Diamond Ring

The Diamond Ring is one of the clearest material signs of the unstable bond between Lu Xun and Su Xiangwan. It first appears as a promised marital gift, becomes a conspicuous object whose presence unsettles Song Yun'er, is later abandoned as a sign of rupture, and is eventually recovered and placed temporarily in Su Xiangwan’s care. Its importance lies less in its monetary value than in the changing claims attached to it: possession, recognition, injury, and the possibility of return.

Gift and Marital Display

Lu Xun introduces the ring within a deliberately staged exchange. During the gathering, Su Xiangwan asks where her present is and reaches out impatiently for it. Lu Xun tells her that he will give it to her that night, then offers a smaller gift immediately before the larger present promised for later. He takes a small, exquisite jewelry box from his pocket, making the object a public sign of his attention to his wife rather than a private token exchanged without witnesses.

The box produces an immediate change in the room. As soon as Lu Xun takes it out, everyone’s expression shifts, especially Song Yun'er’s. The ring therefore operates on two levels at once. For Su Xiangwan, it is an eagerly anticipated present and an occasion for playful insistence; for Song Yun'er, its appearance exposes the reality of Lu Xun’s marriage and the distance between her own hopes and his public commitment. The object turns an intimate promise into a social spectacle.

The Ring as a Sign of Possession and Distance

By the next chapter, Su Xiangwan is wearing the Diamond Ring and idly playing with it while Lu Xun’s phone vibrates repeatedly. Her faint smile and irritation at the interruption place the ring directly against the pressures surrounding Lu Xun’s continuing concern for Song Yun'er. Lu Xun explains that Song Yun'er is abroad alone and unfamiliar with the place, and that Su Qingrou’s situation contributed to her being left there. The ring on Su Xiangwan’s finger thus contrasts with the unresolved obligations that keep drawing Lu Xun’s attention elsewhere.

That contrast becomes sharper when Song Yun'er confronts Lu Xun. In tears, she argues that she is not like him and cannot casually marry a woman merely to anger her or settle for an arrangement. She accepts blame for what he has become but also describes herself as abandoned and punished. Lu Xun responds with cold laughter and turns her wounded appearance into a reflection of their mutual humiliation. Although the ring is not physically present in this confrontation, its earlier display remains part of the scene’s emotional structure: Lu Xun’s marriage is visible, while Song Yun'er is left asking what place remains for her.

Abandonment and Recovery

The ring’s decisive reversal occurs after Su Xiangwan leaves. Manager Wu tells Lu Xun that his wife left a box on the tea table and had apparently intended it for him. Lu Xun opens it and finds the ring inside, exactly as he expected. Her action communicates without explanation that she is returning the emblem of the relationship rather than continuing to wear it. The ring, once displayed on her hand as a sign of marital belonging, becomes a deliberate object of withdrawal.

Manager Wu warns Lu Xun that Su Xiangwan is gentle but stubborn and that excessive pressure may frighten her. His intervention identifies the consequence of the ring’s return: the object is not merely misplaced property but evidence that Lu Xun’s conduct has pushed the marriage toward fear and separation. The ring makes an otherwise interior decision legible. It carries Su Xiangwan’s refusal into Lu Xun’s own living room and forces him to confront the material form of her departure.

Transfer, Injury, and Temporary Custody

The Diamond Ring later reappears through Bian Jiang, who gives an exquisite jewelry box to Su Xiangwan at the company. She opens it impatiently and immediately recognizes the ring. Bian Jiang explains that he had found no leads until someone suddenly called and asked him to buy it back. The unexplained recovery gives the object a faintly controlled, almost strategic quality: it has not simply resurfaced by chance, but has been deliberately returned to circulation.

Su Xiangwan’s response is not uncomplicated happiness. She says that she must return the ring to her elder sister, recognizing that doing so would add frost to the snow and salt to her wound. Instead, she decides to store it temporarily in her bag. The ring consequently becomes tied to Su Qingrou’s suffering as well as to Su Xiangwan’s marriage. Its custody passes through family bonds, and the object’s emotional charge expands from romantic symbolism into a reminder of injury, loyalty, and the obligation to protect a wounded sister.

Narrative Significance

The Diamond Ring functions as a recurring visual thread linking celebration, jealousy, marital conflict, and family distress. It is presented in a jewel box, worn openly, abandoned in a box, recovered by Bian Jiang, and then placed into Su Xiangwan’s bag. Each change of location marks a change in the relationship attached to it: public promise, active possession, rejection, retrieval, and suspension.

The ring also gives the narrative a concrete form for feelings that remain unstable in speech. Lu Xun can promise a present, Song Yun'er can plead and accuse, and Manager Wu can warn him against coercion, but the ring silently records what the characters’ actions have done. Its movement shows that marriage in this storyline is not secured by declaration alone. Recognition must be displayed, trust can be withdrawn, and an object meant to confirm love can become evidence of the damage done to it. Even the later proposal that Su Qingrou and Jin Zhengnan hold a small engagement ceremony for the sake of their two companies echoes this pattern: jewelry and ceremony belong both to personal feeling and to public or familial arrangements. The Diamond Ring therefore stands at the intersection of romance, status, and emotional debt.