“Why is he interfering to the point of dictating whether I accept gifts or not?”
Etienne muttered as if she was annoyed.
[I’ve been waiting all this time, and you come barging in the middle. Etienne, remember this well. I’m the one who likes you. I feel good and excited just by looking at your face. What? Rejection? Why are you trying to muddy my feelings with those words again? I don’t understand why you worry about tomorrow when I already died once. I know it’s not important.]He even laid out his unjust feelings. Etienne’s heart after meeting him was not light at all. It seemed better to meet Prince Rudvi and hear the threat than to deal with this.
“Why are you doing this… No, does saying that make you think I like you?”
Because he’s the type to say whatever he wants, he made Etienne even more flustered. It was challenging to ignore him when he shamelessly insisted on saying whatever he pleased.
[I’m thinking of a solution, so wait a moment. Don’t give in to Rudvi under any circumstances.]That was the extent of the conversation with Leharht. Ultimately, there wasn’t anything particularly important said. Just advising not to meet Prince Rudvi and expressing his feelings.
“Did I come here for nothing?”
It felt like adding an unexpected stone, so Etienne thumped her chest with her fist. At that moment, she heard someone’s footsteps. When Etienne turned to see where the sound was coming from, Sijongjang had approached.
“Someone wishes to see the young lady.”
If Sijongjang had come and brought her, it must be someone of considerable status. Etienne nodded silently and followed him. Somehow, today, she couldn’t move around the imperial palace as freely as she wanted.
Thinking about someone who wanted to see her, she assumed it could be one of the nobles. It could be Prince Rudvi or even his birth mother, Hena Hwangbi.
In the midst of it, the thought of the Empress crossed her mind. However, even though she might know that Etienne was spending time with Leharht, she never came looking for her. So she quickly ruled her out as a candidate.
“The Empress, Mama, huh.”
However, her expectation was wrong. Etienne murmured as she looked up at the large door. A door, big enough that she wondered if she could open it alone, was right in front of her. One side of the door was even longer than her arm.
Was this how a prince’s palace looked? Come to think of it, it seemed that way.
“But why does it feel different like this.”
The answer came quickly. In the prince’s palace, there was no door blocking her path. It was always open, allowing her to come and go without the need to stop.
Thanks to the Empress, I became aware of Leharht’s unexpected consideration. My already troubled heart became even more restless.
“The Empress Mama requests your presence.”
Sijongjang, who had gone inside, came out and said. Only then did the door open, allowing Etienne to enter.
Etienne tried to maintain a calm expression as she entered. Since it was a meeting with the Empress, thoughts of being careful filled her mind.
Passing through the large and heavy-looking door, there was nothing blocking her path anymore.
As a result, her field of vision brightened, and it felt as if she were in a spacious hall, suitable for hosting a ball. From the woman seated at the most prestigious position, Etienne could feel her gaze.
Trying her best not to make eye contact with her, Etienne looked around. Most of the people, including attendants and knights, were preoccupied with observing the Empress and paid no attention to her.
“I greet Empress Mama. I am Etienne Claire.”
Etienne introduced herself with a curtsy. Now it was time to await the Empress’s response.
‘Mother of the Crown Prince.’
That was as far as Etienne’s thoughts went about the Empress. She assumed the Empress had called her to see her because of the Crown Prince. While contemplating such thoughts, the Empress’s voice reached her ears.
“Haven’t we met up close before?”
There were no words like, ‘Oh, you’re Etienne’ or ‘You look good with the Crown Prince,’ nothing of that sort.
‘Have we met up close before?’
Even in the form of a question, Etienne pondered earnestly. Since her father was a Marquis, there had been occasions when they entered the palace following her father’s status, and she had attended royal banquets.
She had also encountered the Crown Prince when they were younger, so it wasn’t that she had never crossed paths with the nobility.
However, encountering someone and mingling closely were different things. She had only briefly glimpsed the Crown Prince from a distance, and especially with the Empress, there had been no chance to meet.
When she was young, Etienne focused on reading books and didn’t often visit the palace when she grew up. There was no need to come to the castle when Leharht visited her, and she felt uncomfortable with Prince Ludvi’s affairs.
“I think I saw you when I was young.”
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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