Ep 2: Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1: Ashes

Yinsu was no longer Yinsu, she was Hua, in a family of 8. Born a peasant, she had 5 older brothers, and 2 fathers, of whom both had left them to fend for themselves. One father had birthed the first, third, and herself, the other one had birthed the second, fourth and fifth. 

She wasn't sure if she should blame her mother for two timing, or feel sorry for her because of how many times they left and came back for her. Afterall, they kept saying they'd never return, and then, what do you know, a couple years later and they were knocking at her door again. However, in recent years, only the second father had shown up after her mom had given birth to her. Yinsu's, now named hua's, father looked to be of good standing, always coming in with pristine robes and seemed to like her mother due to her beauty, however, after his visit three years ago, he hadn't returned, and her mother had long since fallen ill. So ill actually, that their other father rarely hung around anymore, which was kind of nice, since Hua hated how he looked at her. 

Hua wasn't good looking, she made sure of that. And most of all, she wasn't called Hua. By anyone. Her mother had made the one-sided decision of calling her that, after her father requested it, but Hua didn't think it suited her, and now that her mother had fallen ill, she made sure every single one of her brothers knew about it. Whether it was the steady eldest, Chui, or the stuffy second, Shi, or the unreliable Chuo, or the anxious Ye, or the lazy Chai, her name was readily changed to Hui after she denied them food unless they changed the address. Before long, as children, they'd all but forgotten her old name, and Hui had taken her first step on her new journey of life. After All, the flower she'd once been had long since burnt to a crisp, and had now fallen to the earth as ashes, and from those ashes she would grow anew.

Right, as mentioned previously, Hui had done well in providing for her family to the best of a three year old's ability. She'd made sure to pick pocket and beg her way for a small meal at the end of every day, making sure to give her brothers large portions, and only eating meat and vegetables herself. She couldn't let herself eat anything that might give her any softness. She was going to be as hard as the hardest diamond by the end of this life. Even if a man took her in hand, he would have to put her down, because holding her was so unpleasant. She had no interest in males in this life. She'd never really liked them, and since she was starting anew, she no longer wished to marry and let her husband define who she was. She was her own person, and she wanted anyone who saw her to see that as well. Once you are married, you are no longer one person, there are two, and if someone wishes to just see one, they will never see her.

It was already completely dark out, as the last tears of her previous life fled down her cheeks. These were the last of her tears that she was willing to shed. She'd already shed so many. It was time to put down tears and take up a blade. 

She made her way over to her brothers, some sleeping, some throwing things across the large mat they all shared and took a rope she'd tied to the rafters of the small shack, climbing up to the supports on the roof, climbing her way to the corner, where she had hung up drapes to give herself privacy. Her mother was the only one who had a bed in the house, and even her bed had little privacy. There were two rooms in the house: the common room and the bedroom. The boys and her slept in the common room, and her mother slept in the bedroom, which was separated from the common room by a large sheet of thin cloth. The kitchen was outside, and they relieved themselves wherever there was privacy outdoors. 

Hui sat in her small fort that she'd built in rafters of the common room and crossed her legs, breathing in and out steadily, as she tried to draw energy into her core.

She'd been very pampered in her previous life. Her father had been a great man, who had countless scrolls and knowledge for her to read, and the cultivation scrolls were innumerable. Not to mention she'd even been in the royal library, and even the number one sect's libraries before. She knew many accumulation techniques, but had never had the time nor the will or talent to learn any. What would it have changed anyway? But now, she had started over, and instead of letting the world roll over her, she decided to try it out for a bit. However, knowing so many techniques, but having never practiced any, nor talked of cultivation, she had no place that she knew where to start, and the first year of her life, as she lay in her bed, unable to walk, had been spent trying to find the perfect one, only, after trying 137, and finding none of them quite right, nor remembering enough to practice them, she had eventually just made up her own one, gathering qi in a way that made sense to her own vessels. However, all of her meridians had been blocked two years ago, and only by using bits and pieces of hidden techniques and almost killing herself multiple times, had she managed to open up a couple of them. Only, they were constantly threatening to close again, and were barely open enough to circulate properly. No matter how she pushed, she had yet to change anything. Not to mention that sometimes her qi accumulation technique that she invented would backfire from time to time, messing up all her previous work and causing her meridians to fall into even greater disarray. From her knowledge - she had always been a bit smart - she had been able to go quite far, but because of her terrible talent and weak body that she was born with, it would be impossible to fully unblock them unless she ate a life changing elixir, came into contact with an incredible amount of directly injected qi, had dual cultivation with an incredibly powerful immortal, or got a brand new body. None of which would happen in the near future. She sighed, she let her energy dissipate. It was already morning, and she needed to get to work if she were to feed everyone here tonight.

Try as she might, she had yet to get any of the boys to work properly, even the eldest Chui, who was currently 14 and was much more interested in playing pranks with his friends, then cutting down wood or reeds to sell in the village. Shi, 12, was too arrogant to follow his little sis' orders. Chuo, 11, would probably make off with every penny they made and spend it somewhere else. Ye, 8, would constantly ask her questions about everything, and would get scared of crocs in the water or something and chai, at the age of 7, and the closest to her age, was far too young, and too lazy. So everything fell on her hands. For the past 3 years, she'd been the sole food provider for the house, and even she felt like putting everything into the hands of a two-year-old had been a bit much on the eldest's side, but she swallowed it and decided this was a good first hurdle. Any man she knew, that she respected, provided for his family, so she, too, needed to provide for her family in every way. Even if it meant being a bit unscrupulous.

Since she was too young to do anything harsh, she made various crafts in the evenings and sold them in the mornings to her regulars, also selling the eggs they could spare from their chickens, before she headed off to the main market, and looked for the newest rich newcomers now in town to pickpocket. 

Spotting them in moments, she quickly headed over to their side. It wasn't rare for merchants to come through their small town, but it was rare for rich ones, and even rarer for good picking ones. Hui could spend days in the market, and not be a penny richer. 

Stealing wasn't exactly the stablest of incomes, especially when you only stole from those who had the ability to protect it. Today, however, rather than a merchant, there was an even better target.

A small contingency of what looked to be nouveau riche. Although, these ones seemed like they might come from cultivation families, or some sect, due to their long blue robes. However, their innocent faces immediately gave Hui all the encouragement she needed.