Chapter 3

It’s just too much.

I tugged at my parents, wanting to go home.

Mom held my endlessly crying little sister in her arms and patted my head, “What do kids know? Eat your food.”

That night, as we left Uncle’s house, Aunt smiled and stabbed at Mom’s heart, “Sister-in-law, you actually have it much easier than I do.”

“You have no idea how exhausting it is to raise three sons.”

That night, there was no moonlight.

On New Year’s Eve, every household lit their lamps.

Dim yellow light spilled over the muddy country roads.

I quietly asked my parents why they had to endure it all.

Dad sounded irritated, “What do you know, you’re just a kid.”

Mom’s face was soaked in shadow, “It’s because I can’t give birth to a son.”

Ah.

They don’t believe that I will take care of them in their old age.

Dad stopped going to work in Guangdong.

Since there was no son, there was no need to build a new house. Just get by, day by day.

People say country folk are simple and honest, but when these people decide to stab you, they’re more ruthless than anyone.

At some point, Dad got a new nickname: Zhang Mule.

A mule is a crossbreed between a horse and a donkey.

It can’t reproduce.

When the village was collecting money to update the family genealogy, someone joked, “No need for Zhang Mule’s family to chip in, right? They don’t have a son. Making him pay is just too much.”

Dad stayed silent. Mom only dared to choke back complaints at home; outside, she put on a smiling face and didn’t dare talk back.

I couldn’t change them, so I could only make myself stronger.

They called Dad Zhang Mule, so I cursed their whole families as mules.

When my cousin bullied me and my sister, I bit and kicked.

Even if I ended up bruised and battered, I had to tear a piece of flesh from them.

Grandma took away the chicks that had just hatched at our house, saying she’d raise them for us.

But after a while, they became Uncle’s family’s chicks.

I chased after her and snatched them back.

Aunt tied her yellow cow at the edge of our field and let it eat up all the newly grown water spinach.

She even pretended it wasn’t on purpose.

I opened the gate to her vegetable garden and let all the chickens in.

They pecked her whole garden bare.

She was so angry she stood with her hands on her hips, cursing.

I shouted back, “If you dare eat our vegetables again, I’ll take a sickle and cut down all the seedlings in your field!”

Gradually, I became notorious in the village.

Those aunts and older women always tried to advise me, “You have no brothers, and such a bad temper. When you marry, no one will stand up for you at your husband’s house.”

Mom looked at me and sighed, “With her like this, who knows if she’ll ever get married!”

But Mom.

I’m just…

Protecting you, protecting this family.

In a blink, my sister was old enough for preschool.

That day, two things happened that would change my life forever.