Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Rant

As a veteran novel enthusiast, Miranda often scoured various novel platforms, all in search of a story that suited her taste.

Take, for example, the recent one she was reading, After the Main Husband Runaway. She had clicked on it because of its strange title. The author’s writing was a bit unpolished, but the story flowed smoothly, and the character designs were quite good.

In this story, “As the female master, Belle was young and beautiful—the idealized love many a man dreamed of. She was also a notorious flirt in high society. Even though she already had a main husband at home, plenty of other men still wanted to be with her, even if it meant just becoming one of her husbands.

Her main husband, Morian, was an ordinary man. He had only been fortunate enough to save Belle’s life during an outing. For the sake of her reputation, Belle took him as her main husband. When the matter became public, Belle instantly became the very picture of gratitude, earning her a great deal of praise.

The simple and honest Morian was also captivated by the beautiful Belle and willingly devoted everything to her, even when, not long after their marriage, Belle began bringing home other men one after another—side husbands, and other husbands.

He silently endured it all, making arrangements for each of these men and shouldering his responsibilities as the main husband.

But his background was too humble, and he was often mocked and ridiculed. If not for his good fortune in saving Belle, he never would have become her main husband.

At first, he felt that although Belle was a flirt, she treated him very well. He also believed there was genuine affection between them. But later, during a family dinner, Morian overheard Belle telling her friends, ’That Morian fellow is utterly boring. If it weren’t for my reputation, why would I have taken in such a good-for-nothing?’

Hearing those words, Morian felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over him, extinguishing all the passion in his heart. It was he who had been foolish, who had harbored fantasies about Belle.

From that day on, Morian stopped caring about Belle’s affairs. At first, Belle didn’t think much of it. Then she brought home a young man who was tall, handsome, and from a good family. Belle adored him, spending nearly every night in his room. For a time, he was her absolute favorite.

Whenever this new man saw Morian, he would lift his chin smugly and even taunt him, saying, ’If I were you, I wouldn’t cling to the position of main husband. I would have left long ago. The female master doesn’t love you at all, and you’re not worthy of her. Do you know what she told me? She told me to act like you don’t exist. Haha, how pathetic.’

Morian’s heart went completely cold. He felt the other man was right. What right did a man like him have to keep occupying the position of Belle’s main husband? And so, he asked Belle for a divorce…”

Reading up to this point, Miranda found her emotions getting stirred up. She began to have a vague feeling that something was off about this book. She’d read many novels, and plots like this weren’t unheard of, but authors usually let things return to normal quickly. So, although the story made her uncomfortable, she didn’t pay it too much mind, just assuming the author wrote it that way to be sensational.

Even so, she still went to the comment section and wrote: “What more could Morian want? He’s already Belle’s main husband. What else is he hoping for? For Belle to love only him? Isn’t that too greedy? He has no family background, no status. What right does he have? And he wants a divorce!”

As soon as she posted it, the comment immediately received nearly a hundred likes.

Clearly, quite a few people shared her opinion.

At the same time, there were different voices in the comment section: “I can sympathize with Morian, and I’m also envious of him. He actually asked his female master for a divorce. He’s so brave!”

This comment was downvoted several hundred times, and someone directly challenged the poster: “You must be a man, right? Only you men would have such unrealistic fantasies. Dream on!”

…

Lu Xiao watched the comment section grow increasingly lively. ’As expected, the ’crematorium’ genre is the best at stirring up people’s emotions,’ she thought.

She even made a point to check the ratio of female to male readers in the comments.

Unsurprisingly, there were more female readers than male readers.

This was also normal. After all, whether in novels or film and television, the mainstream catered to the female perspective.

Males already suffered unfair oppression in real life; few were willing to seek out more suffering by reading works like this.

But that was fine. She just had to finish writing the story.

“Dear, are you still keeping up with After the Main Husband Runaway? I read the latest Chapter last night, and it made me so mad! At first, I thought Morian was a very sensible man, but I can’t believe he’s so unrealistic. He actually asked Belle for a divorce! It’s a complete humiliation for Belle!”

Teacher Sherry had come over first thing in the morning and couldn’t help but vent to Lu Xiao. She clearly couldn’t hold it in any longer and was desperate to find someone to complain with.

And of all people, she chose Lu Xiao.

“Morian was heartbroken and didn’t want to go on like that anymore. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? Besides, won’t the divorce hurt Morian more?”

“That’s what I don’t understand. Why is he heartbroken? Just because Belle treats others better than him?”

“Probably. It must have been Belle’s comments about him that broke his heart. You know how it is—you can accept criticism from anyone on the outside, but it’s hard to ignore the opinion of the person closest to you. Teacher Sherry, would you ever speak ill of your own main husband to others?”

“Of course not,” Teacher Sherry retorted instinctively. “He’s the main husband I chose. No matter what he’s like, I would never say that. Wouldn’t that just make me a laughingstock?” Then, it slowly dawned on her. “On that point, Belle’s character really is awful. Bad-mouthing him all over the place… If Morian hadn’t saved her, she’d be dead.”

Lu Xiao had long since discovered that the females of the Empire weren’t completely unable to tell right from wrong. It was just that the world’s prevailing views caused them to overlook many things at times.

But if someone guided them, they were quick to accept a different perspective.

Take Teacher Sherry, for example. Just a moment ago, she was angry about Morian wanting a divorce, but after hearing Lu Xiao’s explanation and analysis, she immediately changed her tune.

“Now that you put it that way, I kind of understand why Morian is so heartbroken. But if he gets a divorce, he’ll have to pay a huge price. Is it really worth it?”

“That depends on whether Morian thinks it’s worth it.”

Teacher Sherry nodded. “You’re right. But do you think the author will really let them get a divorce?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve read stories like this before. The male lead acts up a bit, the female master disciplines him, and then everything is fine. I’ve never seen one where they actually get divorced. The author wouldn’t dare write that, or they’d get flamed to death by readers. Look, it’s already starting in the comment section. I just hope this author doesn’t get scared and abandon the story. I’m actually quite curious to see what happens next!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep