“What an unscrupulous bastard. How dare you try to slander the Duchess and now ask for help.”
Mikhail spoke with an icy expression, as if frost had settled on his face.
“Just give the order and I’ll take care of it.”
“I was wrong! Please spare me.”
Gennon kept wailing and begging for his life with a tearful face.
“……”
She didn’t care whether such a good-for-nothing died from torture or not, but there was something he needed to do.
“Ferguson Gennon.”
Karina set the mood with a stern expression and spoke the words she had prepared.
“I heard you’ve been showing interest in me and making advances?”
“Pardon?”
Karina spoke in a clear voice to the bewildered Gennon.
“I heard you persistently tried to meet me in secret, taking advantage of when His Grace the Duke was away?”
“Me? No, that’s not true!”
Gennon denied it vehemently.
“Who on earth said such a thing!”
“I heard it directly from Caroline, so there’s no use denying it.”
“……!?”
At those words, not only Gennon but also Mikhail looked at Karina with a surprised expression.
“She told me to be careful because you might try something foolish at today’s charity event.”
“Who… who said that? Who said such a thing?”
“Who else? Caroline, of course.”
The corners of Karina’s mouth curled up as she spoke.
“Lady Caroline said that?”
“Yes. Thanks to Caroline, I was able to prepare so perfectly like this. To make you fall for your own trap.”
When Caroline’s name came up, Gennon looked surprised and dumbfounded.
He had been anxiously waiting for someone from Caroline’s side to contact him.
But hearing Caroline’s name in this way when there had been no news made him very flustered.
Moreover, it answered the question of how Karina was able to gather people in the next room in advance.
As Karina said, it would have been impossible without Caroline’s tip-off.
As the situation fit together so perfectly, Gennon momentarily fell for it completely.
While Gennon was shaken by the sudden feeling of betrayal that welled up,
Mikhail was looking back at Karina with an expression that seemed to ask what this was all about.
‘You just stay quiet for a moment.’
“……”
When Karina gave him a look, Mikhail slightly composed his expression.
Fortunately, Gennon could only see the back of Mikhail’s head, so he didn’t notice the exchange of glances between him and Karina.
“Did Lady Caroline really… really say that?”
Karina turned a cold gaze to Gennon, who asked again in a tone of disbelief.
“I already told you I heard everything from Caroline. She said you were so persistent it gave her goosebumps. Are you still going to play dumb?”
“……!”
Gennon seemed at a loss for words, dumbfounded by Karina’s words.
“You tried to deceive and insult not just me, but His Grace the Duke as well. Furthermore, you tried to disgrace House Colsberg. How despicable.”
When she pressed him, mentioning Jeremiah, Gennon strongly denied it.
“I never did such a thing! Please let me meet Lady Caroline! I’ll ask her directly!”
“You want to meet her in person?”
Karina, pretending to put on a frightening expression, spoke in a warning voice.
“What are you going to do? Try to pin false accusations on Caroline this time?”
“I don’t know what Lady Caroline said, but it’s all lies!”
Gennon shouted, grabbing the prison bars and venting his frustration.
“As expected.”
Karina glared at Gennon with a look of contempt.
“Caroline was right. She said you might deny it and even try to paint her as a liar. Her words were spot on, weren’t they?”
Gennon protested with an utterly aggrieved expression.
“It’s really not true! They’re trying to pin everything on me! In fact, it was Lady Caroline who instigated this whole affair!”
Gennon, completely fooled by Karina’s lie, confessed the truth, shaking with a sense of betrayal.
“Please call His Grace the Duke right now! I’ll tell him everything truthfully! I’ve been wronged!”
Gennon burst out in indignation.
‘How can you feel so wronged when you’re all in it together?’
Karina found it ridiculous, but she continued her act, pretending to be surprised with wide eyes.
“Is that really true?”
“It’s true! I was deceived too! I was just used, nothing more!”
Gennon desperately pleaded that he had been wronged.
“Are you saying it was really Caroline who instigated this?”
When Karina looked at him with an expression of disbelief, Gennon begged, clasping his hands together.
“This is really true. Please believe me!”
“……”
Karina pretended to be confused, keeping her mouth tightly shut and staring at Gennon for a while.
“Do you have any evidence to prove what you’re saying?”
“……!”
At the mention of evidence, Gennon hesitated and avoided her gaze.
“Seeing as you can’t speak, it seems it was a lie after all. You should prepare yourself.”
Leaving those words, Karina turned away coldly.
“Your Grace! Wa-wait a moment!”
Gennon reached out through the bars and spoke urgently.
“There’s evidence in the safe in my study at home! It’s in a drawer that only I can open. If you let me out of here for a moment, I swear I’ll bring the evidence!”
Hearing this, Karina turned around with her eyes wide open and spoke in a low voice.
“You must really think I’m a fool, don’t you?”
An icy aura emanated from Karina.
“……!”
Gennon flinched when he met Karina’s sharp gaze.
It was different from what Caroline had said about her being a weak and timid woman.
In the end, he knelt down and begged pitifully.
“I… I’m sorry. The key to the drawer… if you look behind the frame on top of the safe, you’ll find it. Please let me out of here once you find and verify the evidence. Please?”
