The River Snail Maiden’s Revenge

I was the river snail maiden from a folktale. To repay my husband’s kindness, I cooked for him for twenty years, bore him a son, and raised and educated the boy until he became a prefect. But my son thought I was nothing more than a snail and unworthy of being his mother. My husband took another concubine, too, and smashed my shell so she could enjoy herself. Reborn, I stopped pushing my son to study and let him become a merchant. I schemed to make my husband gouge out his own mother’s eyes in exchange for pearls, and brought all of my concubine’s plans to ruin. I took my shell and devoted myself to raising the concubine’s child, nurturing him into a success, then watched as the whole family became a laughingstock.