Edith deliberately turned her footsteps and headed to the most secluded part of the garden. She couldn’t believe that he was following her.
How on earth did Benjamin get here?
Edith stopped in a deserted place and checked his face. He also seemed to be looking at his own complexion, so it didn’t seem like someone else had come.
“Edith… it’s been a long time.”
“Benjamin, how did you get here? You should be living as a journalist in the capital.”
Benjamin was one of the pride of Homans Clinic.
Since childhood, he had been shut up in the library reading books and not long after becoming an adult, he finally became an official reporter for the largest newspaper in the Agnes Empire, , and moved to the capital.
Initially, Benjamin was reporting on a small disturbance that occurred near the capital’s communal cemetery, but he soon earned recognition for his passion and began to cover more and more important topics.
“Benjamin, your last article was probably”
“It was about the inheritance dispute between the Imperial family and the Lexion dukedom. My article even made the front page.”
Seeing Benjamin’s proud appearance, which was rare to witness, Edith couldn’t help but be more puzzled.
A journalist worthy of the front page would surely report from the capital, so why was he so far away in Portrion Manor?
Reading Edith’s doubt, Benjamin asked with a tone that indicated his curiosity as well.
“Your uncle contacted me. You, who never were late to the clinic, suddenly disappeared. What happened?”
Edith appreciated his concern for her affairs but was also worried.
“Benjamin. What about the newspaper?”
“The newspaper is…”
When Benjamin hesitated for a moment and did not respond, Edith jumped in.
“You didn’t put off work and come here because of me, did you?”
At her probing, Benjamin averted his eyes and replied.
“I felt like I was getting too involved in the political fights of the city nobles and needed a break from fatigue. Fortunately, my uncle contacted me, so I thought I’d check on you and also visit my hometown.”
“That’s fortunate, then…”
Edith, trailing off, soon decided to believe his words. Benjamin had grown into a mature adult who earned his keep.
“EEdith. Later, do you want to go and live in the capital together? I want to be a journalist, and you want to go to the capital’s academy… and I like you.”
This was not the youth who got drunk on wine and confessed his feelings only to forget them the next day.
Benjamin looked into Edith’s face. His shallow wrinkled forehead, smooth nose bridge, red and plump lips.
She was now more elegant than he had remembered when he left the village.
“Anyway, you wouldn’t believe how surprised I was when I investigated your whereabouts. Philip, your stepuncle, he…”
Edith preferred to hide her woes and misfortunes rather than share them with others.
Benjamin was one of the few people who knew about her cutthroat stepuncle, Philip, who she wouldn’t even call family.
“I heard it from the gamblers Philip used to hang out with. What will happen to you if your lord dies? Is there anything I can do to help?”
Edith met Benjamin’s eyes. It was nearly impossible to lie while looking into such clear eyes.
From her long observation, Benjamin was a trustworthy person. Even for the sake of receiving help, she had to explain the situation to him.
“I don’t know why, but when I heard it, my lord had been looking for me for a long time…”
Edith began to explain her situation in a subdued voice.
(This is a time marker.)
Around the same time, Whitman, the head butler, was receiving a report.
“Lady Sophia is requesting tea time with Lady Isabelle. But Lady Isabelle is only looking at the ledger.”
Whitman couldn’t help but hide his difficulty. He never thought that the oncequiet Isabelle would take the ledger to her room before him.
“Lady Isabelle, really. Checking the ledger can be done leisurely after the Thanksgiving dinner…”
He acted nonchalant, but his insides were far from it. Behind Liz now stood the circus ringmaster, bracing himself. If embezzlement was discovered, and their relationship soured, not only the mansion but the entire domain would obviously plummet into ruin.
‘If they discover the embezzlement, not only the donations from merchants but also the maintenance of the mansion will be cut off.’
Of course, the most important thing was the fact that he and Sophia, the main culprits of the embezzlement, would not be safe.
Whitman anxiously asked the deputy butler.
“Who spread the nonsense to Miss Liz about embezzlement and needing to check the accounts?”
“I don’t know. The rumors started to spread simultaneously and rapidly.”
Whitman had been watching Liz for a full two years since she came into the manor. His intuition as a head butler told him that Liz had not suddenly decided to check the accounts.
A thought suddenly came to his mind about Liz’s pigeon flying east of the manor.
‘Sophia couldn’t have. Surely…….’
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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