Liu Family

When Liu Xiaolan finally managed to stand up and walk towards her home, it was already dark and cold. All she could do was to move her hurt, bruised body as fast as possible back home. While she probably wouldn't freeze to death, but she could easily get sick with fever, and with her current state that could kill her.

Liu Xiaolan was now 13 years old. It's been almost a year since she was abandoned by the Liu family. While she did get a house during their separation, thanks to the village head, but that house was already in a bad state when the Liu family moved out of it.

Now, her home, was basically an old thatched house, with mud walls and a leaking rooftop. While the original Liu Xiaolan did try to fix the roof with some branches she picked from the trees, her work didn't do much and water sometimes still leaks inside the house.

The only good thing was that when the Liu family was originally building the house, they didn't have much time or money. Thanks to that the ground inside the house is a little slanted, so the water that leaks inside at the very least is slowly flowing outside the house.

Years back, when the Liu family settled in the village they were originally refugees. Using the rest of their money, they managed to buy 1 acre of fertile land and were allowed to build a house on the edge of the village.

Later on, Grandpa Liu enrolled into the army and with his pay their situation slowly got better. Unfortunately, once, soon after a won battle, Grandpa Liu died during a surprise night attack, that was most likely a desperate revenge attempt against the Datang kingdom. The only good part of it was that the General serving here at that time wasn't greedy and paid their family 104 silvers as compensation.

Using this money, the Liu family with Grandma Liu as its head managed to buy almost 10 acres of fertile land with the addition of 2 acres with a fruit garden on it, making their lives much easier. They also built a new house and moved out from the edge of the village towards its center.

Now, the Liu family could be treated as a small landlord within the village. Having a lot of land can bring a good income, but farming it takes a lot of manpower. They farm some of their land, but most of it is rented to other villagers, taking part of the harvest as rent.

Although the family is not small, but when it comes to farming, not many people inside the Liu family want to do that kind of manual work.

Grandma Liu, as the oldest person in the family, is their current patriarch. When Grandpa Liu was still alive, they've had 3 sons and a daughter.

The oldest son, Liu Xiao, the father of Liu Xiaolan, was the least liked son of Grandma Liu. Back when she gave birth to him, Grandpa Liu has just enrolled into the military, so their family's conditions still weren't too good. Grandma Liu felt that he was taking away her food and felt a little resentment towards him and his father. Because of that, even when their days got better, Grandma Liu didn't hesitate to let him stop his studies and come back to farm.

The second son, Liu Weihao, is a literary student, hoping to pass the imperial examination and becoming an official. At the time of his birth, the family was already starting to have some additional money, so Grandma Liu quite likes him.

When it comes to the third child, Grandma Liu finally gave birth to a girl. She was quite adored by Grandpa Liu, so she didn't need to help with any housework since her childhood.

Last but not least, the youngest son, Liu Weixin. Grandma Liu was pregnant with him soon before Grandpa Liu died, so when he was born the family was already rich. Because of that, he was usually spoiled by his grandmother and is really lazy. He did go to school like his older brothers, but he has no real aspirations.

Inside the house itself, the only thing that Liu Xiaolan has is a bed, if one could call it a bed. Basically, it's just some straw lying on the ground used by her to sleep.

"There's nothing here, not even anything to eat…", Liu Xiaolan sighed.

For the last year, Liu Xiaolan basically lived on eating things she found on the mountain. If she found some herbs or other vegetation she could eat, she would treat it as her dinner. If not, sometimes she tried filling her belly with grass once she couldn't bear the hunger.

While the village head helped her a few times with some food, but at the end of the day she's not his daughter and he can't bring her up for no reason. Other villagers didn't necessary hate her, but they wouldn't come near her either, afraid of being unlucky.

The fact that her biological family hated her didn't help either. At the beginning, some villagers felt pity towards her, but in the end they were all scared by Grandma Liu, who was spreading stories and curses about how bad she was, how she even killed her own biological mother.

What's even more shocking is the fact that her biological father went as far as trying to sell her to make some money for their family. If not for the help of the village head, she would most likely be already sold and probably dead.

Liu Xiaolan couldn't help but think, 'This body's father is a scumbag as well. If I died, he probably couldn't be happier. Really unlucky…'

"Why is it that in novels that I've read, the protagonist usually has some kind of special power to help him…" Liu Xiaolan muttered to herself, but unfortunatly for her, nobody can get everything they'd like...