During the Jiangnan plum rain season, the blue-stone slab roads gleamed with a cold light. Shen Yanqiu stood before the vermilion gates, watching a woman inside dressed in a moon-white ru-skirt. She was standing on tiptoe to water newly planted pomegranate flowers, her hair ornaments of silver trembling slightly with the motion—resembling entirely that wild girl from his memory who used to chase fireflies through the paddy fields. Yet now, pinned behind her ear was a sandalwood hairpin given to her by a strange man.
Section 1: The Origin of an Arranged Marriage
Twenty years ago, the Shen and Lin families were still farming households living as close neighbors. On the day of Mother Shen’s confinement, Mother Lin was carrying a bamboo back-basket filled with freshly picked lotus seedpods. When the two bloody infants were laid side by side on the same blue-printed caliglyph cloth, Father Shen slapped his thigh and laughed until tears came to his eyes: "Let's name the boy Yanqiu, and the girl Xiaoman. We shall betroth them!"
Chapter 27