After the wedding, the guests went to the banquet hall for dinner. Lin Xiao's parents were seated at the most remote table; the dishes on the table were barely touched, and her father held a wine glass in his hand for a long time without daring to take a sip. When Lin Xiao tried to go over to talk to them, Jiang Yu's mother stopped her: "Don't go. Talk less to people you're not familiar with—you might say something wrong and become a laughingstock."
That evening, when seeing off the guests, Jiang Yu handed Lin Xiao a velvet box and said, "A wedding gift for you." When Lin Xiao opened it, she found a pearl brooch—its pearl was smooth and round, inlaid with small diamonds around it, looking very exquisite. "It's custom-made. The pattern on it is similar to my 'Jiangnan Series' design. You should like it," Jiang Yu said in a casual tone, as if he was talking about something unimportant.
Yet Lin Xiao was deeply touched. She held the brooch tightly in her hand, thinking, "Jiang Yu actually cares about me." What she didn't know was that this brooch was left by Jiang Yu's ex-girlfriend Su Qing—a well-known designer. Back when Jiang Yu was pursuing Su Qing, he had this brooch custom-made specifically for her. After they broke up, the brooch was forgotten in a drawer. When Jiang Yu was tidying up his things before the wedding, he found it and thought, "It's a waste to throw it away," so he casually gave it to Lin Xiao—he even forgot to grind off the letter "Q" (the initial of Su Qing's name) engraved on the back of the brooch.
That night, Lin Xiao lay on the big bed in the Jiang family's old mansion, gazing at the moon outside the window, with the brooch in her hand. The room was large and luxuriously decorated, but it made her feel alien. She thought of Jiang Yu's cold eyes at the wedding, Jiang Yu's mother's harsh words, and her parents sitting alone in the corner—and suddenly felt an emptiness in her heart. But she quickly shook her head, pushing those uneasy feelings aside—she told herself, "This is just the beginning. I'll gradually get used to life in this wealthy family, and Jiang Yu will slowly come to like me."
She carefully placed the brooch into her jewelry box, putting it in the most prominent position, as if she was preserving a rare treasure. What she didn't know was that this brooch would become the first secret in her marriage that would break her heart.