The Secret Night at Unyeon Palace (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
The arm that had been wrapped around her waist loosened, and her body swayed slightly.
“If you’ve given your heart to Kim Hee Gyeom, sort everything out before coming back. I have no desire to hold a woman whose heart belongs to another man.”
He uttered it indifferently, as if nothing had happened.
“As for Your Highness the Grand Prince—… No.”
She wanted to ask whether he truly believed one could sort out all such feelings, but the words stuck in her throat.
She longed to ask how he could possibly sort through his countless women—or, above all, how he could ever resolve his feelings for Yoon Eun Joo.
“You still have that habit of starting to speak, then stopping halfway.”
“…….”
This was her first conversation with him since their initial meeting.
Yet how did he already know her habits?
While she was lost in thought, his low, cold voice descended above her head.
“I understand you dislike me—but still.”
He stepped one pace closer.
“Isn’t it rather rude to drift off in thought while standing right before someone? And since I’m not going to devour you, please stop fleeing the moment our eyes meet.”
His relentless gaze and warning tone sent shivers through her entire body.
Eun Seol stepped back exactly as far as he had advanced.
“You’re the first woman I’ve met who rejects me with her whole body like this. Don’t worry—even if I were a notorious philanderer, I wouldn’t force myself on someone who clearly dislikes me.”
Just as she was about to protest that this wasn’t the case, Eun Joo called out to the Grand Prince from the entrance of the annex.
Eun Joo approached wearing attire far more resplendent than hers, her face radiating a bright smile.
“I searched for you for quite a while, unaware you were here. Please come to the inner quarters—I’ve prepared a drinking table.”
“…Very well.”
The Grand Prince, withdrawing his gaze from Eun Seol, walked side by side with Eun Joo toward the inner quarters.
Watching him pass by indifferently, as though nothing had occurred, her chest ached.
Just before exiting the annex, Eun Joo turned her head and let a cold, mocking smirk slip across her lips.
It was as if she silently declared: *The Grand Prince is mine.*
Left alone, Eun Seol collapsed weakly onto the wooden floor of the main hall.
Absentmindedly bowing her head, she spotted a plum blossom petal resting atop the ribbon of her jeogori and carefully transferred it to her palm.
Gazing at the petal the Grand Prince had blown toward her with his breath, she recalled again the words he had spoken:
—*Never forget—you are my woman.*
* * *
Late that night, Eun Seol sat alone in her candlelit room and cautiously unfolded the engagement letter placed on the writing desk.
Upon seeing the pristine white plum blossom petal resting atop the letter, memories of her earlier encounter with the Grand Prince flooded back, and heat once more rose to her cheeks.
“It’s fine—I already knew the rumors about the Grand Prince. I never intended to give him my heart. As long as I can eventually leave this place, I can endure anything.”
She whispered reassurances to herself into the empty air. *Don’t think about anything.*
Simply avoiding being sold off to an elderly widower had been sheer fortune.
Escaping this hellish place alone would have made this marriage something to be grateful for.
She already knew the Grand Prince would never cherish her.
Even if he truly was as scandalous as the rumors claimed—even if he deliberately humiliated her out of dislike—she knew she must bear such shame without complaint.
“I’m coming in.”
Eun Joo’s voice from outside snapped her out of her reverie.
Without waiting for permission, Eun Joo entered abruptly, scanned the room once, and sat down.
Eun Seol slipped the petal from the engagement letter into a book as a bookmark and tucked it away in the drawer.
“You’re not a child—why so pitifully collect flower petals and tuck them into books?”
“This isn’t your concern. What brings you here at this hour?”
She wouldn’t have come without reason.
Normally, Eun Joo never treated Eun Seol as an elder sister. The only times Eun Joo ever entered this room were when Eun Seol had been beaten nearly to death by their mother.
Each time, Eun Joo would cruelly sneer, her words venomous as serpents.
