It has been a common belief that money cannot buy love, but it was just proven by a man in the eastern province of Zhejiang after his affection--and generous gifts--remained unrequited.
A man hailing from Taizhou, surnamed Li, has recently filed a case in the local court where he submitted a lengthy list of gifts he had given to his fiancée last year.
According to the Global Times, Li was engaged in 2014 to a woman surnamed Wang, who had reportedly been given a wide array of expensive presents such as golden and silver bars, a number of gold ornaments, and a deposit book.
Seemingly not enough, the man had even provided her with almost 5 million yuan, equivalent to about $802,000, in cold hard cash.
In many areas in China, men are required to pay at least 100,000 yuan ($16,010) and should show that they have the necessary house and automobile so that they could become eligible for engagement.
When news of the couple's engagement broke, many congratulated Wang for being very lucky and for having a stress-free future life as Li's wife, for she would allegedly not experience the "pressure of material shortages" at all.
During his visit to the local court, however, Li decided to demand a refund of everything as his relationship with Wang began its decline.
Reports revealed that the two had multiple arguments and misunderstandings about one or the other's lifestyle and habits when the two tried living together in Guangdong Province.
Because of Li's busy schedule as a businessman, Wang was often left alone in her home province and later decided to break their engagement.
She later refunded majority of the money her former fiancé had given her to obey the court's orders which became another big news in the country.
"The once lavish and eye-catching engagement proved that the magic power of money doesn't always work. In fact, the emphasis on the material over the emotional or the intellectual might do more to scupper prospective partnerships than to keep them afloat," Global Times reporter Sun Xiabo explained.