The sound of something colliding was clearly Claud banging on the window. A faint smile appeared on Yuan’s lips.
“I’m here—!”
Yuan said, hopping slightly and raising his voice.
“I’ll come up when the sun sets!”
The curtain remained motionless.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Being diligent in trimming the chickweed, time had passed unnoticed. Yuan cleaned himself thoroughly after sweating, put on loose pajamas and a nightgown, and went to Claud’s bedroom.
Fortunately, even after the sunset, Claud was in a similar condition to the daytime. Sitting on the creaky rocking chair, leaning back, eyes closed. Thinking about Claud in the room, Yuan couldn’t help but laugh at the image that always came to mind.
“Did you walk a lot in the bedroom today?”
Yuan approached the silent Claud.
The subtle fragrance flowing through the nightgown, which had just been bathed, gently stimulated Claud’s nose.
“You must have been bored without me, right?”
“…Why would I be bored?”
“You’re always looking at me. Like this, standing right here.”
Leaning against the window, Yuan smiled broadly at him.
Only then did Claud open his eyes, looking at Yuan.
Shifting his gaze from the lingering smile, Claud’s eyes moved in the opposite direction.
“You’re watching. Afraid I’ll cause trouble again.”
Without responding, Yuan looked down at Claud’s exposed neck.
The slowly rising black pain was preparing to rush towards his clean skin like a snake swimming in mud.
“What did the chief physician say?”
“What?”
“…What did that spectacle-wearer say?”
Claud’s sudden question broke the strange silence.
Yuan, staring at the impending movement of pain, blinked with bewildered eyes at the suddenness.
In the brief silence that returned, Claud turned his head sharply and looked at her.
His eyes, demanding an answer, stared straight at her.
“It’s a secret.”
“What?”
His stern face dramatically wrinkled.
While Yuan wriggled his fingers, he endured firmly.
“It’s a secret. I haven’t told Henna or the butler yet.”
“Maid and the butler?”
Claud’s face, initially mottled, suddenly rose from the creaking rocking chair.
The places pierced by arrows still hurt; his eyes distorted for a moment.
Yuan, surprised, entered his arms and supported him.
In an instant, Claud’s body stiffened.
Yuan, who was pushing against his back with his hands, was abruptly pushed away, though not roughly.
It wasn’t a rough gesture, but it was undoubtedly a sign of refusal.
Startled, Yuan blinked his eyes.
Claud, also evidently flustered, retracted the hand he had pushed away and clenched his fist.
“Creating a secret with the chief physician? What do you believe in?”
“Nothing special.”
“Nothing special, but you didn’t tell the maid, the butler, and even the… owner?”
Claud’s emotions were clearly twisted.
Especially when he mentioned it was a secret from the maid and the butler. Yuan wanted to argue, saying, “I just wanted to show you how clean I made the western annex for you!” However, he bit his tongue, anticipating that Claud might say something like, “Don’t do unnecessary things.”
He wanted to show Claud the annex that had already become clean, something he couldn’t refuse.
“It’s really nothing.”
“Then tell me. To your master. I’ll listen and judge whether it’s really nothing.”
Yuan lost his words momentarily due to Claud’s insistence. However, Claud was more resolute than he thought, and his expression remained unwavering.
Yuan couldn’t be that serious.
“Do you feel jealous?”
“Jealous?”
Claud chuckled briefly, and Yuan’s face turned red.
Even Yuan thought it was a ridiculous question.
“Jeal— jealousy?”
“Then, then why…”
“Because you keep spreading that I’m your family. I’m just giving you some advice.”
Claud approached her, speaking each word deliberately.
Though a bit reluctant, the considerable distance between them was reduced in an instant.
“What was sent from the Imperial Palace, don’t believe anything.”
Yuan’s body was engulfed in the massive shadow.
Even from within Claud’s nightgown, Yuan could smell him.
The scent of painkillers he chewed every day. The scent of tobacco, as if occasionally smoking. Even the clean soap scent of someone who had just finished bathing.
Trembling, Yuan looked up at him with teary eyes.
“Do you understand? Don’t give your heart.”
“…Are you doing this because you’re worried about me?”
Yuan asked him with a slightly muffled voice.
Claud, without responding, continued to gaze down at her, neither positive nor negative.
“Or do you not trust me either?”
Staring at Claud’s silent lips, Yuan eventually smiled bitterly and looked away from his shadow.
The impending movement of pain, attempting to rise slowly, seemed unusual. In a few minutes, he would be submerged in the swamp of pain.
“Do you understand? Don’t give your heart.”
“…It’s late, Your Excellency. Please take your medicine.”
Turning slowly, Yuan looked at the warm tea rising and Claud, who was still standing in the same posture that had confined her.
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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