The Modern Way

In the twenty-second year of the Republic, seventeen-year-old Fang Lingzhi ran away from home rather than become a wealthy old man’s concubine. She found work as a maid in the Gu household under the assumed name Bai Ling, and everyone in the family called her A Ling. A Ling’s greatest dream was to marry a young master and become a young madam. At first, she set her sights on Gu Jingsun’s fourth, illegitimate brother, a typical progressive young man: educated, not superstitious, and easygoing. As for Gu Jingsun himself, he was far too good a match for her, and he already had a fiancée in France. He was out of her league, so A Ling had no interest in him whatsoever. A Ling was determined to become a young madam. The young master was replaceable, but she would never be anyone’s mistress. Yet that accursed Gu Jingsun kept pushing her further and further from her ideal… Later, A Ling sat in a penthouse on Avenue Joffre, looking at the latest spring fashions delivered by the Hongxiang boutique. She gritted her teeth and smiled. “Gu Jingsun, you think you’re keeping me? Wrong! You’re supporting me!” The story begins in the twenty-third year of the Republic, from 1934 to 1945. This story is entirely fictional. Please don’t try to match it to real people or events. Theme: It’s hard to leave one’s homeland.