Yuniang’s life has been full of hardship. When she was eight, her mother passed away after giving birth to her younger sister. Her father couldn’t bear the hardship of raising the children alone, so six months after her mother’s death, he married a stepmother for the two sisters. Yuniang thought her little sister would finally have a mother to love her, but the stepmother was already pregnant before she married into the family. She and Yuniang’s father had been secretly involved for some time. The stepmother cared only about enjoying herself, leaving Yuniang to handle all the hard work around the house.
Yuniang worked hard, looking after a child and doing chores, shouldering the burden while still so young. A few months later, the stepmother gave birth to a son, and she and Yuniang’s father became even more demanding. Yuniang pitied her frail younger sister and never fought back. When Yuniang turned fourteen, her stepmother arranged a marriage for her. Day Nian, a young man from their village, was five years older than Yuniang. He was honest, hardworking, and conscientious. His family had an invalid mother confined to bed and a frail younger brother, but Day Nian worked hard and finally saved some money by the time he was nineteen. One day, he sent a matchmaker to Yuniang’s home to propose. As soon as her stepmother heard that money was involved, she agreed on the spot, eager to marry off this unwanted burden when the time was right.
Yuniang also hoped to marry Day Nian. Knowing he was an upright man, she planned to serve her mother-in-law and look after her younger brother-in-law after the wedding. She begged Day Nian to take her little sister in and raise her. When the wedding day arrived, Day Nian was in high spirits. The young men in the village all knew Yuniang was beautiful, and jealousy drove several of them to mock Day Nian for being poor and make lewd jokes about Yuniang. Unable to swallow their insults, Day Nian got into a fight with them. In the scuffle, one of the men struck him on the head with a hard object, killing him on the spot.
On her wedding day, Yuniang became a widow.
An unreliable father, a bedridden mother-in-law, a frail younger brother-in-law: Yuniang’s life from then on
