Summary

Jisun recalls her formative years in these chapters. Girls threw clods of dirt at her in grade school because of her wealth and father's notoriety. Jisun did not tattle or complain, heeding her father’s advice that “complaining is the vice of the lower classes” (166). This struck Jisun as ironic, since Ahn Kiyu grew up in a poor family. He began his career in business by apprenticing at a bicycle repair shop and slowly building a business from there. At 25, before he gained his fortune, Ahn Kiyu married Jisun’s mother, a girl from his home town. Jisun only ever remembers living in the house built into the mountainside.

Jisun’s mother did not readily assimilate to Ahn Kiyu’s wealthy, socialite lifestyle. His constant mocking of her clothes and mannerisms did not help. During Jisun’s youth, her mother attempted to...