A tanned young man shouted loudly as he parked his cart in front of the store.
“Delivery is here!”
“Hello, Mr. Colin?”
The teahouse owner came out of the shop and greeted him with an energetic attitude. Then she looked over Colin’s shoulder at the cart and said.
“Mr. James didn’t come with you?”
“Ah, no, he said he had an urgent matter……”
Colin’s face reddened at the end of his words. He was suddenly reminded of the fact that he had asked his colleague to leave so he could have a meeting alone with the shop owner he had been fond of.
“I see.”
Melly didn’t suspect anything. She handed him one of the two water bottles in her hand and said.
“Then take this. It’s cold black tea.”
The young man received the bottle with a touched expression.
“Drink it while it’s cool.”
“Ah…… yes.”
He opened the lid as instructed. But after taking just one sip, he immediately closed the lid. He wanted to savor the tea she had given him.
He carefully placed the bottle on the cart like an expensive ornament, then unbuttoned his sleeve.
He had to roll up his sleeves to show off his arms that had become quite toned from working out hard. After rolling up his sleeves above his elbows, he rotated his shoulders a couple times so she could see well, then said.
“Please wait a moment, I’ll move it right away.”
Then he headed to the cargo hold.
There were two sacks of tea leaves that looked quite heavy.
Colin always used to lift and move two sacks at once with James.
But today he intended to show her that he could lift them alone in front of her.
Hnngh-.
After exerting so much force that blood rushed to his face, he barely managed to lift the sacks. And as he carefully turned around.
“……”
He was so startled by the suddenly large wall blocking his path that his arms lost strength.
But the sack didn’t fall to the ground. The sturdy man standing in front of him immediately caught what he had dropped.
“Next time, lift only what you’re capable of.”
The man who he thought was a huge wall, Edric, turned around with a cold warning.
Easily carrying what he had struggled to lift.
The young man’s gaze blankly stared at the man’s thick forearms marked with several scars.
“Thank you for your hard work today, Mr. Colin. Take care on your way back.”
“……”
Melly greeted him kindly and then ran over to the man.
Standing next to him and looking up at the man with a smile, her profile was brighter and more beautiful than the warm autumn sunlight.
The young man felt defeated in many ways as he lowered his sleeves.
[This is the timeline separator]“Why did you come out? They would have carried it in themselves.”
Melly said. Edric replied as he set down the sack.
“That’s why.”
“……What do you mean?”
When Melly asked with a puzzled look, Edric’s eyes narrowed.
“In case he tries to make a move while helping carry the sacks during lunch time when there are no customers.”
“What?”
Melly burst out laughing and waved her hand.
“What nonsense.”
“……”
“Colin isn’t that kind of person. Besides, he has no interest in me.”
Melly shook her head as if she couldn’t understand how he could imagine such a thing, then squatted down and opened the sack.
Watching her, Edric let out a small sigh.
‘She’s still so oblivious about these things.’
No one blushes in front of a woman they’re not interested in. No one neatly combs their hair and wears well-ironed shirts and pants to work for a woman they have no interest in.
Edric couldn’t understand how Melly couldn’t see what was so obvious to him, but he didn’t feel particularly unpleasant about it.
It also meant that she had no feelings for that guy.
Edric sat down next to her with a satisfied smile.
“What are you doing?”
Melly replied as she took tea leaves out of the open sack and divided them into two baskets.
“I’m sorting the tea leaves. The good quality ones and the lower quality ones.”
“I’ll help.”
Edric offered.
“Tell me how to do it.”
“First, you separate the ones that aren’t dried or folded. Those are the highest quality.”
Melly explained while demonstrating. Edric immediately followed suit.
“Like this?”
“No, that one’s tip is broken.”
“Then this one?”
“That’s also not quite……”
Melly shook her head with an awkward smile.
Edric, who had seemed perfect in every way, was showing quite a few clumsy sides lately. Like how he brewed tea last time.
But Melly didn’t tell him ‘I’ll do it alone, you just rest’.
She enjoyed being with Edric even if the work progressed a bit more slowly. Also.
“No, that one should go in the other basket. The color has faded.”
She liked nagging at Edric. It made her feel like they were finally a proper married couple. Though she couldn’t smack her husband’s back like her old school friends did.
A happy smile spread across Melly’s face.
