Tống Hà, Keep Going

About this story

Six months before the university entrance exam, I found out that the university tuition my grandmother had saved for me by collecting scrap had been taken by my parents to buy football boots for my younger brother. My brother showed off the limited-edition boots right in front of me. I knelt and kowtowed to my parents, begging them to lend me money for university and promising to pay them back after I started working. They said that at best I would only get into a second-tier school, so I might as well not study. They said my middle-school friends were all married now, and their bride prices were being saved for my brother. They said that was a daughter’s fate. But I don’t want to accept that fate.