The experience of seeing an unfamiliar ceiling when opening one’s eyes is no longer new.
However, is it really necessary to show a strange man’s face as soon as I open my eyes?
No, let me correct that.
Come to think of it, he wasn’t a strange man.
Litania’s half-elder brother, Ferus.
The man who had now become the new emperor of the Veriberium Empire was looking down at her with an incredulous expression.
“…Why are you here?”
“That’s what I’d like to ask.”
Litania blinked her eyes, then drowsily sat up and checked her attire.
Fortunately, she was fully clothed.
“Why am I here?”
“That’s also what I’d like to ask.”
“Uh, I… Well…”
Litania tried to recall her memories.
Riding Lapis through a space of pure darkness, the scenery around her changed, and she saw the landscape of a world she had forgotten for a while.
Arriving at the imperial palace, Lapis dropped Litania off on the balcony and then disappeared with a sparkling light.
Although it had the form of a winged horse, it was merely the wish stone taking on an animal shape, so she wasn’t surprised.
As she entered the room, her strength suddenly left her.
The furniture and wall decorations were unfamiliar, but since she had been absent for a while, she assumed the room’s interior had been changed.
Litania staggered over to the bed and lay down.
There was much to do, but her body and mind were too exhausted, so she wanted to rest first.
As soon as she closed her eyes, sleep overwhelmed her.
…And then when she opened her eyes, the Crown Prince, no, the new Emperor was staring down at her with wide eyes.
“Could it be that this is Your Majesty’s bedroom?”
“You catch on quickly.”
Instantly, she felt a chill run down her spine.
Lapis had dropped her off, so she thought it was her room or an empty room, but of all places, it turned out to be the Emperor’s bedchamber.
Even for a member of the imperial family, sneaking into the Emperor’s bedroom without permission was enough to be suspected of plotting assassination.
The fact that Litania had neither the intention nor the ability to do so was a secondary issue.
She was already a despised imperial princess. If she were to be falsely accused, it would be difficult to clear her name.
‘To be dragged away on false charges and executed as soon as I return, please, anything but that!’
As Litania clasped her hands to her chest, curled up, and looked up, Ferus let out a small sigh and sheathed his sword, leaning it against the wall.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Huh? No…”
“I see.”
Ferus still had his brows furrowed, but with a slightly more relaxed expression than when she first saw him, he sat down in the wing chair beside the bed.
It didn’t seem like he was going to call the head chamberlain or guards. He also didn’t appear to be inclined to interrogate her about why she had sneaked into the Emperor’s bedroom.
Ferus pressed his fingertips to his forehead, as if he still had a headache, and continued in a slightly calmer voice.
“He said he sent you to another world, but it seems that bastard lied after all.”
“…”
By ‘that bastard’, he must have meant the Divine Dragon Orbis.
After all, it was the Emperor who had announced Litania and Orbis’s divorce.
But sending her to another world… Could it be that he had heard from Orbis about how they parted?
“Did you escape from his confinement? It couldn’t have been easy to escape from the Dragon Castle alone.”
“I’m not sure where to start explaining, but Orbis didn’t confine me.”
“Then?”
“Orbis said I could go back and let me leave. So…”
She had been living in the modern world, writing her story as a novel, when she rushed back in a panic upon hearing that her father had collapsed from heart disease. She had been taking care of him when she learned the secret of her birth, and then wandered about aimlessly until she ended up here.
…But saying such things wouldn’t be believable.
“After wandering here and there… when I opened my eyes again, I was here.”
“Why did you come here?”
“That’s…”
Ferus’s ash-gray eyes scanned Litania’s figure sideways. Litania shrank back, feeling a little scared.
Though his gaze wasn’t as chilling as Herna’s, Ferus’s naturally grim expression made him somewhat frightening.
And while not as large as Orbis, he was still quite big.
“I had nowhere else to go.”
Feeling that even her excuse sounded pathetic, Litania sighed while clutching the blanket tightly.
Conversely, Ferus’s expression seemed to soften a bit more than before.
Though his expression was still grim, he appeared to be in a better mood than earlier.
“I understand. Then rest.”
“Pardon?”
Is he ending it like this without asking anything else?
Even as Litania asked again in surprise, Ferus stood up from the chair and walked towards the opposite side.
“Um, wait a moment!”
