Chapter Seven, "Gathering Sorrow" (Part One).

The woman named Na was wearing a plain-colored jacket and skirt, with no perm on her hair. She still had her hair in a bun and adorned it with green hairpins. With a worried expression on her face, she held Su Xi's hand and repeatedly urged her, "Be careful on your journey. Remember to tell the pawnshop that we will redeem it as soon as we have the money. Don't mortgage it to anyone else."

Yu Wan is so naive because she has been overly protected. Li Xuemei just smiled bitterly and replied softly, "It's fine for now, but who can guarantee the future?"

For twenty years, Su Xi has been grateful for her time at the Tong family. She also sighed with the Shi family, saying, "Nowadays, the situation is turbulent. Recently, there have been worker uprisings, and many factories have stopped production. It's naturally more difficult for the master to do business, but there's nothing that can be done."

Upon hearing this, Tong Hongshi flew into a rage and smashed the enamel snuff bottle in his hand to pieces on the ground, saying, "Is this something you dare to take when it was bestowed upon us by the Old Buddha himself as a family heirloom?"

Dawn was still in a daze and hadn't had time to answer when Du Yuntang had already left gracefully. The woman in the cheongsam who had witnessed everything had a smug smile on her face. She extinguished the cigarette in her hand, slowly finished half a glass of wine, and then walked slowly towards the end of the corridor where Du Yuntang had disappeared.

Tong Hongshi saw that Na Shi actually dared to return the Geng invitation, and immediately grabbed her and said, "Are you crazy? Returning the Geng invitation is equivalent to publicly slapping Duri Dara in the face."

Lixuemei saw Yuwan's expression and sighed at her pure heart: "You must have never experienced the hardships in this aspect, how would you know the difficulties of not being able to support the family business?"

Tong Yuwan was somewhat incredulous: "The Liu Fang family also had a considerable family background, how could they have fallen to such a state? What is the difference between such behavior and selling their daughter?"

Autumn, 1920. Shanghai.

Yu Wan has not been happy recently. After school, she walks alone in the school corridor with a drawing board on her back. The lush French plane trees stand tall beside her, and she seems a bit absent-minded. Li Xuemei walks over and notices that she seems unhappy, asking, "What's wrong?"

That person lowered their head, unsure of how to explain. Their eyes avoided Tong Hongshi's gaze, and their voice trembled as they said, "I... I accepted the position."

Tong Hongshi heard the persuasion of the Nasi, stood beside the Eight Immortals table in anger, and pounded the table with a fist, angrily asking, "How old is Yu Wan? How can she get married?"

Lí Měilíng observed that the two of them clearly had a hint of spring in their eyes, and immediately laughed heartily, saying, "We are all relatives, why be so formal and distant? Mingzhu, you accompany Yǔn Táng for a walk outside, I'll be right back."

Lixuemei sighed, propping her arms on the railing of the corridor with a sketchbook, gazing at the white clouds in the sky. Her tone was filled with sadness: "This is also an inevitable situation. It is said that my father passed away at the end of last year. My mother alone cannot support the Deng family, so she has to marry into another family first and receive some dowry to support our household."

That woman immediately burst into laughter, her flowers trembling: "Master Du will be furious."

Yu Wan turned her head, with a somewhat desolate expression: "Last year, we were still playing and frolicking together here. I didn't expect that in just one year, Liufang would already be married. Tomorrow is Liufang's wedding, and although we are best friends, we cannot attend."