Only later did she find out the story. Her aunt, Xu Xiaogu, had been beautiful in her youth—so much so that she was famous for her looks in the streets surrounding the Xu Family home. But then she met a poor student from the countryside. The two fell madly in love and pledged their lives to one another.
Although the Xu Family had never been particularly wealthy, they were natives of Chang City. They owned an old house in the city and, as registered urban residents, received grain rations. Naturally, they wouldn't allow their stunningly beautiful daughter to be with a country boy.
But in an era that championed the ideas that "women hold up half the sky" and that marriage should be a free choice, how could their elders possibly stop them?
Xu Ruyue promised her family she would stop seeing him, but she secretly continued their relationship. 'Once my love gets into university and has a bright future,' she thought, 'my family won't have any reason to object, right?'
