I briefly looked at the young countess, still struggling on the floor.
The apple jam was extremely slippery; every time she tried to stand up, she kept slipping.
My contemplation didn’t last long.
I approached the young lady and offered my hand.
“Take my hand. I’ll help you out as a senior in life.”
The young countess didn’t seem to want to take my hand. She looked around as if seeking help from others, but all she received were cold stares.
Starting to tear up, the young countess had no choice but to grab my hand.
But it seemed I had underestimated her weight, considering my past life’s physique.
“Oops.”
Along with the young countess, I stumbled as well.
‘The salary of a lifetime servant’ crossed my mind, but it was useless.
Just as I was about to fall onto a plump chocolate pudding, someone caught my waist.
“Are you alright?”
A wellmannered boy was looking down at me. Underneath his goodquality brown hair were sincere, light green eyes filled with concern.
He seemed a few years younger than me, but he was much more mature than the adults who were merely watching.
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
As I quickly stood up and stepped back, he released me with a gentle smile.
“I’m glad.”
He was a very wellmannered boy.
Then, a noblewoman rushed over and hurriedly helped the young countess up. She vigorously brushed off various snacks from her dress, but the sticky jam only soaked in more.
“What’s going on here! Who did this to our daughter!”
It was Countess Lamira’s mother.
“Did she push you?”
The Countess pointed her finger at me.
As the young countess sobbed and nodded, the Countess glared at me and took a step closer.
I sighed internally.
I had wanted to wrap things up by now, but with an adult getting involved, the situation had escalated.
“What an outrageous act! How is home education being done”
“Excuse me, Countess Lamira.”
A calm voice cut off the Countess’s rant. It was the boy from earlier.
“I’ve been watching the situation, and your daughter pushed this girl first. Then she slipped on the food on the floor by herself.”
The Countess was momentarily speechless.
“AAre you sure?!”
Seeing that she was speaking respectfully to the boy, it seemed he was of considerable rank.
“You might have seen it wrong? Our daughter is not like that. You may not know, Prince, but this young lady is not originally of noble birth”
“I’m sure.”
Another voice joined in.
Esmeralda, who had come closer without me noticing, pointed at Countess Lamira’s daughter.
“I was watching too. The young countess pushed her.”
You were watching, weren’t you?
If it had been the original female protagonist, she would have run out immediately, but this time it was Esmeralda who came out a little late.
Esmeralda looked around with confidence.
“Everyone here must have seen it, right? Count Philip Morris’s young lady pushing Princess Reina.”
The title that had always been ‘Young Lady Reina’ had suddenly changed to ‘Princess Reina.’
It was a clever choice of words that gave me, who had been ignored as a commoner, some strength.
Though only eight years old, it was clear that she was not merely an innocent girl.
At Esmeralda’s point, other adults began to reluctantly agree.
“Yes, Countess. Reina or Rena, it’s hard to say it’s the child’s fault.”
“It was just a minor accident between the children. Calm down.”
The Countess hesitated slightly.
“No, if it was an accident, she would have said so right away.”
But she still showed her miraculous logic in blaming only me.
“I can’t deal with this.”
Finally, she muttered under her breath.
“You even make a graduate student’s patience run out, you’re really great.”
“What did you just say?”
The Countess’s sharp voice stung my ears.
She was angered without even knowing what a ‘graduate student’ meant.
I took a short breath.
“You have to speak clearly if you have something to say. It wasn’t me who pushed, but your daughter. Thanks to that, I’ve lost the snack I worked hard to gather.”
I stretched out my foot, showing my sparkling shoe. On the smooth blue surface that matched the dress, there was a bright red strawberry jam stain.
“The dragon leather shoes, specially made by the Duchess for the founding ceremony, are stained.”
I didn’t want to use the ‘Ducal House’ card as much, but I had no choice since even the adults were involved.
“Dragon leather?”
The Countess frowned.
It was strange to her. The Duchess had said that only the Ducal House used dragon leather for shoes.
“Yes, the very dragon leather that takes 100 years of daily tanning to complete.”
It wasn’t 100% true.
When the Duchess had asked the chief designer to make clothes out of dragon leather,
“The, the dragon leather? Even if we tenderize it for 100 years, we can barely cut it with dragon bones or teeth!” the chief designer had exclaimed.
The Duchess had simply tilted her head, not understanding the fuss.
“Just have my husband do the hammering and cutting, so you only need to design.”
So the soft ballet shoes that now covered my toes were not leather that had been pounded for 100 years but were made in just a few days.
“The damage cost must be substantial.”
This too was a lie.
The dragon leather, which couldn’t even be cut with a regular knife, wouldn’t be damaged by mere strawberry jam.
The strawberry jam was now trying to drop off like water droplets sliding off a raincoat, so I couldn’t even wiggle my toes.
But the Countess, not knowing much about dragon leather, started to turn pale and tremble.
I stood tall and smiled at the Countess.
“I will send a certificate of content from the Ducal House soon.”
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.”
