The novel opens with a conversation between Chen and his sister, Miss Lin, who is now engaged to Mr. Chen. Miss Lin asks why she has changed her mind about the marriage. She says that she was once in love with another man, but she gave him up because she disliked the poor and the love of the poor first of all. She also says that her lover was a poor boy, and that she chose to give up him because she hated the poor. She asks if it is because the family has better business resources, and she says that the family does have the resources, but that she likes the man because he is her own man. She tells her sister that the man has said that if she does not go to the wedding, he will expose her embarrassing past. The man is named "xiao yi" and he is a friend of Miss Lin's.