Clip-clop, only the sound of horse hooves echoed steadily inside the carriage. While on the way from the dressing room to the Benjamin Estate, Lily, who had been looking out the window without saying a word, noticed a boy crouching in front of an alley and opened her eyes wide.
“Harry?”
Following her, Herald also spotted Harry and tapped on the window connected to the driver’s seat. Soon, the carriage came to a stop and Emily ran to Harry even before Lily. Her neatly braided hair and skirt fluttered frantically.
“Harry!”
Harry, who had been crouching and scratching the dust-covered ground with a branch, quickly raised his head upon hearing the voice of his beloved elder sister.
“Sister.”
“What the. What happened to your cheek?”
Emily asked in surprise, noticing the wound on his cheek that wasn’t there before they parted. At that, Harry covered his cheek with an awkward smile.
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing my foot. Your cheek is all swollen. And it looks like there’s a wound too?”
Bending her knees to meet her younger brother’s eye level, Emily moved his hand and confirmed the swollen cheek with a distinct red scratch.
“Who hit you? Was it Mother?”
“It’s not that…”
“No? Then who did it?”
As Harry hesitated, unsure whether to speak or not, he abruptly stood up when Lily and Herald appeared behind Emily. Emily, who had momentarily forgotten about the two while worrying about her brother, also hurriedly stood up.
“I, I apologize for acting on my own, madam.”
Lily tapped Emily’s shoulder, who had bowed her head to express that it was alright, and then asked Harry.
“Was it at the estate that you were hit?”
Harry answered with silence. Sighing softly, Lily carefully examined Harry’s cheek. Judging by the red scratch that ran from his cheekbone to the corner of his mouth, it seemed he had been scratched by a fingernail or an accessory like a ring when he was slapped on the cheek.
Servants were not allowed to wear accessories, let alone grow their nails, so the culprit who had hit Harry’s cheek was definitely Samantha.
“I’m sorry. If I had come earlier, this wouldn’t have happened… I’m really sorry.”
When Lily apologized sincerely, Harry looked at her with a start and then shook his head so vigorously that it made a whooshing sound.
“No. I’m fine, so you don’t need to apologize, madam.”
“Thank you for thinking that way. But I hope it won’t leave a scar…”
As Lily tried to touch Harry’s cheek, Herald grabbed her hand as if snatching it. Surprised by the sudden action, Lily turned to look at him, blinking her eyes wide. Herald said with a grin,
“It’s better not to touch the wound as it may get infected.”
“Ah, you’re right. I almost made a mistake, thanks for letting me know.”
“Don’t mention it. Now, let’s go get the luggage before it gets any later.”
Herald wrapped his arm around Lily’s shoulder and turned around. The two walking towards the carriage looked like lovers, but their relationship could not be packaged with such warm words. An affair packaged with the plausible word ‘mistress’. Adultery. Inappropriate relationship. As her own parents came to mind amidst the words that didn’t fit the beautiful scenery, Emily’s expression clouded.
“…Even a good person like madam does inappropriate things.”
Hearing Emily muttering as if talking to herself, Harry tightly held his sister’s hand.
“Don’t think about it. Don’t judge either.”
Emily looked down at Harry with misty eyes.
“We just have to do what that man tells us to do.”
The blue eyes looking at Herald flashed sharply. It was a gaze that didn’t seem like a 10-year-old at all.
“Then that man will grant our request.”
Please kill our parents.
Recalling the request her young brother had made to the noble gentleman, Emily bit her lower lip hard and nodded.
[This is the timeline separator]Lily thought it would be alright since Fredrick wasn’t around, but now that she was standing in front of the mansion, she felt nervous. Taking a deep breath to calm her fluttering heart, Lily asked Harry,
“Did you happen to see a brown carriage with the Benjamin Estate’s crest entering the mansion?”
That carriage was Fredrick’s exclusive carriage. Harry thought for a moment and then shook his head.
“No. I didn’t see such a carriage.”
“I see.”
As expected, Fredrick hasn’t returned. Thanks to that, Lily shed all the remaining anxiety and told not only Emily and Harry, but also Herald to wait outside for a moment. The children readily agreed, but Herald did not.
“I’ll help you with the luggage.”
“No. I can do it alone, so you don’t have to help.”
“But…”
“I’m really alright.”
Lily firmly refused. She knew Samantha would definitely curse at the sight of her, and she didn’t want to show that to Herald.
Eventually entering the mansion alone, Lily had to hear a sharp voice laced with anger as soon as she crossed the threshold.
“Where have you been wandering all night, crawling back only now!”
“…”
Crawling back only now? Does she not know that I came to the mansion in the morning?
