Ah, I expected a cesspool of commentary and I wasn't disappointed, lol...
Frankly I think this is a wise move on the author's part. The story in general tends to be very "yank in one direction, yank in another immediately after". This sort of permits the Citrus universe to have settled and allows the author some time to perhaps do a "6 months ago...." chapter later on if it's actually integral to the story.
Personally I'm sort of on the "Citrus is trash but it's YURI trash so I'm gonna read it anyway" train, but I'm not complaining because it's because of stories like this that yuri is gradually gaining more ground in the industry which can only lead to good things for the genre in my opinion.
As for Mei... well, "GODDAMMIT MEI" is as fitting as always. I'd like to think that she's throwing herself into an arranged marriage with a man who seems like he may ultimately understand a need to either stop or end the marriage because she's not really into it (like it seems he won't really be). Hopefully it can be done where it's a decision Mei makes on her own and not one that she is seemingly pushed to by her fiance/husband/whatever because goddammit Mei needs to make up her own mind.