I used to believe that silence was peaceful.
Now I know it can be sharp like the kind that lingers after someone hands you a gift you never asked for but suddenly can't part with.
I wore the jade hairpin to breakfast the next morning.
Not because I wanted to make a statement, not even because I believed in whatever this… thing between Zihan and me was becoming but because it felt like armor. A quiet declaration that maybe, just maybe, I was no longer the outsider pretending to belong.
He noticed, of course. Zihan didn't say anything, but I caught the flicker in his eyes as I took my seat beside him.
His mother noticed too.
"Family heirloom?" she asked coolly.
I offered a smile. "A gift."
She said nothing after that but her silence wasn't peaceful either.
Later that afternoon, we were invited to a luncheon in the eastern courtyard a formal affair hosted by one of the Wu family's distant relatives. I sat between Zihan and one of his cousins, nodding politely through questions about our 'honeymoon' and smiling like a trained doll.
And then she arrived.
Liang Yunmei.
She didn't even pretend to hide her entrance her silk dress was blood-red, the shade of quiet war, her heels clicking like punctuation against the stone.
And she was smiling like a predator who already knew where her prey would run.
"Zihan," she said sweetly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I've missed you."
Zihan's posture stiffened, but he didn't pull away.
"Yunmei," he said. "You weren't expected."
"I came to offer blessings to the happy couple," she said, eyes flicking toward me. "Isn't that what family friends do?"
Family friends. Right.
I stood, because staying seated while she loomed felt like conceding. "Thank you," I said politely. "It's kind of you."
Yunmei's smile sharpened. "I see you're wearing jade. Lovely. Some say jade absorbs the spirit of the wearer. Let's hope it suits you."
I met her eyes, calm and steady. "I think it already does."
Zihan stayed close for the rest of the afternoon, but not close enough.
Not when Yunmei kept finding reasons to appear during tea, during a walk in the garden, during every single moment where we might have had peace.
"She's baiting you," Zihan said quietly at one point.
"I know."
"You don't have to react."
"I'm not reacting," I replied, too quickly. "I'm surviving."
He said nothing to that but I could feel the tension coiling tighter in his shoulders.
By evening, I was exhausted.
I left the banquet early and returned to our guest room, slipping out of the dress and standing in front of the mirror in silence.
The jade hairpin sat on the dresser.
And for the first time… I wondered if I'd made a mistake putting it on.
I was halfway through undoing my braid when the door opened behind me.
Zihan stepped in, loosened his tie, and leaned against the door.
"You left early," he said.
"I was tired."
"You handled her well."
"I didn't do anything."
"Exactly."
I turned to face him. "You could've said something."
"I've said enough."
"Not to her."
He narrowed his eyes. "What would you have me say? That the fake wife I married to avoid her is now wearing my family's jade? That I might be catching feelings when I'm not supposed to?"
"Yes," I snapped. "That would've been nice!"
The room fell into silence.
Zihan looked at me like he was seeing someone he hadn't expected.
"You want this to be real now?"
"I want the truth," I said. "If we're going to keep doing this, I need to know where I stand."
He stepped closer. "You're not just standing. You're shaking everything around you."
My breath caught in my throat.
But before I could respond, the door burst open.
And Liang Yunmei stood there, eyes wide, face flushed with something close to triumph.
"Oh," she said, mockingly. "Sorry. I didn't realize I was interrupting… something real."