“Thank you for visiting.”

“Thank you for the hospitality.”

The Duke, wearing a silver mask, arrived in my room with Daniel. It was a room befitting the eldest daughter of the Forshee family, yet it was incredibly humble. Despite the modesty of the room, I greeted him elegantly.

Today, my room was decorated with flowers resembling hibiscus, blending white and pink hues.

“These flowers are…”

Daniel seemed to recognize the flowers, his eyes showing interest.

“Here’s some tea and snacks.”

The nanny, who brought the tray in, looked pale. Soon, tea and snacks were placed before me and the Duke. The snack was the fruit of these flowers.

〈Prepare the fruit of this flower?〉

The nanny was aghast at my command I added earlier.

〈How can you serve this to His Grace? It’s something commoners eat while working! He will surely think you’re joking!〉

〈I have no intention of hiding my situation from His Grace. My room will be shown as it is, and so will the meal. ‘That fruit’ is something I often eat, isn’t it?〉

It was a ludicrous idea. The snack that was supposedly too humble to serve guests was what Annette normally ate.

If it became apparent that I was treated with disdain in the Forshee household, the Duke might sympathize and lower his guard.

The poorer I appeared, the better. That way, he would understand why I showed him kindness.

And the ‘fruit’ I had the nanny prepare was my trump card for the Duke.

The Duke stared at me intently.

‘I knew you would find this appealing.’

“I pondered what to serve His Grace and prepared this meal.”

Crunch. I bit into the fruit first without offering it to the guest.

It spread a sweet yet peculiar taste in my mouth, like cotton candy, yet slightly bitter.

This was certainly not an ordinary fruit.

“Hibiscus flowers are said to be the most precious because they help reduce the cold for the people. I’m glad I could offer hibiscus fruit for our first tea time together.”

Food and cotton. These were the items the Duke sought from this arranged marriage.

“I understand you’re camping and might be facing inconveniences. Is there anything I can assist with? I’ll take care of it in my name.”

Darius snorted.

“Even your tented camp seems more spacious and better-kept than this room.”

“Right. The Duke barely remembers my growth, showing how little he regards me.”

I didn’t falter but laughed at his apparent disdain.

“So this is an opportunity to assert the name of the eldest daughter of the Forshee family. Thanks to His Grace’s visit, I finally have some power.”

I pushed the bowl containing hibiscus fruit toward him.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the expression on his face behind the silver mask.

The thing that the warm South can easily grow but the North desperately needs. The cause of the North’s willingness to fight the South. The only hope for the cold winters of the North.

I whispered as if offering the hibiscus fruit.

“You don’t need something that disappears when eaten. What if I offer the ‘real’ thing His Grace truly desires?”

“The real thing I desire?”

Darius’s hand overlapped mine, holding the hibiscus fruit. He gripped my hand tightly, almost painfully.

‘Ouch.’

Despite the pain, I kept smiling. Yes, exactly what you’re thinking.

Unlike the first dinner, he ate the food in front of me.

Unripe hibiscus fruit is sweet. Farmers, tired from harvesting cotton, would sometimes eat these less ripe hibiscus fruits as snacks. That’s why the nanny scolded me, saying it was something only commoners ate.
“The audacity of the Duke’s family to offer cotton candy as a snack for Annette is quite something.”

Although it could have been a playful treat, it’s incomparable to real sweets.

Could I ever imagine cotton candy fruits being served as a snack to Kaitlyn and her younger brother Simons?

“Thanks to this, I’ve found a way to win the Duke’s favor without going the long way around.”

Duke Inkheart of the Sunnendae lineage, or rather Darius’s grandfather’s generation, waged a territorial war in the North to obtain cotton only grown in the South. Considering the cold of the North, the Southern cotton must have been desperately coveted.

But they were defeated, and the leading families of the South, the Porshe Dukes, and the North, the Inkheart Dukes, have remained mortal enemies to this day.

And I hinted to him that I could give him that ‘cotton,’ the cause of the war.

The seeds and cultivation methods.

Wouldn’t it be more profitable to grow cotton permanently in the North rather than just bringing a cart of cotton candy?

“If I’m not mistaken, the Duke will come to me tonight.”

Unofficially, in secret.

Knock knock.

As if answering my thoughts, there was a knock on the door.

“Already?”

It was still a while before the late hour.

I opened the door with anticipation, only to be disappointed.

“A snack from the Duke.”

It was Daniel, the Duke’s knight, holding a snack basket.

“He said he was impressed with today’s tea time.”

A tea time with only cotton candy fruit, so bad that he had to send a snack basket in person.

Male lead first thought she played hard to get, only to realize she

really disliked him

Short intro:

What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.

Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.

Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!

She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.

*

At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.

This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!

***

Synopsis:

Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…

A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead

vs.

An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead

_____

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