In order to support Shen Yan in his studies to attain official rank and fame, Yun Shu willingly sold herself to a music house and became a music ji. Three years later, Shen Yan was ennobled as a marquis and appointed as a chancellor, yet he despised Yun Shu for her humble background as a music ji, willing only to grant her the position of a concubine, while additionally marrying Ning Qingxue, the daughter of the chancellor, as his primary wife. In utter despair, Yun Shu cut her hair to make a clean break with Shen Yan, and turned to marry the patron who had offered a thousand pieces of gold to meet her—who turned out to be the 'shorty' she had saved in her childhood, now the Regent Huo Jingyuan. Huo Jingyuan married her as his primary wife with an eight-bearer sedan chair and ten miles of red dowry, and further petitioned the emperor to confer upon her the title of a titled noblewoman of grace. Yun Shu then established a women's academy in the Regent's Mansion, charging no tuition fees and regardless of background, helping women all over the world to study arts and letters and achieve self-reliance.