Lily looked at Anna standing behind Samantha. The head maid, more timid than she looked, quickly turned her head the moment their eyes met.
She didn’t say anything. Nothing about me.
That fact made Lily happy. Because thanks to that, she had a good hand to deal with Samantha. Moreover, it was also a good opportunity to scold Anna, who had tried to hide her father’s affairs, of all things.
“Fredrick said he’d let it go, but I can’t do that. Having even received blessings, you can’t even take care of your body properly while being cooped up at home, let alone wandering outside…!”
“Someone dug up Father’s grave.”
Lily interrupted Samantha’s words and spoke.
“You…!”
At this, Samantha, who was about to say something while exhaling heavily through her nose, flinched. She belatedly realized that Lily’s excuse was not ordinary.
As expected, Samantha doesn’t know anything. Having clearly confirmed it, Lily lowered her gaze for a long time and continued,
“I couldn’t return home because I was resolving that… It seems my husband didn’t say anything.”
“…Are you saying Fredrick knew?”
“Yes. He knew.”
Raising her gaze again, Lily looked at the fidgeting Anna.
“And the head maid knew everything too, right?”
Whoosh, the sound of her turning her head was so intense that it seemed to cut through the air. Anna’s face, which met Lily’s blazing eyes, turned as pale as a blank sheet of paper.
“When I asked earlier, you said you didn’t know anything, right?”
What Samantha hated most in the world was being ignored, and the second thing she hated was lies. But since she had committed both, Anna’s body trembled like an aspen tree. The head maid, who had stepped back, immediately prostrated on the floor and apologized,
“I, I’m sorry. Madam! The master told me to keep it a secret, so…!”
“Still, you should have told Mother, Anna.”
Lily prevented Anna from using Fredrick as a shield.
“Mother is the mistress in charge of the inner workings of this mansion. But it doesn’t make sense that Mother is the only one who doesn’t know about something that my husband, I, and even the servants all know.”
Unless it’s deliberate neglect. Lily added as if talking to herself. It was a small voice, but it was clearly heard by Samantha’s ears close by.
Ignore. Upon accurately understanding the word she hated most, Samantha’s eyes became bloodshot. Her face also turned bright red. It was in an instant that her greedy hand adorned with rings on every finger grabbed Anna’s hair.
“You dare to ignore me?! You, a mere head maid!”
“Aaaahhhh!”
“C-calm down, madam!”
The mansion’s hall instantly turned into a pandemonium, but Lily was composed. After watching Samantha behaving as if she had to pluck out all of the head maid’s hair to vent her anger, she quietly stepped back and ascended the central stairs. The servants were so busy trying to stop Samantha that they didn’t even notice Lily had left.
“I’ve been so good to you, yet you dare to ignore me!”
Samantha’s voice could be heard all the way to the second floor corridor, that’s how loud she was screaming. Lily, who headed straight to her bedroom, took out a travel bag as large as Samantha’s upper body and packed her belongings.
A set of pajamas bought with the first money she earned, a dictionary and writing tools used for translation, the money earned from translation work, her mother’s painting, and Herald’s letters.
“Ah, I should pack that too.”
Lily took out a brown envelope from the drawer under the window and put it in the bag. Inside the envelope were the documents Count Stacy had asked her to translate and the contract she had made with the count.
Having put that in the bag as well, Lily scanned the bedroom, thinking about what else she should pack.
“Nothing…”
The only things she could call hers in this room were the ones she had just packed. Everything else belonged to Fredrick.
Even though she had countless times said she hated him, that he was horrible, she had been relying on Fredrick like this.
The realization that hit her anew was bitter and horrifying, so Lily squeezed her eyes shut. The moment her hand, which seemed to be trying to shake off the emotions, grabbed the bag’s handle, the door opened without a knock.
“…”
Lily turned her head with a start. She thought it would definitely be Samantha, but an unexpected person was standing at the door.
“It seems like sister-in-law makes the house noisier than I do.”
It was Brian.
“And what’s with that bag? Are you running away from home?”
“If you know, will you step aside?”
Lily wanted to ignore Brian, but couldn’t do so as he was blocking the entrance, so she retorted sharply. She thought he would persist in refusing, but Brian readily stepped aside.
‘What’s his ulterior motive?’
This was also suspicious, so Lily looked at Brian for a moment, then picked up her luggage bag and walked out the door. She was worried that he might grab her as she passed by, but fortunately, Brian didn’t do that.
“How long will you be gone? Are you taking money? Ah, are you taking jewelry? What are you taking?”
Instead, he followed her closely, asking strange questions. Lily couldn’t understand the reason for asking such things, and she didn’t feel it was worth answering, so she ignored him to the end.
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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