In the 22nd year of the Republic of China, I, Jiang Jin, was married to Gu Xi Yan. It was an arranged marriage of equal status, by parental decree, through a matchmaker, and we had never met—essentially a forced marriage. My husband is a soldier devoted to his nation, ready to save his people. Thanks to him, I escaped the old feudal system to start a new life. He believes meeting his "khanh khanh" (beloved) in this life is his greatest fortune, vowing his love for Jiang Jin will never change, even unto death. Sitting in my bridal chamber, a vivid red before my eyes, I was nervous. My mother had told me much about him: a student of the new education, who studied in France at 15, a scholar who became a young general, yet possessed a refined demeanor without a trace of a warrior's harshness. I wondered why such a man would marry a girl from an old feudal family like mine. Would he resent this marriage? Would he despise my background or attack my family as feudal remnants, old-fashioned, and backward, like other new-era intellectuals?