“Since when have I made a mistake?”
Lea placed the tray she brought onto Count Heidern’s table, her lips curling slightly. She looked around before asking the Count.
“Is Jane still not here?”
“She’s running late today.”
She had brought the meal to coincide with the time for serving tea. But given that the servant went to find Jane, it seemed her arrival to the bedroom was delayed.
“The servant went to find Jane, so I guess that’s why.”
“Is that so?”
As she subtly hinted at the servant’s involvement, Lea studied Count Heidern’s expression. Noting no change in his impassive face, she was about to put down the herbal tea.
“Before the tea gets cold…”
Looking at the steaming herbal tea in the cup, her mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of the missing herbs.
“Wait, the herbs…”
Individually, they were beneficial, but the problem was that they could cause excessive oxidation when mixed with the herbal tea.
It was dangerous even for a healthy person. For Count Heidern, who already had poor blood vessels and heart condition due to Polarium, it was lethal.
In that moment, Lea felt a chill in her gut.
“Could it be… was Jane aiming for this?”
The herbs she took were precisely the ones that would react adversely with the herbal tea. And the relationship between Jane and the servant she’d heard about earlier among the maids.
If it wasn’t due to a personal relationship between them.
“It must be related to harming the Count.”
If so, Jane’s recent strange behavior all made sense. As these thoughts reached this point, Lea picked up the teacup she had put down again.
Noticing Lea’s trembling hand as she looked at the herbal tea, Count Heidern raised his head.
“Why is that?”
Ignoring Count Heidern’s puzzled gaze, Lea drained the cup of tea.
[Gulp, gulp.]Watching the tea flow down her throat, the Count wore an astonished expression. Lea placed the empty cup back on the table.
There was a need to confirm what exactly Jane was planning, and whether she was really under the servant’s influence.
“Count.”
The Count’s eyes sharpened as he looked towards the voice calling him. As their gazes met in midair, Lea’s eyes sparkled.
“I suggest you avoid drinking herbal tea for a while.”
“Why?”
The Count’s eyes seemed to demand an explanation.
“Last night, I saw Jane coming out of the herb storage. And after she left, two types of herbs were missing.”
“…”
“Individually, there’s no problem. But when taken with herbal tea, it’s a different story.”
Lea calmly explained the dangerous interactions the missing herbs Heteria and Kiana would have with herbal tea.
Listening, Count Heidern rubbed his chin.
“What makes you so sure she’s trying to poison me? It could be for her family or herself. Herb thefts are common, after all.”
Lea nodded as if agreeing with the Count’s point.
“It’s a common occurrence, indeed. In fact, Jane has a younger brother who suffers from an incurable disease.”
Many people in the manor knew that Jane’s younger brother was sick. The Count might already know that as well.
Pretending not to care about worldly affairs, yet knowing the mansion better than anyone else, the Count might be aware.
After collecting her thoughts, Lea spoke softly.
“But it occurred to me, where could the money for Jane’s younger brother’s treatment come from?”
Jane’s younger brother had hemophilia, a rare disease where once the bleeding starts, it doesn’t stop.
There was no definitive treatment, requiring a lifetime of medication.
The problem was the astronomical cost of the medicine, a burden too heavy for a common family.
The family was just Jane, her frail mother, and her young brother.
So, could the wages of Jane, the maid who was the closest to being an actual family, cover not just the living expenses of a family of three but also the cost of medication?
‘No. Absolutely not.’
It was impossible. Moreover, Jane didn’t seem desperate for money. In fact, she was one of the people who had rushed to buy nutritional supplements for Lea.
“I think the medical expenses come from Butler Bayern,”
Lea recalled the conversation among the maids a while ago.
Jane, who often visits Bayern’s room. And the herbs missing from the medicine storage. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.
“Butler has been seeing Jane not only today. Considering the rumors among the maids, I think my speculation is correct.”
Determination shone in Lea’s eyes. Though her face was expressionless, Achkia was inwardly surprised.
‘Jane has realized that she’s Bayern’s puppet.’
He had known all along.
That Jane reports every action and minor habit of hers to the butler.
And that, in return, Bayern covers the cost of his sister’s medication. He was surprised that she figured it out with just a few clues.
Lea had always been quite clever.
“You’re right. Jane has been surveilling me under the butler’s orders. If she took something from the pharmacy, it’s likely to be fed to me.”
“……You knew?”
So, she had knowingly kept a spying maid by her side?
“That’s why you shouldn’t drink the Sanjoin…”
“No.”
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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