Chapter 1

Xiao Niang woke to the sound of the rooster's crows and cursed silently when she saw the sun had already risen, she'd overslept. It wouldn't be possible for her to finish all her chores and and still help her father out at the farm unless she skipped breakfast, but breakfast is the best part of the day she moaned silently.

She pushed her bed covers aside and checked on her siblings, they'd all gotten up and none of them had bothered to wake her. Xiao Niang made her way to the little room where they took their meals and cursed all 6 of her siblings in her mind when she heard the sounds of them eating.

" Why didn't you wake me up?" She yelled as she threw open the door to their little kitchen/ dining room. "You looked so peaceful sleeping that we just decided not to" her younger sister Hua Yun said smiling. "And who exactly thought that would be a brilliant idea?" Xiao Niang asked although she already knew the answer to that question. It would be none other than Wei her half brother, they'd been born on the same day at practically the same time but her father had chosen to attend his birth and not hers even though her mother was his real wife and his a concubine, a fact he loved to remind her of.

"Mine" Wei confirmed Xiao Niang's suspicions. He constantly did whatever he could to undermine her and make her look bad in front of their parents and today was another example, but she had no time to think of all that, she had to get started on her work else she'd end up working until late at night.

Sending one last glare towards Wei, she picked up her broom and began to sweep the little cottage her huge family called home. 4 hours later, Xiao Niang had successfully swept and cleaned the cottage, done half the laundry, she would wash the other half another day, and made lunch which she would take out to her family in the fields.

Xiao Niang checked the time and was shocked to discover how quickly time had flown, she needed to get to the farm before noon and it was already a little after the 11th hour. It would take her 30 minutes to pack her family's lunch and another 40 to get to the farm. She put aside her cleaning supplies and began to pack the food as fast as she could. Finally done, she placed the food in her basket and left to join the rest of her family.

" I almost forgot" she whispered and walked back into the house. "Rest in peace mom, and happy birthday" she whispered as she lit the candle she'd brought out earlier that morning

"Where have you been?" Xiao Niang's father screamed at her as she crossed over the hill in front of their farm. "I woke up a little late" Xiao Niang replied, lowering her eyes and trying her best to look soft and submissive, it always worked wonders to soothe her father's temper.

She could see him visibly calming down and her plan would have worked if her snake of a stepmother, Yan hadn't walked up to her father and whispered into his ears. " You liar" her father screamed as he slapped her.

"Did you really think I wouldn't know?" He grabbed onto her hair and pulled hard, Xiao Niang dropped her basket and cried out in pain trying to remove his fingers from her hair. " I didn't do anything, Father I swear" she cried, her face stinging from the slap and her scalp hurting from her Father's grip.

"How dare you lie to your Father!!" Li Yan yelled as she hit her on her other cheek. "You really think I wouldn't find out that you're whoring yourself out to all the men in the village, just like you're whore of a mother"

"My mother was not a whore" Xiao Niang screamed back into her father's face, insults and beatings from her family she could take, infact she could take practically anything from them, even when they disrespected her mother's name and talked about her terribly, but not this time.

"She was your wife, not a whore, she was never a whore. Today was the 10th anniversary of her death, and this year would have been her 36th but you didn't even remember. You didn't hold a memorial or even light a single candle for her, you did absolutely nothing for the wife you were married to for 11 years" Xiao Niang screamed once more into her father's stunned face.

She wasn't surprised that he was shocked, after all, she'd never yelled at him, she'd always been the perfect doormat and never said anything, but not today, not of the day of her mother's death anniversary. A day her father hadn't even remembered or honoured. She braced herself for even more hits but was stunned when all her father said was

"Get out of my sight, grab your tools and get to work, but make sure you don't cross my path for the rest of the day". Xiao Niang took her chance to escape and picked her basket from where it had fallen.

"Are you just going to let her go after she spoke to you like that?" She heard her step mother ask her father from behind her but her father's only words were "leave me be woman and get back to your work". " Nice show" Xiao Niang heard her Wei whisper as she passed by him to the shed where they kept the farm tools, but she chose to ignore him. She'd learned to pick her fights from an early age and this was one she knew she wouldn't win. The others spent the rest of the day in tense silence but Xiao Niang took no notice and spent the day reminiscing on her memories with her mother, the ones she could remember anyway.

She'd woken up late because she'd spent half the night crying knowing that was the only time she'd be free to do so without her family's censure.

Xiao Niang missed the times when she'd been younger and her mother had still been alive. Back then they'd been happy, she'd had her sibling with her and her father had never hit her. She suddenly longed for the times when all had been perfect and right in her world.