The cold wind struck her face sharply, and her golden hair wildly whipped back.
The sky had turned bloodred as if depicting a ruined world, and the once peaceful flower garden lost its fragrance, becoming consumed by dark shadows.
Then, it happened.
「Hic… sob…」
A sobbing sound reached Asha’s ears, and she slowly opened one eye.
Someone appeared among the thick rose vines, which were surrounded by thorns like a cave.
Inside was a blackhaired boy, clutching his knees and burying his face as he cried.
He would have felt better if he had cried out loud, but the boy was swallowing his tears so forcefully that it would have pained anyone watching.
As the child was immersed in sorrow, the thorns seemed to bind the child more tightly, moving closer to wound him.
The child’s body was so full of scars that there was hardly a place untouched.
Asha reached out to rescue the child, but her hand was pricked by the sharp thorns.
“Ah!”
Asha cried out, quickly covering her hand. A drop of blood rolled down her hand and fell with a plop onto the ground.
At that moment, a chilling silence hung in the air.
As if everything had stopped, the child looked up at Asha, his eyes full of tears and red like blood. They were strangely similar to Karaf’s eyes.
Had he not thought that someone would come to find him?
Surprised, the child’s red eyes stared at her, and Asha opened her eyes wide with a gasp.
When she came to her senses, she was lying on a luxurious bed adorned with red curtains.
‘Was it a nightmare…?’
Surveying the dim surroundings, Asha felt around the place where she was lying.
But as soon as the soft bedsheet brushed against her fingertips, a horrible pain was felt in her arm.
Asha quickly grabbed her injured arm with her other hand.
Only then did she remember that she had fainted after being stabbed by an assassin’s poisoncoated knife.
The arm where the knife had penetrated was neatly bandaged, and she had been changed into comfortable sleepwear.
Looking at the white silk pajamas, Asha couldn’t help but chuckle.
The pajamas were the same as what she had worn when she jumped off the cliff in the past…
Asha looked at the ceiling, catching her ragged breath.
But before she had a chance to sort out the situation, a low and slow voice came from nearby.
“……Are you awake?”
Asha froze stiffly.
Hiding her surprised heart and slowly turning her head, she saw Karaf sitting by the window, crossing his legs on a wooden chair.
Moonlight gently settled on his black hair, and his red eyes were even more intense in the dark.
Asha was reminded of the boy in her dream, and stared at him blankly.
Karaf also watched her with arms folded, and then quietly opened his mouth.
“How did you know that an assassin had sneaked into the banquet hall?”
Seeing Asha flinch, he added with a serious face.
“Don’t try to deceive. You think I wouldn’t know? You spilled the cup of wine I gave you because you knew there was poison in it, didn’t you? Am I wrong?”
Asha slightly narrowed her eyes.
“……Yes, you’re right.”
“Is it the ability of the butterfly?”
When Asha didn’t answer, he spoke again.
“If you knew the assassin was coming, why didn’t you warn me or Duran in advance?”
“……I couldn’t be sure.”
“What?”
Asha calmly looked at him and continued.
“I had a vivid dream last night. But I couldn’t be sure whether the dream would come true or was simply a nightmare. So…… I thought I had to find out. Even I didn’t trust myself, so I wasn’t sure if anyone in this palace would believe me.”
It was a lie, but Karaf was stung.
He seemed to be included in that statement.
Indeed, he had tested her and had been watching her closely, guarding her with thorns raised until today’s incident happened.
It was a situation where she must have had enough time to contemplate whether she should speak or not.
Suddenly, the report that Duran had initially made came to mind.
Asha had clearly said that she saw Rikaon’s knights being killed.
But she wanted to verify with her own eyes whether that incident would really happen, and whether her being captured and brought to the imperial palace was the right choice.
After guessing Asha’s thoughts, his expression became serious.
Karaf suddenly rose from his chair and approached the bed.
It was unclear whether she had frozen in shock or had only moved several hours later.
But Asha pulled the blanket towards her as if she instinctively knew she would be pricked by a thorn.
At her reaction, Karaf hesitated slightly, and instead of sitting on the bed, he simply sat down on a nearby makeshift chair.
It was the first time he had ever been so cautious with a stranger, especially one from a minority group.
Karaf was rubbing his knuckles over his thigh with a complicated look on his face, then after a while, he asked.
“Did it… hurt a lot?”
Asha’s eyes widened in surprise, but for some reason, she was avoiding his gaze with a face full of worry.
“It’s okay. A person doesn’t die from being pricked like this.”
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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