“I should be happy, but I can’t be happy. I always feel that everything is so ironic. People always come up to me and say that I am not good enough to be his fiancée, that I am not as good as Huo Momo who was pampered since childhood, and that I should realize my own position.”
"Ruan Ruan, you have no idea how lost and helpless I was when I first returned to the Huo family. As a girl who had never left the town before, I made a lot of mistakes when I first came into contact with the big city. My brother was busy in a neighboring province at that time and couldn't get away, my father was often at the company, and my mother was on Huo Momo's side and didn't believe me. I always felt that I was the most superfluous person in the Huo family."
“It was you. You made me feel valued. You have no idea how touched I was when you came to see me with a bunch of local specialties that day. You are different from others. Everyone compares me to Huo Momo and other daughters of prominent families, but only in your eyes am I Huo Xian, and I am the lucky girl who got out of the mountains.”
A tear rolled down Huo Xian's cheek as she hugged Lin Ruanruan's soft body, trembling slightly.
"As for Brother Haocheng, my feelings for him are complicated. He is my savior, my teacher who has given me a second life, and even my fiancé..."
"But it's strange, Ruanruan, this isn't right. Can an agreement between parents and elders really bind two people together?"
“I feel a deep sense of powerlessness. In many people’s eyes, my role seems to be just to be Xuan Yuan Hao Cheng’s fiancée. Some people even covet my ridiculous identity. I am too weak, so weak that anyone can make a sarcastic remark about me, so weak that I can be married off at will.”
"So what if that person is someone I like? So what if I like him a lot? I hate this feeling of being forced into a relationship. What if I'm not the one who gets married to Hao Cheng? Just like back in Xiaogang Village, he'll eventually go back to the so-called 'right track' and be with the person his elders originally planned for him."
“This makes me sad. I always feel that no matter who his marriage partner is, he will eventually be with that person. It doesn’t matter who it is. I don’t think he likes me that much. It’s just because I am his marriage partner and someone he has helped.”
Lin Ruanruan stroked Huo Xian's smooth long hair. It was the first time she had learned about Huo Xian's inner world. She possessed her own stubbornness and resilience.
"Xianxian, I think you've gone down the wrong path," Lin Ruanruan whispered in Huo Xian's ear.
"Misconceptions?"
Lin Ruanruan nodded, "You're not convinced that arranged marriages still exist in this day and age. You think your older brother would marry anyone else, even if that person wasn't you."
"You want to refuse the arranged marriage, but you like him, which makes you feel uncomfortable. You also don't believe that his feelings for you are the same as your feelings for him. You think that his kindness to you is out of a sense of responsibility."
“But Xianxian, you’re so powerful.” Lin Ruanruan lifted Huo Xian’s head, which was buried in her neck, making her look directly into her eyes. “Let me give you an example. If your arranged marriage partner was someone like Liang Pinggu, would you be with him?”
“You won’t!” Lin Ruanruan said confidently. “You will work hard to strengthen yourself and refuse such absurd things once you have the strength. You like Xuan Yuan Hao Cheng. Even if his marriage partner is not you, why don’t you just snatch him away? Anyway, you two love each other.”
Huo Xian was somewhat stunned. "It can be like this?"
"Well, what else?" Lin Ruanruan smiled slyly. "Besides, isn't the current situation just perfect? You like him, he likes you, and you two happen to be engaged. You don't need to go through all the trouble of causing trouble. Everything is perfectly reasonable."
"It seems... to be like that?"
Lin Ruanruan nodded, "Right? Doesn't it feel better to think about it this way? And, oh, Big Brother really likes you. I once secretly went to his room to get something, and guess what I saw?"
"What?" Huo Xian looked at Lin Ruanruan with some curiosity.
Lin Ruanruan smiled mysteriously. This incident happened just two days ago. That day, she was playing games and recording footage when Xuan Yuan Haocheng couldn't stand it and confiscated her phone. She then secretly sneaked into Xuan Yuan Haocheng's room to look for his phone and discovered his big secret.
“His locker room is full of your photos,” Lin Ruanruan said, noticing Huo Xian’s strange expression. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re all photos of you dressed up. Oh, no, not the kind of creepy ones, just some everyday photos of you…”
Lin Ruanruan clicked her tongue. Why did it get weirder and weirder the more she described it?
"Anyway, he likes you, likes you to the extreme."
Huo Xian's face was now completely red. "Ruan Ruan, please stop talking..."
How could this be? Hao Cheng is usually such an upright and aloof person, how could he do such a thing?
Lin Ruanruan gently rubbed Huo Xian's face with a satisfied expression. "Xianxian's skin is so good."
"My older brother is also a tight-lipped guy. He probably thinks that you two are definitely going to be together, so he hasn't confessed to you. He's too shy to say nice things, and he's probably afraid that you don't like him, so he's afraid that you'll run away and stays by your side every day."
That's exactly how it is in the original story. The two like each other but neither of them says anything, which leads to a lot of misunderstandings. Although it's not physically cruel, it's emotionally cruel.
Oh no, it was also physical abuse, specifically the physical abuse of Xuan Yuan Hao Cheng. Every time he misunderstood that Huo Xian didn't like him and liked someone else, he would get drunk, which actually caused him to develop stomach problems...
In the end, it was only after Huo Xian achieved success in her career and gained enough confidence that she confessed her feelings to Xuan Yuanhao, and the two were finally able to get together happily.
Lin Ruanruan shook her head in exasperation; her older brother was truly useless.
Seeing Huo Xian burying her face in her arms shyly again, Lin Ruanruan had a sudden impulse and called Xuan Yuanhaocheng.
The other end answered immediately, which surprised Lin Ruanruan. It was almost midnight, and her older brother was still awake?
"Hey, Ruanruan, is something wrong with Xianxian?"
Lin Ruanruan immediately understood. It must be that Xuan Yuanhao was jealous that she and Huo Xian slept in the same bed, and now she couldn't sleep and kept looking at her phone.
"Big brother, I have a question for you." Lin Ruanruan cleared her throat. "If your arranged marriage partner was still Huo Momo, and Xianxian was still that poor girl from Xiaogang Village, what would you do?"
Huo Xian suddenly lifted her head from Lin Ruanruan's arms, pretending to snatch the phone, and whispered, "Ruanruan! What are you doing!"
Xuan Yuanhaocheng on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment, then realized Lin Ruanruan's intention, "I will threaten to kill myself."
These words stunned Huo Xian, and Lin Ruanruan quickly retrieved her phone.
Xuan Yuan Hao Cheng's voice continued, "I was too weak back then. I couldn't go against my parents' decision, but I could never be with Huo Mo Mo. I didn't like her. I couldn't accept anyone except... except Xian Xian."
Xuan Yuanhao's ears turned red. He knew that Huo Xian must have heard what he said. "The day Xianxian was brought back, I was about to stab myself with a knife..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
