Today was the day when the nobility personally visited the ducal house.
Even Chloe, who usually preferred modest attire during her time at the mansion, was extravagantly dressed today.
“The invited guests have arrived in the garden.”
Knock, knock. The maid who came knocking informed her of the guests’ location. Heading towards the terrace, she saw several ornate carriages had parked at the entrance.
“Go to the reception room. Is everything I requested prepared?”
“Yes. All the gifts are wrapped as well.”
“Thank you.”
As she headed toward the reception room, the sweet scent of flowers filled her nostrils.
Chloe carefully reviewed the items she had set up on the tea table.
On the exquisite porcelain dessert tray were cookies, scones, and cupcakes. The colors were harmoniously arranged, and they looked quite appetizing.
The only slight imperfection was that the dessert tableware seemed to be slightly misaligned for the number of guests.
Once she had aligned everything, she felt at ease. Then she expressed her satisfaction to the servants.
Knock, knock.
“Lady Lerianne of Count Kerbios’ House and Lady Yuri of Count Kristin’s House have arrived.”
At the maid’s announcement, two beautifully dressed young women walked in.
Upon discovering Chloe, the two who had been surveying the reception room with haughty eyes instantly transformed.
“Chloe!”
“It’s been a while, Lady Argen.”
Lerianne, dressed as a precious house heir, was delighted, seemingly forgetting her decorum.
Yuri, standing beside her, stopped her enthusiastic counterpart and started with the basic greetings.
“Lady Argen? Princess, it’s been a long time.”
Hmph. Lerianne pouted oddly. It seemed that she didn’t like the title more than Yuri’s correction.
Chloe laughed at the oddly friendly title.
The title was now the only one she had, but lately, she heard her discarded titles here and there.
Furthermore, some used it for malicious intent, while others used it for goodwill.
“That title has been long discarded. Maintain some decorum, will you?”
“I can’t call you that from my mouth! Lady Argen, what—”
“Call me whatever you wish. Please have a seat.”
At Chloe’s cue, the waiting maids in the back left the room.
Soon after, maids entered carrying teapots. Each carrying a different teapot, they poured tea into individual cups.
Realizing their teas were different, Lerianne and Yuri looked at Chloe.
“I prepared teas according to your preferences. Your tastes are so different, after all.”
“Hmm…”
Lerianne gulped down her tea, and then Yuri savored hers.
It was the start of the conversation. Chloe sent all the waiting servants away.
As if Lerianne had been waiting for the door to close, she immediately opened her mouth.
“Finally, they’re gone. It was hard pretending to be polite.”
“Oh, so you were pretending.”
“…Yuri!”
“What is it, Chloe? Why all this elaborate tea time?”
Avoiding Lerianne’s glare, Yuri asked.
“Since you came all this way for me, the least I could do is prepare. And the reason I called you both is…”
Chloe, shrugging her shoulders while speaking, paused for a moment.
Both girls tensely anticipated her words, lips slightly parted.
“To communicate with my close friends. So formal.”
A tiny macaron entered her mouth. A burst of tart lemon filled the mouths of Lerianne and Yuri.
“Heh, so now you decide to call us…”
“Lerianne, even in front of friends, there are manners to maintain. Chew before you speak. Also, when did Chloe not call us?”
Yuri alternately looked at Lerianne and Chloe before muttering again.
“I was invited to the banquet, but I didn’t seek a private meeting.”
Chloe felt stung by the tone, which contrasted sharply with the affectionate voice.
Eyebrows slanted downward, Chloe tried to explain, as if to assuage the resentment of her close friends.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to invite you, but there were circumstances…”
After ‘that incident,’ Chloe had lived like a mouse in her mansion. She couldn’t bear the neglect created by the mix of the lord’s orders and their collective will.
Her friends hadn’t been invited for that reason. She didn’t want to seem lively in the mansion’s tense atmosphere, but she also didn’t want her friends to catch a glimpse of her shameful self.
Regardless of her standing in society, whether Callis treated her courteously in public or not, her true situation in the residence was quite different.
“We also understand your situation. However…”
“But we’re friends…”
“Raciel.”
Raciel was still consuming her macaron, perhaps due to her small mouth.
She had wanted to join the conversation, but she only received stern glances from the two.
These damn aristocrats. Really.
Wronged by their stares, Raciel grumbled to herself.
Eventually, Yuri sighed softly. Raciel, who seemed robust, actually had a fragile heart that could be wounded by the smallest things.
“Like Raciel said, we’re friends. We could help you… or at least offer you support if we can’t help.”
Yuri cited these words to comfort her worried friend.
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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