The Shattered Phoenix Crown

Lin Wenqian is a scholar with no money who has passed the imperial examination. On the day of his wedding he arrives holding the hand of Yun Wan'er, a courtesan who is pregnant, and tries to bring her into the house as a second wife of equal standing. The bride waiting for him is Shen Nanxing, the legitimate daughter of a general, who has married beneath her rank and brought a hundred thousand in dowry with her. She smashes her phoenix crown where she stands, writes out a letter of divorce, and shames the Lin family in front of everyone. Lin Wenqian and his mother stay on in the house afterward and go on living off her. She tells them that three years of eating off the Shen family will be paid back, principal and interest, every coin of it. To collect she joins with Lu Changyuan, minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and with her own family, and the Lins, by the time they are cornered, are pleading with her.