10. The People of the Black Mansion
2023.10.10.
Although a Pelliese by name, Yuan was no longer truly one of the Pelliese.
When Yuan hesitated briefly, Hena abruptly stepped in.
“Master Hille! You heard it, didn’t you? This is Lady Yuan Pelliese, from the House of Pelliese!”
“To have the honor of attending to a member of the Pelliese family! It is my utmost privilege!”
Hille shot up from where he had been perched, bowing nearly halfway at the waist.
Considering the Pelliese family’s immense influence over medicine throughout Euphris, his reaction wasn’t hard to understand.
Anyone who studied medicine at the Academy would have read textbooks or papers authored by the Pelliese.
Hille, his face beaming, began combing through his unruly hair with his fingers and neatly tied it back.
“I will serve with absolute devotion! Lady Yuan! No—no, my Lady!”
“Oh, how wonderful for you, Master Hille! You used to lie around lifeless after being constantly rejected by the master during checkups!”
“I have my own duties too, you know. I prepare painkillers, and this time I’ve been rummaging through the entire medicinal herb warehouse trying to make frostbite ointment!”
Hille flushed red as he defended himself.
Sure enough, his hands bore numerous scrapes and cuts, clear signs of hasty, overworked labor.
Yuan widened her eyes in concern.
“It looks like your hands are injured.”
“Oh, yes. I was personally trimming elm wood… Heh. I’m just a glutton who guzzles food, so I ought to at least do odd jobs like this.”
It was clear he had hurt himself while hastily preparing medicine for Yuan.
Yuan gazed at the wounds with shimmering eyes.
It wasn’t much, but it was the first time since Louise that someone had been hurt on her behalf.
“Don’t be so dramatic! I twisted my back this morning just cleaning this room! Ah, but I’m not trying to show off, my Lady.”
“That’s exactly what you’re doing! I’m not showing off—I’m just stating facts!”
Yuan quietly watched the two bicker, each trying to outdo the other in claiming their suffering, before finally speaking.
“Doctor. May I borrow your medical bag for a moment?”
“D-Doctor…?!”
Hille, who had been indignant moments ago, instantly turned tearful with emotion as he hurriedly handed over the bag.
A doctor’s medical bag was as vital as life itself—but to the Pelliese, it was an exception.
“Doctor… calling me Doctor… A member of the House of Pelliese calling me Doctor…”
Hille murmured in disbelief, as if dreaming.
With Hille’s help, Yuan used her uninjured hand to pick up a jar labeled “Universal Ointment,” a famous remedy.
It treated bruises, scrapes, sprains—virtually any minor injury.
Doctors often used this ointment as a base, adding other herbs to create new treatments. The frostbite ointment on Yuan’s skin was likely made from this very base.
“It seems you were injured because of me. Let me treat you.”
“That would be unthinkable!”
“My Lady! Just leave it to Hille!”
“I’ll treat Hena too.”
At first, Hille was stunned—”I, being treated by the Pelliese?”—but then Hena’s eyes widened in shock when she realized she would be treated as well.
Unable to resist a strange, warm emotion, Yuan gently applied the ointment to the aching spots on both Hille and Hena.
The pain seeping through her fingertips was well within what Yuan could endure, and she only took the faintest trace of it.
Louise had never allowed Yuan to use her ability on her, and every other time Yuan had used it was under her uncle’s command.
This was the first time Yuan had willingly chosen to bear pain herself.
“Rubbing it counterclockwise seems to work better. I’ve learned a great deal, my Lady.”
“I’ve never had a doctor examine me like this before, my Lady. You are a doctor, aren’t you?”
“The Pelliese are a noble family of physicians by tradition. They possess far deeper medical knowledge than most ordinary doctors!”
“Why are you getting so worked up, Hille? I was just expressing gratitude!”
Minor stings of knife-like cuts at her fingertips. A dull throb in the lower back.
Pain taken on willingly, at a level she could bear, didn’t feel unpleasant at all.
Yuan looked at the flushed, grateful faces of those before her, their eyes sparkling with appreciation.
Though exhausted, for the first time in her life, she felt that even if she suffered a little, seeing others happy didn’t seem so bad after all.
***
She briefly dozed off and woke to find a hearty meal laid out.
“Oh dear. What’s all this fuss about?”
“How can you just send out food like that? The Crown Prince himself brought this person here for the first time!”
The head chef was a stout man of advanced age, his round face plump and ruddy.
Though short, his thickset body looked sturdy. With a flushed face, he began passionately explaining how special this soup was for a patient.
