Twelveyearold boys were shameless and impolite. One boy who looked back at the assertive Alecto stuck out his tongue.
“That’s it!”
The boy seemed to think that Alecto, who was usually good at joking, would take his behavior as a joke. However, the ordinary child Alecto was naturally hurt and sulked, and Neris pretended not to notice.
Alecto straightened her disheveled red hair with her fingers, and the creamcolored satin ribbon attached to her hair came loose and fell to the floor.
Alecto quickly left to find a new partner before the music started again. Several low and high heads of children bustled around, so no one noticed what had just happened, except for one person.
“Hello, Neris.”
Neris greeted the boy, who wisely didn’t even attempt a nickname, with a voice that could be perceived as kind.
“Hello.”
“You dance well.”
“Thank you.”
Neris’s reply was gentle, but her tone left no room for maneuver. Nevertheless, the boy pushed on, his eyes twinkling.
“There’s a lowergrade dance at the student council next weekend. Won’t you go with me as my partner?”
Fortunately, she had an excuse to refuse.
“Sorry, but I’m not attending the dance that day. I have to study because I have to submit an assignment the following week.”
“Studying again? On the night of the dance? Don’t do that and take a break for just that day.”
“I have to work harder to keep up because it’s a class I’m taking with my seniors.”
In reality, the research assignment to be submitted the following week was in international politics, and it wasn’t difficult for Neris. She knew not only the current superficial international situation but also the underlying international situation.
However, the boy accepted it with a sulky expression. Pretending to make a mistake, Neris took a small step back and bumped into a blackhaired girl passing by.
The girl, Lianon, spoke to Neris irritably.
“What are you doing?”
“Sorry. My mistake.”
Neris apologized with a confident face. Lianon wanted to get angrier at Neris, even if it was just to show Megara, but she lowered her voice and only warned as it was in front of a teacher.
“Be careful when you walk. You won’t be responsible if my dress gets dirty, will you?”
“Hey, Lianon Berta.”
Neris’s partner narrowed his eyes ostentatiously.
“Don’t talk like that.”
“What did I do? Did I curse, did I say anything wrong?”
“People can make mistakes, don’t you make mistakes when you dance? Do you dance that well?”
“Why are you picking a fight? You’re funny.”
Lianon quickly took her partner’s hand and moved away, even as she spoke. Neris looked at her partner’s proud expression with a gloomy feeling.
Before coming back, when the current freshmen were about fourteen, her partner had acted similarly during a dance class.
While dancing with Lianon, she had bumped into Neris, and the two had heaped insult on Neris, who, not fitting in, was flailing about alone, hugging thin air.
“Watch what you’re doing. If my dress gets dirty, you won’t be able to take responsibility, will you?”
“What are you talking about? It’s already dirty. Lianon, your clothes touched that.”
Lianon’s beauty was still too young to be fully revealed, but she had become quite attractive over the years, with her clearcut features.
Her partner wanted to attract Lianon’s attention as well and had spoken more rudely to Neris. Just like she had just spoken harshly to Lianon to attract Neris’s attention.
Her partner, who knew nothing of such past or future, asked in a somewhat mature and friendly manner,
“So, are you going to the party that Angrad Nine is throwing this weekend?”
But Neris had no affection for her partner.
She was like a firework. Stupid, useful when needed, but ultimately destined to burn out and disappear.
“I’m going.”
“It seems like the whole class is invited. If you go, I might go too.”
Before returning, Angrad had also thrown a party inviting the entire class around this time. He had deliberately spent a lot of money not to look cheap among the lower nobility, and Neris remembered that Angrad had made several friends to spend his school life with at this party.
But it remained to be seen whether they would become friends again this time.
Neris had bumped into Lianon for a reason. She activated her acting skills and made a face.
“The shoelace is loose. Just a moment.”
“Ah, yes.”
Her partner looked as if she wanted to tie it for her, but fortunately did not act so presumptuously.
Neris deliberately retied the perfectly fine shoelace and kicked the shoe’s toe on the floor a few times. Then she picked up a creamcolored ribbon that had fallen nearby.
The once beautiful satin ribbon, beloved by the nobles, looked pitiful, trampled upon. Neris checked the creamcolored initial that was inconspicuously embroidered on one end of the ribbon and smiled knowingly.
“Alecto.”
Alecto seemed to realize just then that her ribbon was missing and was frantically scanning the floor around her. Neris approached her and handed her the ribbon.
“I found it there. Weren’t you wearing the ribbon earlier?”
“Yes!”
Alecto took the ribbon offered by Neris and was delighted.
“Thank you. It’s mine. I bought it expensively in the Imperial Capital, I thought I’d lost it.”
“Good that you found it. Take care of it. These days everyone wears similar ribbons, so even if you lose it, you wouldn’t know whose it is.”
“Yeah. Thanks, really. I know it’s mine because I’ve had my initials embroidered here. Oh, the kids stepped on it. I’ll have to wash it.”
Finding the ribbon didn’t make Alecto like Neris, but her immediate joy made her attitude momentarily softer. Neris said, “Well then,” and left her seat.
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.”
