The rustling sound came from the warehouse inside. Kyung Joon put down his briefcase anywhere and quietly passed through the design room to approach the warehouse.
“Ah, this is tough.”
As something was being put down with a thud inside the warehouse, where rolls of fabric were stacked up to the door, a groaning voice leaked out.
“Just go back to how it was before. I’ll use up a whole roll of fabric and make a stone mat.”
It was a voice he had heard many times before. As Kyung Joon was trying to think about where he had heard this voice, he peeked through the door crack.
“Kyaa!”
The person inside suddenly opened the door, screaming and falling back on their buttocks.
“What, what, what’s going on!”
Kyung Joon, who almost hit his head on the door, was just as surprised. He was frozen for a moment and blinked several times before regaining his senses.
“Jo Seo Ha?”
“Why is Secretary Ryu here at this hour?”
Jo Seo Ha looked even more miserable than usual.
Her hair was rolled up haphazardly, her wornout sneakers were nowhere to be seen, and she wore slippers with loose threads. Wearing work gloves and covered in dust, her outfit was complete for the day.
“Why are you here like this at this hour?”
“Don’t you see I’m working?”
Seo Ha, who was trying to stand up using the floor for support, let out a pained groan due to a sharp pain.
No matter how hard she had rehabilitated, her body was much weaker than an ordinary person’s. She seemed to have twisted her back slightly when she fell just now. Or it could have happened when she moved the heavy fabric last.
‘Heavy… fabric?’
Seo Ha made a quickwitted thought and groaned.
“Help me up, please. I can’t get up.”
“Ugh.”
Kyung Joon knelt on one knee on the floor and lowered his posture. Seo Ha held his hand and leaned on his shoulder, trying to carefully stand up.
“Ouch!”
“Stand up slowly. I’ll call an ambulance for you.”
“No need. I just need to rest a bit and finish organizing the rest.”
“Have you lost your mind, Jo Seo Ha?”
Kyung Joon asked in disbelief. Trying to organize the fabric warehouse when she could barely stand up?
“Do you think I want to do this? I’m doing it because I was told to.”
“How can you do this all by yourself?”
It seemed like her plan was working. Seo Ha raised her eyebrows, leaning on Kyung Joon and coming out of the warehouse.
“You can leave now. I’ll rest here for a bit and finish up the warehouse.”
Normally, when an injured person says this, the response would be, ‘No, I’ll help you since you got hurt because of me.’ That’s exactly what Seo Ha was aiming for.
But Kyung Joon was not your ordinary bad guy.
“Well, good luck then. Fighting.”
He sat Seo Ha down on any visible chair and picked up his briefcase.
“Wait a moment, Secretary Ryu!”
As she called out hastily, Kyung Joon stopped in his tracks and looked back.
“Are you really leaving? Just leaving me here like this?”
“You said I could go.”
“That’s just a figure of speech. You should ask one more time.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Kyung Joon was irritated, but Seo Ha didn’t back down.
“Please help me.”
“With what?”
“Organizing here.”
“Why should I?”
“You suddenly came in, and I fell and got hurt. Don’t you know I was in the hospital just a few months ago?”
“….”
In fact, there was nothing wrong with Seo Ha’s words, so Kyung Joon frowned but threw his briefcase aside and took off his jacket.
“What should I start with?”
“Ouch.”
Seo Ha rolled the wheeled chair awkwardly to the front of the warehouse.
“The fabrics are all mixed up, so I was in the middle of sorting them out. Denim goes here, lining goes there, summer fabrics there, winter fabrics here. The furry ones all go there.”
Rolled fabrics were incredibly heavy. Especially denim and winter fabrics were as heavy as steel bars.
“You did all this by yourself?”
“Until you came, Mr. Secretary.”
Kyung Joon looked Seo Ha up and down as she sat awkwardly leaning on the wheeled chair. He couldn’t imagine her small frame dragging those heavy fabrics around.
“You’re pretty strong.”
He muttered and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows.
“Where does this go?”
“The right corner. The thick fabrics need to be in front of the thin ones.”
Seo Ha felt very happy watching the warehouse get organized three times faster than when she struggled alone. Was this how the frog who got the beans felt?
“Damn. This is exhausting.”
Finally, the frog straightened his back and grumbled after finishing the organization. Seo Ha almost felt sorry for him as she saw the beads of sweat on his forehead and his dirty shirt, but she shook her head.
Why should she feel sorry? Ryu Kyung Joon was a spy. As soon as she got her company back, she’d kick him out.
“Thank you. I was planning on staying up all night doing this by myself.”
Still, she maintained a superficial courtesy and thanked him. Kyung Joon nodded his head with an unimpressed expression, dusted off the dirt on his shirt, and reached out his hand to Seo Ha.
“Come on.”
“…?”
“Grab my hand. You need to get up and go, right?”
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.”
