Familial Love
A Home for Every Daughter
My elder brother tried to put his concubine above his wife.
Father beat him so badly he could not get out of bed.
My sister-in-law’s family standing was a little lower than ours, but in character, looks, judgment, and household management, she was second to none.
If no one stood up for her, we would never hear the end of it.
Later, I married, and my husband made my life difficult.
My sister-in-law came to fetch me with a chest of gold and silver jewelry.
She told my husband: “Divorce her.
There are plenty of noble young men in Jiangzhou eager to marry my sister.
You, however, may have a harder time finding anyone who wants you.”
A Glimmer of Light
I was my birth parents’ third child.
While my birth mother was pregnant with me, the village fortune-teller swore I would be a boy.
They could hardly wait.
They hid from place to place throughout the pregnancy and finally brought me into the world in the bitter cold of the twelfth lunar month—
a girl.
