241 Chapter 240: The CEO’s Wife (1/2)

Well, I wasn't Qin Lie, so I was already aware of all these charm and seduction techniques, and the whole category of mental techniques, before I even heard of Song Ting Yu. So it wasn't as if I didn't know about illusions and eye magic.

Fortunately, I was equipped with Snow Aegis and had developed some sort of spiritual defense when learning Heaven and Earth Formula, so I was able to resist Song Ting Yu's seduction techniques. Admittedly, her terrifying charm was relentlessly battering against the mental barriers I had erected (and I was aware of some other part of my body being erect too whenever I stared at her), but for now I could hold her at bay.

Unfortunately, I realized that I wasn't completely immune to Song Ting Yu's terrifying charm. Even as my spiritual defenses, bolstered by Snow Aegis, afforded me a measure of resistance, just a moment's slip in concentration was enough for her to break through my mental barrier. Worse, the invisible ripples from her charm technique were slamming relentlessly against my beleaguered barrier as she approached me.

When Song Ting Yu gazed at me with those loving eyes of hers, I felt as if I was sinking into a depthless abyss, and a wave of passion and desire washed over me. Or would have, but I noticed something weird about it.

”Mister Fei Wu, I simply admire you and wish to get closer to you. Are you so heartless that you refuse to see me even once?” Song Ting Yu's voice held an irresistible quality as it drifted warmly into my ears and pierced my heart.

I frowned. ”Uh, you're calling me heartless and wondering why I refuse to see you when you're the one using this weird charm technique to seduce me and trap me within your illusions? Are you sure you don't know why I refuse to see you?”

Song Ting Yu pursed her delicate lips for a moment before she strengthened her illusion technique to overwhelm my buckling defenses. I could feel her irresistible magic worming its way through the chinks in my armor, drifting comfortably into the depths of my heart.

Her melting, gentle voice, and eyes filled with passion and fervor finally took root inside my mind and firmly bloomed there. And I found myself sinking into the warmth of her illusions…

”My dear husband, I have already signed these papers. All it needs is your signature. I can go to the registry for divorce anytime at your convenience.”

…wait, what?

Did she just say divorce?

I stared at Song Ting Yu for a moment, confused. Then I looked around. For some reason we were no longer in Wu Ling Academy, but in a high-rise skyscraper. I then understood that we were in an illusion of Song Ting Yu's making.

…okay, I suddenly got an idea of what was going on. There was a setting in this illusion, information that flowed into my brain through hypnotic suggestions. Apparently in this particular scene, I was the powerful and influential heir of some city, a genius CEO of some random corporation. Apparently I had been caught by the paparazzi at a hotel, with a famous movie star of outstanding beauty hanging to my arm.

A woman who wasn't my wife.

My ”real” wife, Song Ting Yu, appeared to have enough, and threw divorce papers at me. For some inane reason, I thought she was using reverse psychology on me, got up angry and delusional despite supposedly being a genius who ran a mult-billionaire enterprise, and refused to sign the divorce papers. Instead, I went home and raped her.

What the fuck?

The poor Song Ting Yu went through a ton of abuse, which included me neglecting her, insulting her, telling her stuff like ”you don't deserve to bear my child” and then throwing all her branded clothes out of her wardrobe and calling her someone from a dumpster who was wearing trash, openly having affairs with other women, her being treated like trash, being humiliated in front of everyone, had the parapazzi called upon her to inflict further embarrassment on her, got involved in an accident because one of the women I had an affair with pushed her in front of a car – and best of all, because she insisted on a divorce, in order to spite her I refused to pay for her medical treatment and forced her into selling her own blood. Then I caused her friend to lose her job because she wouldn't tell me what I wanted to know about my wife. Despite my wife wanting a divorce, I was delusional enough to think it was one of her tricks and refused to let her go, and became super-possessive, to the point I caused her so much harm through unforgivable actions.

”…seriously? What kind of stupid romance story is this?”

And even after all the abuse I inflicted on poor Song Ting Yu, for some reason, all because I ”got better,” she ended up forgiving me and the marriage was saved. Even though most of my actions could be constituted as criminal abuse and she had every right to call the police on me (but it would be useless because I was a wealthy and influential CEO who could buy the police out and the authorities couldn't touch me), everything was forgotten and Song Ting Yu had a ”happy end” while I was a reformed husband.

No, seriously? What the fuck was with this toxic relationship? This whole marriage was toxic and abusive, that was what it was. The bastard husband shouldn't be forgiven just because he ”reformed” and became better. You can't possibly expect the wife to just forget everything and forgive him because he stopped abusing her. The damage was done. She should just drop him like a hot rock (though, to be fair, the husband did his best to prevent the divorce by EVEN MORE ABUSE) and flee as far away as possible. Hell, I admired her tenacity. If I were in her shoes, I would probably kill myself long ago.

That was just how awful the husband's abuse was.

Actually…if I were in her shoes, I would have murdered the husband by any means necessary and laugh as I was sentenced to death, because it would have been worth it. Stabbing him with a kitchen knife, poisoning his food, whatever. Whatever means necessary – I would employ them to avenge my abuse.

Unfortunately, this was a ”romance” story, not a revenge or assassin story. Though how anyone could call such a toxic relationship romance, I had no idea. Probably because the whole idea of ”reforming the bad guy” appealed to some of the female writers. I might be mistaken, but from what I knew, these sort of stories were penned by female authors for a female audience, and I didn't know whether to be disturbed by that or not.

Then the scene changed.