Eun Seol already sighed inwardly, anticipating what fresh wound Eun Joo’s words would inflict today.
“There aren’t many days left for us to be together like this—I came to offer comfort and, incidentally, help you grasp your proper place.”
“Whatever you intend to say, I don’t wish to hear it. So, please—”
“Don’t act defiant—just listen. Do you think I came here because I wanted to? The Grand Prince wants me, not you.”
Eun Seol already knew the Grand Prince desired Eun Joo, not her—his actions had made that clear enough without needing words.
“So what?”
“What do you mean, ‘so what’? It means you’ll never, ever become the Grand Prince’s cherished one.”
“What do you—”
“Do you honestly think it’s plausible for you to become his ordinary wife? For heaven’s sake, know your place. You’ll never possess the Grand Prince’s heart—because I’ll see to it myself.”
“If you’d simply said from the start that you wished to marry the Grand Prince yourself—since he wanted you, not me—”
Foolishly, she let slip words she’d vowed never to utter aloud.
Learning that the Grand Prince favored Eun Joo had never hurt this deeply.
Admitting that truth aloud, in front of Eun Joo herself, left her feeling utterly wretched.
“Am I mad? Marry a man who goes wild over any woman he sees? Frankly, if he were destined to be the next king, I might endure it—but he’s not. I simply enjoy watching him obsess over me.”
“…….”
“What will you do? I’ve already claimed the heart you’ll never possess.”
Eun Seol silently repeated to herself:
*If only I can escape this hell, it won’t matter if the Grand Prince never looks at me again for the rest of my life. It shouldn’t matter whether he’s a philanderer or debauched.*
Yet Eun Joo’s words pierced her heart like daggers.
“The Grand Prince seemed furious he’d submitted your name instead of mine for the royal selection. What if you’re abandoned even before your wedding night?”
Eun Joo’s gaze raked slowly up and down Eun Seol’s body.
“Do your best. Who knows? If you serve him well in bed, he might at least enjoy your body.”
“What?”
“Honestly, given how obsessively he craves women, someone like you may not even satisfy him.”
“Watch your words. I’ll handle my own affairs—no need for your concern. Just leave.”
“If, even after the wedding ceremony, the Grand Prince comes looking for me… I can’t predict how I might change then. If you don’t want to end up like your mother—who died never having been loved by a man once in her life—then learn some seduction arts, however crude, and go use them.”
Stung by Eun Joo’s blatant mockery, Eun Seol clenched her teeth and balled her fists tightly.
Eun Joo, casting one last contemptuous glance at her, rose with evident satisfaction, adjusted her voluminous skirt, and spoke.
“I nearly forgot something important. Madame Bu Buin—congratulations on your wedding. May your wedding night pass safely… heh heh.”
Having delivered her barbed congratulations, Eun Joo sneered and exited the room.
As Eun Joo’s laughter faded into the distance and silence settled heavily once more over the room,
Eun Seol resolved to endure.
Compared to the torrent of abuse and blows she’d suffered all her life, such humiliation meant nothing.
No matter what happened, she would bear it and persevere.
Yet that resolve—to never easily collapse—shattered utterly three days later, on her wedding day.
* * *
Dazedly completing the wedding rites, Eun Seol sat alone in the chamber, anxiously awaiting the Grand Prince’s arrival.
But as evening deepened into late night, he still did not appear.
And how much longer had passed—
Just as she shifted her stiffened body, the first crow of the rooster broke the silence.
Having stared at the door for hours in her wedding attire, she finally removed her jokduri and changed out of her ceremonial robes herself.
The moment she finished neatly folding her clothes and untying her ribbon, the door quietly opened.
Turning her head in faint hope, she saw not her groom, but her mother-in-law, Soon Young, standing before her.
Soon Young glanced briefly at the bowing Eun Seol, clicked her tongue in disapproval, and sat down.
