Tang Zhelan knew that the day would come when she needed to leave Lijiang and face the problems she left at home. Perhaps she should have agreed with her cousin's proposal to purchase her shares and stop her parents from setting her up to meet prospective husbands that she didn't need or want at all.
"Zhelan, dear, don't you think you wasted enough time already being here?" her mother asked. "Why don't you return with me to Shenzhen? I'm pretty sure you already miss a lot of things while you are here."
"You don't need to trouble yourself, Mother. I'm old enough to decide where I will go and when I will leave this place. Even if I go back to Shenzhen, who says I would follow the arrangements you prepared for me?" she asked in return. "Mother, in case you and Father are forgetting, I am your child. Not a retirement plan that secures your future."
