“That over there is the outer palace.”
After walking silently for a while, the man stopped and pointed somewhere. Following the direction of his chin, I saw a large palace and people walking around it.
“The palace is enchanted with high-level magic that changes its geography constantly. Palace staff receive updates every morning, didn’t you know?”
“I had no idea. It’s my first day.”
I had visited Floria before going to the chief maid, so I hadn’t had a chance to learn about such things.
“Looks like you’ve become a maid now.”
The man, gazing down at me, spoke with a puzzled expression.
“Weren’t you a countess?”
It was strange that he, a servant in the Second Prince’s palace, didn’t know this, but I just nodded.
“Yes, it turned out that way. Anyway, thank you for guiding me here. I wouldn’t have made it safely without your help.”
I had suspected he might trick me into getting lost, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.
‘Maybe he’s not as bad as I thought.’
He seemed kind enough to show me the way, not a bad person after all…….
“Now you owe me one.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not planning to pretend you don’t know me after I saved your life, are you?”
“Saved my life? You just showed me the way.”
“Didn’t you see? There was no one around. If it weren’t for me, you could have died out there.”
“Aren’t you exaggerating?”
“People often lose their lives in the palace getting lost like that.”
“Really, what nonsense…”
“Thinking about it, this is the second time I’ve saved you.”
“Wait a minute. If you’re talking about the day I escaped through the window, it was just the first floor! Even if I fell, I would’ve just sprained something. And about that day, I have a lot to say too.”
“You never know with people. The world doesn’t always go as planned. Besides, you were indeed trying to escape with the suitcase.”
“That, that was…”
Caught admitting my escape, I found myself at a loss for words.
Damn, despite his cold appearance, why is he so sharp-tongued? I couldn’t win against him verbally, so I just glared. He laughed at ease.
“I’ll collect this debt later.”
See you next time then. The man turned away indifferently, quickly disappearing into the distance.
‘Cancel my thought about him being a decent person, you annoying man!’
I yelled in my mind, watching his receding back.
When I returned to the Second Prince’s palace with the royal physician, it was already late afternoon. The maids, thinking I had deliberately delayed bringing the physician, frowned at me. I declined Floria’s repeated invitations to rest and headed to the servant’s quarters.
The maids I met on the way to the chief maid’s room gave me cold stares. Apparently, they were already aware of what had happened in Floria’s room.
“Purposely stepped on Eileen’s foot? That’s terrible.”
“She’s seriously injured and had to call the royal physician. But you left and took forever to come back.”
“Did you do that on purpose? How could you cause such a scene on your first day? You really are something else.”
“Floria is too kind-hearted. I wouldn’t have let it slide.”
Being gossiped about everywhere, I felt like the town’s punching bag.
But I expected as much, so their whispers didn’t bother me. Noting their reaction to my calm demeanor, some even commented on my shamelessness and audacity. Should I have walked with my head down instead?
“What time is it now? You should’ve contacted us if you were going to be late!”
“I’m sorry.”
The chief maid, scowling at me initially, seemed surprised by my polite response and left with a click of her tongue.
“Please be careful in the future. If you are late three times, it will be counted as an absence.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Sylvia.”
The chief maid turned her head and called someone’s name.
“From now on, work and learn alongside Sylvia.”
I looked at the maid approaching me. Sylvia, with her black hair and black eyes, quickly lowered her gaze as our eyes met.
After leaving me in Sylvia’s care with instructions to teach me well, the chief maid sent us out to work.
Sylvia kept sneaking glances at me and hesitated, lips fluttering.
‘Has she heard the rumors about me?’
Unable to hold back, I initiated the conversation.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
Sylvia, looking unsure of what to do, quickly shook her head. Seeing the girl trembling like a herbivore in front of a predator made me feel a pang of sympathy.
“I’m Renée Violet. Please take good care of me.”
I greeted her more gently, and Sylvia, looking flustered, rolled her eyes and slowly nodded. After a pause, she quietly introduced herself as “Sylvia Mann.”
Hmm, a shy girl. She reminded me of a rabbit, quite cute.
Of all the people I’d met in the palace, Sylvia seemed the most innocent and immediately caught my liking.
“What should we start with?”
“Oh, today we have to clean the annex.”
“You seem about my age, so you can drop the formalities.”
“But, but you’re a noble…”
“Forget that. We’re both maids now. Where’s the annex?”
“This way.”
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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