“Aren’t you going to catch it?”
Ariadne whispered to Cesare.
“The one who catches the ‘Golden Deer’ ascends the throne. Count Cesare de Como, the bloodline of the king, caught the ‘Golden Deer’.”
It was a story Cesare would love very much. If Cesare were to catch the ‘Golden Deer’ and return to the tent today, it would be the most notable event at the hunting contest.
Ariadne prepared to dismount quietly from Cesare’s horse. What Cesare had brought was a bow to be shot with both hands, so it was useless as she couldn’t use one of her arms now.
Riding a horse and throwing a spear seemed to have a higher chance. She had to give up her horse to catch the ‘Golden Deer’.
She knew well how much Cesare enjoyed being the center of attention. Moreover, she had heard his ‘Golden Deer’ spiel so much in her previous and current lives that she felt as though nails were being driven into her ears.
So, naturally, Ariadne thought Cesare would leave her and run after the ‘Golden Deer’.
“I’ll give you the horse. I’ll get down on the left, so you can quickly jump on from the right.”
To her whisper, Cesare replied flatly.
“No, I won’t catch it.”
“Excuse me?”
To Ariadne’s question, Cesare looked up at her and said,
“I’d have to leave you and run into the woods to catch that, how could I do that?”
He added another excuse for good measure.
“I’ll get a headache if I lose you in the woods. Let’s just go.”
Ariadne, surprised by the unexpected situation, was momentarily speechless. She could only ask this stupid question.
“You didn’t want to catch a lot? Didn’t you only talk about the ‘Golden Deer’ in your letters?”
“I wanted to catch it, but…”
He glanced at Ariadne. He wanted to catch the ‘Golden Deer’, but there was a greater prey in front of him, a virgin he had been thirsting for. It seemed a better bargain to win her heart than the skin of the ‘Golden Deer’.
“It’s not only today, right?”
The ‘Golden Deer’ felt the presence of humans, pricked up its ears, and glared at the people. After a brief staredown, the ‘Golden Deer’ shuddered once and disappeared into the undergrowth.
“Well, it got away today.”
Half regretful and half relieved, Cesare straightened his back. Although he said it was okay, there was a slight inner conflict, but with the ‘Golden Deer’ running away, there was no more reason to worry.
Feeling refreshed, he happily drove the horse to the brook where the ‘Golden Deer’ had been drinking.
“We couldn’t catch the ‘Golden Deer’, but since this brook water is what the ‘Golden Deer’ drank, let’s consider it as ‘the Fountain of Life’.”
He gestured for Ariadne to get down. When Ariadne tried to dismount from the horse, he helped her down with one arm and added,
“Let’s get some water here, quench our thirst, wash our faces, and go. Who knows if your ugly face will become beautiful when washed with ‘the Fountain of Life’?”
Ariadne rolled her eyes at Cesare and dismounted from the horse. There was not much water left in the canteen, and she was quite thirsty.
Ariadne scooped up some brook water in her hands and took a sip. It was shockingly icy cold water.
“But Miss, you seem to have been reading my letters diligently?”
“Pardon?”
“I thought you tore them up without reading them since you never replied! Wow, I’m excited, I’ll send you many more in the future.”
She did tear them up… Ariadne awkwardly turned her head away.
As Ariadne didn’t say much, Cesare scooped up some brook water and washed his left cheek. There was a long wound. It seemed that he had gotten a scrape when he rolled on the ground earlier. Dirt and blood washed away together into the cold brook water.
“Ouch, that must hurt.”
“Yeah. It hurts.”
“You might not know, but it’s cooler to say ‘I’m fine’ in such cases.”
“I’m cool no matter what, so I’m fine.”
Ariadne shook her head as she looked at Cesare, and suddenly realized that his hair was a mess. They had both rolled on the dirt floor, so her face must have been dirty with dust as well.
In the morning, Ariadne carefully washed her face with the creek water, making sure not to disturb the eye makeup SanCha had applied.
As she was engrossed in washing her face, she suddenly felt the warm body heat of someone on her forehead.
Smack.
It was Cesare who had kissed Ariadne’s forehead. Startled, Ariadne sprang up like a spring.
“What are you doing!”
With his broken left hand hanging down, Cesare took a step back, raising only his right hand in a surrender gesture.
“Sorry, sorry, you just looked so pretty washing your face with the ‘Fountain of Immortality’!”
“Really, I told you not to do this!”
“Oh, can’t I even get this much permission from the knight who saved me from a falling horse?”
The two bickered as they walked down the stream. Cesare led the horse as they walked side by side. The late afternoon sun was slowly setting.
[This is the time separator]The meaningless chitchat between King Leo III and Duke Mireyu was very lengthy and mostly inappropriate.
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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