AMRWFA -Chapter 306 The Fang Family

As Ruan Yaoyao scrolled further down, she saw that Fang Yixue was constantly being emotionally manipulated by both her in-laws and her natal family. Her faint sense of self-awareness was slowly extinguished, until she eventually became the “heroine” in the novel—truly believing that her husband was her heaven and earth, and that whatever he said was absolute truth.

【Sigh…】

【And this can even count as a happy ending. I really… have nothing to say!】

Ruan Yaoyao felt stifled. The others present also felt the same, as if a heavy stone was pressing on their chests, making it hard to breathe.

Looking up at Fang Yixue, Ruan Yaoyao said, “Before you came, did Xiangqiao tell you I can read faces?”

Fang Yixue was timid, so it was Fang Yining who spoke instead.

“Yes! Xiangqiao told us. That’s why we came. Aunt Xu, did you see something?”

Although they had already “heard the inner voice,” they still needed to ask what had to be asked.

Ruan Yaoyao said, “Your family is a bit complicated. You all grew up pampered, like princesses in a glass tower. Basically, whatever your family says goes. When they arranged marriages, you went along with it, right?”

“Yes.”

“You and your husband also went through some things before slowly adjusting to each other. Now, you can’t say you’re deeply in love, but you negotiate things together and live in relative harmony as a couple, right?”

Fang Yining nodded again.

In fact, in their circle, the couple could already be considered a model marriage. Only they themselves knew the hardships behind it.

“You two have already gone through what you needed to go through. Now you’ve weathered the storms and can live together peacefully. But your younger sister…” Ruan Yaoyao’s gaze fell on Fang Yixue. “She only got married last year, and she’s already having problems with her husband. If Xiangqiao hadn’t unintentionally brought you to me, I’d guess your family’s usual approach would be to encourage reconciliation rather than separation, right?”

Fang Yining nodded again.

If not for Yu Xiangqiao’s involvement, she would also have chosen to “advise reconciliation rather than divorce.”

After all, aside from Ding Chen being somewhat incompetent and useless, the Ding family hadn’t mistreated her sister financially. She had assumed her sister could endure it.

“What I see is that you did try to reconcile, and in the end your sister also reached a ‘happy ending’ with her husband. But…” Ruan Yaoyao looked at Fang Yixue. “The question is whether that kind of life is what she actually wants. After all, there are words like PUA, grooming, and Stockholm syndrome in this world.”

Each term was harsher than the last, more chilling than the one before.

Fang Yining clenched her hands tightly and looked at her younger sister.

So in the end… she was “trained” by the Ding family into becoming Ding Chen’s lifelong cover?

And her family had also played a part in it.

“Fang Yixue, is this the life you want? Do you want to spend your life with a man who is impotent in bed, who mentally manipulates you, who tries to discipline and control you, and uses you as a lifelong cover for his humiliation?”

Ruan Yaoyao stared directly into Fang Yixue’s eyes, trying to see the answer deep within her heart.

Fang Yixue’s pupils shrank. The faint, not-yet-extinguished sense of self suddenly trembled—and she shook her head fiercely.

No. I don’t want it…

“You didn’t marry him because you loved him. You married him because of a family arrangement. You had already decided that even if he wasn’t your ideal husband, as long as he fulfilled his responsibilities as a husband, you would live with him properly like your sister. After all, marriage was inevitable, and you didn’t have someone you especially liked. You thought you could just live like that for your whole life. But you didn’t expect that he wasn’t just useless—he’s also perfunctory with you in that aspect…”

“You’re just a young woman. This kind of thing is hard to talk about. You can only keep it buried inside, and it must be very painful. You probably have so many questions. You want to know what a real marriage is like, what other people’s lives are like. Are you the only one like this, or is everyone the same…”

“You have to say it out loud. If you don’t, none of us can help you. I can guess, but I’m not inside your head. My guesses might not even be right. So—are you willing to speak?”

As Ruan Yaoyao asked one question after another, Fang Yixue’s eyes reddened.

After a long silence, she finally spoke hoarsely: “I… want to.”

Only after speaking did she realize it wasn’t actually that hard. Although it was embarrassing and humiliating, she suddenly felt as if she had gained some inexplicable courage.

“You’re right about everything. I… want to know all of it.”

Ruan Yaoyao immediately leaned back in her chair and shrugged.

“Then you’re asking the wrong person. My husband and I are also a business marriage. He plays around outside, and I do whatever I want at home. We’re famously a couple in name only in our circle.”

“But you can ask my daughter-in-law. She and her husband are actually pretty good.”

Yu Xiangqiao, who was suddenly called out, smiled lightly. When Fang Yixue looked at her, she said: “My marriage is also an arranged one. But unlike you and your sister, my husband and I love each other.”

A marriage of mutual love—that was naturally different.

Yu Xiangqiao herself came from a happy family. Her parents loved each other, her elder brother and sister-in-law loved each other, and even she and her husband did too.

She knew what happiness looked like, so she could explain what a truly loving marriage should be like.

She told Fang Yixue that in a marital relationship, there is nothing shameful about intimacy—only “playfulness.” What matters most is what the other person is willing to do for you. When you love someone, you naturally want to do things for them too, just to see their smile. When they are happy, you become happy as well.

“It’s like eating a bite of ice cream and finding it delicious—you can’t wait to share it with him. He won’t mind that you’ve bitten it; he’ll happily taste what you think is delicious.”

“Or sometimes you deliberately bring him a sour orange and lie that it’s sweet, just to trick him. You want to see him get overwhelmed by the sourness, helpless but unable to do anything about you.”

“But how do you know that he didn’t already realize it? That he knew you were trying to trick him, and still pretended to fall for it—just to see your smile?”

“You laugh, and he laughs too.”

……

The physical aspect of marriage is not the most important thing.

When two people’s feelings reach a certain level, that aspect only adds icing on the cake. But if from the beginning there is no emotional foundation, if one party enters with calculation and intent, then everything becomes completely different.

At that point, even the physical side of marriage becomes extremely important.

Ruan Yaoyao said she had experience with this. The only reason she could stay with her husband was not only because he spent money on her and satisfied her growing financial needs, but also because he never treated her poorly in that regard.

Although she sometimes disliked that he had other women outside, he still respected her experience in bed and was willing to “indulge” her. So she was willing to let him indulge her.

After all, if she went out to find someone else, first, she wouldn’t know whether those people were clean or had ulterior motives; second, she couldn’t be sure they truly cared for her or would treat her better than her current husband.

And another reason was—if she did go find someone else, her husband would definitely explode in anger, and everything she currently had would disappear. That was something she absolutely could not accept.