Asha was so surprised that she could only stammer without giving any response.
Sihan returned with a brightly smiling face under the moonlight and asked, “Lady Bannet’s ability is not a prophecy but a regression, right?”
“How could you…” Shock spread across Asha’s face.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take that secret to the grave. If the fact of regression is revealed, I’ll also suffer a great blow. I’ve done quite a few naughty things,” Sihan said playfully, but Asha didn’t find it amusing.
Despite his cherry blossom-like appearance, he was truly a dangerous man. As Asha looked at him with caution, Sihan stopped laughing, spoke seriously, and said, “If you choose me at the flower arrangement event, I will be a shield for Your Majesty.”
“Why?” Asha inquired.
In response to Asha’s question, Sihan blinked. Asha stared at him intently and asked, “Why are you trying to help Your Majesty and me?”
“Just consider it a favor… wouldn’t you believe that? Think of it as a kind of deal.”
“A deal?”
“Yes. In exchange for my loyalty, I hope Lady Bannet will support our family to stand tall as the only Ducal family in the Empire. I want to live my second life well, standing firm and living.”
Sihan, with a strange statement, smiled again. He had a rivalry with the Lilac Duke.
“Since when did you know that?” Asha inquired.
“Since Lady Bannet danced at the Flower Festival.”
Asha’s eyes widened. When Sihan spoke with a charming smile, “Watching Lady Bannet’s dance, I was instantly dizzy. And suddenly, I realized. Scenes from the past overlapped, and there was no such scene. It was a truly overwhelming entrance, like thunder and lightning striking in my head.”
Asha remembered the wink he gave her at the reception ceremony. He truly seemed to have known the secret since then.
“As memories of the past come back one by one, it was confusing whether I was dreaming or if all the past events were dreams. However, there was one person who moved differently from what I remembered. That was Lady Bannet.”
Asha swallowed hard.
He seemed to have secretly observed her all this time, just as Nia had said. He was a man who was meticulous yet skillful at hiding himself.
He laughed slyly and said, “It seems my guess was correct, judging by Lady Bannet’s reaction.”
Realizing she had fallen into a trap too late, Asha’s face turned red.
“Did you spy on me?”
“I’m sorry. I needed confirmation too.”
As Asha glared at him, he added, “Seeing your reaction, it seems my guess was right.”
“I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”
Sihan carefully surveyed if there were any nobles listening beyond the terrace curtains and checked for any spies hidden beneath the terrace before looking back at Asha. His expression had become serious.
“In my memory, the past Lady Bannet couldn’t reform Your Majesty. She never joined an organization called Licaon. So, I cautiously observed Lady Bannet to figure out if I can trust her. After the Reform Ceremony, I truly wanted to believe in her completely. I wanted to help both of you.”
Asha looked at him meaningfully and asked, “Can I believe those words? As you know, I don’t trust nobles.”
“I understand. Just as I dared to observe Lady Bannet, I hope Lady Bannet also observes me like a chess piece and judges whether to use me or not.”
Sihan finished speaking, stepped back a bit, politely bowed once again, and entered inside.
Asha, with a pounding heart and feeling perplexed, gazed at the night sky, lost in deep contemplation.
Sihan was one of the people who knew all these secrets. Now that he held her weakness, it made her uncomfortable.
If, by any chance, he revealed that butterflies couldn’t make the flowers bloom as he wished, even if it was just a rumor, the impact on her image would be severe.
Asha came out of the balcony with a pale face. Many nobles who wanted to meet her simultaneously directed their gazes, but Asha no longer wanted to meet anyone due to fatigue.
At that moment, Karaf, who was chatting with other nobles, noticed Asha’s state and approached her briskly.
In the previous life, he used to leave her alone in the ballroom and tirelessly deal with nobles. But now, he had truly changed.
“Is something wrong, Empress?”
“Ah… Your Majesty. I had a deep contemplation for a moment, and my head hurt. But now, I’m fine.”
“Contemplation?”
“Yes. I still haven’t decided who to choose as my flower companion.”
Karaf replied nonchalantly to her words.
“It doesn’t matter who you choose. All nobles are the same kind of people.”
Asha glanced at him.
Right now, she was deeply troubled by this issue, and it seemed quite easy for him to talk about it without even knowing.
Karaf, sensing that he made a mistake judging by her expression, quickly corrected himself.
“As long as it’s not someone blatantly showing malice, it doesn’t matter. Lady Bannet has a much better eye for people than I do, so she can choose well.”
Even to this statement, Asha sighed.
It was because the man who openly showed malice was none other than Duke Sihan.
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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