The Golden Phoenix That Rose from a Ruined Temple

When I was born, Grandpa looked disappointed and told my mother, who was suffering from severe bleeding, "Another little girl. Throw her away! Have another one next year." My parents refused. Before my mother had even finished her confinement, Grandpa sent my uncle to take her back to her parents' home. My aunt thought my mother and me brought bad luck, while my uncle squatted in a corner, sighing as he smoked his pipe. The next day, my father packed two changes of clothes and five jin of millet on his back, then took my mother and me to the dilapidated temple at the west end of the village. Everyone said it was haunted and that I wouldn't survive more than a few days. But thirty years later, they said I was the Medicine King Lord's chosen final disciple.