The man's name was Guo Hao, in his thirties, now a villager of Liuhe Bay Brigade, and had just returned from Nan City. Approaching forty, he was still unmarried. He was all alone, nominally an orphan.
He looked at the gold and silver jewelry in the box with calmness in his eyes; they were left to him and his sister by their mother.
Last autumn, he went to Nan City, exchanged a large sum of money, and then went to Beidu to find the house his mother had left for him and his sister.
After settling the matters in Beidu, he returned to Nan City.
His mother had instructed that once she had passed the ordeal of death, the whole family should move to Beidu.
"Don't look for a wife here. If you feel like it, just pay for women. Don't father any children. When we get to Beidu, I'll find you a good match. Men are not like women; even at fifty, you can still marry a young girl," she said.
There were many other reasons, too.
