Those eyes, what on earth…
The moment Sedilroi tried to speak, Meianna quickly grabbed his wrist and opened his palm. The unexpected move made Sedilroi’s fingertips twitch, and something heavy was placed on his hand. It was the ball that had just squarely hit his forehead.
“Now, Count. You do know how to play catch, don’t you? You’ll be surprised how well the young princess plays!”
Then she sat down abruptly in front of Arianne, who was still clutching her hem. Meianna, blinking slowly, tightly held Arianne’s anxious and unsure hands.
“Young Princess, I’ll prepare some snacks over there. Please play catch with the Count.”
Arianne bit her lip and looked back and forth between Sedilroi and Meianna. Unlike her earlier exuberant state, her lip-biting and foot-shuffling made it seem like she might burst into tears at any moment.
“I am…”
Arianne tried to take small steps backward but was held in place by Meianna’s grip.
Sedilroi silently watched her. He observed Arianne, whose cheeks and forehead were still flushed. The child who had been laughing uproariously just a moment ago.
As if Meianna already knew, Sedilroi hadn’t purposely sought out Arianne. He just had the habit of walking alone near the forest. Then he heard Meianna and Arianne’s voices.
A laughter that had long disappeared from the House of Balderminster led his feet to them. Knowing who was laughing, he couldn’t stop himself. The figure he had seen once long ago receded like a mirage beyond the mist.
“Arianne.”
At Sedilroi’s soft voice, Arianne’s shoulders jolted slightly. The child looked up at him with a slightly scared but also expectant gaze.
“Yes, Father.”
“Don’t you want to play catch with your father?”
Arianne’s cheeks flushed even more. She glanced at the nodding Meianna, then shook her little head.
“No, no! I also want to play catch with Father!”
“Then let’s try it.”
Sedilroi gave a barely perceptible smile. Meianna tightly gripped Arianne’s hand, encouragingly shook it, and whispered.
“Go on, Young Princess. The Count says he wants to play with you. Show him how well you can.”
Although she tried to contain her emerging smile, Arianne couldn’t help but run off with a brightly shining face. Meianna moved to a spot under a tree with a basket filled with snacks and cool tea. She carefully observed Sedilroi and Arianne playing catch.
‘A long way to go…’
Watching Sedilroi throw the ball, a long sigh escaped Meianna’s lips. Clearly, he was just “playing catch,” without considering that he was playing with a seven-year-old child.
If he threw the ball too far for Arianne to pick up, he would simply roll it on the ground. As a result, Arianne was busy running back and forth.
Sedilroi, too, was having difficulty getting the hang of it. It wasn’t that he intended to make the young child suffer. He simply had never played such a game with a child, so he didn’t know how to adjust it for Arianne…
After exchanging the ball several times, Sedilroi glanced over at Meianna, as if asking for help.
“Father! I’m here!”
However, Arianne seemed intent on not letting Sedilroi rest, as if urging him on. Meianna found even this response from Arianne to be pitiful…
“Ah!”
The ball flew over Ariante’s head again, soaring into the distance. As Ariante hurried to fetch it, Meiana seemed unable to bear it any longer. She abruptly stood up and strode toward Sedilroy.
Sedilroy suddenly flung open his palms. Meiana asked,
“What are you doing?”
“Listen to me before you get angry.”
How infuriating, Meiana thought.
“Alright, go ahead.”
Sedilroy looked at her folded arms and scoffed.
“I’ve never played catch. Well, to be precise, I haven’t played it since I became an adult. I did as a child, but only with peers.”
“And so?”
“You’ve been glaring at me as if you want to eat me alive. If I’m doing something wrong, please tell me.”
Silence ensued. Meiana sighed briefly and slowly nodded her head, as though summoning patience for a difficult student…
“Think about it, Your Grace. The princess is seven years old and still a tiny child, right?”
“Right.”
“Then where and how should you throw the ball?”
Sedilroy blinked a few times. He licked his lips and then spoke.
“I should throw it so she can catch it, by controlling the force.”
“Oh, how clever you are! Yes, that’s exactly what you should do!”
At Meiana’s enthusiastic response, Sedilroy raised an eyebrow.
“You’re treating me as if I were seven.”
“To be honest, watching you with the princess, one might think you’re around seven.”
Sedilroy chuckled.
“Remarkable. Have you always been this fearless?”
“Not fearless enough to throw a can at a stranger. Listen well. Your role isn’t to ‘throw’ the ball. It’s to ‘hand it over’ in a way the princess can catch. But don’t make it too easy or dull. She should find it fun! Pretend to throw it, but ensure she can catch it. Understand? Occasionally, fake a wrong direction.”
“I didn’t realize playing catch was so complicated.”
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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