Xiao Taiyi, the chief physician of the Imperial Medical Bureau, was renowned for both his medical skill and virtue. He was implicated in the Consort’s fake pregnancy scandal and beheaded.
All males aged twelve and up were exiled. Thanks to the Empress Dowager’s mercy, the women and young children were allowed to return to their ancestral home in Shu.
But the clan members Xiao Taiyi had always protected turned the women and children away, seized their ancestral estate, and cast them out of the clan.
A family of pampered women and children had nothing to their name. Xiao Chunnuan, who had never stood out and only loved reading and preparing medicines, became the family’s sole support.
She taught her family to wash clothes and cook so they could survive;
She taught her younger sisters to forage for wild vegetables and process medicinal herbs;
She taught her little brother business and martial arts to build his strength, and made sure all three generations learned to read and write, even though they were barred from the imperial examinations;
She worked hard to earn money while also helping her exiled relatives;
When her grandmother found Chunnuan a marriage prospect, the clan leader’s daughter showed up to cause trouble.
The kind get bullied, and the meek get ridden over. Xiao Chunnuan would settle old and new scores alike. She had never been one to pull her punches, and she was ready to take on anyone, with words or fists!
