“Aha… Then there must be quite a bit of dissatisfaction, having such a talented individual come all the way here.”
“She didn’t seem to show any displeasure.”
“I don’t believe what you say, you couldn’t even tell the Empress was dangerous.”
It was as if he was talking about some ferocious beast.
“Isn’t being scary different from being dangerous?”
Sure, a warrior might be dangerous, but then every adult would be a threat to me. Even a delicate young lady from a noble house could strangle me to death.
“The Empress is both scary and dangerous.”
His voice was firm. He seemed very harmonious when we dined together. Was this a case of not judging a book by its cover?
The Empress probably sees the Duke as spare material, but for now, there’s no need to oppress him. So, he’s nice to me.
But what about the Duke’s perspective? Would he feel uncomfortable being allied with the Empress through me, like having a spy beside him? Or since a Crown Prince hasn’t been born yet, does he want to be even closer to the Empress?
How should I act to be appropriate?
As my head was about to get crowded with these thoughts, something caught my eye.
“Do you want to pick the color of the horse? What color─”
I let go of the Duke’s hand and dashed towards a horse that had caught my attention.
“Hey! That’s dangerous! What if you get kicked?!”
The Duke was panicking behind me, but I didn’t care.
“This horse! Is it for sale right now?”
As I clung to the horse I’d spotted, the owner approached me. At the same time, I felt the Duke standing behind me.
“Oh, we have very young customers here. Did you come with your parents?”
The owner spoke casually, perhaps because of my youthful appearance, but the escort knight behind me didn’t think so and shouted.
“Do you know who this person is! Show some respect!”
The poor owner, scolded by an armed knight for just speaking casually to kids, seemed pitiful. But what mattered to me wasn’t that.
“How much for this horse?”
Originally, I had no intention of choosing a horse myself. I planned to let the Duke choose and then praise him for his good eye.
But at that moment, I changed my mind. This horse was a must-have.
“This horse, you mean?”
The owner, perplexed, confirmed again. The escort knight seemed baffled too.
“Mi, Miss. If the horses are too big and scary, there’s a place that sells only foals inside. Or you could buy a smaller animal like a donkey. This one, well…”
It made sense. The horse I’d chosen looked like a malnourished foal, about to collapse any moment.
“I like this one. Duke, can you buy it for me?”
The Duke, habitually stroking his chin, responded briefly.
“If you want it.”
“I want this horse, please buy it.”
Convinced by my firm voice, the owner hesitantly said.
“As much as you say that… this one was about to die, so I didn’t even plan to sell it. Ah, how about this? Choose any horse you want. If you buy one, I’ll throw this one in for free.”
He seemed like a conscientious person. He might have been intimidated by the knight behind me, but still, offering such a fair deal when he could easily get rid of a non-marketable horse was commendable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t looking for a fair trade; I wanted this particular horse.
“I don’t want another horse. Just this one. How much?”
“Sigh, it feels wrong to even charge for this one. Then, just one silver coin, please.”
One silver coin. When I was budgeting for the tea party, a good can of black tea cost about that much. Considering that, this price must be ridiculously cheap.
“How much do usual horses cost? Like that one over there, for example.”
“Those go for about five gold coins each. There’s usually some price variation but… Ah, let’s make a deal. Pick any horse you like, and I’ll include this one for just five gold coins. I won’t charge a single silver coin extra.”
He couldn’t conscientiously sell this malnourished horse at a high price. But he also didn’t want to miss a customer who seemed intent on buying. His proposal reflected a conflict between these two thoughts.
“Selling at a loss? That’s exactly what I was thinking. To sell this horse for just a silver coin. Duke, please buy this horse for a hundred gold coins.”
“Excuse me?”
“Excuse me?”
While the Duke remained calm at the prospect of spending twenty times the expected budget, the owner and the knight were the ones who voiced their astonishment.
“Mi, Miss, perhaps you should return to the carriage and reconsider─”
“Duke, please be quiet for a moment.”
The Duke gestured for the knight to quiet down. It made sense; to the owner and the knight, a hundred gold coins weren’t something to spend impulsively.
But I knew the budget allocated for the Duke’s playmate.
Naturally, the Duke would be receiving more than the budget allocated for maintaining my dignity, so a hundred gold coins, if there was a good reason, could be spent right there.
Of course, that’s only if there was a reasonable explanation.
“Why? Why should we pay an amount not even requested by the owner?”
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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