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My parents refused to go home. They dragged me onto bus 21. We were the strangest sight on board: a bride with ruined makeup and two old people whose bodies would not obey them. The other passengers stared, then edged away as if we carried a disease. My phone buzzed. Shen Xiuzhu sent two photos. The first showed me and my parents on the bus, bedraggled and exposed. I turned and saw the wedding photographer behind me. The second showed Gu Weiwei's parents and Shen Xiuzhu's parents greeting guests at the hotel entrance, elegant and composed. Then his messages came. "Mu Jin, I knew you could not bear to leave me. No one else would marry you. No one else would overlook your background." "Do you understand my difficulty now? Your parents cannot be presented." "This was my mother's request. As long as you agree, you can have a grand wedding." I looked at the screen until it blurred. Five years. He had stood in my kitchen changing a lightbulb because my parents could not reach it. He had held my hand and said, "I only care about you. Background and gossip cannot affect us." I had believed him. I had thought I was lucky. The bus moved through the streets. My mother patted my hand and said nothing. My father stared out the window at the wedding cars passing us.0

I opened the group chat with Shen Xiuzhu's friends. They had been posting since morning. "The bride is late." "Probably fixing her makeup for an hour." "Weiwei looks better in a bridesmaid dress than the bride will." Someone had posted a photo of my parents at the bus stop with the caption: "Is this the bride's family? No wonder the Shen family does not want them at the door." The replies were laughing emoji. I had spent years trying to fit into this group. They talked about schools I had never attended, vacations I could not afford. They forgot to invite me to dinners and then said I was too sensitive. When I told Shen Xiuzhu, he sighed. "Weiwei is the only girl. Everyone is closer to her. Do not be so sensitive." I had tried harder. I had learned their jokes. I had brought gifts. Now I took screenshots of every message and posted them in my own feed, tagging each person. "When you needed a favor, you called me sister-in-law. Now I am 'that woman.' How interesting." Within five minutes, none of them dared reply. Shen Xiuzhu called. I thought that after five years, he would at least say something kind. His first sentence was, "Delete it. You are embarrassing the Shen family."0