Upon returning to the De Mare mansion, Lucrezia began clinging to her son instead of her indifferent husband.
“My son. Would you like to go shopping with me in downtown San Carlo?”
“What shopping? It’s cold outside.”
“Son, is there anything you’d like to eat?”
“It’s been only a few minutes since we had lunch.”
“Son—”
“Mom, that’s enough for now, maybe later!”
This was something Lucrezia could not accept. Lucrezia had to find a reason no matter what.
She concluded that the only reason her kind son, Epolito, was avoiding her was because he was smitten with the maid, Malleta. Mistress Lucrezia began to make life difficult for Malleta.
“Have you eaten lunch?”
Malleta politely answered Lucrezia’s question. She was dressed modestly, with nearly all of the luxurious jewelry she had been admonished for previously removed.
“Yes, I have eaten.”
“I mean our son, not you.”
Lucrezia looked at her beautifully manicured nails while lounging comfortably on the sofa.
“Do you think I care about what you eat? Do you even have a brain? You’re so stupid, just like how you look.”
Malleta was weak in front of the strong and strong against the weak. Her once fierce attitude that used to pounce on Ariadne, who had just arrived from the farm, was nowhere to be found. In front of Lucrezia, she looked like a quivering mouse.
However, Lucrezia did not show mercy just because Malleta looked pitiful. She was a ferocious cat who could still attack her prey, who seemed to not even dream of counterattacking.
“Not answering? Are you dumb? As his attendant, have you already forgotten what our son had for lunch?”
“Well, he had prosciutto and cheese, a tart topped with dried figs, cooked lentils, and a little bit of fruit.”
Lucrezia was furious at the poor menu that Epolito had eaten.
“All the warm food he had was lentils! How are you serving our young master?!”
In fact, Epolito had eaten something warm besides that. What Malleta omitted was ‘heated wine.’ Epolito had not eaten a proper meal as he was rolling around with Malleta, sipping wine all morning.
Unable to tell the truth, Malleta was sweating profusely, trying somehow to placate the mistress.
“Well, the young master… he liked it too…”
“If you just indulge his childish tastes, then what! You should be thoughtful and serve him something healthy!”
It was more a list of snacks for a drunkard than a child’s taste, but the truth was not important. Lucrezia began looking up and down at Malleta, looking for faults.
“Did I tell you to dress modestly or not?”
“I, I removed all the jewelry, ma’am……”
“What kind of answer is that!”
Slap!
Lucrezia tried to slap Malleta, but Malleta quickly hunched her body and dodged. Instead, Lucrezia ended up hitting Malleta’s shoulder.
“Ouch!”
“Ouch? Where did you learn to shout like that!”
Just as Lucrezia was about to fetch a cudgel to beat Malleta properly, Malleta’s savior appeared.
Slam!
“Young Master!”
“Malleta?”
The one who came into the room after hearing the loud noise was Epolito.
Lucrezia was startled when her son suddenly came in and immediately put down the cudgel. She nudged the cudgel under the sofa with her foot.
“Epolito, what are you doing here?”
“I’m thirsty and my attendant is nowhere to be found. Why are you holding her? She should be by my side, serving me, not you.”
Strictly speaking, she was not serving her. However, from Lucrezia’s perspective, it was nice that her son thought so.
“That, that’s right, Epolito. Quickly take her away. Our son can’t be without his maid.”
“Yes, Mother.”
This time, Lucrezia let go of her captured prey. But she didn’t forget to glare at the maid who was trying to follow Epolito out of the room like a hawk eyeing its prey from the sky.
As Malleta was leaving, she caught Lucrezia’s eye again and shrunk her shoulders in fear. She hurriedly followed the young master, her lifeline, out of the room.
“Master! You saw it, right!”
“Water.”
Ippolito cut off Maretta’s words and demanded something to drink, as if to prove his statement about looking for a maid due to his dry throat was not a bluff. He felt as if the hangover of the morning was coming up late.
Maretta had no choice but to go to the kitchen and brought cold water. To have a conversation with Ippolito, it was only possible after satisfying all his desires.
However, even after drinking all the water Maretta handed him, Ippolito closed his mouth tightly, returning the water glass to her. He didn’t want to have a messy conversation about his mother.
Maretta, getting impatient, yelled without considering Ippolito’s feelings.
“Master! Please save me!”
She felt like she was really going to die.
“Madam is trying to kill me!”
“Let it in one ear and out the other.”
“She even hit me before!”
“No way.”
“She hit me hard on the shoulder!”
“……probably because you were cute.”
“Master!”
Oh, my ears are ringing. Ippolito’s mind was blank right now.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
