Chapter 772 --772

Chapter 772: Chapter-772

Hearing their hushed, tragic apologies, Heena actually laughed.

She didn’t mean to, but the sheer absurdity of their pity caught her completely off guard. She raised a pale hand, half-covering her mouth as a bright, genuine sound of amusement escaped her lips.

For the men in the hardware shop, the sound was completely mesmerizing.

In this matriarchal empire, women of standing simply did not laugh like that in public. The female bosses, guild leaders, and noble heirs they interacted with were stoic, harsh, and heavily guarded. If a woman smiled in the market, it was usually a cold sneer of contempt or a predatory smirk. To see a tall, imposing woman in a black cloak laugh with such casual, unbothered warmth was like watching a tiger suddenly roll over in the sun.

"What do you mean by sorrow, My Lord?" Heena asked, her dark eyes crinkling with lingering amusement.

The lilac-robed youth blinked, completely captivated, his face flushing faintly behind his pastel veil. "W-Well, to be unmarried at your age... it must be lonely. That is why I spoke."

"Oh, no, no," Heena smiled, shaking her head as she leaned casually against the wooden counter. "I just haven’t met the right partner yet. So, I am simply waiting."

From the back of the crowd, a slightly older, sharper-tongued man draped in fine emerald silk let out a loud scoff. "Oh, come on! Waiting? You are practically a senior by marriage standards, My Lady! You are so old, and you still haven’t found a partner? What are you talking about?"

Heena didn’t take the bait. She met the older man’s gaze with perfect, serene confidence. "Actually, I am waiting on purpose. I want to make absolutely sure that I have everything prepared for my partner first. A proper kitchen, a solid estate, a completely stable fortune."

Floating near the ceiling beams, the System let out a loud, digital groan, dragging its glowing paws down its face.

"Host, please, push away that absolute nonsense you are spewing," the AI complained directly into her brain. "You literally threatened to break a man’s kneecaps three days ago! Stop gossiping, buy the iron, and let’s go! What are you doing?!"

"Shut up, you idiot," Heena snapped back mentally, keeping her outward smile perfectly pleasant. "This is the absolute perfect place to make connections."

Heena wasn’t just chatting for her health. Her sharp eyes had already swept over the crowd. Yes, many were commoners, but a few of the men standing quietly near the back—like the one in emerald silk—were wearing exceptionally fine fabrics. They had the soft, manicured hands of people who didn’t do heavy labor. Heena could instantly guess that they were favored concubines or high-ranking domestic servants from wealthy noble houses. If she was going to sell luxury cosmetics in this district, winning over the neighborhood’s premier gossips was vastly more valuable than buying a wok.

But suddenly, a harsh whisper cut through the ambient chatter.

"Wait a minute..." a woman standing near the door muttered, her eyes narrowing as she stepped forward, pointing a calloused finger at Heena’s face. "The black cloak, the pale skin... Aren’t you the Lu family’s second daughter?"

The entire hardware shop froze.

The casual, gossipy warmth in the air evaporated in a single heartbeat, replaced by the heavy, suffocating weight of absolute scandal.

Every single person in the East Market had heard the vicious rumors. The Lu family’s second daughter was a worthless, untalented cast-off. She had been publicly disowned, beaten by her own mother’s guards, and thrown into the slums to rot just a week ago.

The men who had just been chatting with her instinctively took a half-step back, their eyes wide with shock. The deference in their posture shifted, bracing for the explosive, humiliated rage of a disgraced noblewoman being called out in public.

But Heena didn’t explode. She didn’t flinch, and she certainly didn’t try to hide her face.

Instead, the warm smile on her lips actually widened.

"Guilty as charged," Heena said smoothly, not a single trace of a haughty noble aura in her voice.

The crowd exchanged bewildered glances. This didn’t make sense. A disgraced noblewoman was supposed to be bitter, violent, and utterly ashamed.

"Really?" the youth in lilac whispered, his eyes wide. "But... they say you were thrown out for being..."

"Useless?" Heena offered helpfully, her eyes gleaming with cunning mischief. She let out a heavy, theatrical sigh, leaning against the counter like she was sharing a secret with old friends. "Well, let me tell you the truth. My parents demanded that I marry immediately. They wanted to force a match."

The men in the shop leaned in slightly, completely hooked by the sudden drop of high-society tea.

"But I refused," Heena continued, her voice dropping into a smooth, conversational cadence. "And that is exactly why they kicked me out of the house."

"You... you refused a noble match?" the emerald-silk man asked, genuinely stunned. "Why?!"

"Because my parents wanted me to marry before I even had my own independent fortune!" Heena exclaimed, gesturing broadly to the pile of heavy ironware on the counter as if it proved her entire point. "I told them absolutely not! How could I possibly bring a respectable husband into a courtyard when I didn’t even control my own silver? Just think about it! If I brought a husband home and I couldn’t afford to buy him the finest silks, or hire enough servants so he wouldn’t have to ruin his hands scrubbing pots... he would be miserable!"

Heena shook her head, looking at the young men with an expression of profound, romantic dedication.

"I told my mother, until I have built a house with my own two hands, until my husband can live a life of absolute comfort without worrying about a single copper... I will not take a partner," Heena declared smoothly. "After all, if my husband comes into my house and I do not make his life perfect, he would probably beat me up out of sheer frustration! And I would completely deserve it!"

The shop was completely dead silent for three seconds.

And then, the youth in lilac let out a soft, delighted giggle.

The tension in the room shattered instantly. A wave of hushed, utterly charmed laughter rippled through the veiled men.

In less than a minute, Heena had taken the most humiliating, socially destructive rumor in the capital and flawlessly spun it on its head. She wasn’t a worthless, untalented cast-off who had been thrown away like garbage. She was a fiercely independent, deeply romantic rebel who had chosen exile and poverty because she refused to let a hypothetical husband suffer the indignity of living on an allowance!

"Oh, My Lady," the emerald-silk man chuckled, his previous hostility completely melting away into approving warmth. "If only half the noblewomen in the capital thought like you do, our lives would be vastly easier."

"A husband would be lucky to have a head of household who cares so much about his comfort," the lilac youth agreed, looking at her with starry-eyed admiration.

Up on the ceiling beams, the System stared down at the crowd of blushing, giggling men, its digital jaw hanging wide open.

"I don’t believe it," the AI whispered to itself. "She literally just gaslit an entire hardware store into thinking her mafia exile was a romantic sacrifice."