This time, I was a fucking CEO again (what was with this weird obsession with CEOs being the male main characters in these stories?). This time, I was some guy who wanted to marry the first missy of some family, but she eloped with someone else. I ended up marrying her sister as replacement. Cue neglect, abuse (not physical abuse but emotional abuse) and all sorts of…weird stuff. And what was with this whole cliché ”you're not fit to bear my child” bullshit again?! At least this time I wasn't as toxic and violent as the previous CEO, who was a pathetic, delusional, sorry excuse of a human being. At least this time I did appreciate some of the sister's efforts and didn't cheat on her or anything, but honestly, it was still quite jerkish to tell her, ”You're only a replacement for your sister.”

Dude, if that bitch decides to elope with somebody else, quite clearly she isn't worth your time, so stop pining over her and treat your wife decently. Okay, he was more decent than the last guy, but even so I couldn't stop cringing whenever I see these supposedly ”intelligent” CEOs doing stupid things to their poor wives.

At least he realized how important she was later, learned to treat her better and reciprocated her feelings relatively shortly…

Song Ting Yu stood at the kitchen, doing her best to cook. Initially, my CEO character had thrown away all the food she had put in painstaking effort to cook for me, refusing to even taste them, but he was gradually growing to like it.

”My beloved, I have realized my folly!” I cried out dramatically. ”The one I love is you, not your sister! I should never have thought of you as a replacement! You're my one true love!” Hugging her while shedding tears, I vowed. ”I will repay you for all that I've owed you with a lifetime!”

”Not just this lifetime. For the next life, and the life after that. You must remember what you owe me, and remember to repay me.”

Song Ting Yu's words were filled with indescribable magic that worked their way toward the depths of my heart and ensnared me. Her voice lanced straight into my heart and mind, and resonated deeply within my soul. It was as if she was trying to imprint the words in my soul, or sow a seed inside my heart, engraving it into my psyche so deeply that I would never forget them.

Like a deeply rooted seed, the concept began blooming inside my mind and expanded rapidly, lodging itself firmly within my heart.

Or it tried to, anyway.

”You're trying to trick me into believing that I owe you two lifetimes of love?”

…seriously? With this flimsily written illusion? Indulging yourself in delusions of enduring toxic relationships so that you could reform your abusive husband? Coming up with a poor, pathetic excuse of a human being as your husband? Did you think everything would be forgiven as long as he was a rich, powerful CEO? As long as he treated you better in future?

Honestly, if the male lead wasn't a rich and powerful CEO, but a drunk, penniless husband who abused his wife everyday, she would have kicked him out of the house and called the police on him. To be fair, such cases happened in reality, and many abused wives suffered from the domestic abuse in silence, but those inevitably never ended with happy results or forgiveness. It usually ended with violent death of the wife, and the police would eventually get involved.

But no, if the male lead was a handsome CEO in a romance story, everything will be forgotten and forgiven. Probably so that the female writer or readers can indulge in their fantasy of reforming the bad-boy husband and ”taming” him.

What a bunch of absolute bullshit.

Song Ting Yu didn't seem to have sensed my annoyance. She had already reached in front of me, her enchanting eyes staring unbrokenly into mine. She then lifted a single finger and touched my forehead.

”My dear husband, this lifetime has arrived, so you should wake up and take a look now. What you've owed me should be repaid to me in this lifetime…”

”I'm not your husband, lady. And I don't owe you anything.”

”…eh?”

Song Ting Yu took a step back, surprised when she discovered that I hadn't fallen under her illusion. I gave her a withering look.

”Really? That's the best you can come up with? Abusive, handsome CEO husbands and toxic relationships? Domestic abuse? Have you been reading too many web novels on Webnovel.com or something?”

”…eh? EH?!”

Suddenly, I understood. This girl…despite her outstanding beauty and extraordinary diplomatic capabilities (though I question how ”diplomatic” her skills could be if she resorted to just charming and hypnotizing people), had completely zero actual experience in real romance. All her knowledge about romance was built from reading all those toxic romance novels on Webnovel.com or translated Chinese novels about abusvive CEOs.

To be fair, it wasn't as if I had any experience either. Even in my previous life, I lived for thirty years without being in a relationship, not even once. I never had a girlfriend in my entire llife, whether it was my previous life or this one.

Even so, I knew toxic when I saw one, and putting up with an abusive CEO husband, no matter how rich, powerful or handsome he was, forgiving him because he became ”better” later on, was not healthy. And one did not simply forgive and forget.

Not to mention such stories often trivialized ****. The psychological and emotional scars from **** were not something easily forgotten, but the heroines of these stories tend to conveniently forget about them and wash them away, probably because the male leads were devastating handsome, great in bed, and rich to boot.

But **** was ****. And the writers obviously hadn't experienced that in reality, or they wouldn't be trivializing it and relegating them to a brief side mention.

Sighing, I shook my head.

”You want to construct a convincing, realistic illusion about romance that's still somewhat idealistic, but not to the point where it's downright unbelievable and exceedingly stupid? This is how you do it.”

I wasn't an expert in writing romance stories, but I did my best to imagine a romantic yet somewhat realistic setting and premise. Sure, I understood that a dash of idealism was necessary, otherwise people wouldn't bother with fiction, but I wanted to make it relatable to the regular readers who were living normal lives aas opposed to fantasies of joining the so-called elite class of the rich, powerful and handsome.

A young man and a young woman were meeting in university. They had interest in the same hobby and joined the same club. The young man, who was from a relatively rich family, and usually had things served to him, was impressed by the passion that the young woman showed in drawing. He would admire her intricately drawn art, and how she was so enthusiastic over it.

That was what drew him closer to her, and allowed him to be attracted toward her. The young woman, however, didn't think she was deserving of his affections, distanced herself, but nonetheless she couldn't deny that she was attracted to him.

However, throughout their university years, the young man supported the young woman's dreams, which often went against her parents, who were more realistic and practical, and with his help, she became a fairly renowned painter. Not world-famous, but she did win some minor awards here and there and could count as successful.