This was something the woman's elders were unwilling to see, so they made this demand. However, they also promised the man that after the wedding, the two would have equal status, their children would bear his surname, and he would even be able to wield real power in the future.
These were incredibly generous terms, yet the man refused. But he could not withstand the woman's desperate pleas and finally, reluctantly, agreed.
But fate had other plans. The wedding date was set and the invitations had been sent, but the man's family was suddenly struck by a crisis. And so, a few days before the grand wedding, the man left and never returned.
The woman, thinking he had reasons he could not speak of, went to his home to find him. In the end, she left in sorrow and went into seclusion, not to emerge again.
