On the night I found out I had been accepted to the city's high school, I was so happy that I couldn't sleep.

But my mom shattered my beautiful dream, saying, "Xingxing, we don't have enough money to support you going to high school. Don't go."

Grandma said, "It's useless for girls to go to so many schools. Look at how few girls in our village go to high school. You should go work early, earn money, and when you have enough, your brother will be grown up. Spend more on your brother."

Grandma said that I was fifteen this year, work outside for seven years, by the time I'm twenty-two, my brother will be in college, and I can take care of his tuition. The money saved by my parents will be used for my brother's car, house, and marriage in the future.

For the first time in over a decade, I argued back with Grandma, "Others didn't go to high school because they didn't pass the exam, but I did. I'm the only girl in the class who got into high school, and I want to go!"

Grandma didn't take my words seriously at all, and dismissed my argument, "What's the point of going to school? Keep arguing about going to high school, and your mom will find you a good family to marry into."

I dared not speak for a moment, because I had indeed heard my parents say that if I couldn't earn money in the future, they would introduce me to a good family and get a larger dowry.

But I knew I had to go to school this time.

Thinking about what our teacher told us, those girls who graduated from junior high and didn't go to school, got married and had children right after becoming adults, I felt a chill down my spine.

They should have had a great youth with countless possibilities, but in the end, they were trapped in their small homes, hindered by children, worrying about the necessities of life.

Of course, more importantly, I wanted to leave this home.

With these thoughts in mind, I took the remaining few dollars in my hand and got on the bus to the town.