Gennon groveled, lowering himself completely to avoid the imminent crisis.
In response to his plea to find the evidence and save him, Karina narrowed her eyes and replied coldly.
“The evidence in the safe had better be as useful as you claim.”
Gennon hung his head in discouragement.
[This is the timeline separator]At the same time.
Jeremiah, who had followed Karina.
‘The prison? Why did the Duchess come here?’
A puzzled look crossed Jeremiah’s face.
‘Don’t tell me she came to meet that Gennon bastard instead of for an escort?’
She had asked to postpone the punishment, and it seemed there was indeed something she was hiding.
But when he saw Mikhail waiting for her at the entrance of the prison, his mood sank even further.
‘What is she planning to do with that guard as well?’
He sensed Karina and Mikhail, who had entered the prison together, heading towards the cell where Gennon was confined.
Jeremiah stood outside the prison building, listening to the conversation flowing out from the small window.
“I heard you’ve been showing interest in me and making advances?”
‘Been showing interest?’
Jeremiah’s eyebrows twitched.
“I heard you persistently tried to meet me in secret, taking advantage of when His Grace the Duke was away?”
‘When I’m not around… in secret?’
At those words, Jeremiah’s expression darkened severely.
Jeremiah vowed that he would absolutely not let the bastard in the prison off easily.
But Gennon denied it frantically and came out with unexpected words.
“It’s not true! It’s all lies! In fact, it was Lady Caroline who instigated this whole affair!”
“……!?”
‘What?’
Jeremiah’s expression turned grim.
‘Sister did that?’
Surprise and bewilderment washed over him at the completely unexpected content of the conversation.
After listening to the entire exchange between Karina and Gennon while standing rooted to the spot, Jeremiah moved with heavy steps towards his office.
Ron, his adjutant and the captain of the knights, who had immediately rushed to Jeremiah’s summons, bowed to him.
“You called for me?”
“There’s something to investigate.”
Ron sensed an ominous chill in Jeremiah’s voice.
Ron swallowed his tension and lowered his head.
“Please give your orders.”
“Search through all the actions of Ferguson Gennon, who’s imprisoned. Search his mansion thoroughly, from the study to the bedroom and basement, every nook and cranny without missing anything.”
“……”
“Especially, bring the entire safe in that bastard’s study.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Ron wondered how Jeremiah knew about the safe in the Ferguson house’s study, but he didn’t ask.
“And……”
Jeremiah’s eyes sank coldly.
“I need to know everything my sister has been up to lately.”
“Lady Caroline?”
Ron was taken aback by the sudden order to investigate the Grand Duchess.
“Yes, understood.”
But being experienced, he quickly composed his expression and received the order before withdrawing.
Jeremiah looked out the window and recalled what he had heard earlier.
‘In fact, it was Lady Caroline who instigated this whole affair!’
‘There’s evidence in the safe in my study at home!’
Jeremiah frowned and scowled.
It was unsettling to simply dismiss it as nonsense when he was jumping up and down saying there was even evidence.
‘If everything I heard earlier is true……’
It means that it was his own sister who had schemed to throw Karina into a pit of misunderstanding.
“……”
Jeremiah pressed his throbbing temples with one hand.
Then suddenly, he remembered when Karina had asked to hand over the investigation rights for Gennon.
‘Could it be that she already knew about my sister being behind this incident and was preparing for it?’
Jeremiah had thought until now that his sister and Karina got along well.
He had heard that before Karina and Jeremiah got married, Caroline had attended a banquet in the capital and became acquainted and friendly with Karina when the young ladies gathered for social interactions.
So he had thought that regardless of the fact that he and Karina were not close as a couple, those two got along reasonably well.
‘I heard the Duchess relied a lot on my sister. Was the report wrong?’
But he thought that what he had known might not be the truth.
“Huu.”
Jeremiah’s anguish deepened.
[This is the timeline separator]“Your Grace, was everything you said earlier a lie?”
As soon as they left the prison, Mikhail asked.
Karina smiled and answered his question.
“Of course. I just led him to confess the truth with his own mouth.”
“I thought so. You’re an amazing actor. I almost fell for it myself.”
“Is that a compliment?”
Mikhail just grinned in response to Karina’s question.
“But Your Grace, I’m curious about something.”
“What now?”
“Did you know in advance that something would happen at today’s event?”
“Uh…?”
Karina stumbled for a moment at Mikhail’s sudden question that hit the mark.
“No? How could that be?”
“Hmm.”
Mikhail made a noise through his nose, with an expression that said he knew she would answer like that.
His gaze lingered on Karina as if asking if it was really true.
Under his steady stare, Karina awkwardly added an excuse.
“Caroline had been constantly telling me to attend the tea party for days, so I just guessed she might be planning something.”
“How much did you know and prepare for?”
“Know and prepare? There’s nothing like that. Today’s preparations were just in case.”
“Ah, just in case……”
Mikhail drawled in response to Karina’s unconvincing answer.
“Then your prediction that the Grand Duchess’s maid would approach that guy was also just a guess?”
“That’s right……”
Karina avoided his gaze as she evaded.
“Hmm, I see.”
Mikhail smiled enigmatically.
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]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
