Chapter 1: Your Family’s in Trouble
"Zhi’er’s mother, what are you still doing out here working? Something’s happened at your house. You need to hurry back."
Mrs. Zhao straightened her aching back, still clutching a handful of green wheat shoots. "I just have a little more to do. I’ll head back when I’m finished. What happened at my house?"
"Forget the work! Your daughter’s been beaten to death! Hurry back and see!" Uncle Hu said, his face a mask of anxiety.
Mrs. Zhao froze, dropped the wheat shoots, and leaped onto the field ridge. "What did you just say?"
Uncle Hu sighed. "While you were working in the fields, your mother-in-law and eldest sister-in-law forcibly tied up your daughter. They were trying to sell her to Landlord Wu in town, to marry his dying son and improve his luck. Your daughter refused, so those two beat her mercilessly. By the time I got there, I heard she had already stopped breathing. That’s when I came to—"
Before Uncle Hu could finish, Mrs. Zhao had already taken off running.
A crowd had gathered outside the Bai Family’s courtyard, whispering amongst themselves and pointing at the commotion inside.
As Mrs. Zhao burst into her courtyard, she saw her daughter lying on a straw mat, completely lifeless.
Her legs gave out, and she stumbled over to her daughter’s side. She grasped her child’s cold hand, her heart shattering as she took in the wounds covering her body and face. She wanted to cry, but no sound would come out. Her mouth hung open as tears streamed relentlessly down her cheeks.
Liu, the wife of the eldest Bai son, came out of the house. Seeing Mrs. Zhao had returned, her brows knitted in displeasure. "Why are you back? Is the fieldwork done? If not, you can forget about eating tonight."
Mrs. Zhao’s eyes were bloodshot, her face a mask of savage fury. She whipped her head around and roared at Liu, "Who did this to my daughter? Who was it?"
Liu was taken aback. Mrs. Zhao had always been so meek, so used to being bullied. No matter how Liu cursed at her or ordered her around, she had never uttered a single word of complaint, let alone screamed at her like this.
"What are you yelling about? Mother and I were the ones who hit her, so what? It’s her own fault for being disobedient! She eats the Bai Family’s food, she uses the Bai Family’s things, and after all the grain we wasted raising her, she thinks she’s all grown up? Thinks she has a backbone now? Daring to disobey her own grandmother and aunt—the nerve!"
Liu’s expression said the girl had it coming. This enraged Mrs. Zhao so much that she scrambled up from the ground, rushed forward, and struck Liu hard across the face twice. "I slave away day in and day out! Do you mean to tell me I haven’t even earned my daughter a single bite of food? There are four people in your family—how many of you actually work? Have I ever once complained about you being extra mouths to feed?"
"She was only twelve years old! Only twelve!"
Liu was stunned by the slaps. Ever since she had married into the Bai Family, no one had ever hit her like this, especially not in front of so many villagers. She collapsed onto the ground and began to wail, "Help! She’s hitting me! The younger brother’s wife is hitting her sister-in-law! She’s trying to kill me! Someone, help!"
Outside the courtyard gate, the onlooking villagers shook their heads. "Mrs. Zhao is so unlucky to have a sister-in-law and mother-in-law like that."
"Isn’t that the truth? The Bai Family might have three sons, but the one who worked the hardest was always Bai Laosan. After he died, it’s been his wife. In the fields, on the farm, what would they do without her? A single woman doing more work than their two men combined. Besides, the eldest son has two children, and so does the second. Both have more kids than the third son did. Why didn’t she sell her own daughter?"
"They’re just picking on her because the third son’s daughter was adopted, that’s why."