength, wasn’t this too much?
Tyreen happily exclaimed.
“With the power of the tribe, your body has been strengthened!”
Isn’t this enhancement too much?
The first word that came to mind was evidence destruction. Fortunately, it was slightly damaged. If I pretended not to know and patched it up, no one would notice…
At that moment, I made eye contact with the guard entering the prison.
“No, wait, that’s not it. Why is it like this?”
The guard, whose lips were purple, looked at my face, then my hands, and finally at the broken bars before making a surprised sound.
“It’s an escape attempt!”
No, I have no intention of doing that. Not yet.
Ten minutes after waking up in the prison, I was transferred to a Grade 1 detention center.
A new prison packed with sturdy iron bars that wouldn’t break even if struck with an axe.
Fortunately, there were no rats, but fleas were everywhere.
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.”
