Shattered Equality

Seven years ago, she was a princess and he was a commoner.

Seven years later, he is a prince and she is a driver.

When the driver sees the prince, she doesn't think much of it, just feels that things have changed. That is, until she sees him paired off with a beauty, and suddenly feels a pang.

She realizes it's that long-forgotten feeling of sadness, like someone wringing out a damp summer towel around her heart.

She finds it hard to lie to herself, but she has to admit that it really is sadness.

A complicated sadness, not only about love, but about life.

But at the same time, she asks herself: if she had to choose between 500 yuan and the person in front of her, which would she pick?

Without hesitation, she'd choose the 500 yuan.

--So the person she'd lost wasn't even worth 500 yuan.

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Later, when the person worth 500 yuan learns what she'd been thinking,

he feels neither sorrow nor joy, his expression unchanged.

He only thinks quietly:

Of course you don't think I'm worth it. I was the one who got abandoned back then, not you.

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Do you still know? Since we've been parted, the moonlight is split between us.

--Su Shi, "Dian Jiang Chun"

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[The blurb is gentle, but the story isn't.]

Theme: Bowing your head for money, or for love?