Even If Flowers Bloom on a Broken Branch - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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48.
The air inside the Grand Hall froze.
Lee Yeon stared at Hong Ran with a face devoid of words. No, rather than saying she stared, it was more accurate to say she could not tear her eyes away.
‘To hand this child over?’
She had not anticipated this situation. No, she had not even guessed it.
She had guessed and prepared herself for being insulted by Chae Eun-oh, and for the fact that she would refuse to meet her. She thought she had to endure it since it was something that would happen sooner or later. However, she had not imagined in the slightest that she would lose Hong Ran.
‘To hand over my person…’
It was a proposal, but it was a command. It was a declaration that he would take her. Her chest felt as if it were tightening stiffly.
Did Jinpyeong even know what his words meant? A person’s entire life would change because of his single word, yet he spoke of it as casually as if he were ordering food to be cleared away.
‘So utterly nonchalantly, as if he thinks I will absolutely never refuse.’
She could not refuse. There was no way anyone could reject the King’s words.
Moreover, from his perspective, Hong Ran was merely a humble attendant, and there was no justification to dare refuse him.
Furthermore, the ‘grace’ that kept coming out of Hong Ran’s mouth, Lee Yeon’s own mouth, and Jinpyeong’s mouth—how could she contradict him when he commanded her to repay it?
“What do you think?”
Lee Yeon did not dare to answer right away and bit her lip.
Her heart had been thumping all along the path from the Queen’s Courtyard to the Grand Hall. It had pounded ominously and strangely. Perhaps that had been a premonition of this very moment.
‘Because… I brought Hong Ran here.’
Was this what they called the wheel of destiny? It felt as if the pieces were fitting together one by one, moving with a massive, rumbling sound.
A wave of guilt washed over her for bringing Hong Ran to this place. She had dragged Hong Ran’s destiny into this palace.
‘What do I do? What should I do? How am I supposed to answer?’
It was when she was hesitating because her lips simply would not part. Suddenly, the words he had just spoken and the words she had heard a very long time ago seemed to echo in both her ears simultaneously.
‘I wish to keep her by my side.’
And,
‘If you are not here, will my person not be attacked?’
Those were the words Jinpyeong had spat out before her regression, when she had begged him to let her become a Deposed Commoner.
Those were the words telling the legal wife to become a shield for the concubine, saying he could not leave it be because Hong Ran would be attacked if Lee Yeon disappeared from this palace.
‘My person will be attacked.’
Those words suddenly revived vividly and hotly.
Lee Yeon took a deep breath.
“…….”
Back then, those words had been nothing but unpleasant and catastrophic. She had wept for days and nights with a heart full of resentment and bitter grief, wondering how he could say such things while trampling and insulting her so.
She had thought he deliberately used the phrase ‘my person’ to torment her, crush her, make her miserable, and mock her.
But now, looking at his gaze directed at Hong Ran, who sat right beside her, the texture of those words felt different.
‘Could it be that he was sincere?’
Did he truly consider her his person? Did he cherish her that much? Was that why he had planted his seed inside her and protected her?
‘So that no one in the palace could harm her, and so that the unborn royal descendant could keep her safe.’
Lee Yeon felt her insides turning cold.
‘The King truly cherished Hong Ran.’
Whether it was love, possessiveness, or a protective instinct, the feelings Jinpyeong harbored for Hong Ran were genuine.
And that attachment was starting all over again right in front of her.
“Grand Princess Consort?”
Lee Yeon snapped out of it and looked ahead. Her eyes, which had lost focus, became clear once more. Only then did she see Hong Ran, who was pressed close to her side, looking up at her with concern.
Lee Yeon hastily lowered her head.
“I beg your forgiveness. I lost my senses for a moment and could not answer.”
Only then did Jinpyeong look at Lee Yeon intently. Just having his gaze touch her face was so discomforting that it made her stomach turn.
Whether he noticed that or not, Jinpyeong muttered with a displeased look.
“Now that I think about it, I heard you knelt in the mud for over two shijin.”
Jinpyeong glanced at the deathly pale Lee Yeon and nodded toward Sangseon. At that, the palace attendants streamed in and began to clear the table.
It was Jinpyeong who broke the silence that descended once again upon the space, which had become immaculate in an instant.
He, who was usually quiet and silent, was speaking the most right now.
“Then, what about you?”
Hong Ran’s eyes widened as she lifted her head. Her pitch-black pupils trembled.
Her eyes shook with fear just from being face-to-face with the King.
“I, I…….”
Hong Ran parted her lips but could not speak. Her red lips, not knowing what to do, were pressed between her teeth, turning white in places.
And that appearance, paradoxically, stimulated Jinpyeong’s heart even more. A light ignited in his eyes.
‘I know those eyes.’
Jinpyeong was looking at Hong Ran without a single shred of wavering. Lee Yeon knew that look in his eyes all too well.
‘The eyes of a man who intends to possess.’
The eyes of a man who, once he made up his mind to grasp something in his palm, would absolutely never let go.
Lee Yeon’s stomach twisted.
“I…….”
It was right at the moment those words were about to come out.
Lee Yeon’s eyes grew hazy as she collapsed to the side.
Thud. At the sight of Lee Yeon collapsing beside her, the lips of Hong Ran, who had been about to answer, froze. Her eyes flew wide open like saucers.
“My Lady!”
She shook her, but Lee Yeon’s tightly closed eyes did not open. Stricken with sudden terror, Hong Ran burst into tears.
“My Lady, My Lady!”
Seeing this, Jinpyeong intuitively knew that he could no longer hear an answer in this place. He shouted loudly toward the outside.
“Is anyone there!”
The palace attendants who rushed in looked utterly flustered upon seeing that the Grand Princess Consort had swooned. Jinpyeong commanded them.
“Escort the Grand Princess Consort to her private residence. There must not be the slightest discourtesy.”
Hong Ran stood by Lee Yeon’s side, her tears dripping down. She looked entirely at a loss, deeply worried.
Jinpyeong, who thought that appearance was both pitiful and somewhat enviable, paused at his own thought.
‘Enviable… is it.’
To think that I, of all people, would use the word enviable. And toward that girl, no less.
Jinpyeong felt a renewed sense of regret that he had not heard Hong Ran’s exact answer. In proportion to that, his anger toward Eun-oh surged.
‘If only that woman hadn’t thrown such a vicious tantrum.’
Then Seo I-yeon would not have collapsed like that.
‘And if only Seo I-yeon had become the Queen.’
Then that child named Hong Ran would also have naturally fallen into these hands.
The more he chewed on the thought, the more regrettable and deeply disappointing it was that things had gone so awry. Added to that was his dissatisfaction with Eun-oh, which made his blood boil with resentment.
Jinpyeong commanded coldly.
“Furthermore, forbid all expenditures from the Queen’s Palace.”
“Pardon?”
At Sangseon’s rare question in return, Jinpyeong said frostily.
“It means that from now on, she cannot spend a single silver coin without my permission.”
Jinpyeong knew very well how much Eun-oh had been spending ever since she became Queen.
Eun-oh was spending money like water, as if filling her empty heart with material goods. Since she entered the palace, the visits of peddlers and the outings of palace attendants had increased drastically.
Forbidding her expenditures would be no different from choking off her only release.
“In addition, until I revoke this order, I command her to remain absolutely confined to the Queen’s Palace.”
Since the Queen handed out a punishment privately, I shall return a corresponding punishment to her—the lips of Jinpyeong, who spoke thus, twisted coldly.
“Deliver those words.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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