“Seo, Seolwon! Hey!”
Completely losing her composure and dignity, Heo Young-joo clung desperately to the hem of Seolwon’s clothes.
“I’ll accept any punishment! Just let me see Woo-joo. Please!”
“…….”.
Hidden behind Seolwon, Woo-joo peeked out at Heo Young-joo’s strangely earnest plea, then withdrew her head and looked at her.
As Heo Young-joo met those clear, large eyes, her desperation deepened.
“Woo-joo, I… I am… your grandmother. Your real grandmother!”
“Eung?”
“The Grand King… Do you know the Grand King? Your Grandfather!”
Looking at Woo-joo with a puzzled expression, Heo Young-joo pointed to her chest and tried to explain to the child.
“Grandmother is the Grand King’s wife. So… I am Woo-joo’s grandm…”
“Stop it.”
Unfortunately, there was no satisfaction in hanging on.
Before she could capture the child’s heart, she was pushed away by Seolwon.
In dismay, Heo Young-joo stared blankly at Seolwon.
She must have known how to look at her with cold eyes like this.
In the past, the child was always dignified no matter what she said or what task she gave her.
Whether she should act like she’s dead or always be a somewhat cold daughter-in-law…
But she couldn’t back down here.
From Seolwon’s cold gaze, Heo Young-joo instinctively felt it.
If she left this house right now, she would never be able to see the child again.
“Please, I beg you. Huh? Isn’t it too cruel not to see how my pretty grandson is growing up! I’ll do better in the future… Oh, right. Here, I brought this for Seolwon…”
With the feeling of catching straws, Heo Young-joo urgently opened her bag.
The jewels she had brought with trembling fingers were caught in the bag.
It was a moment when she was about to pull out all those things.
“Did you say it’s cruel, mother?”
“…….”.
Lifting her gaze from the bag, Heo Young-joo looked at Seolwon.
Her gaze was chilly, and the emotions contained in it were as hot as they were burning.
“I couldn’t even protect my mother’s death. I couldn’t even have a funeral. But now you… do you have the right to say such things to me?”
Even Heo Young-joo, who was good at excuses and pleading, couldn’t open her mouth at this moment.
The jewels she had been holding in her hand fell into the bag with a thud.
Heo Young-joo finally realized that she couldn’t turn Seolwon’s heart with these trivial things.
She also realized how great the weight of her actions was.
All that was left for her was to receive punishment.
“What’s going on? Why is it so dark, and you’re not turning on the lights.”
“…Don’t turn them on.”
“Why is your voice like that again?”
When the light turned on with a tap, a large bundle of blankets moved slightly.
Seeing that, Kwon Kang-ho pursed his lips.
“Are you playing hide-and-seek in the middle of the night? I’m tired, so give me the blanket quickly so I can sleep.”
“You… You don’t know how to talk kindly to me at least!”
“…What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
Kwon Kang-ho, feeling something unusual in Heo Young-joo’s voice mixed with tears, approached the bundle of blankets and placed his hand on it.
“Don’t pull it! Your face is a complete mess!”
As if Kwon Kang-ho would listen to such words. Firmly, he quickly opened the blanket, revealing a disheveled Heo Young-joo, her eyes swollen and eyelids sticking together as if glued.
It was evident how tightly she had been hiding inside the blanket, as her hair was all stuck to her face, and her appearance was beyond description.
Kwon Kang-ho knew his wife well. As an actress, Heo Young-joo always emphasized her beauty, indicating how much she cared about her appearance.
Therefore, her current state was a clear sign that something significant had happened.
It wasn’t challenging to deduce what that something was.
Considering her constant obsession with looking at Woo-joo’s picture these past few days…
“Did you go to Seolwon?”
Whether this statement triggered it or not, Heo Young-joo suddenly burst into tears with a loud cry.
The way she cried was so sorrowful that it was hard to watch.
Kwon Kang-ho quietly sat at the end of the bed, waiting for his wife’s tears to stop.
After a while, Heo Young-joo, still sniffling, finally managed to stop crying.
Probably due to the overwhelming sorrow, Heo Young-joo poured out her pent-up emotions to her husband.
“I’m a wretched person. Because I’m not good enough… I’m despised by my excellent husband, hated by my sons… and now, even by my daughter-in-law and grandson…”
Unable to continue after the word ‘grandson,’ Heo Young-joo stammered, and Kwon Kang-ho sensed the situation roughly.
Although he wasn’t always gentle, especially diving into the business world made him more pragmatic.
His personality seemed to be split evenly between his eldest son, Tae-ha, and his second son, Chae-hwan.
Moreover, his hasty remarriage after his early wife’s death was, frankly speaking, somewhat impulsive.
Heo Young-joo was not unloved, but perhaps he fell short of the perfect affection she desired.
Pressing herself against the blanket, Kwon Kang-ho comforted his wife.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
