★ Diplomat x high school teacher
Cool and dignified x gentle and perceptive
1.
When he married her, Ning Buyan said, “I need a stable marriage.”
Fang Yuchi understood. So she tried to be an easygoing wife, never asking about what she shouldn’t.
At a gathering one night, a group of rich young men took turns complaining that their wives were too controlling. Swirling his wine, Ning Buyan bragged for once, “My wife is so understanding. She never cares what time I get home.”
A friend teased him, “Right, your wife is the most understanding. She doesn’t just not care what time you get back, she doesn’t care who you sleep with, either.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Ning Buyan smiled. “That’s why I married her. Our Teacher Fang is clever and knows how to behave. She always knows what she wants most.”
When the gathering broke up in the early hours, only one lamp was lit in the living room. Its warm yellow light fell over the person on the sofa, grading papers.
Ning Buyan leaned against the entryway, half his face hidden in shadow. He watched her for a while, then suddenly said, “Teacher Fang, have you ever thought that if you’d married someone else, your family’s problems could have been solved, too?”
“Maybe.” Her pen kept moving.
“Then why did you choose me?” He took the red pen from her hand and leaned over, bracing himself against the back of the sofa.
Fang Yuchi looped her arms around his neck and leaned close. “Of course it’s because you had the best circumstances and were the most generous with money, Director Ning.”
Ning Buyan gave a faint laugh and asked no more.
2.
Neither of them had married for pure reasons. At first, they each got what they needed and kept the peace. But later, they fell in love. Once love takes hold, desire becomes impossible to contain. Both wanted to be loved, and both believed the other didn’t love them enough. Their grievances piled up until every word became a blade.
She pulled off her ring and hurled it at his feet. “Ning Buyan, quit pretending to be devoted to me. You know who’s in your heart. You married me just to spite your parents, didn’t you?”
He yanked off his tie, his voice even colder than hers. “And you? Did you marry me because you love me? You know perfectly well what you wanted from me.”
Her heart twisted painfully, but Fang Yuchi smiled and nodded. “Yes. You’re right.”
They had both entered this marriage with an agenda. Neither was innocent, so neither had any right to cry foul.
3.
She had once heard someone say that love was an unending ache. At first Fang Yuchi had dismissed it. Later, she came to believe it completely.
During the most painful days, she lay in the dark, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible. “Ning Buyan, have you ever considered... divorce?”
He looked over. She pressed the backs of her hands hard against her eyes.
Ning Buyan was silent for a long time. So long that she thought he must be calculating how to divide their assets. Then he said, “No.”
He took a tissue and put it in her hand. “Teacher Fang, where I’m concerned, divorce isn’t a way to solve problems. I married you, so I never planned to leave.”
She kept her eyes closed. She didn’t see Ning Buyan turn away and close the door, digging his nails into his palm and using all his strength to suppress his trembling.
Ning Buyan also didn’t know that an hour before she asked that question, Fang Yuchi had turned the bathroom faucet on full blast and cried until she was too exhausted to move.
These two people were wrong for each other, yet they would rather hold on to a marriage beyond recognition than even mention divorce. It wasn’t that they didn’t know pain. It was that all their pain was nothing compared to the moment they might lose each other.
[Reading Guide]
1. Both are each other’s first love, and both are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending.
2. They marry first and fall in love later as complete strangers. They had no feelings for each other before marriage, no secret crushes, and no long-laid plans.
3. Neither lead is perfect.
Theme: Marriage takes adjustment
