Yu-an clenched her cold fingertips.
Many eyes were watching.
Regina always scratched at people’s insides with her words, so today was no exception.
“But now I see a little bit why you did it. From the outside, the mansion looked desolate, but inside, there are many valuable things. It’s not hard to understand why you betrayed your family and sold yourself.”
“Shall we step outside for a moment?”
With Sophia’s face paler than Yu-an’s and not knowing what to do, Yu-an eventually stood up from her seat.
In a corner of the spacious annex hall.
Yu-an had taken Regina to a spot far from the Peliese family members.
“You seem to be living well. Wearing clothes that don’t suit you.”
Regina, scrutinizing Yu-an’s attire, spoke through twisted lips.
“Selling yourself to a monster gets you that much? You’re crafty. Just like how you stole our father from our house.”
“I never stole your father.”
“Of course, you would say that.”
Regina sneered.
Yu-an, facing Regina who behaved the same as in Peliese, responded.
“Aren’t you supposed to be happy that I’m not in Peliese?”
Regina blinked rapidly, not accepting that Yu-an, always submissive, had retorted.
“What?”
“That’s right. If you’re going to gossip about me in front of everyone, it seems like you hate and care about me more than I thought. Wouldn’t it be better for you if I disappeared?”
“Me, a runaway? From my home, living like a beggar, how dare you!”
“And who stole? It’s you and your family. My mother’s room was taken by your mother, my room by you. Everything in there was stolen, not a single thing left.”
Regina’s large green eyes widened in shock, as if she had been slapped.
Yu-an, steadfast despite Regina’s piercing gaze, continued.
“I never lived off your charity. Your father needed me. I was useful enough to live there. If I were useless, your parents wouldn’t have glared at me like that. They would have been glad that the girl who was just a burden left.”
“Needed? What need could there be for someone like you? Just writing down prescriptions handed down by my father? What’s so difficult about serving tea that’s already been brewed by maids? How dare you act so high and mighty, you crow?”
Regina still knew nothing.
Yu-an, realizing Regina was unaware of the power of Peliese, refused to continue the conversation. Only those who knew that power could understand the exploitation.
“Tell me, what? Go on, let’s hear it. What’s so great about your assistant work?”
Assistant?
Yu-an laughed bitterly.
Assistant, indeed.
It was her uncle who was always busy copying Yu-an’s research.
It was her uncle who took her prescriptions and presented them as his own to the nobles.
It was he who chose the path of a medicine peddler, boasting of medicines imbued with Yu-an’s talents, rather than a medical professional.
He was the one who reduced Peliese’s proud family business to a mere money-making scheme.
“If you don’t know that, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Stop making a scene. The Emperor himself is here.”
Regina opened her mouth wide in disbelief.
She couldn’t believe the girl who always walked around with frightened eyes, looking at the ground, was now acting too arrogantly just because they no longer lived together.
But seeing Yu-an’s pale face and trembling hands, Regina soon regained her composure and calmed down.
“You dare to teach me?”
A crow is still a crow, even in a large house, dressed in fine clothes.
“We stole? Ha, don’t be delusional.”
Regina, arms crossed, looked down at Yu-an, chin up in arrogance.
“You’ve always run away and hidden like this. You selfish girl.”
Regina poured out her words to Yu-an, who stood silently listening.
“Do you always live thinking you’re the only one in the world who is unhappy?”
Regina mocked Yu-an, recalling how she always looked down, living almost like a maid with a pitiful expression.
“You never accepted the reality of your life in the gutter. Not knowing your place. If we had kicked you and your sick sister out to an orphanage back then, no one would have blamed us. Even if we had married you off to some old man, people would have applauded us for finding a good match for a parentless girl.”
Regina glanced at her family, who were watching her and Yu-an from a distance, and pushed Yu-an further.
Yu-an, now living comfortably, her face shining brightly. The jewelry and clothes she wore, something the old Yu-an couldn’t even dream of, infuriated Regina even more.
“A parentless orphan. A noble without a title. A woman without a penny to her name… You know too well what the end is like, so you clung to our house, didn’t you?”
Yu-an quietly stared back at Regina.
Those bottomless black eyes.
“You’ve always been like that.”
Regina’s lips twisted more sarcastically.
“Choosing the best option available to you but never being satisfied, always struggling to climb up.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Pretending to have lost everything, to be pitiable, but in the end, you replaced everything, didn’t you?”
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.”
