"My Lady…" "She dares to…she cannot be so bold as to…how dare she…my husband…I need to check up on him…." "My Lady! They will not want to see you…" "You bitch! This is all your fault! I have really underestimated all of you, haven't 1! And her…everyone thinks that she is dead, does she not fear me handing over proof to The Emperor that The Seo's faked their own deaths! She cannot be this cunning and bold without a backup plan for herself! How dare she think that she can just move away with my husband as if I will not follow him to the ends of the earth if I have to! She didn't even credit me for almost breaking them up during her time in the brothel at all!" "But My Lady, you were the one who was adamant about staying in this yangban, and now you can…" "Without him? What is the point of that?" "But you can now have a permanent residence, which is only the start since this place does also belong to The Nam's, and they can help us in regaining his favour and…" "But this will only divide us! They can both leave any time otherwise, and when they move to a bigger home, then they will have all of the freedom to…no, I cannot let this happen. I must come up with a way to let the public recognise this home as his own so that he can never leave here…his clan also being here is a good thing, for he will be recognised for his familial piety…" "But My Lady, in order to do that, you must let him climb up the ranks once again and break the agreement that you had with The Senior Scholar to keep him in the smallest position possible under his feet!" "Seonho is more important to me than anything in the world! You do no understand how much I miss him so, and now that he has fallen ill all over again; I cannot even see his face. It has been months since I last accompanied him anywhere in public and I need to see him right away!" "How do you think to get past that woman? She hasn't left his side at all and…" "I will just see who can stop me! And as for you, go an send a physician from The Senior Scholar, for it looks as though we need a double dosage of opium to bring him back to my side whilst that epileptic brat constantly schemes to keep him away from me in her jealousy that has blinded her."
"Mistress Han, there is something that I need to report to you before you go to see her…" "What is it now!" "The Lord Nam's nephew has reunited with his uncle and aunt and refuses to come back to my side no matter what I do! I heard him devoting himself to her and her services and make her proud, honour her as his only mother and will repay her for everything that she has done for him…" "Which is everything that you have not done for him in return! You had a golden egg in your hands that you neglected, so of course Seo Yeon has one more pawn to tie herself to him, which is the only blood relative that he will acknowledge at all! You have barely cared for the boy, so what do you expect?" "Please forgive me, My Lady." "You should have at least provided him with comfortable living conditions and you should have been more attentive to him when you had him in your grasp! You should have guided him or our side as he was our only pawn here and now I might actually have to let my own husband breed with other women for my own survival! I need a baby and I cannot naturally conceive one, otherwise I have no use for you at all! You have severely disappointed me after everything that I have done for you and…" "No My Lady! Please listen to me! He can still listen to his elders and he has been putting in a lot of effort into his studies recently as I am told, but we cannot let The Nam Clan stir the pot and claim him for themselves either! Otherwise your good intentions shall be wasted!" "What a fool he is to not recognise the winning side; he obviously lacks the cunning mind that his parents possessed, not that it got them anywhere either, to be honest." "He is already an ungrateful, rude and arrogant brat to begin with, he bargained his way for a place in this home more or less, so how can anyone raise such a…special case as himself? His future will always be uncertain since his uncle doesn't favour him at all." "And yet Seo Yeon still wishes to covet him, so there must be something more to him that we are currently unaware of. But whatever happens, she can never be acknowledged as his mother in any title whatsoever."
