The Scholar’s Promise

My engagement to Zhao Qingzhu was arranged through a marriage exchange. At the time, it was agreed: his sister would marry my brother, and I would marry him. He was a scholar who consumed money, needing my family to tighten our belts to support him. The whole village laughed at us for being fools. But five years later, after he passed the imperial examination, he became a hot commodity. Then everyone said I wasn’t good enough for him.