“That’s right. Don’t let anyone into the basement.”
Sancha brought out a bottle of belladonna sap from the kitchen storage. The purple liquid reflected a shimmering light inside the thick semitransparent glass bottle.
Ariadne placed the glass bottle, sealed with a cork, on a silver tray by her hand and headed for the basement in the north.
[This is the time separator]Lucrezia went through heaven and hell in the freezing northern basement where she couldn’t even sleep.
‘My kids wouldn’t abandon me.’
‘But why isn’t anyone coming to find me?’
‘What power would the kids have? He must be blocking them.’
The fluctuating emotions of being alone made people crazy.
Then it happened.
Squeak.
The sound of the dogwood door on the corridor side opening echoed. Someone came in.
“Hippolito?!”
Lucrezia, who had been crouching in the corner, jumped up. However, the person who came in gave no answer.
“Isabella?”
Hippolito walks with a thump. The person who came in was quiet, almost silent. It wasn’t like Isabella, but Isabella walks more quietly than Hippolito.
But even when she called the name of the daughter she thought would not come, the person who came in said nothing.
“Yo…bo?”
Cautiously, Lucrezia called the name of the person she thought would least likely come.
Clank.
The sound of unlocking the door of the room where Lucrezia was locked was heard. The figure entered. She calmly locked the door again and turned to Lucrezia.
“I’m sorry that I’m not the person you were looking for.”
“You!”
Lucrezia was shocked at the sight of the person who came in. It was Ariadne.
She was dressed like the mistress of a noble family, no, like a member of a monarch’s family.
A neatly tailored expensive cloth, braided hair, large pearl earrings. There was nothing artificially dressed up, but the elegance overflowed from every gesture.
A gold seal of the hostess was attached to her long and thin hand.
As soon as Lucrezia saw the gold seal of the hostess, she screamed, losing her reason.
“You! This rotten thing! Damn it! Why did you come down! Where are our Hippolito, Isabella?”
“You seem very upset.”
Ariadne put the silver tray she brought on the black table. Clink, the sound echoed in the basement.
The courtesy ended here. It was time for power to clash, tears to clash, blood to clash.
“Father abandoned Mother.”
“What?!”
“Today, Paola Scampa’s surviving family and representatives of the local cooperative visited the mansion. They just left. Instead of sparing a condolence fee of 300 ducats, Father decided to hand over Mother’s body.”
In fact, the payment of 300 ducats for consolation was the same, they just decided to add Lucrezia’s neck. A little distortion of the truth was Ariadne’s relief.
“That can’t… That can’t be!”
“If you think the gold sent to the De Rosis is annoying, why don’t you take a sip?”
Ariadne pointed at the glass bottle on the wooden table.
“Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
Looking at the purple liquid shining in the glass bottle, Lucrezia drew in her breath. She couldn’t help but recognize it.
“It’s an extract of Belladonna. The effect is so good. Of course, you would know the best, mother.”
Ariadne gave a sly smile. Lucrezia was so shocked she could hardly breathe. She screamed out in panic.
“Hippolytus, my son!”
“Your precious son sold you out, mother. The idea to get rid of you was father’s to begin with, but it didn’t take more than 15 minutes to convince Hippolytus, it seems.”
Lucrezia gasped for breath.
“That can’t be, it can’t be!”
“I’ll also tell you some news about your beloved daughter. Isabella was great at pretending to be a fool.”
In front of a wheezing Lucrezia, Ariadne kindly relayed the outside news.
“Hippolytus told Isabella ‘Father has decided to kill mother.’ But a daughter is better than a son, isn’t she? Isabella tried to stop it once.”
A hint of relief surfaced on Lucrezia’s face. It was as if she anticipated the words that would come next. ‘But what influence could Isabella have? Everything proceeded as father intended.’
However, Ariadne’s story brutally shattered Lucrezia’s expectations.
“Then Hippolytus retorted, ‘Are you confident you can marry off as the daughter of a murderer?'”
Lucrezia’s face turned pale. Lucrezia knew her children’s personalities best. She seemed to have a guess about the story that would follow.
“After that, Isabella shut up and didn’t say a word!”
Lucrezia sank down onto the basement floor.
“No… It’s all a lie…”
“Oh, mother, our mother, who raised her children so dedicatedly, what to do?”
Lucrezia collapsed on the bare floor and started sobbing. A mother knows her children. The stories that Ariadne was saying so confidently right in front of her, all seemed just like something her children would do.
But she could not accept it. She didn’t want to accept it. If she accepted it, her entire life would become trash.
“Mother, you did all this because of Hippolytus, didn’t you?”
Ariadne smirked. It was a distorted smile.
“Just before she died, Maletta said, ‘Hippolytus has a different father!'”
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.”
