Everyone in the hall respectfully greeted Emperor Claudius. Despite the crown’s disappearance, he remained unflustered. Selina rushed into his arms.
“Your Majesty!”
“Yes, I’ve heard. A careless oversight.”
“What about my coronation? The empress’s crown is missing…”
“…We have no choice but to omit the crown-bestowing ceremony.”
Selina’s eyes conveyed disbelief.
Illyriad watched Claudius, calm despite the royal treasure’s sudden disappearance. He glanced at the disheveled Selina, then led her deeper into the hall, followed swiftly by the prime minister and attendants.
Illyriad, standing nearby, didn’t look their way.
‘So it is.’
It was no longer a surprise. Illyriad probably observed the expressions passing by. She let out a faint smirk, eyeing the Empress’s chair on the dais across the wall of the banquet hall.
When could she ever escape this tiresome, relentless life?
“Fix the Empress’s makeup. We’re short on time.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Selina’s lips pressed together, halting her words. Hands busily moved across her face to touch up her makeup.
Soon, Selina’s face returned to its morning perfection. As Claudius signaled the maids to leave, she raised her voice.
“…Why aren’t you angry? That tiara belongs to me. Someone taking it is a challenge to me and Your Majesty!”
“Bold assertion, Selina. That tiara isn’t yours yet. It’s still a royal asset until the coronation.”
Meddling with royal assets was indeed a challenge to the Emperor.
Was it the work of republicans infiltrating the palace? But they prioritized assassination over petty theft.
‘Could it be the Empress?’
But Illyriad wasn’t one to act rashly. Witnesses’ statements doused any sparks of suspicion.
“We turned away for a second for the shift change. In that brief moment, it vanished like the wind!”
Illyriad was confidently excluded from Claudius’s list of suspects.
So, the tiara was indeed stolen. A lesser piece compared to the Emperor’s or Empress’s crowns, but still a royal treasure.
Claudius gestured to the prime minister.
“Silence the guards and ceremony staff immediately.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After everyone left, Claudius observed Selina’s sulking face at the vanity. A familiar habit when things didn’t go her way.
‘Was it Selina’s doing?’
Claudius suspected her upon hearing of the theft. She was the likeliest suspect, possibly conspiring with her father, Baron Diobe, renowned for his greed. The uproar could conveniently frame the Empress.
‘Consider it a down payment for future manipulations.’
The father-daughter duo was like expendable cards. If necessary, he could cut them loose, pinning everything on them.
The theft was less intriguing to Claudius than the image of a jealous Empress. The thought alone was amusing.
He concealed his emerging smile, soothing Selina.
“A mere crown doesn’t change your status as the Empress.”
“But…”
“The Emperor’s recognition is all you need, isn’t it?”
His fingers traced her jawline, lifting her chin gently. Selina’s face naturally followed his touch.
“Don’t be too upset.”
Selina quickly turned into a submissive face and buried her face in the Emperor’s embrace, unconcerned about smearing her makeup again.
“Did you… see the Empress’s expression?”
Claudius’s breath felt momentarily cold. Selina sensed a shiver running through her body. She didn’t want to unearth the anxiety she had been suppressing.
But it was the Emperor’s question. She had to answer, even if unwillingly. She murmured while clinging to Claudius.
“She looked… unfazed.”
“I see.”
Claudius finally let go of Selina after a while. The look in his eyes as they parted was one he had never shown Selina. In ten minutes, Selina would officially become the Emperor’s consort. That much remained unchanged.
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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