Red Paper Shop

At the Red Paper Shop in Anrenfang, the capital, the proprietress Shen Qingtang wrote marriage letters for eight years, but none of the three hundred marriages ended up being divorced. She herself had arranged to get married three times, but none of them took place. After the beginning of spring, three women walked into her shop at the same time: the official daughter who had been arranged by her family to have three marriages, the only daughter of the silk and satin shop who was afraid that her background as a merchant would drag down her sweetheart, and the young widow who just wanted to open a tofu shop to make a living on her own. On the way to find a good match for them, Shen Qingtang received a gold-strewn red note from a mysterious man wearing a bamboo hat. Every word of the prophecy came true. And in the wooden box under her pillow, a marriage letter written ten years ago but not sent was waiting for someone to open it. Marriage is not calculated, it is achieved.