In front of me, who was perplexed, Cedar slowly knelt down.
Then, taking out a small box from his pocket and holding it out, he said,
“Will you marry me, Nelly?”
“Uh…”
Inside the box was a diamond ring.
It sparkled brilliantly, reflecting the light of the garden lamps that were lit to keep the darkness at bay. I froze, my eyes wide open.
‘A wedding ring!’
I had heard that in the social contract relationship of marriage, a wedding ring is used instead of a contract document.
But given our situation, we didn’t have the opportunity to exchange such items.
We had already become husband and wife, skipping all the steps.
‘But Cedar was going through those steps carefully from the beginning.’
Now I understood Cedar’s words.
His talk about spending time together to close the emotional distance rather than physical intimacy, the slowly and carefully progressing skinship.
And now, having completed all those steps, he was presenting me with a wedding ring.
It was also a symbol of taking a step towards a true marriage.
‘I thought, we’re already married, so what does it matter, and acted as I pleased.’
Cedar was always more sensitive than me.
I fidgeted with my fingers, reflecting on my own dullness.
As I kept fidgeting with my fingers without taking the ring or giving an answer, Cedar narrowed his eyes.
“Just in case, don’t say something like, ‘Can we get married again when we’re already married?'”
“I, I wasn’t thinking that! No matter how dull I am, I wouldn’t ruin the mood like that!”
I quickly held out my hand.
“I’m happy.”
There wasn’t much change in Cedar’s expression, but his earlobes had turned red.
Somehow, seeing that made me laugh, and I giggled mischievously.
His large hand grasped my finger and slipped the ring on.
True to his good eye, the ring fit my finger perfectly.
“I’ll cherish the ring.”
At my answer, Cedar smiled slightly.
[This is the timeline separator]On the day of the summer ball, Grisha visited Cedar’s mansion.
He thought Cedar would surely be away attending the summer ball.
But unexpectedly, the mansion was very busy. Grisha tilted his head.
‘I came to see Nelly, but there are a lot of people in the mansion today. What’s going on?’
As Grisha was peering around the mansion, a familiar face came out.
It was Hail, Cedar’s subordinate.
Maggie had helped Nelly, who needed to attend the ball, with her grooming, and Hail had followed Maggie.
Maggie clasped her hands together and said with a dreamy expression,
“The lady is so cute and lovely. Everyone at the ball will be unable to take their eyes off her.”
Following behind her with a makeup box, Hail didn’t miss the chance to express his affection for Maggie.
“To my eyes, Maggie, you’re the loveliest.”
“Oh my.”
After that, the couple’s affectionate exchange continued, but Grisha no longer heard it.
Grisha, with a pale face, went over what he had just heard.
‘A ball? Nelly is going to a ball? Then that means Nelly’s status as my brother’s wife will be made official.’
The summer ball held today is one of the biggest events among those taking place at the imperial palace.
The reason Grisha had expected Cedar not to be at the mansion today was because he was certain Cedar would never miss it.
‘But she’s going today?’
That was equivalent to introducing Nelly as Mrs. Granite to all the nobles in the capital.
Grisha’s hands trembled.
‘No. That can’t be. Nelly hasn’t even answered my confession yet…’
He had confessed his feelings to Nelly.
She hadn’t even given an answer to that, but attending the ball with Cedar had a clear meaning.
But Grisha couldn’t believe this situation itself.
He was convinced that he and Nelly were the closest in the world.
Even if there was a brief period of separation, he didn’t think Cedar would not only wedge himself in between but also steal Nelly’s heart.
A carriage not usually used was waiting in front of the entrance to attend the summer ball.
Grisha anxiously waited for Cedar to come out of the mansion.
How much time had passed?
In reality, it probably wasn’t a long time, but each moment felt as heavy as a thousand gold pieces.
It was when Grisha was rubbing his cold hands together.
The mansion door opened, and the person he had been waiting for so long appeared.
‘Nelly.’
Wearing a pretty dress and with bright makeup, Nelly exuded a completely different atmosphere than usual.
As she stumbled slightly, unaccustomed to her shoes, Cedar naturally supported her arm.
Both holding hands and linking arms seemed all too familiar.
It felt like everything was turning black before his eyes.
