Before my fiancé, Cui Ning, left for his long journey, he gave me a harsh scolding.
It was because I wanted to borrow thirty-three taels of silver from him to buy back my mother’s keepsake, a paulownia qin.
He accepted my promissory note and recorded the debt in his ledger, yet he refused to give me the money.
“Xiaoyu, you don’t even know how to play the instrument. What’s the point of buying it?” He added, “Besides, thirty-three taels is enough to buy two of you.”
This winter, I had spent my days on the pleasure boats, combing the hair of the older sisters and doing their laundry, only to painstakingly save up a single tael.
But the instrument shop couldn’t wait any longer.
They said someone else had their eye on the instrument and it would be sold the day after tomorrow.
When I returned to the Cui Family home wiping away my tears, Matchmaker Liu saw my red eyes and tried to persuade me again with a kindly expression.
“The Shen family is sincere about their proposal. Don’t even mention mountains of gold or silver-you only need to ask.” She continued, “They said that even if you wanted the stars or the moon from the sky, they would pluck them down for you.”
I thought about what Cui Ning had said-that thirty-three taels was a massive sum of money, enough to buy two of me.
Afraid that the Shen family would be unwilling, I dried my tears and asked cautiously: “I don’t want the stars, and I don’t want the moon.”
“I want a paulownia qin. It costs thirty-three taels of silver.”
