The flight home was a suffocating descent into a past Mei Lian had so desperately tried to outrun. With every mile that passed beneath the plane, a cold knot of dread tightened in her stomach. As the taxi pulled up to the familiar gates of the family estate, her heart ached with a familiar, bone-deep sorrow. The grand house, once the backdrop of her comfortable childhood, now loomed like a mausoleum, its perfect symmetry and manicured gardens belying the brokenness within its walls.
Her father met her at the door, his face a road map of weary grief she had never seen before. He was a man who had always stood as her pillar of strength, but now he seemed a ghost of himself, bent under the weight of his sorrow. The embrace was tight, silent, and heavy with unspoken apologies for the silence they had shared. He didn't ask about her life abroad, didn't mention the three years she had gone radio silent. He just led her to the study, the air thick with the smell of old paper and new sorrow.
"I need you to understand, Mei Lian," he began, his voice a strained whisper she had to lean in to hear. "The company is… in a sensitive position. And Gu Yichen… he's a mess. The public is watching. Our allies are waiting to see what we'll do."
Mei Lian said nothing, her eyes fixed on her father's face. The family business, built over generations, was more than just a company; it was their legacy, their reputation. It was a weight that was now being passed to her shoulders.
"Gu Yichen's father and I… we've made a decision. A temporary measure, for now." He finally looked at her, and his gaze was a mix of shame and desperate hope. "You will marry him. You will take your sister's place."
The words, though she had seen them coming, hit her with the force of a physical blow. Her heart, already so bruised, felt as if it had been shattered all over again. A terrible, ironic laughter threatened to bubble up in her throat. She had fled a wedding to escape this very man, only to be forced to marry him in a twisted, loveless union. There was no argument to be made, no way out. The weight of her family's legacy, of their business, of the world's judgment, was all on her shoulders.
The wedding itself was a grim, hollow echo of the one she had fled. There were no white dresses, no lavish decorations, no joyful tears. It was a sterile, private ceremony in a small, quiet room, the officiant's words barely audible in the tense silence. Gu Yichen stood across from her, his face a chiseled mask of grief and resentment. His eyes, the very same eyes she had fallen in love with as a child, were now as cold and distant as the moon. They didn't see her. They looked right through her, a reflection of the ghost he was still grieving for, a constant reminder of everything he had lost.
Their new home, a sprawling, modern villa, felt colder than any place she had ever been. He lived on one side of the house, she on the other, an invisible wall of silence separating them. He didn't speak to her unless absolutely necessary, and when he did, his words were like shards of ice.
"Know your place, Mei Lian," he said one evening, his voice devoid of all warmth. "You are here for a reason. Don't forget it."
He didn't need to elaborate. His gaze, full of a palpable hostility, was enough. She was a substitute. A shadow. A necessary evil to maintain appearances and business ties. She was a placeholder for a love that would never be hers, and in this grand, beautiful house, she was more alone than she had ever been. She had returned to a home where she was a stranger, living with a man she loved, who now treated her like a painful reminder of everything he had lost.