The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 37: Gyeolgwa (Results)

In the last two days I had been constantly humiliated, shamed, chewed out by all of my seniors and blamed for everything that this cousin did. The man who was supposed to be my husband had not made a single attempt to approach me, never mind protect me since he always had his eyes on somebody else. If he was angry, he visited his cousin to help calm him down if he had a bad day at work, she would cook for him, and even when he came across problems that he couldn't figure out in time, he would call her over without hesitation and ignore me completely! Yes, I couldn't deny that I had a hard time multitasking learning how to become literate and managing the household as I should but it was too much! The Nam household was a lot more intense than any other noble household I had previously served in, with much stricter standards that I had to uphold all at once. So what about the cousin and the mess that she had made for me to clean up in public without even discussing anything with me at all! And the Young Master wanted to just ket me go and ignore all of my efforts to be the best concubine I could be! I didn't even have anymore money for my daily expenses and now was not the right time for me to ask, I was too afraid to leave my quarters at all. I could only stay in bed and wonder what on earth had happened to me and what I was going to do next. But I could not hide forever, if had even the slightest chance of regaining my honour and reputation, I had to personally reach out to the servants that I had mistreated and neglected since the moment they all arrived.

"...it really is so cold here, we do not even have and thick clothing to keep us warm in this cold autumn season." "We cannot say here and freeze to death, we might as well return to our previous owner." "They haven't sent us any messages for a few weeks now. You don't think...what if what happened in the kitchen leaked out to the public? Why else would they stop giving us instructions?" "Have you gotten any closer to the Young Master as planned?" "He doesn't notice any woman in this home at all, not even the concubine that he took in before us!" "No matter how fierce he looks, you must find a way to seduce him! I wish to retire and live the rest of my life in luxury and wealth! I have worked for too long to end up bruised and unemployed!" "They couldn't have forgotten about us, would they?" "It is flu season my girl, all of the physicians are tending to the noble people of the village, who would pay attention to mere servants like us?" "You should gather the rest of the servants and we will come up with a solution." "The manner of this home was so angry when he heard what had happened, he agreed with the concubine they sent to him that they should sell off everyone who came in with us. Mother, it is only myself and you senior maids here left and we are highly outnumbered. And because the rest of the servants are afraid of being implicated with us, they are completely hostile towards us and mess with our work every single chance they get. For someone like me who lacks a proper foundation, how can I even dream about getting close to him?" "The big madame must have understood that we are useless now and has now discarded us without a care in the world. I gave her decades of my life and this is what she does to us in return? After all of the shameful deeds that I have been forced to commit over the years..."

I knew it! I knew the big madame sent over theses servants to take my place and seduce the Young Master from me because I wasn't successful so far. Here I was, thinking that the family I had previously worked for had sent me a team of servants to add to my prestige! And now I found out that I was the one they were spying on the whole time! No wonder they had cut off my support, stopped responding to my letters and even ignored me on the street every time that I ran into someone from the household. No, I could not go down without knowing that I had done everything that I could to save my position. And that relied on the investigation of the Seo's and find out what really happened to Chun-Ae so that I could avoid ending up the same way that she did. But the very worst thing of all was that my trusted servant was nowhere to be seen for the past few weeks now since I put her in charge of the Seo investigation. I had no support, my self-confidence was dying each day I was stuck here and...and I still might face my worst obstacle yet. And if I didn't find any support soon, it was likely that I wasn't going to make it out of here alive.