Xuelan had returned.
The thief who smiled with red lips and honeyed words.
The one who once called her "Jie" while clutching the recipe book Mianmian had handwritten with oil-stained fingers then vanished with her money, her dream and her future.
Mianmian's smile deepened. It didn't reach her eyes.
She stepped out.
Xuelan was in the front room, her powder-fresh and curled into a new fur-lined coat. Her eyes sparkled with false joy when she saw her.
"Ah! Sister! It's been so long!"
She rushed forward like nothing had happened.
Mianmian didn't move. "Three years."
Xuelan blinked. "Eh?"
"You've been gone three years," Mianmian said. "I was wondering how long it took to use up fifty recipes."
Xuelan's smile twitched.
Bai Shi clapped her hands. "What are you saying, Mianmian? Your sister came back for the wedding! She didn't come here to fight."
"Oh?" Mianmian's voice was gentle. "Not to steal anything, either?"
Bai Shi's face darkened. "That's enough."
But Xuelan only laughed. "I missed you, Jie. Don't be angry, alright? I actually… I came because I was hoping to see your new recipes. The ones you've been working on?"
She clasped her hands like an old friend. "The last ones, I lost them. Can you believe it? I was heartbroken."
"So I was thinking, If you have any new dishes, maybe you'd let me see again?"
Mianmian looked at her, long and slow.
Then she stepped closer.
"Do you want me to write them down for you?"
Xuelan beamed. "Would you?"
Mianmian smiled back. "Sure."
Xuelan was too stunned to respond.
Mianmian brushed past her and went to the kitchen.
She could hear Bai Shi and Xuelan muttering in the next room, saying she was behaving, finally. That she must've come to her senses.
Good.
Let them believe it.
Let them dress Yuying in pearls and call her bride.
Let Feibai wait at the altar thinking she was still the docile girl who once packed pickled radish and rice cakes for his lunch.
Gu Mianmian didn't cry anymore.
She had gotten past that level.
Later That Morning — The Main Hall
The wedding hall was modest, but dressed in red from wall to wall. Candied dates. Firecrackers. Double-happiness characters pasted on every door.
Lin Feibai stood near the sedan chair. Yuying was hidden behind a red veil, all lace and gold trim.
Everyone was smiling.
Until the doors opened.
Gu Mianmian walked in.
No veil. No powder. No ornaments.
Just a plain red qipao, old and unflattering and that scarf they all hated.
She walked straight past the guests, past the whispers, past the shocked faces of the Lin family.
Feibai stepped forward, confused. "Mianmian…?"
She stopped in front of him.
Pulled a small box from her pocket.
Opened it.
The engagement ring, the same one he gave her under that plum tree three years ago.
She placed it in his palm.
Closed his fingers around it.
"You should've told me.." she said quietly.
"If you wanted her, you only had to say so."
"I would've let go."
Gasps.
Silence.
Yuying's veil shifted. The bride behind the curtain was trembling.
Feibai opened his mouth. No sound came out.
"It's over.." Gu Mianmian said.
The groom's mother stood. Her voice sharp. "What nonsense is this? Is this a joke to you?!"
And then Bai Shi stormed in from the side.
"Gu Mianmian! What do you think you're doing?!" Mianmian didn't even flinch.
She turned slowly. Looked Bai Shi in the eye.
"If Cousin Yuying is getting married today…"
"…then you'd better prepare a dowry for her."
"Mine's not included."
A slap of silence fell over the wedding hall.
"What did you say?" Bai Shi's voice rose, shrill.
The matchmaker looked horrified. "Dowry? Wait—what dowry? Wasn't it all already—"
"It was mine.." Mianmian said calmly, turning to face the crowd. Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried. "All the jewelry, the bolt of red silk, the hundred yuan gift money from Great-grandfather, every piece was mine. From my mother. From my years of hard work."
She looked to the bride behind the veil.
"And I won't be gifting it to a thief."
"You—!" Bai Shi's chest heaved. "You wicked girl, what are you talking about—"
"Speak clearly.." one of the Lin family aunts demanded, stepping forward with a frown. "Is this a wedding or a circus?"
"Ask the bride." Mianmian turned her eyes slowly to the red veil. "Yuying, want to tell them whose qipao you're wearing? Or shall I lift the hem and show them my stitches?"
The room buzzed with murmurs.
Yuying stepped back, clutching her sleeves.
Feibai, red-faced, tried to speak. "Mianmian, stop it. This isn't the time—"
She laughed. Short. Sharp. "No, it isn't. Because the time was three weeks ago. When you took my dowry. When you accepted the gifts meant for OUR wedding. When you let my cousin walk into the role I held for three years."
Bai Shi stepped forward again, voice shrill. "You're being ridiculous! You said you were willing—!"
"I was stupid.." Mianmian snapped. Her voice rang like a slap. "That's not the same thing."
The Lin elders looked between each other. Whispered.
"This is too messy…"
"I thought she was the bride…"
"Isn't this the Gu family's fault?"
"Where's the father? What's he say?"
But her father wasn't there. He'd been sent out on an errand. On purpose, no doubt.
Mianmian faced the Lin matriarch, voice firm. "Madam Lin, I won't let my dowry be used to fund another woman's marriage. If your family still wants to wed the Gu family, feel free. But Bai Shi must prepare an appropriate dowry for her niece."
She turned back toward Bai Shi, smile razor-thin.
"You do have that kind of money, don't you? I mean… you had enough to buy pearls and silk for your niece, but not enough to feed your own stepdaughter."
Bai Shi's face went white.
Xuelan, hiding behind the crowd, pressed her lips into a line.
And Yuying—Yuying finally broke.
She lifted her veil and burst out, "Why are you doing this?! We're still family, aren't we?!"
"Family?" Mianmian looked at her. "Family doesn't swap your groom like he's cabbage at the market. Family doesn't take your mother's necklace and say it'll look better on someone else."
Her eyes dropped to Yuying's neck. The jade pendant she wore, the one that used to hang at her mother's altar.
"I want everything back.." she said. "Now."