The next day, Helena entered the conference room with an air of confidence, arriving half an hour earlier than the scheduled meeting time.
Soon after, the chairman entered.
“Nice to see you’ve attended today.”
It was strictly for research that she’d been absent, but he treated her like any other truant academy student.
“Of course! I’ve finished my research.”
“Is that so? I look forward to the main meeting, then.”
The chairman spoke with an expression devoid of any enthusiasm.
Shortly after, Callis followed her. He playfully scolded Helena for skipping breakfast in her rush to leave.
The long-anticipated meeting finally began. The chairman, who was summarizing the points discussed the day before, focused on Helena.
“Miss Helena?”
“Yes!”
“You were briefly absent for research.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then tell us about the research you’ve conducted. Also, have you given any thought to festival-related opinions?”
As Helena nodded, the chairman gestured for her to stand up.
She began fumbling through her notes from the previous night.
“So…”
Her voice, usually full of aspiration, began to falter.
“Uh… that is…”
Stammering, her small mouth failed to form any coherent words, causing a delay in the meeting.
The gazes towards Helena quickly turned cold. Frightened, she clenched her eyes shut and shouted.
“…I’m sorry! I didn’t have time to prepare the presentation. Can my report be a substitute?”
The chairman displayed visible dissatisfaction at her dispirited question.
However, he didn’t severely reprimand her, as if he had expected her failure.
“Here, here it is.”
Her awkward hand extended.
Helena handed over her report to the chairman and returned to her seat, looking at his reaction.
From Callis’s eyes emanated a sense of regret. As if lamenting Helena’s inadequacy despite her late-night preparation.
She clasped her lover’s comforting hand and thought to herself.
‘This is right.’
Even though she had received a chilly evaluation, she knew her decision was correct for the future.
As Callis had pointed out, Helena had grown tremendously in such a short span of time. She had finished her report in just one day and prepared her presentation as well.
If she had delivered a perfect presentation, her previous failures would seem strange.
‘As for the chairman…’
Helena’s gaze naturally shifted toward the chairman. He was likely perusing her report, even if unenthusiastically.
Suddenly, the chairman’s facial expression changed. He became engrossed in Helena’s report, even donning reading glasses.
‘As expected!’
Helena realized that his reaction was a positive sign.
The conference room fell quiet, with only the rustling of papers to be heard. The chairman’s occasional exclamations served as sweeteners.
Clap, clap.
Finally reaching the last page, the chairman who had read through everything, clapped his hands to signal the end.
“Perfect. I was considering asking for the Duchess’s help, but it seems unnecessary.”
The chairman offered his highest praise.
“Then, I’ll forward this report as is to the higher-ups. Well done, Miss Helena.”
“Yes! Thank you for the compliment!”
The words that followed touched Helena’s heartstrings. She felt as if she had surpassed Chloe, her chest filling with pride.
Suddenly, Chloe’s empty seat caught her eye. The vacant seat seemed to symbolize her current status, and it felt ironic.
Once her abilities became widely known, even the Emperor, who had once coldly dismissed her, would seek an alliance.
If Helena received the Emperor’s favor, Callis’s reputation would naturally rise as well.
After Callis was granted a dukedom, the emperor lost all interest in him, despite his outstanding achievements. Perhaps the emperor’s indifference contributed to the halt of his progress.
If Helena were to connect the two, both Callis and Helena would gain the nobles’ recognition.
‘I’ll have everything—power and accomplishments!’
The library now took up a significant portion of Chloe’s daily routine. It was to complete the report she had decided to submit separately instead of attending the meeting.
By not attending the meeting and spending that time in the library, she was able to devote a lot of time to writing the report.
Once she wrote the references, the festival planning proposal was also quickly finished.
‘I’ll have to attend the meeting starting tomorrow.’
It was while Chloe was looking through books and newspapers for the reference section.
“Princess!”
Someone rushed into the library breathlessly.
The man had run so urgently that he even forgot basic greetings.
‘Was his name Dylan?’
A man adjusting his crooked glasses. He was Koon’s personal assistant.
Consistent even in the way he referred to Chloe, he resembled his master.
“What is it?”
“That! Your Highness!”
Excitedly yelling, Dylan soon looked around. It was relatively quiet, but the message he had to convey couldn’t leak.
“……The physician in charge of your maid is looking for you.”
He finally whispered in a softer voice.
“……! Jane!”
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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