The Secret of a Three-Child Family: Second Sister’s Fight for Survival

On a snowy night in northern China at the start of the 21st century, baby Bai Xue had barely been born when her father saw her as a burden because she was a girl. He sent her away in the middle of the night, nearly leaving her to freeze to death. After she was rescued, she was brought back to this family, which already had too many children and valued sons over daughters.

The scars from scalds and the misery of whooping cough marked her childhood. Her younger brother always got first pick of the food, and her parents' favoritism was impossible to hide. Four certificates of merit couldn't earn her the yellow bicycle she'd been promised, and being sensible counted for nothing against the prejudice that "a girl is worth less than a boy."

As the shackles of injustice tightened, the second daughter, who had fought for her life in the snow, clenched her scarred hands and vowed to carve a way out of the mire. The secret of this overlarge family was always a story of survival, written by her sheer stubbornness.