Inside the carriage where I was alone with the Earl, I leaned against the window frame, lost in thought.
The words the Earl said before departure had been a nagging feeling at the back of my head. I also remembered the words of Teacher Julia and Misha that I was keeping my distance from the Earl.
It was the first time the Earl had said such a thing to me. I didn’t even know he was showing dissatisfaction with me for the first time.
Why don’t you treat me like a father?
But I had called him the Earl for too long. My tongue muscles had never pronounced the word ‘father’.
The Earl seemed to want to change the mood.
“There’s no one who doesn’t fall in love with the Zevron beach. Want me to tell you what color the sea is?”
I responded out of obligation. Although I couldn’t act like a playful daughter like Misha, I wanted to respond properly.
“What is it?”
“Look at the mirror.”
“Ah. Yes.”
The color of the sea is the color of my eyes. I knew that the Earl wanted to cheer me up, but it was a bit much.
“It’s a spectacular sight, a clean and clear mysterious green sea. There is one big hotel, but it’s very quiet.”
A big hotel flying to Paris, it was big trouble.
“Have you checked? What if we arrive and the hotel has gone bankrupt?”
The Earl chuckled lowly.
“There’s no way that hotel will go under, so don’t worry.”
“Yes.”
I felt like I had used up all the forced enthusiasm, and once again rested my head against the glass window.
In fact, I felt like Misha was still whispering next to me, chattering about my mother’s letter.
I won’t forgive the Countess until I die, but now I was too tired to hate her and didn’t want to completely drain my strength.
Should I talk to the Earl about the letter, or not? The pendulum of my heart couldn’t settle in one place.
But after the disappointment of not entering the academy, it seemed meaningless to plan for the future.
A character in a novel I was reading had the habit of saying ‘I live only for today,’ and now I understood the feeling.
I felt like it would be easier to breathe if I could get something off my chest. Now, I wanted to live more leisurely.
I opened my mouth.
“You know, my mother missed the Earl. She seems to have wanted to go back to you.”
The Earl’s expression looked as if he had been struck with a club. He then turned his head towards the window opposite me.
A silence too heavy to break settled in the carriage. I felt his struggle.
He asked in a subdued voice.
“Where did this story come from all of a sudden?”
“Just know it as such. Because it’s true.”
I couldn’t mention the Countess. That secret would ultimately make the Earl unhappy. I wasn’t crazy enough to hurt the Earl.
“…….”
“Think about it, the Earl might have been hurt by my mother too. A woman he wanted to keep by his side ran away, cut off contact for ten years, hid her child…….”
The Earl managed to chuckle.
“How come? Did Melia appear in a dream or something?”
“Just know it. Because it’s true.”
“…….”
“Are you upset because of me?”
“Lorisha. I will never because you couldn’t get into the academy…….”
“Because I call you the Earl.”
“…….”
He sighed faintly and said.
“It would be nice to hear you call me father once or twice a year.”
I giggled and answered.
“Okay. I’ll cover it with the Earl’s birthday gift.”
“Ha. Oh, you.”
“Father.”
“……!”
The Earl looked at me in surprise. He was fumbling for words, licking his lips.
It felt good to see the Earl flustered by me for the first time in a long time.
“That’s for this year. You had your birthday, Father.”
The Earl quickly turned his head to look out the window. He was hiding his expression.
I also pressed my forehead to my side of the window, looking out. My heart was thumping carelessly.
Father, it felt like the last foreign language I learned.
The Earl reached over the seat to hold my hand, and we didn’t speak until we arrived at the inn.
(This is a time delimiter.)
I thought it was quite a foolish choice to wander from one inn to another to stay in a hotel. But such thoughts disappeared completely when I stood in front of the Zebron Hotel.
The white brick building on the rough, black rocky hill was a beauty that could never be seen in either the capital or Roarleying.
The towering sky in the background, the faint sound of waves, and the wind mixed with a faint salty smell all made my heart flutter. The Earl smiled at my expression.
“Let’s go in, Lorisha.”
We got a deluxe room on the top floor of the east wing, and the Earl gladly gave me the room with a better view.
Looking at the decorative map hung at the front, I saw that this place was at the southern tip of the coast, in the form of a cove bent in a peculiar shape.
I rushed into the room and went out to the balcony, where the green sea was spread out. Only then did I realize that the Earl’s flattery towards me was not insincere.
The color of the coastline really resembled my eyes. The waves were clear and calm, and they looked as if nothing in the world could disturb the sea’s tranquility.
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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