Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of child slavery.

Lingsi, the narrator, recounts that when she was a baby in Imperial China, her mother sold her to the Li family, asking only that Lingsi be taught to read once she turns six. Mrs. Li readily made this promise, though she had no intention of keeping it. The woman retells this story to her Aunty Wang, mocking Lingsi’s mother and her 14 malnourished children. In the conversation that ensues, Mrs. Li reveals that she thinks that teaching a girl to read is pointless, even if the girl’s grandfather had been a scholar. Meanwhile, Aunty Wang insists that Mrs. Li should not have made false promises. Mrs. Li admits that she only agreed so that she could have the baby.

Interrupting the conversation to deliver a tray and news that the teacher has arrived, Lingsi smiles to herself. Although this story is not new to her, she loves hearing it again because it provides a memory of her mother and a sense of how strong-willed the woman was despite enduring harsh circumstances.

It is because of this that Lingsi believes her mother may have intervened on her sixth birthday. On that day, a new tutor arrives at the house.