Weng Fan's Rapid Aging: The Price of a Nobel Marriage?

I've been watching this Weng Fan situation for years, and God, it's depressing. This woman was just 28 when she married Yang Zhenning, and look at her now! Twenty years later, she's aged dramatically while her ancient Nobel laureate husband somehow still looks... well, like himself.

What a raw deal. I met them both at a physics conference once, and the difference was jarring. She's sacrificed her youth, beauty, and probably her sanity for what? To be the caretaker of a genius who's sucking the life force out of her?

The Chinese have this saying about becoming red near vermilion, black near ink. But in Weng's case, it seems like being near Yang has just accelerated her aging while somehow preserving his! There's something almost vampiric about it.

When they married, everyone whispered about the 54-year age gap. Now we see the consequences. She doesn't have time to care for herself anymore—too busy managing his affairs, his reputation, his needs.

The comments on this are brutal but honest. "Trapped for life" sums it up perfectly. Another person notes she looks eerily similar to Yang's ex-wife—suggesting he has a specific "type" he uses up and discards.

Some defender pipes up that it's normal to age at nearly 50. Sure, but this isn't normal aging—this is the rapid deterioration of someone whose life energy is being consumed by a relationship with profound power imbalance.

And that comment about "replenishing yin and yang"? Cruel but perhaps accurate. The old man got his youth boost while she withered prematurely.

The most telling comment: "The mission is completed and it is old." Because wasn't that always her function?

I wonder if she ever looks at photos from 2005 and asks herself: was it worth it?