Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

A letter arrives from General Xue's wife ordering the author's grandmother to move out of the house the general had provided. Her father was reluctant, but agreed to take her back into his own home. He is constantly angry at her and her situation is almost unbearable. Her father has now become a wealthy man with concubines of his own. Eventually, Yu-Fang has a nervous breakdown and Dr. Xia—the father of Yu-Fang's classmate—was called. He was immediately taken with her beauty and the two quickly fell in love.

Dr. Xia proposed marriage, saying that he didn't want Yu-Fang to endure the life of a concubine. Her father is happy that she's leaving, but peevishly says he has no dowry to give. Dr. Xia is sixty-five, wealthy, and lives with his extended family. When his three sons, their...