Suddenly unable to breathe, Grisha staggered and leaned against a nearby tree.
‘She really chose my brother. She decided to live with him. Abandoning me…’
Clearly, it was his heart that was hurting, but his whole body seemed to ache. Grisha squeezed his eyes shut.
He tried to recall the image of the Nelly he loved, but the image of Nelly in a dress overlaid all those memories. His eyes reddened.
‘…No. This can’t be true.’
Despite seeing the couple’s affectionate behavior, Grisha still couldn’t easily accept the situation.
Staggering, Grisha stood up again.
Grisha could also attend the summer ball.
Unable to let go of the thin hope that the couple might not be heading to the summer ball, Grisha headed to the imperial palace.
And only when he saw the two entering side by side did he reluctantly accept reality.
Unable to bear watching the two dance together, Grisha stayed outside the ballroom.
Behind him, he could hear the sounds of laughter and music, but his heart sank deep like the ocean.
Grisha looked up.
His heart hurt so much that he couldn’t even cry. Only emptiness rushed in like a tide, as if there was a huge hole in his heart.
‘Why did everyone choose my brother? What do I lack compared to him?’
Both his father and Nelly had chosen Cedar.
With the successive rejections from meaningful people, Grisha felt a helplessness as if he had become the most useless person in the world.
‘Damn it.’
Just as he lowered his head, muttering a curse under his breath,
“Damn it! This is ridiculous!”
The exact same curse erupted from behind him at the same moment.
For a moment, thinking he had spoken aloud, Grisha jumped up and turned around in surprise.
The person who had roughly walked out, opening the terrace door, was none other than Nelly’s sister, Diana.
The wine that Lady Briar had spilled was fruit wine, so Diana’s whole body was sticky.
As she wiped her neck and chest with a handkerchief, Diana, unable to contain her anger, threw the handkerchief to the ground.
Then, stamping her feet so that her shoe heels made a clanking sound, she shouted,
“I was told this couldn’t happen! Did everyone deceive me?”
Even if the door was closed, if she shouted like that, people nearby would hear.
Grisha thought she was indeed a stupid woman and looked at Diana with cold eyes.
After venting her frustration on the floor for a while, Diana bit her nails and poured out her resentment towards Nelly as well.
“Elder sister is really too much. How can she be so cold to her only sister? She’s not my elder sister anymore.”
Despite her own wrongdoings, she only blamed Nelly, which was utterly disgraceful.
‘She doesn’t seem to know that Nelly was aware of all her schemes. What a disgusting woman.’
What was even more appalling was that, judging by her mutterings, she wasn’t unaware of what she had done wrong.
Despite her wrongdoings, she was arguing that Nelly should naturally forgive and protect her.
She was a typical self-centered egoist.
Her final words ended in a curse towards everyone.
“I won’t let this go! I’ll get revenge somehow!”
Having squandered her inherited wealth on luxury and with her title about to be stripped, it was admirable how she planned to take revenge.
As Grisha was looking at Diana with contempt, his eyes suddenly sparkled.
‘But I might be able to use this woman.’
Her greed and tenacity were above average, so there would surely be a use for her if handled well.
With that calculation, Grisha smiled and spoke to Diana.
“I think I might be able to help with that revenge.”
“Huh! Wh-who…?”
Diana, who thought she was alone and had been shouting her innermost thoughts, was startled.
After committing all sorts of misdeeds, she quickly tried to manage her expression, pretending to be fragile, which again turned Grisha’s stomach.
But Grisha didn’t show it.
‘I need to use that side of her.’
Diana’s eyebrows twisted greatly when she recognized Grisha emerging from the darkness.
“Grisha Granite?”
Grisha held out his hand towards Diana.
“Shall we discuss how to take revenge?”
He hadn’t given up on Nelly yet.
[This is the timeline separator]After returning from the ball, I fell ill.
‘It’s understandable, I suppose.’
I hadn’t done any outside activities until now, and the summer ball was too grand a scale for a debut.
‘Unfamiliar makeup, dress, and shoes…’
As I lay in bed, tightly wrapped in blankets, Cedar placed his palm on my forehead and asked,
“It doesn’t seem like you have a fever. Is there anywhere else that hurts?”
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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