“I’m tired. I need to catch some sleep, so if you have anything to say, say it tomorrow.”
“Will you sleep here? This is Your Majesty’s bed, right? I’ll sleep in another room!”
Flustered at suddenly finding herself not only sneaking into the Emperor’s bedroom but also taking his bed, she began to pull back the canopy to get out, but Ferus stopped her.
“No need. I’ll have that bed replaced with a new one tomorrow.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t possibly sleep in a bed that smells of you.”
“Hey, isn’t that too much?”
To say the bed smells just because she lay on it briefly, does her body really smell that bad?
Litania quickly raised her arm and sniffed.
‘I don’t smell at all!’
She felt unreasonably wronged.
Besides, no matter how despised an imperial princess she might be, isn’t it rude to comment on a lady’s smell?
Whether he was aware of Litania fuming behind him or not, Ferus walked briskly to a long sofa, lay down, and unbuttoned the top button of his collar.
Until he entered the bedroom, his head had been throbbing and his shoulders felt heavy, but with those words, the discomfort that had been twisting his insides seemed to subside.
She came here because she had nowhere else to go.
That means she won’t leave this place anymore.
‘I was feeling uncomfortable because this low-born who should be living like she’s dead kept popping up here and there, getting on my nerves. Now that she’ll live quietly within the palace, it should be fine.’
Since the Divine Dragon had let her go on his own, he wouldn’t invade the imperial palace to look for her either.
That’s enough.
Ferus closed his eyes.
He had been unable to sleep due to insomnia recently, but now sleep came sweetly.
[This is the timeline separator]He had been too intoxicated by the sweetness.
As Ferus covered his eyes with the back of his hand to shield them from the sunlight that was so strong it stung his face, he startled awake and sat up abruptly.
Intense sunlight was shining through the window.
It was already midday.
‘Did I sleep until this hour?’
He always went to bed at dawn and woke up before sunrise, but did he make a mistake due to the fatigue overwhelming him?
As he got up from his seat, running his hand through his disheveled hair, he stopped abruptly upon seeing a woman with soft brown hair sitting in a single armchair at the side table.
“What are you doing?”
“These are the documents coming up for Your Majesty. The head chamberlain brought them.”
“The head chamberlain saw you?”
“He seemed very surprised, as if he didn’t know I was here… I told him not to wake Your Majesty and to be quiet, and he retreated with a strange look on his face.”
Ferus felt his blood run cold.
The missing imperial princess had appeared in the Emperor’s bedroom. Moreover, she had advised not to wake the sleeping Emperor and even received his work documents on his behalf.
What would that imply?
“Do you have no sense? How could you show yourself!”
“I’m also a member of the imperial family. There’s no problem with me receiving Your Majesty’s work documents on your behalf, is there?”
“This is… my bedroom!”
“I heard that when the late Emperor was unwell, you worked together in his bedchamber. I know that Vapor sometimes received orders in Your Majesty’s bedroom as well.”
“Have you forgotten your gender?”
“I said we slept separately, and the head chamberlain saw you lying on the sofa before he left. Even though Your Majesty doesn’t acknowledge it, we are legally siblings. Who would spread such unseemly rumors?”
What naive words.
She spoke without knowing how vicious the imperial palace could be.
Even if, for argument’s sake, it had been Imperial Princess Herna in the Emperor’s bedchamber together, it might have been possible to prevent unsavory rumors from arising.
But it was Litania who was there.
The one whom the Emperor, as soon as he ascended to the throne, had divorced using his power, then mobilized troops to dig into the Dragon Castle to rescue, and issued search orders throughout the country to find.
To those unaware of the truth, it was a situation ripe for misunderstanding.
“But I didn’t know you were looking for me because I was missing. Even from the provinces, there are search reports…”
“Give me that!”
Ferus snatched the documents from Litania’s hands.
He quickly scanned through the papers with his eyes.
Reports stating that they had tried to find the missing Imperial Princess Litania but failed to do so. He could vividly imagine how shocked the head chamberlain must have been when he handed the documents to Litania.
Fortunately, there were no confidential documents that shouldn’t be leaked even to members of the imperial family.
If there had been such documents, they wouldn’t have been sent with the head chamberlain in the first place.
“Damn it…”
Ferus roughly rubbed his face.
Perhaps because he had been sleeping in direct sunlight, his face felt hot.
“Did you… see this?”