“How desperate must a man be to reject his bride on their wedding night? What utter disgrace. As they say—like mother, like daughter—even inheriting her mother’s fate of abandonment on the very first night.”
“…….”
“The Grand Prince spent last night with Min Ah.”
“What? What do you mean—”
“Don’t be so shocked. When the Grand Prince desires someone, we must grant it—what choice do we have? If he prefers holding Min Ah over you, so be it.”
Even setting aside the humiliation of being abandoned on her wedding night, how could she possibly comprehend a Grand Prince who so openly took a maidservant to his bed?
“At the very least, he should have come here afterward.”
“Don’t make a scene—stay quiet. Do you think the Grand Prince married you willingly? Be grateful you’ve been granted the title of Madame Bu Buin, and live quietly, like a dead mouse. Understood!”
She knew full well this marriage made no sense—and that she was utterly unworthy to stand beside the Grand Prince.
Yet how could he possibly choose a maidservant, of all people?
Only then did she recall Eun Joo’s words to her:
—*May your wedding night pass safely.*
Had Eun Joo foreseen this outcome? Or had she deliberately engineered this situation?
As this thought struck her, a wave of bitter emotion surged violently in her chest.
“The one the Grand Prince truly wanted was Eun Joo. He wished to place Eun Joo in the position of—ah!”
With a sharp, grating sound, her head whipped violently to the side.
As she covered her face with one hand and straightened herself, another slap struck her again.
Though she’d endured such blows countless times before, today it hurt more. Her eyes reddened, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Our Eun Joo isn’t the sort to be handed over to a wretched wastrel like you!”
“Was it truly the Grand Prince’s own wish to take Min Ah?”
“The Grand Prince never refuses any woman offered to him—didn’t you know that?”
So it was true, then.
Was it really said he’d leap out of bed at midnight if a woman beckoned?
The Grand Prince Jinheon, who practically lived in courtesan houses and bedded a different woman each day—
This man was now her groom, with whom she’d just performed the wedding rites. Only now did the reality settle firmly within her.
Her fleeting hope—that he might not be as wicked as the rumors claimed—had been nothing but a foolish illusion.
“Then… what will become of Min Ah now?”
“If the Grand Prince asks for her, we give her to him.”
“Mother!”
“Remember this well: to the Grand Prince, you are worth less than a courtesan. Even if it means becoming his mere plaything, you will live and die within that residence.”
Soon Young hurled every possible insult, glaring at her with undisguised contempt.
“A wretched creature abandoned by her groom for a maidservant on her wedding night—how long do you think she’ll last in the Grand Prince’s mansion? Tsk.”
Having delivered not a single kind word to the end, Soon Young rose, glanced mockingly at the wedding attire beside her, and sneered.
“How odd—it’s as if I’ve felt no affection for you from the very beginning to the very end. If you don’t want to be cast aside by the Grand Prince, follow your mother’s example: beg for a single night, if you must, and conceive a child. Though, given you take after your mother, even bearing a child will likely end the same way—abandoned.”
Muttering this to herself, Soon Young turned and left without a backward glance.
Her mother’s curses should have grown familiar by now—yet they still stung, sharp and bitter.
After sitting numbly for a long while, Eun Seol straightened her clothes, rose from her seat,
and stepped outside—only to see a pair of men’s and women’s shoes placed neatly side by side on the stone step.
Fixing her gaze on the adjacent chamber, she slowly began to walk toward it.
Her trembling hand briefly grasped the door handle, then dropped again.
Suddenly regaining her senses, she stepped back several paces.
What was she so desperately seeking to confirm, moving her feet so helplessly?
Just as she turned to leave, her eyes met Min Ah’s as she exited the adjacent chamber.
Unlike the flustered Eun Seol, Min Ah’s expression remained utterly blank as she silently departed.
Eun Seol, still dazed, was roused by the Grand Prince emerging from the same room immediately afterward.
He stared at her for a long moment, then called out for someone:
“Is Yeom here?”
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
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