Larien chased after the running Blanche, embraced her, and fell down the stairs.
It happened in an instant. Larien collapsed on her way to her.
Jade quickened his pace and hurried down urgently.
“Larien. Wake up.”
“……”
“Larien! Please!”
No matter how much he called, there was no movement. Her face was pale, with color draining away.
Blood flowed from the gashed forehead. He pressed on Larien’s forehead to stop the bleeding.
“Waaaaaah!”
Blanche, who was nearby, was crying with tears welling up in her eyes.
‘Can’t she be quiet?’
It was truly unbearably noisy.
Even without Blanche, he was anxious and confused enough.
“Lord, mother—”
Blanche tugged weakly at Jade’s sleeve.
Smack!
Reflexively pushing her away, the emotions that had been boiling inside burst out.
‘Larien got hurt trying to save you.’
If it weren’t for Blanche, this wouldn’t have happened.
“Because of you……”
Right after blurting it out, he realized something was wrong. Blanche had also stumbled due to the thunderclap.
It wasn’t intentional, so what did I just say?
Jade couldn’t believe he had such thoughts.
‘What am I saying now?’
It was truly a thoughtless remark.
He should say sorry, that he didn’t mean it.
Seeing Blanche’s pale face, he couldn’t properly open his mouth.
The frightened Blanche kept hiccuping.
“Blanche. Just now—”
When he reached out, she closed her eyes tightly and avoided him.
He quickly withdrew his hand and mumbled into the air.
Guilt washed over him like a wave at the sight of Blanche fearing him.
“Brother, I’ll tell the knights to bring a doctor from the village below! Move elder sister to the bed first!”
Jade rose, carrying Larien in his arms at Ayla’s words.
“Ah……”
Blanche tried to speak but clamped her mouth shut.
Seeing that made a corner of his heart twinge, but he ignored it.
‘Right now, it’s more important for Larien to regain consciousness.’
Later.
He could apologize then. There was plenty of time.
“Ayla. Take Blanche somewhere else.”
“Okay. Don’t worry.”
Blanche should be fine with Ayla.
‘It’s better for her to be with Ayla than me right now.’
He watched Ayla take Blanche somewhere before entering the bedroom.
Blanche’s small, slumped shoulders lingered in his mind.
Her face, shocked into stopping crying, flickered in his vision, and he tried hard to erase it.
[This is the timeline separator]“Larien. Why aren’t you waking up yet?”
Jade’s mood darkened as he watched Larien lying on the bed.
Even after an hour, there was no sign of her waking.
Her complexion was much worse than before, almost looking like a dead person.
A dead person.
He placed his trembling index finger on Larien’s nose.
A faint, unstable breath touched it. He lowered his hand after confirming it repeated several times.
Still, it was too early to be relieved.
He had heard of cases where people never woke up from just breathing.
‘What if Larien is one of those cases…?’
That fact alone made Jade’s heart race.
‘Larien, please.’
Jade held her delicate hand and looked at the shadows under her eyes.
‘You should eat better.’
Jade gently stroked Larien’s sunken cheeks.
How did it come to this?
This was supposed to be a place to enjoy time together.
The mood wasn’t bad either.
As he thought last time, lately nothing seemed to go right.
The day they went to the restaurant was like that too. It was the start of the day when the distance he tried to ignore became tangible.
He rented out the entire restaurant, thinking to please her. Even after quite some time, Larien didn’t come, and he could only wait and make all sorts of conjectures.
Could it be that she disliked him and wasn’t coming?
Or was she on her way but had an accident?
He was conflicted about whether he should go out to look for her now.
When Larien finally arrived late, all his worries were washed away.
She explained she had been to the Imperial Palace, but the tangled ball of his unworthy emotions didn’t unravel.
Not knowing she had come to dislike seafood, he made her eat it reluctantly as she watched his reactions.
It was miserable.
To think she couldn’t even say she disliked seafood and ate it, was he that uncomfortable to her?
It wasn’t just that, the day was worse in many ways.
Larien almost fell when the stairs were damaged, and when the florist handed her an acacia.
She denied that they were in that kind of relationship.
She did the same at the ice festival, still disliking being entangled with him.