“I thought it would be alright to read them since they were handed to me. But were you looking for me?”
“Now that you’ve been found, I’ll stop the search.”
“You sent imperial knights even to the local territories to look for me…”
“It’s not your concern, so keep your mouth shut.”
Even his ears felt hot, and Ferus exhaled a warm breath as he fanned himself with the documents.
“You should go back to your room now.”
“What were you planning to do after finding me?”
“I said it’s not your concern.”
“You said I was just a low-born imperial princess who wouldn’t matter even if I disappeared. Yet you searched for me like that, which means…”
“Enough, Litania.”
Despite Ferus glaring at her, Litania continued speaking without showing any sign of fear.
“You need the Divine Dragon’s help for something, don’t you?”
Male lead Asks for a Divorce Every Day
It’s not often you come across a plot like this in the female-dominant genre — make sure to check it out!
This is a novel I’m planning to reread as well.
The male lead is strong, skilled in martial arts, and not the usual fragile type you often see in matriarchal novels.
Meanwhile, the female lead is a scientist—rational and logical. Even when she falls for the male lead, she doesn’t let her emotions cloud her decisions.
If you push through the first few chapters, you’ll gradually find the story really intriguing.
It has a mix of mystery, detective elements, and romance.
The author’s writing style is like crafting a puzzle—except they deliberately leave out a few pieces, making it hard to predict what happens next, yet keeping you hooked.
In the end, everything will come together and be explained.
One-sentence summary: Wife, stop playing with beakers and look at me!
In a laboratory accident, research scientist Zhu Wansheng accidentally travels to a matriarchal world. The original owner of the body is an eighteen-year-old only daughter of a wealthy rouge merchant, already married with a handsome young man.
Zhu Wansheng grins: Nice! She always said she was heaven’s favorite granddaughter. After a life of toil in her previous life, she can enjoy blessings in this one.
However, her joy lasts no more than three seconds as bad news arrives: the original owner’s family is about to go bankrupt, and her husband wants a divorce.
Even worse, she’s stuck with a research system full of restrictions.
Zhu Wansheng: ? Is this the destiny of a research dog?
——
Faced with this mess, Zhu Wansheng pours herself a bowl of wine to drown her sorrows. In her drunken haze, her husband arrives.
His figure is imposing, holding a long sword, with a dignified air that captivates Zhu Wansheng.
Gu Yingqing, however, looks at the alcohol-reeking Zhu Wansheng with undisguised disgust and coldly asks, “Divorce or not?” The intoxicated Zhu Wansheng mumbles vaguely, “I think… it’s not… it’s not… impossible!”
——
The next day, after sobering up, Zhu Wansheng is full of energy, rolling up her sleeves ready to make a big move. As for yesterday? She has no memory of it.
Zhu Wansheng is ambitious; a research dog fears nothing!
Upgrading rouge, extracting fragrances, producing perfumes, researching lipsticks… all shall bow to the power of modern technology!
The original owner’s dying rouge shop is revitalized. Her mother is pleased and with a wave of her hand, passes on the family business to her. As she takes control and her experimental results gain popularity, it’s the pinnacle of her life…
——
But there are always those who can’t stand to see her doing well. Jealousy, scheming, assassination attempts – they want nothing less than her life.
The person who has always kept his distance from her suddenly holds her tightly in his arms, eyes full of concern.
She is unharmed, but he falls into a pool of blood…
Zhu Wansheng feels guilty, “I can grant you one wish.”
Gu Yingqing tentatively circles his arms around her, carefully resting his head in the crook of her neck, pleading softly, “I regret it. Can we not divorce?”
Zhu Wansheng: ? When did I agree to a divorce?
[Small Theater]
The newly developed rouge is beautifully packaged, and Zhu Wansheng is eager to try it.
Gu Yingqing suddenly appears: “My lady, may I apply it for you?”
Cool fingertips lightly brush her lips. His Adam’s apple bobs as he leans in for a light bite.
Zhu Wansheng: ?
Gu Yingqing: It smells so good, I wanted to taste it…
On a warm spring day, Zhu Wansheng tries a new perfume: “Spring Night.” Gu Yingqing corners her against a wall.
Warm breath lingers on her neck.
“My lady, from now on, may I test the fragrances for you?”
[Humorous female scientist vs scheming live-in son-in-law male lead]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
