The year I turned eight, I was trampled to death beneath the Crown Prince’s horse.
His guards paid my parents one tael of silver to make the matter go away.
My parents did not even retrieve my body; they took the money with ingratiating smiles and said, “For our daughter to die beneath His Highness’s horse is a blessing she could never have hoped for.”
Before my first seven days of mourning were over, Father divorced Mother and took another wife.
Mother remarried with every appearance of joy.
It seemed they had forgotten me.
Later, just as I was about to be reincarnated, Father and Mother dragged the Crown Prince to my grave and made him pay for my death with his own.