"My Lady? What are you thinking about now?" "I am thinking about your high virtue and gentle temper, that allows The Lord Nam to do whatever he wants because you will never oppose him, not that you are in a position to do so anyways I suppose. But this also allows him to have no scruples about bringing that girl back here into my home no matter what threat I throw in his way. And she is multi talented despite her humble background and he is concerned about her day and night…only her…"
"My Lady! Mistress Han! Have you heard of that girl's ridiculous requests?" "Madame Nam, what are you talking about now? What has happened?" "The Seo girl is demanding a quiet and secluded place for our nephews recovery, to the point where she is housing the servants on the same level as ours! Look at that! Hw dare she make unnecessary demands even before she has introduced herself to us at all? How conceited and arrogant can such a young girl be, even before marriage? She hides her brazen manners through that silver tongue of hers and I cannot see what any man would be possessed over her for! It is a blessing that she is ms likely barren due to her disability…"
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Barren? That girl is hardly acting barren at all, not when she is around him as I have been carefully observing her actions so far. She had been quietly pacing outside her half of the yangban with a worried look on her usually radiant face that exhumed femininity in a way that I had never seen before on anyone, even when I was forced to serve the whores of my previous Master. But seeing it on a face other than mine made my heart feel unspeakably bitter, to the point where I began t curse at her under my breathe as though I was casting spells on her to fail The Lord Nam so that he would never want to see her again. I was aware that this was a rather inappropriate time to think about such things with The Lord Nam's Ill health, butt I just could not get passed the fact that Seo Yeon was so content even in a house full of enemies that she was a peace and in love with her man due to the fact that she had unscrupulously tasted the sweetness of intimacy and she had managed to hold onto her man for so long in a world where even the best of concubines had to suffer long periods of time where they were unfavored, but that never seemed to happen to this woman at all. Was she really so lucky? Or was there indeed witchcraft involved in this issue after all? How else was she so bold as to ignore the purpose of her status and poor background? Everybody in the yangban was melancholic whilst she looked as though she was in pure bliss, even after such a tragedy had occurred to her so called soulmate in this life. So what about me? Where exactly did I fit into all of this? Whose side was I really on? There was simply no-one that I had met who was as cold and calculating and yet possessed some degree of warmth and affection, even if he didn't do it so openly in front of an audience. And I had really underestimated how muscular, intelligent, hot headed and handsome this man was, he didn't even look like any other young man that I had ever come across in my entire life. But now that he was taken, what choice did I have put to embrace myself sadly and try to figure out ways to satisfy my sexual curiosity before my lust become bigger than my senses. I wasn't willing to harm anyone at first, but only in a matter of a few days did my intentions upon Seo Yeon become close to murderous just so that I could have real love and comfort from a real man for the first and last time in my life, so I had to do something about this and soon, before I lost all control of myself. And maybe with some luck, The Lord Nam will notice my sincerity and I will not have to destroy anyone else beyond this.
"…wife? What are you doing? Are you drinking from my glass ware again?" "What can I say, everything tastes better when I share it with you, husband?" "Or are you now so used to being served that you can no longer function without the servants?" "You have seen most everything husband, including hearts changing in the face of wealth. So I am resolved to remain pure and natural in my thoughts and my intentions." "Why not dress up more for myself then? You know I despise this colour on you…" "Because in the face of your family, I must wear subdued colours instead of bold ones, which are not appropriate at the moment." "Please forgive me wife; the very last thing that I wanted was to drag you into my mess at such a delicate time, especially when we were so close to escaping from everyone." "I heard you last night husband, and you are clearly not well enough to handle family matters at the moment. For our future, it is better if I handle the womenfolk alone and help you get back into work in the palace. You just need to treat me well and do not even think about lying to me, otherwise I swear to you that I will not hesitate to hide from you for the rest of my life. No more puling me into your scenarios without telling me about it, because I just want to live in peace husband." I could see him grimace quite aggressively as soon as she had folded him into her embrace, leaving me feeling even more curious about him in every single way possible. This man was in no position to argue with her at this point, but he sill couldn't pass up the opportunity to challenge her internal, even though they had 1000 problems on their plates right now. So not only was he tall, dark and handsome, but he was even arrogant, hot tempered and was not somebody to be challenged at all, and ye she kept doing it to him. So was this the real reason why he couldn't let her go? Or was there more to this duo that not even The Mistress Han herself knew about? And just how curious was I to find out what was really going on in this household that I had been dumped in without a word or warning?