Edric also felt good seeing that expression.
He had thought he wouldn’t like being nagged at by a woman. He had even looked down on his colleagues who were henpecked by their wives. Thinking how pathetic they must be.
But as he listened to Melly giggle and kindly teach him every time he made a wrong choice, he felt strangely pleased.
She even looked alluring as she pressed close to him with sparkling eyes to instruct him.
He wanted to keep seeing her like that. So he kept picking strangely shaped tea leaves as if he didn’t understand.
“No, not that……”
Melly sighed good-naturedly and showed him a pretty shaped tea leaf.
“Look here. You need to pick ones that look like this. See?”
“……”
Suddenly, some impulse spurred Edric on. He took off the glasses he was wearing and put them on Melly’s face.
Through blurry vision, he saw Melly’s dumbfounded face.
“What are you doing?”
“Just wear them for a bit.”
Edric said as Melly frowned and tried to take off the glasses.
“They suit you well right now.”
“……Me?”
Melly looked around in disbelief.
Then she peered intently at her faint reflection in the metal storage container in the corner of the shop and narrowed her eyes.
“I look like a boarding school matron, and you say this suits me well?”
Edric nodded and whispered in her ear.
“You look very pretty right now.”
“……”
“Enough to make me want to have you.”
Melly swallowed hard at the whisper tickling her skin. But she soon burst out laughing and said.
“Stop teasing me.”
“I’m not teasing though?”
“Then, you’re serious?”
Melly looked at him. He blinked his seductive eyes slowly.
“N-No way……”
Melly looked around with a flustered expression and asked.
“In broad daylight?”
“Your room isn’t broad daylight.”
He added with eyes full of lust.
“If we close the curtains.”
At those words, the tea leaves fell from Melly’s hands like autumn leaves.
“What nonsense—Eek!”
Before Melly could finish speaking, her body was lifted up by his strong arms.
“No, lunch break ends in just 30 minutes.”
“If we hurry, we can do it twice.”
Edric showed no signs of backing down. Melly’s struggling resistance gradually weakened.
Thinking that since it had come to this, she might as well get it over with quickly, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
The two headed towards her room.
Click-.
Even the sound of the door locking seemed provocative, while the tea leaves left behind emitted a subtle fragrance, waiting for their owner to return and sort them quickly.
It had become a daily occurrence now.
[This is the timeline separator]Just as Melly’s hand fumbling on the shelf found the pocket watch, a large hand snatched it away from her.
“There’s still plenty of time, so lie down a bit longer.”
It was partly because he wanted her to rest more after being exhausted from accepting him, but also partly because he selfishly wanted to press his body against hers a little longer.
Edric hugged her from behind and buried his face in her smooth bare shoulder.
Melly said resignedly.
“Alright, I’ll lie down for five more minutes.”
He nodded in agreement, and Melly, whose senses were heightened to the limit, flinched even at that as it felt stimulating.
While struggling to calm her overly sensitive nerves, he suddenly called her name.
“Melly.”
“……”
“Won’t you come live in that house?”
For a moment, she couldn’t tell which house he meant. Melly asked.
“That house……”
“The two-story house at the edge of town, where you had dinner the other day.”
Ah…….
Melly let out a quiet sigh of relief. For a moment she thought he might mean the duke’s mansion. She didn’t want to leave this place yet.
“What about you? You…… need to return to the duke’s mansion, don’t you?”
“Why would I when you’re here?”
“But you have work to do, don’t you?”
She was referring to his duties at the imperial palace.
“Melly.”
She felt his breath tinged with laughter on her shoulder.
“Even if I don’t go, they’ll come looking for me. The one who needs something always seeks out the one who doesn’t.”
He added as he lightly bit Melly’s shoulder.
“Just like how I came looking for you.”
“……”
A strange sensation bloomed from the slightly stinging skin.
Melly quickly accepted his proposal before getting aroused again.
“Alright, I will.”
But she added a condition.
“In a few days.”
“Why not right away?”
“I want to organize some things.”
At those words, Edric showed a displeased expression, but he did as she wished.
“Okay. Though it doesn’t look like you have much to organize.”
He said as he scanned the few pieces of furniture and items in the room with his eyes. But what Melly wanted to organize wasn’t belongings. It was the secret she harbored.
Now she intended to tell him.
‘Edric. You have a child.’
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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