Clatter.
“Gasp…….”
Esmeralda stared blankly at the shattered teacup and the tea seeping into the tablecloth.
Kirian had a habit of tapping the rim of the teacup twice with a teaspoon after cooling the tea sufficiently.
Perhaps it was a habit he had developed since childhood, following the Duke’s instruction to learn control; he was unable to dodge Esmeralda’s charging spoon, carrying sugar.
Kirian’s shirt was heavily stained. Though I glanced at him with anxious eyes, he, being the female protagonist, simply wiped the stain with a napkin without a word.
“I’m, I’m sorry.”
Esmeralda began to sob. The tears welling up in her large purple eyes looked quite pitiful, almost stirring compassion.
But as Kirian silently wiped his shirt without accepting an apology, I slapped Kirian’s back.
“Goodness, why did you have to pick up the teaspoon at that moment? So careless.”
“Ah, sorry. It’s a habit.”
Only then did Kirian apologize. Though it seemed he was apologizing to me, not Esmeralda, I decided to be satisfied for now.
Fortunately, Esmeralda didn’t seem to notice that she had been bypassed as the target of the apology, and her face relaxed a little. She reached out with a handkerchief she had taken from her bosom.
“I’ll clean that for you!”
Just before her hand touched Kirian’s shirt.
Thump.
Kirian harshly slapped Esmeralda’s hand away. As the lace handkerchief fluttered to the ground, a frozen silence enveloped the tea table.
Kirian glanced at me briefly and then turned his gaze slowly to Esmeralda, exhaling a short breath.
“The tea, it’s on your hand.”
Esmeralda stuttered as if embarrassed, her face flushed.
“Th, thank you. For worrying.”
Hastily picking up the handkerchief, Esmeralda timidly extended it to Kirian.
“IIf you need it, use it.”
When Kirian said nothing, Esmeralda continued resolutely, even as she closed her eyes.
“I made the mistake……. I want to offer it as an apology.”
Kirian glanced at me again and then slowly picked up the handkerchief with two fingers.
“Thank you.”
It was a curt reply, and he just placed the handkerchief next to the teacup. Still, Esmeralda wore a bright smile.
“It’s nothing. I’ve always only received, so I’m happy to be able to give something for the first time.”
‘I’ve always only received.’ That phrase bothered me for some reason. I knew they had grown close since going out to dinner together, but I still wasn’t used to seeing Kirian interact with someone other than me.
Even if she was the female protagonist, I couldn’t imagine Kirian smiling comfortably in front of someone else.
I threw the cold tea into my mouth.
I didn’t even want to imagine it.
(This is a time separator.)
“Would you like to participate in the summer festival preparations?”
The Duchess asked us, who were gathered in the library.
I put down the book I had been sprawled out reading by the library window.
“The summer festival? Weren’t there festivals only in spring and autumn?”
The Duchess laughed heartily.
“You couldn’t participate in the festivals during the years you were at the academy. So, when I heard you were coming home for vacation, I planned the first summer festival.”
I was a bit surprised internally. The Duke and Duchess, who hated crowds and noise, only planned festivals for the wellbeing of the estate’s people and never participated themselves.
And yet, they hosted three such festivals a year. My heart warmed for a moment.
“But this time, we’re a bit short on help. Could I ask for your assistance?”
At the Duchess’s request, we all nodded our heads agreeably.
It was actually nice. Leaving behind the busy life of the academy to laze around all day at the Duke’s estate had begun to feel a bit dull.
With a proud face, the Duchess looked over the newly recruited workers.
“I need someone to decide on the decorations and snacks for the festival day.”
That was it. I didn’t know much about decorating, but preparing snacks. It felt like the Duchess had bestowed a divine calling upon me.
“Me! I’ll do it! Just trust and leave it to me.”
I added hastily, fearing that others might snatch my place.
“Undoubtedly, the snacks are the highlight of the festival, so a meticulous process is needed to taste each one for flavor, texture, scent, and harmony with other foods. I will dedicate my entire being to showcase the best snacks, utilizing my decades of experience and knowhow!”
Fortunately, no one dared to take my place, perhaps intimidated by my overwhelming experience.
“Oh my, your enthusiasm is so refreshing.”
The Duchess smiled, cupping her cheek with one hand.
“But what to do, the snacks are almost all set, so the decoration is more urgent…….”
“I will help Princess Reina.”
His stepped forward, and Kirian added in his leisurely voice.
“Ah, I wanted to do that too.”
And then he grinned.
“Shall we decide with rockpaperscissors?”
He clearly intended to use his highspeed eyesight to win. At that moment, while I was silently criticizing Kirian’s brazenness.
“No.”
The Duchess cut him off sharply.
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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