The Duke Stole Everything - Chapter 8

She was a suspicious woman.

Not even her hair was visible, let alone her face.

Huh. The man was overcome with a slightly dejected feeling.

-‘Full of incomprehensible things.’

The man closed his eyes again before the woman turned around. Though he wanted to reveal that he had woken up with his frustrated state of mind, the man held back.

A woman in suspicious attire.

His unavoidable instinct belatedly raised his guard.

-‘…What now?’

Soon, the man was inwardly flustered by the sensation tickling his palm.

-‘Letters?’

He belatedly realized that the woman had written letters on his palm.

Why bother? Before bewilderment could appear on his face, something hard touched his mouth. Thinking she might be giving him water again, he opened his mouth, and a warm, savory taste flowed in.

It was soup that didn’t need chewing.

-‘…Did she bring it separately?’

When he tried to be wary of her suspiciousness earlier, he quickly relaxed.

-‘It doesn’t taste good though.’

But the man didn’t show it and diligently ate the soup with his eyes closed. Since he had to appear asleep, he made sure to chew and swallow as slowly as possible.

After that, the woman consistently provided meals and fed him directly every time.

As he received the woman’s occasionally clumsy consideration and devoted care towards him, his sense of guilt grew rapidly.

As he felt his body gradually recovering, the man also began to hesitate.

-Should I let her know I’m awake?

The diligent woman persistently checked the man’s consciousness every time.

There were times when he felt her waving her hand in front of his face, and she frequently checked his pulse and heartbeat. He felt her gaze intently fixed on his face at all times.

-I’m not sure how long I can hide it.

Although the woman was wiping his sweat, it wasn’t enough.

He would go out of the cave alone on dark nights to find stream water and wash himself.

It was the same with meals. After checking what animals ate outside the cave, he would pick small tree fruits to eat.

-It would be better not to deceive.

With his rapid recovery rate, he couldn’t postpone it any longer.

He was reluctant to be caught later by the woman for deliberately hiding it.

-‘If even that woman doesn’t come looking for me, I…’

In the loneliness that came when left alone in the cave, the man felt lonely and scared.

He couldn’t feel the comfort he had felt from the woman’s presence in the darkness.

He became increasingly impatient.

And on the other hand, he wanted to have a conversation with the woman.

-If she knows about me. How she came to treat me. If she can help me find my memories.

He hoped that his frustrating curiosities would be resolved even a little.

-‘And…’

He wanted to say thank you.

The man rubbed his nape with an awkward feeling as he tried to sleep. His empty mind was filled with only her.

Waiting for the daytime to meet her was quite, not bad.

-‘I feel like a dog guarding the house.’

The man occasionally self-deprecated.

Having no memories was a sensation of emptiness throughout the body. Anxiety, worry, fear, and terror filled that space with every breath.

Even if he lived like a dog, he never wanted to feel that unpleasant emptiness again.

However, his resolve faltered at the visit of a stranger.

-Teacher!

As it turned out, there was another being treating him besides the woman.

-Teacher. Is this wound a trace of attack magic? The shape digging into the skin is different from ordinary magical wounds.

It was a young child who had many questions and much to explain, chattering endlessly without rest.

-Teacher, the patient uncle is very tall. The blanket seems too short. I’ll take off my clothes to cover the patient uncle’s feet!

The woman was too quiet, and the child talked too much.

Yet, the contrast blended strangely, and it wasn’t uncomfortable.

-Teacher, but I wonder how the patient uncle found your cave. Your cave is very far from the village. This patient uncle is the first person I’ve seen around here!

Rather, thanks to the child, the man was able to resolve some of his curiosities.

-Teacher, grandmother said so. We shouldn’t carelessly help strangers. But sister Birena said. The teacher is a good person. Even though the patient uncle sneaked into your cave, you’re not getting angry and treating him.

The man was a bit taken aback.

The woman and the child were strangers to him, people he had never met before. Yet, the two of them willingly gave up their space and had been taking care of him until now.

-‘…I should reveal it.’

Though he had no ‘memories’, he had a ‘conscience’.

Deceiving these two people felt uneasy.

-Teacher, if the patient uncle turns out to be a scary patient uncle, I will definitely take you and run away.

After hearing the conversation between the woman and the child, he thought about opening his eyes without delay.

Until he heard the following words.

-I learned that if you inhale a lot of Nurainsut powder, even a large bear can be anesthetized for over 10 minutes. We have many powder pouches that I and the teacher made. There’s no need to worry.

The words of the clever child sounded quite brutal.

For a moment, the man felt as if he had become the prey of a little hunter.

-‘Come to think of it… I think I might have made eye contact with the woman before.’

