“No matter how busy, still…”
“It’s because of you that I’m hurt, so you have to take responsibility.”
At times like this, he seemed just like the young boy from long ago. A child that would annoyingly follow her around and throw tantrums.
Adel obediently smiled and nodded her head.
“Okay. I’ll get the medicine ready.”
“Only you, Adel. There’s no one else.”
He winked at Adel, melting her heart. Just like when he was a boy.
“Don’t smile like that. People will misunderstand our relationship.”
“Just from this?”
Christine brushed Adel’s hair with his finger and lightly kissed her forehead.
“…!”
Startled, Adel looked at him, and he squinted his eyes.
“At least this much should be done to make the misunderstanding less regrettable.”
He waved his hand largely and strode away.
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]‘Really, what does he want…’
Even after Christine left, Adel stood there blankly for a while.
Her heart kept pounding.
Every time she saw him, she became greedy.
Even though she should wish for him and April to be well in her mind, she couldn’t graciously let him go.
The thought of him marrying another woman made her chest tight, and all she had were twisted thoughts.
She wanted to have him. She wanted to stop his marriage.
“By any means…”
Muttering, Adel suddenly turned her head, startled by her foolish thoughts.
She quickly turned her body and ran into Seira coming from the opposite direction.
For a brief moment, Seira seemed to have aged about 10 years. The ridiculous figure of her clutching her stomach and stumbling as she was supported by Lady Hans was ridiculous.
“What did this wicked creature do to the dessert!”
Seeing Adel, she lunged at her as if to tear her hair out, but again received a strange signal and clutched her stomach.
“Aaaagh!”
In the meantime, Adel approached calmly.
“What did you do, Seira?”
“Ugh, what nonsense!”
“Who was it that sprinkled that strange powder instead of sugar powder on the Princess’s dessert? I just switched it.”
Seira’s face hardened. Adel had caught her in the act.
But she wasn’t one to give in and retreat meekly.
“Don’t force it! You poisoned the dessert. I’m going to tell everyone!”
Adel shrugged her shoulders calmly.
“As you like. Everyone else is fine, and you’re the only one like that, so I don’t know who will believe whom. And I’m going to tell everything I saw.”
Seira could no longer say anything.
Until recently, no one had believed what Adel said. No matter how true Adel’s words were, a few words from Seira and her minions made it the truth.
But now the situation was different. Vice Count Bice was behind Adel. If he takes Adel’s side and investigates, everything Seira has done will be revealed. If Vice Count Bice is willing, he can even make things Seira didn’t do seem as if she did.
He was the second most powerful person in this imperial palace, after the Emperor.
“You dirty woman! How long do you think you can hide behind the Count and laugh?”
“I’ve never hidden behind the Count. It’s you who’s been hiding behind your family’s name and doing bad things.”
“This is the real deal!”
But Seira could no longer hold back, and she screamed in pain, clung to Lady Hans, and said, “Again… Go… Ahhh…!”
“Do you need to use the toilet again?”
Lady Hans asked bluntly, and Seira shouted back nervously, “What a vulgar thing to say! I left something behind, that’s all!”
“Ah, I understand.”
Lady Hans supported her again and returned the way they came.
Watching them, Adel smiled bitterly.
Until not long ago, I would involuntarily shrink back whenever I saw Seira. No matter how boldly I acted on the outside, the people of Oswald always felt threatening to me. Once they disappeared from my sight, I would feel so tense that my whole body would tremble.
But now was different from then. Perhaps I unconsciously trusted Christine, a sturdy support. Like Seira said, hiding behind him and pretending to be great.
And I was even greedily wishing for him.
“Adel, you’re really shameless.”
But if this feeling isn’t detected, won’t it be okay?
Isn’t it okay to just stay by his side like a good sister, only watching?
So that no one gets hurt, no one gets wounded…
“Miss, were you here? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Then I heard Tanya’s voice. She seemed to have been searching for Adel everywhere, panting all the way to her chin.
“Sorry. You waited a long time. Let’s go back quickly.”
“But where did you put the ribbon?”
Wasn’t it Adel who had been worried about it all the way in the carriage?
“Huh?”
Adel was surprised and quickly touched her head. Indeed, the green ribbon that had been tied to her hair was gone.
She had definitely been wearing it until she went to meet the Empress…
It was certain that she had dropped it after parting with the Empress. Then, she must have lost it somewhere in the Imperial Palace garden.
“Just wait a moment. I’ll find it quickly.”
“Miss!”
Tanya called out, but Adel was already running off into the distance.
It was a gift from Christine, no less.
Not just for 10 years, but something she wanted to keep for a lifetime.
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]“You really are patient, Your Majesty!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you plan to leave the Viscount and the Duchess just like that?”
Adel, who was retracing her steps to find the ribbon, stopped.
From behind the tall shrubs of the garden, she heard the conversation between the Emperor and Empress. There was no one around, and their voices were lower than usual, as if sharing a secret conversation.
But Adel couldn’t leave. They were talking about her and Christine.
“They are like siblings.”
“Ha, siblings? If they are siblings, then you and I are siblings too. The atmosphere between the Duchess and him was far from normal.”
“Ha ha ha!”
“Don’t just laugh. Tell the Viscount to leave that house soon. What will you do if he’s bewitched by that horrible woman and loses his mind!”
“The truth is, I ordered him to get close to the Duchess.”
“You did, Your Majesty?”
“There’s something I need to find.”
“Find? From that woman?”
“Yes. There’s a document left by the deceased Duke, and I think the Duchess might have it.”
“So, you’re saying the Viscount approached her on purpose to find that document?”
“Yes. So act like you don’t know. In a month, he’ll find the document, and there will be a grand engagement ceremony with April.”
“Oh, I didn’t know, and I was needlessly…”
Tuk! Tuk! Tuduk!
Then suddenly raindrops started to fall.
The sound of the Emperor and Empress hastily leaving the place reached her ears.
But Adel stood in place, her face pale, unable to move a muscle.
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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