I also saw a basin filled with cold water and a wet towel.
‘Did Nikolai embrace me in a flash? Like he was holding a princess?’
Flushed, my cheeks heated up.
A tingling sensation hovered near my heart.
To divert the awkwardness, I changed the subject.
“Did the healer leave?”
“They’re waiting in another room.”
“Several people are having trouble because of me. It’s not even a severe injury.”
I tightly fastened the sash of my silk robe.
A thick bandage was wrapped around the wound.
The pain wasn’t severe.
It was just a bit sore when I moved.
“You fainted, and you say it’s not a deep wound? The wound was this big!”
Nikolai raised his voice.
Curious about how severe the wound was, I looked.
His fingers were only about 1cm apart.
That’s all? No wonder it was bearable.
It was embarrassing that he made such a fuss.
Nikolai seemed to have a different opinion.
He tightly shut his eyes as if he had never seen such a terrible injury.
“The bloodstain was the size of a coin.”
“Thank goodness.”
“You almost lost your life, and you say ‘thank goodness’?”
“Who dies from a wound like that?”
“……What?”
Nikolai’s expression changed in an instant.
Afraid of being scolded all night, I immediately apologized.
“I was wrong. I was thoughtless.”
But it was of no use.
Nikolai, with his arms crossed, unloaded a barrage of scolding.
“How dare you provoke the kidnappers? Talking about a hundred million gold.”
“I had no choice but to……”
“Even if you’re fearless, that’s too much! Why did you even suggest smuggling to them?”
“You heard that far? But I……”
“Don’t think of making excuses. I heard everything you did from beginning to end.”
Nikolai pressed on, fierce as a storm.
I gulped and thought about the fallen criminals.
Surely, he didn’t kill them all?
“Were there any who could confess?”
“I make mistakes only once. This time, I’ll definitely reveal the mastermind.”
“So you spared the kidnappers?”
“I’ve kept them alive only until they can be executed according to legal procedures.”
Nikolai responded sternly.
I applauded.
“Good job! I forgot to tell you not to kill them indiscriminately.”
“Do you think I’m some sort of murderer?”
“You’re far more dangerous than that.”
This time, even Nikolai didn’t deny it.
The emperor was the master of the empire and its law.
If he had ill intentions, he would be far more dangerous than any criminal.
“Elizabeth, why are you covering for the kidnappers?”
“Who’s covering for whom? I just don’t want you to be criticized as a tyrant because of me.”
“You value my reputation over your own life?”
“Well, your bad reputation is already quite notorious, so that should at least be managed.”
I said it lightly, like a feather that could be blown away with a puff of wind.
Nikolai would have liked to listen to me as well.
His eyes looking at me darkened into a deep turquoise.
“Honor is worthless. Your safety should be the priority.”
“Of course, my life is the most important.”
“Then why do you keep seeking adventures?”
Bruises emerged over Nikolai’s fist.
I ignored him, barely holding back his anger.
“I don’t want to be considered a wicked woman.”
“Then I shall eradicate everyone who calls you so.”
“The more you do that, the more people will call me wicked.”
“Is that why you approached Owen Black, the jailbreaker?”
I swallowed a vain hope.
I had no idea he knew this far.
He shrugged, seemingly unimpressed, as if reading my thoughts.
“It’s no surprise. He himself revealed it.”
“Owen did?”
“He was trying to protect himself when you were abducted, right?”
“…Yes?”
“He was almost tearyeyed, saying you’re his savior. Quite sentimental.”
“Why is that sentimental?”
“Enough nonsense!”
A deep wrinkle etched between Nikolai’s brows.
I bit my lip, enveloped in a sense of failure.
‘I secretly met with a rebel; he has every reason to be angry. I was planning to convince Nikolai with Franz. What to do now? I have to persuade him about Owen.’
I tried to explain how useful Owen could be.
But again, Nikolai’s mumblings surpassed my expectations.
“Seducing another man without permission… utterly displeasing.”
What is he talking about?
I blinked a few times and asked.
“Seducing?”
“If not seduction, then what? Owen already seems willing to risk his life for you.”
“So you’re not displeased because he’s a rebel?”
“What rebellion.”
“?”
“Empress Dowager stomped over a promising artist. There’s more than one victim ruined by the Empress Dowager.”
“You’ve investigated Owen?”
“Do you think I’d let anyone hovering around you go unchecked?”
He had a brazen attitude, as if he had done what needed to be done.
Normally, I would’ve grabbed him by the collar, but I couldn’t miss this golden opportunity.
“Owen is a genius artist. Franz would love it if we hired him as an art teacher.”
“He’s observant, I’ll give him that.”
“Observant?”
“He was able to track the carriage. Remembered the shape of the carriage, the size of the wheels, even the physique of the masked kidnappers.”
Owen had fallen during the attack.
That he could remember the appearance and the carriage of the kidnappers in such a situation was nothing short of astonishing.
“If not for you, Owen would have died right there. It’s only fair to treat him as a savior.”
“He got involved because of me. He can’t blame me.”
“That’s a separate matter.”
Nikolai responded decisively.
It seemed like he didn’t care, as long as it was helpful.
His interest was not in Owen, but the real culprit behind the kidnapping.
“When we catch the broker from the Dark Guild, everything will be revealed.”
“Think they’ll talk?”
“We have to trust the torture experts in the underground dungeons.”
“You already have a guess, don’t you?”
“…”
“You know, don’t you? Who’s after me.”
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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