You Can't Catch the Wind - Chapter 15

It was truly a day that passed without knowing how. Who could have thought that simply going out to run an errand would turn into such an eventful day?

Ael opened one of the boxes she had brought back with Jena. The lord had ordered most of the boxes to be moved to his study for further inspection, but he allowed the food items to be taken to the underground kitchen.

“Jena, I have something for you.”

“Really? What is it?”

At Ael’s words, Jena leaned in, wondering if there was something amazing again. Ael smiled, took something out of the box, and handed it to Jena.

“These are imperial cookies. I really wanted to give some to you too…”

“Oh my goodness! Look how pretty they are! They smell so good too!”

Jena received the cookies from Ael and jumped up and down, then carefully held them, afraid they might break, and kept looking at them in wonder from all angles.

Jena’s excitement continued thereafter.

Ael could understand her feelings. The box was full of not only tea and cookies but also fruits she had never seen before in her life.

However, there was something that made Ael even happier than all those gifts.

Ael’s gaze turned to her bag placed on the work table. Inside was the book she could now fully understand. The one he had explained to her all afternoon…

To think she had obtained the knowledge she had longed for so desperately.

Ael took out a cookie for herself from the box and put it in her mouth. The scent of butter filled her mouth along with just the right amount of sweetness and nuttiness.

With an incredibly happy face, Ael thought.

Today was truly a perfect day gifted to her.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since that eventful day.

For the first few days, the mansion was enveloped in an awkward atmosphere it had never experienced before. It was understandable, as it was the first time Ael had received such attention in this mansion.

The few servants would gossip about the incredible gifts they had seen that day whenever two or more of them gathered.

When Jena joined the group, the chatter became even more heated, momentarily setting aside their duties.

Lord and Lady Aradis would scold the servants loudly whenever they saw them like this and order them to return to their posts and do their work.

However, when everyone disappeared and they were left alone, they couldn’t hide the smiles that crept onto their faces.

This was because they had taken most of the luxury items Ael had received as gifts, except for the food.

The items that came out of the boxes were incredibly diverse, as if they had cleaned out an entire Ash Company branch. The moment Lord Aradis saw the high-quality fountain pen, he took it for himself as if it were only natural.

If the lord behaved this way, the lady was no less brazen.

She grabbed a small handbag, laughing that she had been meaning to buy something like this anyway, so it worked out well.

As a result, the delicately and elaborately embroidered handbag became the lady’s possession.

Naturally, Elize took all the other items meant for women.

Though she put it indirectly, she said that to heal her hurt feelings due to Ael’s lateness, she should show sincerity by handing over these gifts to her.

Thus, the gifts from Ash Company were torn apart and ended up in the possession of others.

Ael wasn’t particularly surprised or saddened. She had already anticipated this would happen.

More than half of the tea that Ash Company had filled the boxes with was used by Elize as gifts when she was invited to tea parties at other houses.

As for the cookies, with the excuse that they couldn’t be stored for long and the thinly veiled threat disguised as advice to show the virtue of sharing with others, most of them also ended up going to the lord and lady and Elize.

Despite everything being taken away like this, enough cookies remained for Ael to enjoy a few difficult afternoons with Jena.

Ael was satisfied with just that.

The one who actually got angry was Jena.

She fumed, unable to hide her anger, saying, “Those were all for the young lady! They were gifts for the young lady!”

Of course, she only raised her voice when she was in the kitchen, but Ael was already satisfied with the fact that there was someone who cared for her.

The gifts from Ash Company had another effect on the mansion.

Elize became a little more generous towards Ael.

On the day of the commotion, after he left, Ael handed Elize the paper bag she had been holding. It was full of high-quality stationery that Nisha had carefully prepared.

From the moment the envelope was opened, a faint scent of lily of the valley wafted up.

When Elize took them out, they were neatly organized by type in smaller envelopes with beautiful and elaborate patterns.

From the delicate colors to the faintly engraved patterns.

Even Elize, who had used some high-quality items before, had rarely touched such things.

When she immediately wrote a letter on it and sent it to the Grand Duke, the reply came back faster than usual.

Although the content wasn’t much longer than before, among the brief content was praise for Elize’s sense in choosing such beautiful stationery.

Despite having exchanged several letters with the Grand Duke before, this was the first time he had complimented her in this way, so Elize felt as if she could fly to the sky with happiness.

Elize had already been on edge, wary of Riena, the daughter of a marquis family.

Unlike herself, Riena was the daughter of a wealthy and prestigious family, and Elize had been tormented daily by delusions that Riena might capture the Grand Duke’s attention with her greater wealth and discernment.

In the midst of this, when the Grand Duke sent a letter praising her sense, she finally felt at ease, thinking that he had acknowledged her.

Satisfaction created ease and generosity in Elize.

So Elize was able to let go of all the irritation and anger she had been harboring all day when Ael was late.

Moreover, the tea that her maid had brought, almost as if snatching it, played a big role in raising Elize’s reputation.

At first, thinking it was a tea she had never heard of before, she took it as a gift to a tea party of an acquaintance she didn’t particularly like.

But the hostess became greatly excited as soon as she saw the name.

“This is the new imperial tea that was in the catalog that arrived yesterday. How did you get it first? They said deliveries wouldn’t start until next month at the earliest!”

To that question, Elize smiled as if it were nothing and replied.

“Ash Company received help from our family, and this was given as a gift in return.”

It wasn’t a lie. It was certainly something that Aelfrida had given and received help for.

But Elize’s answer left room for various interpretations in many ways to the people.

What kind of help could the Aradis family, mere fallen nobles, have given to obtain something that even the royal family and great nobles hadn’t yet gotten their hands on?

As most people do, those who heard Elize’s answer began to believe the most dramatic thing they could imagine as if they had seen it themselves.

In less than a few days, word spread that the Aradis family was a great benefactor to Ash Company and had saved their lives.

Elize no longer mentioned the matter, saying it was a lady’s comportment, and ostentatiously gave out the tea as gifts here and there.

Thanks to this, the number of families inviting Elize increased, if only to get the tea first.

This included wealthy and formal families who had previously looked down on Elize.

Receiving their invitations, Elize became convinced that her position had risen even higher.

After all, when she happened to run into Riena from the marquis family, she glared at her with an unpleasant expression.

Ael, unaware of these events, simply thought Elize was in a good mood because she had taken the gifts.

However, it wasn’t as if only worthless things were left for Ael.

Ael thought of the space under her bed. A place where worn blankets and occasionally borrowed books were hidden. Now that space was filled with boxes from Ash Company.

There were so many boxes received that day that even after Elize took her share and the lord and lady took theirs, countless boxes that had packaged Ash Company’s items remained.

Ael distributed some of them to those who wanted them and then brought the rest to her room. Then she organized her few possessions into them.

Until then, the storage in Ael’s room had only been old things with gaps or starting to rot darkly.

Clearing those away and neatly arranging the bright-colored boxes to organize her things made the room look much brighter just by that alone.

Then Ael made a large flower-shaped decoration with the ribbons that had wrapped the boxes and hung it beside her bed. It became the only item in Ael’s room that was purely decorative rather than functional.

Every time she went to sleep, Ael looked at the decoration attached to her bedside. She still couldn’t believe what had happened that day.

The day she received a gift for the first time in her life.

Ael had no doubt that it would be the most surprising and enjoyable day of her life.

As the commotion of that day was gradually forgotten, Ael returned to her usual life.

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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