Chapter 5

I discovered my sister’s secret.

After dark, she would sneak out of the house, hiding it from both Father and me, carrying a bamboo basket on her arm.

I followed her all the way out of Guizi Lane, turned into Lion Bridge, then into Shitou Lane in Qiaodong, and finally entered a run-down little courtyard.

Standing at the doorway, I immediately understood why my sister was so determined not to marry Chao Jianan. It was because of this.

Previously, she had cried to Father, saying, “Chao San is a coarse man, he’s never even studied. The one I want to marry is naturally a learned and well-mannered scholar. Even if he is penniless, I would be willing to eat coarse grains and plain vegetables with him.”

The last household in Shitou Lane was home to the poorest scholar in Qingshi Town, An Huaijin.

He was a poor scholar who had lost his parents early, and he was also a very proud one.

My father didn’t like him at all. He said that although An Huaijin was the top scorer in the Prefectural Examination, he was too proud and cared too much about appearances. Even when he could barely afford to eat, when gentleman Chen asked him to write a couplet and paid him half a string of coins, he actually tore up the couplet.

Half a string of coins could buy ten bushels of good rice. My father sighed repeatedly, saying that even when he was starving, he was still so arrogant and self-important. With such pride, he would never amount to much.

And even if he did, it wouldn’t last long.

I lay on the wall, peering through the broken window, and saw my sister take out several dishes from her bamboo basket and thoughtfully hand him chopsticks.

That scholar, with his handsome and refined features, nodded and smiled, accepting them naturally.

“Righteousness is often found among butchers, while scholars are often heartless…” For some reason, I suddenly thought of this saying of Father’s.

Perhaps because of Father’s words, I never had a good impression of An Huaijin.

A learned and well-mannered scholar, yet he had my sister sneaking out after dark, the two of them alone-a man and a woman. To put it bluntly, it was a secret tryst.