Mayana’s chest surged up and then settled down. She felt her breath quickening, but she didn’t know how to control it. Cedloy, still caressing her trembling cheek with his thumb, continued speaking.
“So, let me ask you again. Was all that’s left for you really just regret?”
This is cheating, Mayana thought. Why this thought occurred to her, she didn’t know.
However, one thing was clear – avoiding an opponent who was determined to win even if it meant cheating was not an easy task.
“That’s the only… No, it wasn’t.”
Without even blinking her eyes, Mayana answered as if she were possessed. In the unfolded panorama, Cedloy’s satisfying smile spread like a net.
Meanwhile, taking Swan and Ariante outside, Ashe asked Swan to say what she wanted first.
Swan hesitated, and Ariante showed a somewhat dissatisfied expression. Still, when Ashe insisted without changing his mind, Swan, after some contemplation, said she was okay with whatever Ashe chose.
Upon hearing that, Ashe put on a strict expression that was usually not visible in front of the children.
“Swan, choosing what you want for yourself is your right. Are you really okay easily giving away your right to others?”
“Ashe, what’s ‘golli’?”
Ariante asked, and when Ashe smiled, he patted the child’s head affectionately.
“It’s not ‘golli,’ it’s ‘gwolli.’ It means ‘right.’ Rights, Ariante. Things you can naturally do. So, shall we think about it? What are things Ariante can naturally do, things that should be obvious for you to be able to do?”
“Got it! I have the right to play!”
“Smart! And what else might there be? Swan, what do you think?”
Swan’s cheek, which had been blinking round eyes, turned red. Holding her small hands, she looked intently at Ashe and said,
“I, I have the right to be… safe.”
Ashe looked at Swan, blinked, and smiled warmly.
“Sure, of course. You, Ariante, everyone has the right to live safely and without worry. Now, what else? What other rights do you have?”
Upon that, Ariante and Swan began answering one by one, as if competing with each other. ‘The right to eat,’ ‘the right to sleep well,’ ‘the right not to do homework if you don’t want to,’ ‘the right to go down the stairs backward,’ ‘the right to take a nap while walking’… and so on.
“Strange! What’s ‘the right to take a nap while walking’!”
When Ariante protested, Swan, who looked surprised, caught it.
“If you scrutinize it like that, what the lady said is strange too…! ‘The right to go down the stairs backward’ can be dangerous… It’s dangerous!”
“No, it’s not dangerous at all! I’ve never slipped before!”
“But you could slip! Uh, no. You could slip!”
“If it doesn’t slip, should we test it? Want to go test it now?”
Watching the two kids discussing the probability of slipping from the railing, Ashe stepped forward.
“Okay, stop. Calm down for a moment. First of all, everything you both mentioned are rights you can have. The right to take a nap while walking? Of course, that’s natural. The right to hang upside down from the stairs railing? If that’s not a right, then what is it?”
Ariante made a snorting sound, seemingly implying, ‘Look at that,’ with a small crinkle of her nose.
Ashe spoke again, “But Swan says that the right Ariante mentioned about slipping on the stairs railing is not a right. Why is that, Swan?”
Swan promptly answered, “Because you could get hurt if you do it wrong. You could get really hurt if you fall from the stairs. Once, when I lived in my parents’ house, the butler fell on the stairs and broke his leg. It was only a few steps.”
“That’s right. Rights always come with responsibilities. Ariante, if you want to slide down the slide on the stairs railing, you can. But if you have a big accident and get seriously hurt, whose responsibility is that going to be?”
Ariante, who had protruded her lips, said, “It’s my responsibility, Ashe. I know what responsibility is!”
“That’s right. Knowing what responsibility is a good thing. But there’s one more problem here. Ariante, if you slip on the stairs and get hurt, the responsibility won’t be yours alone. Mayana will also take responsibility, your father will also take responsibility, and I will also take responsibility. Swan and everyone else will also end up taking responsibility! Why do you think that is?”
Ariante tilted her head with a puzzled expression. There were too many instances of the word ‘responsibility’! Moreover, it was difficult to understand all of Ashe’s words. Why does her getting hurt lead to responsibility for Mayana or her father?
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.]