Feeling stubborn, he tried to give her the single acacia from the florist, but was immediately rejected.
The saying that accepting an acacia means being considered a married couple was just a folk belief.
Yet Larien didn’t accept the acacia.
Only when he said to throw it away because the flower had wilted did she finally take it.
Jade disliked that more.
It was no different from accepting only when his feelings weren’t involved.
“Brother. The doctor is here.”
“…Come in.”
The door opened and Ayla entered with an old man in shabby clothes.
“A doctor?”
Even his constantly trembling appearance was suspicious.
“Don’t be like that. He was the only doctor we could bring from the village below.”
Ayla sighed deeply, noticing Jade’s gaze.
Certainly.
It was too far to go to the capital right now.
It was still raining outside. The rain was different from the morning’s rain.
Just now, there was quite a big thunderclap too.
It was dangerous in many ways to go through this rain.
This old man was the only option to examine Larien.
“She fell down the stairs and lost consciousness. It’s been quite some time, but she hasn’t woken up. Could you take a look?”
So Jade asked politely, even using honorifics.
“Ah, yes! Of course!”
“I promise a huge reward if she wakes up.”
The old man looked at the wound on Larien’s forehead and asked.
“Did she hit her head when she fell?”
“Yes. I immediately stopped the bleeding, so it has stopped.”
The old man examined Larien’s head intensively.
“Brother, come here for a moment.”
Ayla, who was standing nearby, gestured for Jade to come to the back.
“You really lose that nasty personality when it comes to elder sister, huh?”
“What?”
He wasn’t in the mood for jokes. Did she call him over just to say this?
He was about to go back to Larien.
Ayla’s playful voice hardened.
“Brother, what did you say to Blanche earlier? I came late so I didn’t hear exactly, but did you blame Blanche for elder sister collapsing?”
“……”
“Are you really crazy? The child is so scared she’s hiding behind the curtain and won’t come out even when called.”
Jade pressed his lips at Ayla’s reproach.
‘Why did I say such a thing?’
Even though he would regret it immediately after blurting it out, not even seconds later.
“Go apologize to Blanche right away.”
“There’s no point in going now to a child who’s avoiding me out of fear.”
He knew he should go to Blanche right away, but somehow it felt uncomfortable now.
Earlier too, it was words that came out in anger.
If he was with Blanche in this sensitive situation, he might say something similar again.
When he heard her say she didn’t want to call him father, it felt like his heart stopped.
It’s an incomprehensible feeling even to himself.
He didn’t give affection first.
So he had no right to demand results for it.
“Brother. Then you must apologize later without fail. Even if you were shocked by elder sister collapsing, you really made a mistake.”
Ayla urged several times with a faint sigh.
“…Is the child not hurt anywhere?”
“I told you she’s still hiding. I couldn’t see clearly either since she won’t show her face.”
As Jade listened to Blanche’s condition, something flashed through his mind like lightning.
‘Wait. Blanche was standing in front of the door earlier.’
Larien had asked if Ayla had heard everything.
‘She must have heard me say I have no affection.’
When she asked if we fought because of her, she must have heard.
He didn’t want her to know he had no affection.
The old man who had finished the examination approached.
“It’s a mild concussion, but it seems the accumulated fatigue is delaying her waking time.”
He said there was no abnormality preventing her from waking up.
That she was simply asleep due to accumulated fatigue.
Although he had no choice but to entrust her for now, could he trust the words of someone whose skills weren’t even verified?
‘No. Once the rain stops, I can take Larien away immediately.’
He calmed his anxious heart.
“Wait.”
Suddenly he thought of Blanche. When he saw her earlier, there were no external injuries.
She should be fine since Larien embraced her, but it would be better to have her examined just in case.
“Could you examine the child as well? She fell down the stairs together earlier.”
“It’s not a difficult task. I shall do so.”
The old man nodded.
“Ayla. Guide him to where Blanche is.”
“Okay. I got it. You should rest too, since elder sister is alright.”
Ayla and the old man left the bedroom.
Jade interlocked his fingers and heaved a deep sigh.
He couldn’t be at ease. He feared she might never open her eyes again.
“…Larien?”
Larien’s fingers moved slightly.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
