Li Li’s life was shrouded in darkness from the moment she was born. In a feudal family that favored sons over daughters, her arrival bitterly disappointed parents who had been longing for a boy. Her mother had intended to give the newborn girl to the Zhang family, fifty li away, but her grandmother persuaded her to keep the child. Li Li was then sent to live with her grandmother, and under her care and guidance, she enjoyed a brief, warm childhood. The days she spent learning to read and write became precious treasures in her memory.
But the good times did not last. When her uncle got married, Li Li had to be taken back and sent to live with her greedy, status-obsessed paternal grandmother. The old woman’s attitude toward her depended entirely on whether her mother sent money for her upkeep on time, and Li Li struggled to grow up amid this erratic affection. In junior high, her fate was cruelly rewritten once again: the village chief’s son took a liking to her, and her family arranged for her to marry into the Zhang family, plunging her into a new abyss of suffering.
As she endured an unhappy marriage and an oppressive life, Li Li gradually awakened to her own desires. Her yearning for freedom and self-worth grew ever stronger. At last, she summoned the courage to flee, determined to break free from the shackles of fate and seek the light of a life of her own on an unknown road.
