So, clasping her hands together and placing them on her chest, as if praying, she conveyed her feelings as if to say,
“Thank you for helping me to be born into this world.”
“……”
“And thank you for letting me meet San.”
Sincerely expressing her gratitude, Gang opened her eyes again with a sparkle.
Then she pulled him into an embrace and opened her mouth.
“Tell me about our second and third meetings.”
“……”
“That’s a story in your memories too, right?”
Do you know? After hearing it, will I also recall memories I’ve forgotten?
She said with a smile.
While silently gazing at Gang, who was looking at the river with her head tilted, San, with a rather serious face, jokingly tossed out,
“For free?”
Smack.
Before the words could finish, she pressed her lips against his.
“Well, this is a prepayment.”
“……”
“I’ll charge you more for post-payment.”
“By the way, after the second meeting ends, there’s one more installment before entering the third meeting.”
“Call.”
She exclaimed readily with a smile.
Seeing her like that, Gang quietly smiled.
The second meeting took place when Gang, who had gone through adoption, turned seven.
It happened just before the accident that would bring a lifelong nightmare to her, at a sponsorship event organized by a charitable organization.
Moa and Ili, who were corporate members sponsoring various places, had attended with their son San, and Gang’s adoptive parents were also there.
“Oh my, those people over there.”
Gang’s adoptive parents, who overheard the nearby conversation, turned their heads along with everyone’s gaze.
Among the sponsors, there were Moa and Ili, a couple who always drew attention.
“Oh my goodness. Our son is already quite handsome.”
“That’s right. Didn’t he inherit his father’s appearance perfectly?”
“Looks like a child from a well-off family, which household could it be?”
Since there was no contact last year, and they couldn’t even exchange greetings, they decided to build a friendship this year.
Moa, who warmly responded to Gang’s adoptive parents who approached them, quickly showed interest in young Gang.
“The child’s eyes seem very clear and bright.”
“Yes. She’s a precious daughter we raised with love, born in our hearts.”
“I see.”
They tried their best to win the favor of the couple, without necessarily revealing the fact of their adoption.
“Looking at it, our son seems to be around the same age as our child. How old is he?”
“He’s seven years old.”
“Oh my. Our daughter is the same age! Hoho! This must be fate. Let’s communicate occasionally and get along.”
Reading the couple’s eagerness, Ili chuckled quietly, and Moa bent her knees, bowing her upper body to align her gaze with Gang’s.
Then she greeted warmly.
“Hello, beautiful girl. You’ve really grown well.”
“Do you know me?”
“Well, maybe yes, maybe no.”
She spoke so softly that it could be heard only by Gang, with a warm smile.
“You will become a sparkling adult.”
Although Moa’s words were not in young Gang’s memory, they felt like a magical spell.
How does she know me?
Thinking such, Gang, as if the person treating her knew her future, was genuinely curious about her intentions.
“Why do you say such things to me?”
So, when she asked, Moa lightly stroked Gang’s head and said,
“Because you’re the child I prayed for blessings.”
Saying so, she instructed her son San to greet as well.
“San. Say hello.”
At Moa’s words, Gang’s adoptive parents cheekily intervened, pushing the young girl’s back and said on her behalf,
“Hello, handsome little friend. I’m called Seo Gang.”
Being nudged forward, Gang took the initiative to greet first.
“Hello.”
As he faced her clear and shining eyes, he responded to her greeting a beat late.
“Hello.”
“……”
“I’m Hansan.”
“Wow, isn’t the name as impressive as the face? Let’s be close from now on! Hohoho.”
Gang’s adoptive parents chimed in again, answering on her behalf.
That was the second meeting.
Hearing the story, Gang opened her eyes wide, seemingly losing track, and lowered her gaze as if perplexed.
“Don’t you remember?”
Even when San, lying opposite, asked with a playful smile, she couldn’t respond.
It was because she couldn’t understand why, with her memory still intact from when she was younger, she couldn’t remember San.
“It’s strange. Even though you were young, the visual wasn’t easy to forget… Why can’t I remember?”
“Well, it could be because you were in a state of nervousness.”
It wasn’t a lie, but Ili, who was also her father, almost as a habit, erased their existence from the memories of people they had met.
Living in hiding, it was not beneficial to linger in the memories of strangers.
Perhaps unknowingly, they had blurred their memories for Gang’s adoptive parents and, to a lesser extent, had put a light hypnotic spell on young Gang.
However, she nodded in agreement to his words, belatedly nodding her head.
“Yeah. I was always in a state of great tension when I went to such big events.”
Knowing Gang’s adoptive parents’ tendency and ambition to attach great importance to how one appeared in the eyes of others, Gang always felt tense when attending such significant events.
Always maintaining a proper attitude and posture, even preparing short dialogues and responses to memorize in advance, that was what they were like.
“I can’t remember, and you can’t remember. I wish I could remember.”
In response to Gang’s words, San gently stroked her cheek and smiled.
“It’s okay.”
“……”
“I remember, so it’s fine.”
It was true.
Although he was young, the image of Gang, whom he had first met when he was seven, was deeply engraved in his mind.
Mother told him to remember that child well, but even if there hadn’t been such an admonition from Mother, after returning from that place, San had never once erased Gang from his mind.
No, it hadn’t been erased.
Whether willingly or unwillingly, the reason he could not help but hover around her was that he couldn’t forget her for a single moment.
“Now, only the third meeting is left, right?”
Even though it was late, there was no sign of drowsiness in Gang’s eyes.
In fact, it was the story she was most curious about.
According to him, the last meeting was at the orphanage fire scene when he was eighteen, but on that day, nowhere in her memory did San exist.
But unlike her impatient self, he remained calm.
“Tell me quickly.”
Looking at her urging, San, who had been silently observing, pinched the cheek that Gang was gently touching to avoid pain and said,
“I’m pretty sure I mentioned it earlier.”
“What?”
“There’s another installment.”
He laughed like a lazy fox.
“We have to make sure of the calculations, right?”
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
