After five years of being a widower, the court built a chastity memorial arch for Xie Heng, and everyone in the capital called her Xie Zhenniang.
On the day of the Chung Martyrs' Festival, her fiancé, who had "married his country", came back alive - and her savior, who was five months pregnant, sat beside the horse.
The whole city was waiting to see her cry, to see her give in, to see her crash to death on the archway.
But she cut off the word "Zhen" that had been embroidered for five years in public: "Keeping integrity for a lie is a joke. Xie's daughter, I will not marry."
Breaking off the engagement is just the beginning. After opening up the old accounts, she discovered that her fiancé's "martyrdom for the country" was a lie, and that it was true that the commander abandoned the army and fled first. It was her father and two brothers who cut off the entire army's rear and died in Yanhui Pass.
To solve this case, she approached a cruel official in Beijing who was frightened by the news - Dali Temple Shaoqing Lu Zheng, the son of the guilty minister, who only acknowledged the debt but not the face.
A woman crucified by reputation, a man crucified by birth. Everyone in the capital said that they were two jokes.
He said: "It's better to make a joke together than to be laughed at separately."
Later, when he proposed marriage, he did not hand over the betrothal gift, but first handed over the marriage certificate: the woman will take charge of her own business, and the husband will not interfere; the woman can make divorce freely, and each will return to his property.
She added a seventh item: Qiu Luofang, pass on the daughter but not the husband.
In the Jinluan Palace, the emperor asked her what reward she wanted. She only wants one thing:
"Tear down the archway in front of my daughter's door."