With Hena’s support, Yuan sat at a small table and stared at the steaming potato soup. When her stomach growled, she blushed.
It had been nearly ten years since someone had properly served her a meal.
At the Pelliese mansion, no one ever cared for her meals. Yuan and Louise would sneak into the kitchen late at night, cooking soup with leftover ingredients, or swallowing hard, moldy bread with water.
With trembling hands, Yuan took a bite of the fragrant soup.
The rich, tender meat broth soaked not only her mouth but warmed her entire stomach.
As she slowly chewed the mashed potatoes, savoring the taste, she finally realized she hadn’t properly eaten or drunk anything for days.
Only after finishing every last drop from the small bowl did she speak.
“Ahh, it’s been so long since I’ve tasted something this delicious…”
Yuan blushed, worried she had devoured it too greedily, and glanced at the chef.
But the old man, with his wild, bushy beard like a brigand, was covering his mouth, his face even more moved than Hille had been earlier.
“W-What did I do wrong?”
“In my entire life, since coming to this mansion, you’re the first person who’s truly enjoyed my food.”
The chef suddenly burst into tears, blew his nose loudly into a handkerchief, then shoved it into his pocket.
Then he opened the lid of the soup pot on the trolley and generously filled a massive bowl.
“Please, eat! Ralph has no mercy for picky eaters, but for those who enjoy my food, I’ll cook until you’re bursting at the seams!”
“Grandfather Ralph! How can you speak so rudely to the Lady now!”
“Ah, Lady or Lady’s grandfather—anyone in this mansion who enjoys my food is like a grandchild I must fatten up!”
Hena turned pale and tried to stop Chef Ralph.
Yuan, breathing in the rich aroma of potato soup filling a bowl the size of a washbasin, looked beyond the rising steam at Ralph’s thick, strong hands.
His hands, covered in coarse orange hair, were dotted with haphazardly applied bandages.
“Did you get hurt while cooking?”
“My Lady, please don’t trouble yourself with such things! These are just careless wounds from when I started cooking properly after hearing the new Lady was unwell—normally I just throw something together for the master!”
“You ungrateful little brat! How much food have I made for you since you were a child? That plump belly of yours is thanks to me!”
“Don’t speak so freely about a lady’s figure! Grandfather Ralph!”
“Pfft, lady my foot. You’re just a tiny sprout not even grown up yet…”
Amid their chatter, Yuan continued sipping the soup that warmed her heart.
Her frozen body and soul began to thaw.
After emptying the bowl, Yuan personally placed it back on the trolley Ralph had wheeled over. Then, as Ralph stood dazed, staring at her, she firmly grasped his arm in encouragement.
“Thank you, Chef. It’s the most delicious soup I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
The pains Ralph had endured while working for her gently brushed against Yuan’s fingers and wrists.
‘He must’ve been burned by fire too.’
Yuan sincerely thanked the chef, someone who had worked so hard for her, for the very first time.
Her heart grew so warm it became almost unbearable.
The chef, Ralph, who had already shed tears earlier, immediately scooped up the empty bowl, hugged it to his chest, and declared he would make fresh patient meals every day—then vanished with a flourish.
***
Within a short time, the servants of the Black Mansion began arriving one by one to greet Yuan.
Mazaleng, the coachman and stable keeper who diligently cared for the few horses; Monica; and two young maids named Canaria. A few elderly servants peeked at Yuan with stiff expressions before shyly disappearing.
After brief greetings, Yuan lay on the bed, blinking silently as she listened to the wind howling outside.
Whooshhh—winter wind rattled the carriage door, like a summons to cross the river of death.
The sound was distant.
As if it no longer concerned Yuan at all.
“Clade Euphris.”
Yuan finally murmured the name of her husband, who hadn’t shown even a single strand of hair all day.
What kind of face did he have?
Backlit, and half out of his senses, she hadn’t had the presence of mind to read his mood.
All she recalled was his towering height, like the black iron gate that had blocked the carriage, and the shadow beneath his eyes.
Only the silhouette of broad shoulders remained in her memory.
And an air of indifference.
But one thing was certain.
This black mansion, nearly a ruin, which Yuan had so desperately longed to enter—
The man *was* the mansion itself.
More so than any rare, glittering hair or striking features.
An aura nearly monochrome.
Her first impression of this ‘husband’ was intense—yet profoundly lonely.
The rumor that your entire body would rot and your limbs wither if you met his gaze directly? Just nonsense.
On the contrary…
Once you endured the supposedly hideous face, no ordinary face seemed remarkable at all.
Now that she thought about it, he had a rather sensitive expression.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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