I forced my mouth open and mumbled dumbly. I barely managed to hold my gaze, which kept trying to go towards my disciple.
It felt as if a hazy fog filled my head. I couldn’t think of an answer.
The more I hesitated to answer, the more suspicious it seemed, but I couldn’t think of what to say at all.
I never thought that I would meet Duke Yuga and be questioned for seeking a hideout.
“I am…….”
When I failed to answer properly, Sunan seemed to become anxious as well, flailing his arms and urging me.
I couldn’t help but look at my urging disciple. The disciple was watching me with a gentle smile.
Did he enjoy my embarrassment?
I looked at Duke Yuga again. His eyes were getting narrower.
No, this old man. Sunan is right. Why would I hide a bomb in a hideout? Looking at Duke Yuga’s expression, I became furious inside.
But answering honestly was absolutely not to be done. So I had to lie. What should I say?
An answer that was not suspicious at all, something that everyone would accept. Was there such a thing?
‘There is!’
Fortunately, a bright idea flashed in my mind. I quickly replied with a serious expression,
“I want to support ten households.”
“!”
I’m trash. I might have acted like a playboy, but never this badly.
But here I couldn’t say, ‘The 13th prince next to you will kill me in the future, so I want to find a hideout.’
I’d rather be trash once. I can’t die sooner than expected by being suspicious.
“Hmm.”
However, Duke Yuga looked at me with an expression as if seeing garbage, and it hurt my heart.
Being looked at like that by someone who has achieved great things in the shadows.
Still, I didn’t lose my grave expression, and Duke Yuga asked Sunan,
“Is he always like that?”
Sunan smiled awkwardly and answered,
“He’s always like that.”
You’re not really saying that, are you? You’re saying it to take my side, right?
Duke Yuga clicked his tongue.
Suppressing the feeling of wanting to crawl into a hole, I managed not to lose my smile.
“I’m sorry, Sir Scholar. A proper hideout is very rare. It takes a great effort to find one. I don’t want to give such a valuable hideout to a dissolute scholar for his night escapades.”
But even though I went to this extent, Duke Yuga said he couldn’t give me a hideout.
He completely squashed me in front of my disciple!
“I’ll pay whatever it takes.”
I quickly suggested, but Duke Yuga’s expression became even colder at the mention of money and said,
“To impress our family with money, even if you plunder the entire scholar family’s warehouse, it won’t be enough.”
He must not like talking about money. Darn. What should I do now?
“Take the Sir Scholar and leave, Ana. Don’t bother me with such things in the future.”
Even though I was anxious, Duke Yuga had already lost interest and spoke to Sunan in a disinterested voice.
“Grandfather…….”
Sunan whined, but Duke Yuga did not flinch.
“Hurry.”
Levanfell turned towards the 13th prince, cutting off the conversation entirely. It was a clear sign that he wanted to converse with the 13th prince and that I should leave.
Faced with this situation, Sunan looked at me with an awkward expression.
I looked at my disciple. Though my disciple didn’t look at me, he was grinning.
Seeing that, rage boiled within me.
My disciple was frightening, but at the same time, I resented him. Thus, I felt ashamed when humiliated before my disciple.
Damn it, why did I make such a trashy excuse! Because the 13th prince was here! Because he was trying to kill me. And yet the culprit was laughing like that!
“Let’s go.”
Unaware of my anger, Sunan gently tugged at my arm and whispered in my ear.
“Just leave for now. I’ll inquire with the grandmaster later. He’s just putting on airs because there’s a guest.”
No sooner had Sunan said this than the smile vanished from my disciple’s lips. It seemed he disliked me whispering with someone in his presence.
Regardless, I had no choice. The option was gone. I responded weakly.
“Understood.”
But as I was about to turn away, a lingering regret in my eyes, I unexpectedly noticed a chessboard placed on a decorative table.
Earlier, my attention had been diverted by Levanfell and my disciple, so I hadn’t noticed the chessboard.
Seeing the chessboard, I remembered a story Sunan had told me before my regression, in my previous life.
[Dash] The grandmaster always played chess when lost in thought. If he was stuck, he’d leave it as it was until it was resolved.Then one time, after three years of a stuck chess game, a guest appeared.
The guest wanted to place himself under Levanfell’s protection, but Levanfell scoffed at the guest and ignored him.
[Dash] What should I see in you to treat you as a guest?Any ordinary guest would have retreated there. Unexpectedly, that guest calmly looked around, spotted the chessboard, approached it, and moved one of the pieces, saying, “Move up two squares.” Levanfell, seeing this, was overjoyed and welcomed the guest as an honored visitor.
Could this be that chessboard?
Could I use that story? Is the timing right?
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
