More than the words of expulsion or the words of how they would be punished, the phrase “will never be forgiven” was the most terrifying law. The servants stood frozen in front of Cediloy, unable to do anything but bow their heads quietly.
Especially those who had been arrogant to please Jocelyn and harass Ariante trembled with pale faces.
Cediloy, for the last time, directed his piercing gaze towards those individuals.
“I am aware that there are those who dared to disrespect the heir of Valtermindster while I was absent from the mansion. This is your last chance. If I hear such words even once afterward, I will mete out the same punishment as that given to the sinner Jocelyn.”
Colder than an ice storm, an icy chill penetrated the stomachs of some servants. Knowing the disposition handed down to Jocelyn, they held their breath, trembling like mice in front of a cat.
“Father, I’m back!”
As the servants scattered, Ariante, with a bright face, opened the main gate just in time and rushed in.
Her dress was covered in dirt from whatever she had done in the forest, and there was dust on her face. However, Cediloy, indifferent, hugged Ariante, twirled her around a couple of times, and stood her in place after planting a kiss on her cheek.
“Dizzy!”
Ariante giggled, moistening her cheek with a smile. Cediloy, as if unable to resist the charm of her daughter’s dirty cheek, kissed her after saying, “Have you had fun? Hmm? What are you hiding in your hands?”
“It’s a gift for you, Father!”
“Oh?”
Cediloy smiled and hugged Ariante with one arm, then unfolded one hand. Ariante, who had been holding two small hands together, poured what she had hidden into Cediloy’s palm.
“Did you pick acorns?”
“I picked a lot! Look, Father! This one is a really big acorn! And this one is very elongated. I found them all!”
Proudly, Ariante, overwhelmed by a sense of accomplishment, blurted out her words. In the midst of this, Swan, who picked up the acorn that rolled out of Cediloy’s hand, looked at him with an innocent smile.
“Swan, did you also pick acorns?”
“Master, I found chestnuts as well. They were very sharp.”
“Oh, did you get pricked?”
“Meiana taught me how to pick them. Like this, if you step on them, sweet chestnuts come out!”
Swan moved her foot with excitement. Now that he looked closely, Swan, too, was covered in dust just like Ariante. Her shoes were entirely smeared with mud.
At that moment, Ariante suddenly chuckled and said, “Swan picked chestnuts, and a bug came out!”
“We agreed to keep it a secret!”
When Swan shouted, Ariante laughed even louder and hugged Cediloy tightly.
“But Swan got so surprised that she screamed! Really loud. I was so, so cute!”
“Whether Swan was cute, or…”
“It’s a bug! It was small, white, and ticklish. Father, can I keep it? Huh? Can I keep it?”
“No, Ariante. That won’t work.”
As he flatly refused, Swan looked at Ariante with a triumphant expression.
“See that? I told you it wouldn’t work!”
Then, Ariante, with her cheeks cradled in Cediloy’s hand—likely the hand that had touched the caterpillar from the night before—made a distressed expression.
“Why can’t I raise it, Father? Why?”
“…Ariante, that… Caterpillars, they’re happier living in the forest.”
“No! I’ll make it cute every day! Can’t I raise it?”
“Let’s raise something else.”
“A beetle?”
Cediloy’s expression became very subtle. What exactly went wrong… Was it because of Verbou, Riria, or perhaps Meiana or his own upbringing… It couldn’t be determined.
At that moment, Ash and Meiana entered one after another. They, too, were covered in dust all over their clothes, each holding something like a pouch in one hand.
“What’s that?”
In response to Cediloy’s question, Ash raised the pouch as if to say, “This? It’s acorns that Ariante picked up.”
Next to him, Meiana also lifted the pouch with an attitude similar to Ash’s.
“This is chestnuts that Swan picked up.”
The size of the pouch wasn’t particularly large, but at a glance, it looked quite hefty. Cediloy alternately looked at Ariante and Swan.
“Did you pick up all the chestnuts in the forest?”
Then Swan replied.
“Not all of them, Master! I wanted to pick them all, but then Father said it would probably be next year’s fall if I did that. Mr. Ash…”
Ash said, “It’s true, Swan. I’m not lying. You saw how many acorns there are in that forest, right?”
“Can I go pick them again tomorrow? Huh? Can I go, Father?”
As Ariante, shaking her legs in the air, clung to Cediloy’s shoulder, Cediloy and Swan looked at each other.
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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