1 A Cinderella Start

Fan Heng Ai thin small arms were shaking with spasms of excruciating pain.

This, however, was nothing new to her, Fan Heng Ai and Fan Yang An had been assigned as "maids" of his wife, as recompense for his infidelity. The label of "maid" in this case was just a trumped up label for living slave toy to appease his wife's anger at his infidelity. In this case Fan Heng Ai was sent to be Hua Mei Liu's(half-sister) maid while Fan Yang An was kept under Wang Xiu (Hua Kou's legal wife).

Fan Heng Ai's arms had always shook with pain for as long as she could remember. These shakes, in turn, always led to her being beaten again. Hua Mei Liu (5years-old), her older half-sister, never accepted anything less than perfect from her fathers illegitimate family, and sometimes perfect wasn't even enough. So everyday, Fan Heng Ai's small 3 year-old body would get beaten on the spot for any incompetence and then would also be whipped latter on as punishment.

If Fan Heng Ai's life was to be described by anyone it would be described as a living hell on earth.

But today was especially bad, today was the day of the annual Zhang families two day ball. This two day event was one of the most prestigious social society events of the year. In it a ball is held at the Zhang families city villa on the first night with the guests being housed as visitors, the next night every guest is invited to a morning tea during the day then at night they are taken on a secret special ball hosted by the Zhang's.

Anyone that gets an invitation to this event is some of the most influential and powerful people in all of Empire City. This event even had a limit of 4 attendees per invitation, including any maids and servants.

Hua Kou, CEO of Hua Retail, father of Fan Heng Ai and Hua Mei Liu, is one of the rare few who could obtain one of these prestigious invitations and he was bringing along his legitimate family; Hua Mei Liu(Eldest daughter), Hua Liang (Eldest son), and Wang Xiu (Legal wife). As a result all the maids in the house were bustling around trying to prepare the Masters and Mistresses for the party.

Included in the tasks of preparing the family for this event was Hua Kou illegitimate family, Fan Heng Ai (illegitimate daughter) and Fan Yang An (One of Hua Kou's paramours). Today Fan Heng Ai was tasked with holding up the mirror for Hua Mei Liu as she prepared for the ball. As her hands shook a small heeled foot was stabbed into her gut.

"You useless pathetic waste, you can't even hold up a mirror! You should just die! You should never of been born because you are good for nothing! You deserve 40 whips of the cane for that failure!" screamed Hua Mei Liu. A stabbing pain was felt in Fan Heng Ai's abdomen as the heel dug into her skin and drew blood causing her to curl in pain. Hua Mei Liu continued to hit her and kick her in her prone form, and when she got tired she ordered the other maids to do it. Each painful kick and slap and punch specifically landed where her clothes would cover it as Hua Kou would frown upon too much violence against her. This pain was nothing new to her.

Soon the maids were tired and knew that they had to quickly get back to preparing the miss for the ball, so the beating abated and slowly stopped. Fan Heng Ai slowly got to her feet when she realized the beating was done, and resumed holding the mirror.

Most people would majorly scared and sad if that were treated like this, however, Fan Heng Ai was actually happy today. After the initial preparation for the Zhang's opening ball the Master's wouldn't be home for two days. That meant she would have two whole days in which she and her mother would be free from the abuse of the Hua Mei Liu and Wang Xiu.