At the word ‘powder pouch’, a blurry scene flashed through his mind.

Beyond the hazy vision filled with hot fever, there was a person. He had risen when he discovered someone who seemed frightened and huddled up.

‘…Surely, I suddenly felt dizzy from the pain, and when I raised my head again…’

The powder from a small pouch that burst open had enveloped his face.

-‘…’

As the first memory of being suddenly attacked came to mind, the man reflexively gritted his teeth. It was a memory he had forgotten until now, perhaps due to the bewildering and embarrassing situation he encountered in an abnormal state.

-Huh? Teacher! The patient uncle is groaning! It seems he’s having another nightmare.

The man let out a small sigh with a dejected feeling.

The child beside him, thinking he was having a nightmare, patted the man’s arm with his small hand.

Thanks to that, the man had to keep pretending to be asleep until now.

-‘No wonder. I wanted to hide the fact that I had woken up.’

It was a bitter truth.

Although it was shocking that the woman who had cared for him so devotedly had sprayed anesthetic herbs at him and the child was prepared to run away with her, on the other hand, it was quite understandable.

To a powerless woman and child, his existence could appear threatening.

-‘I should postpone it as much as possible.’

As he kept postponing like that, his act of sleeping became top-notch.

-Teacher. The patient uncle looks uncomfortable. I think we need to lift his head a bit! No! The patient uncle is heavy. Hmm…

Suddenly his neck was lifted, and his posture became awkwardly uncomfortable, followed by a strong scent of herbs.

-Teacher, you should do it like sister Birena did for me. It’s called a lap pillow!

The man belatedly understood the situation from the child’s words.

He continued to receive food while remaining stiffly frozen.

The strong herbal scent from the woman was very pleasant. It was the owner of the faint fragrance that lingered in the cave, like the only sanctuary whenever he was left alone.

Was it because he had been living too complacently? Or was it the price for deceiving the innocent two people under the excuse of fearing the anesthetic herbs?

[The patient uncle is like a baby!]

“How on earth do I look like a baby?”

The voice that flowed from his scratchy throat sounded quite disgruntled.

Even in the darkness, his solid muscles and large build were sensual enough to be seen at a glance.

The man brushed up his cumbersome bangs.

“I guess I’ll have to reveal it tomorrow.”

Though he might not be able to be proud, he didn’t want to be treated like a baby forever.

Moreover, the two had clearly discussed his family matters.

Since the woman didn’t take the initiative to find out about his identity, now he had to step forward himself.

‘If I really have a family, they might be worried.’

His chest felt a bit tight.

The man left the bed filled with only silence and stretched his stiff muscles. Then he calmly walked out into the dark cave.

“She seemed to lack awareness, so she might spray the anesthetic powder first like last time tomorrow.”

As he pondered how to surprise the woman less, the night deepened.

However, there was something he overlooked.

Sharti was quite perceptive.

* * *

There was quite a difference in a person’s muscles when they were asleep and awake, conscious and unconscious.

Even the sound of the heartbeat resonating through the skin had subtle differences.

‘It seems he was conscious after all.’

Of course, it was just a suspicion at first. There were no particularly suspicious changes in the man who just kept sleeping without the slightest movement.

But the subtleties felt from the man deepened her suspicion.

‘There’s more than one strange thing.’

The position of the screen blocking the cave entrance, the direction in which the beast-repelling herbs sprinkled on the surrounding ground were swept, or when the scent of forest wind could be smelled from the man’s body besides the herbal scent.

Moreover, she had honed her hearing instead of her injured voice.

There were subtle differences even in the sound of his heartbeat that sometimes resonated when she touched the man’s skin.

‘Until now… Yes. I was complacent.’

Even when she noticed the man’s suspicious and subtle gaps, Sharti foolishly dismissed it as her imagination.

To be precise, she hadn’t expected the man to be acting.

It was her first time having a long-term patient, and there was a great burden of treating the man based solely on her judgment as a doctor without a guardian.

The fact that she was protecting a stranger couldn’t help but make her anxious.

‘Come to think of it, I might have been hoping that the man wouldn’t wake up at all.’

She had ignored the signals sent by her eyes and ears because she didn’t want to get involved in complicated reality.

She had been scared in advance at the thought of possibly encountering again the man who had threatened her, reeking of blood, when they first met in the cave.

‘Is he perhaps remembering that I attacked him with the pouch containing anesthetic powder?’

She could guess why the man wasn’t moving rashly and was pretending.

Sharti swallowed a sigh. Since they had never had a proper conversation, there were surely parts where they misunderstood each other.

‘Continuing to pretend not to know won’t help at all.’

Sharti turned her thought process as positively as possible.

