Despair was evident on Helena’s face. It looked as if the end of the world had come, and she had given up on everything.
Even though she knew her husband had left, she anxiously scanned the audience. As expected, Calis was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, her eyes met those of a man.
Eyes made of black obsidian with a gleaming nail.
The unidentified man smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth as he observed Helena’s tearful face.
Feeling a shiver down her spine, she quickly turned her head.
“We will now give the defendant the final plea time.”
“…”
“Do you have anything special to say?”
The judge’s tone, devoid of intonation, seemed to indicate little anticipation.
“Well, I…”
Helena gasped for breath and looked ahead.
There was nothing to change here by offering excuses. It would only make things more sordid.
‘I said I would receive severe punishment.’
Rather than interrogating Jane herself, she had promised to accept severe punishment if her guilt was proven.
Even if she had to feign remorse to avoid enhanced penalties, she had to do it.
“R-respected judge! And Jane!”
Helena collapsed onto the table, calling out desperately.
“I… I admit to abandoning Jane in the forest and pushing her off the cliff! I’m sorry! I lost my mind for a moment, and, huff! I won’t do something like this again. I’ll apologize to Jane for the rest of my life. So, please, could you show some leniency, sir?”
Her repentance seemed to move the judge’s heart. The judge, who observed her reflection on her wrongs with a somewhat lenient gaze, asked in a more compassionate voice, “What was the cause of the defendant trying to harm the plaintiff?”
Helena hesitated for a moment. Should she continue pretending to regret and admit fault unconditionally, or should she shift the blame onto the victim?
“The victim must have been at fault. Otherwise, would the lady have committed a crime?”
At that moment, a voice echoed in the silent courtroom. The barely audible whisper somehow penetrated Helena’s ears firmly.
‘If I really shift the blame onto the victim…’
The brief murmur fascinated Helena, who was torn between two scenarios.
Yes.
If she presents a valid reason, people would likely understand.
“W-well, on that day, the maid’s insolent pleading angered me. Not only was she disrespecting the mistress, but she also dared to compare herself to me. It’s an unlawful act that a mere maid disparages her mistress, isn’t it?”
However, people’s reactions were subtle. Contrary to expectations, their responses were as cold as ice.
The judge was no exception. He was staring at Helena with a much sterner expression than before.
“S-so…”
She stammered as her confidence quickly waned. Her cute lips, once filled with words, were now firmly pressed together.
“Defendant! Do you have anything to say right now?” The judge soon shouted sternly. “Are you trying to say that there was no choice but to do it because the victim was at fault?”
“Respected judge! My words were… I also had unavoidable reasons…”
“Stop talking! Trying to justify your crime with immoral acts cannot be tolerated!”
His resolute attitude silenced her attempts to justify herself. “To kill someone for such a reason?”
“At that time, you weren’t even a noble; you were just a common government official, right? Did you want to play noble games just by appearances?”
“What a wicked woman.”
Opinions expressing dismay echoed from the audience. It seemed to have backfired dramatically.
Cornered, Helena, gripping her head in disbelief, scratched her scalp vigorously, causing blood to well up between her nails.
“That the defendant shows no remorse for the wrongs committed against the plaintiff was evident. The premise itself, asking the plaintiff to boldly identify the culprit, was flawed.”
The judge’s somber words penetrated the oppressive atmosphere.
“I consider all of this!”
The words that followed were clear.
“Defendant, Helena Argent, is sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor.”
A narrow room with a cold current flowing through it. Except for the lack of bars, it was like a prison.
“Y-Your Honor. I am blessed with the child of God in my womb. If I go to prison, I will surely lose the child. It’s my mistake, not the child’s fault. Please reconsider. Will you?” In response to her plea, the judge decided to postpone her imprisonment until she gave birth.
About a week had passed since she was confined to the solitary cell. Helena had to endure this hell until she gave birth, and it was already becoming unbearable. Despite being a pregnant criminal, the food was insufficient, the bed too hard, and her back ached. Even for an expectant mother, it was an excessively harsh treatment.
Lunch today, like every other day, consisted of the same menu: a lukewarm soup and a tough piece of bread that she could barely swallow. After finishing a meal focused solely on filling her stomach without caring about the taste, she lay down and stared at the ceiling.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