‘He must have a lot of questions for me, waking up after losing consciousness to find a stranger treating him in a cave. And surely he won’t attack me out of nowhere. After all, I’ve been taking care of him all this time.’

Early in the morning, as she left the old log cabin, Sharti let out a long sigh.

No matter how much she postponed it, the answer wouldn’t come.

‘Originally, I wasn’t planning to go to the cave from around this time.’

She had planned to leave a week’s worth of medicine in the cave, stock up on some food, and stop going. Thinking that her job was done since his recovery was complete.

But thinking of Tein, she just couldn’t do that.

[Teacher! I’m proud of you.]

Sharti recalled Tein’s sudden confession as he tightly held her hand while coming down the mountain.

[You didn’t ignore the dangerous patient uncle. You didn’t run away, but treated the patient uncle. You are the doctor I respect!]

How could she disappoint a child who said she was a respectable doctor with such clear, innocent blinking eyes?

It wouldn’t do to abandon a patient without properly finishing the treatment.

With mixed feelings, Sharti went down to the village early this morning as well.

‘I hope there aren’t many people in the store today.’

Male lead Asks for a Divorce Every Day

It’s not often you come across a plot like this in the female-dominant genre — make sure to check it out!

This is a novel I’m planning to reread as well.

The male lead is strong, skilled in martial arts, and not the usual fragile type you often see in matriarchal novels.

Meanwhile, the female lead is a scientist—rational and logical. Even when she falls for the male lead, she doesn’t let her emotions cloud her decisions.

If you push through the first few chapters, you’ll gradually find the story really intriguing.

It has a mix of mystery, detective elements, and romance.

The author’s writing style is like crafting a puzzle—except they deliberately leave out a few pieces, making it hard to predict what happens next, yet keeping you hooked.

In the end, everything will come together and be explained.

One-sentence summary: Wife, stop playing with beakers and look at me!

In a laboratory accident, research scientist Zhu Wansheng accidentally travels to a matriarchal world. The original owner of the body is an eighteen-year-old only daughter of a wealthy rouge merchant, already married with a handsome young man.

Zhu Wansheng grins: Nice! She always said she was heaven’s favorite granddaughter. After a life of toil in her previous life, she can enjoy blessings in this one.

However, her joy lasts no more than three seconds as bad news arrives: the original owner’s family is about to go bankrupt, and her husband wants a divorce.

Even worse, she’s stuck with a research system full of restrictions.

Zhu Wansheng: ? Is this the destiny of a research dog?

——

Faced with this mess, Zhu Wansheng pours herself a bowl of wine to drown her sorrows. In her drunken haze, her husband arrives.

His figure is imposing, holding a long sword, with a dignified air that captivates Zhu Wansheng.

Gu Yingqing, however, looks at the alcohol-reeking Zhu Wansheng with undisguised disgust and coldly asks, “Divorce or not?” The intoxicated Zhu Wansheng mumbles vaguely, “I think… it’s not… it’s not… impossible!”

——

The next day, after sobering up, Zhu Wansheng is full of energy, rolling up her sleeves ready to make a big move. As for yesterday? She has no memory of it.

Zhu Wansheng is ambitious; a research dog fears nothing!

Upgrading rouge, extracting fragrances, producing perfumes, researching lipsticks… all shall bow to the power of modern technology!

The original owner’s dying rouge shop is revitalized. Her mother is pleased and with a wave of her hand, passes on the family business to her. As she takes control and her experimental results gain popularity, it’s the pinnacle of her life…

——

But there are always those who can’t stand to see her doing well. Jealousy, scheming, assassination attempts – they want nothing less than her life.

The person who has always kept his distance from her suddenly holds her tightly in his arms, eyes full of concern.

She is unharmed, but he falls into a pool of blood…

Zhu Wansheng feels guilty, “I can grant you one wish.”

Gu Yingqing tentatively circles his arms around her, carefully resting his head in the crook of her neck, pleading softly, “I regret it. Can we not divorce?”

Zhu Wansheng: ? When did I agree to a divorce?

[Small Theater]

The newly developed rouge is beautifully packaged, and Zhu Wansheng is eager to try it.

Gu Yingqing suddenly appears: “My lady, may I apply it for you?”

Cool fingertips lightly brush her lips. His Adam’s apple bobs as he leans in for a light bite.

Zhu Wansheng: ?

Gu Yingqing: It smells so good, I wanted to taste it…

On a warm spring day, Zhu Wansheng tries a new perfume: “Spring Night.” Gu Yingqing corners her against a wall.

Warm breath lingers on her neck.

“My lady, from now on, may I test the fragrances for you?”

[Humorous female scientist vs scheming live-in son-in-law male lead]

Link to read

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