It was summer, right around dusk.

The setting sun stretched every shadow long and thin, and smoke was already curling out of the chimneys from house to house.

A tiny little girl trudged along with a bundle of firewood on her back, the stack taller than she was, each step looking painfully hard.

Under the big tree at the entrance of the village, a few children were fooling around. The moment they spotted that small figure coming from the village path, their eyes lit up at once.

"It's Iris!"

They ran straight over and circled around her, chanting a nasty little rhyme in sharp, sing-song voices. "Iris, Iris, no pa, no ma, just a wild girl nobody wants. Wild girl, no pa, no ma, nobody likes you, nobody likes you..."

Iris said nothing. Her eyes flicked over them fast, counting in one glance.

Five.

She couldn't beat five.

So she lowered her head and quickened her steps, trying to get past them.

One of the children saw that she wasn't reacting and got bored. He bent down, snatched up a small stone, and hurled it at her.

"Smack!"

Iris moved like she had eyes on the back of her head. Her body swayed aside, and she dodged that one cleanly, but more pebbles came flying after it and still struck her.

Iris frowned from the sting, then bolted on her short little legs and ran.

Behind her, the children laughed even harder.

She hurried all the way home at a trot, but before she even reached the door, she saw Aunt Blossom standing there from a distance, face dark as storm clouds.

The second Iris saw that expression, her heart started thumping. She hesitated, then edged over little by little and called softly, "Auntie..."

"You wretched girl!" Blossom grabbed up a broom and stormed toward her, lifting it high to strike.

As she swung, she cursed nonstop. "I feed you, I keep you alive, and this is how you repay me? You ate the hen that lays eggs for this house. You little curse, I'll beat you to death today."

Iris dodged fast, slipping from side to side as she shouted, "It wasn't me."

Blossom's seven-year-old son, Dabo, stood in the doorway and yelled, "Mother, it was her. I saw it with my own eyes. She ate that chicken clean, not even a scrap left."

The moment Blossom heard her son say that, her anger flared even higher. She swung the broom harder and harder. "And you still dare lie? We found the chicken bones in the coop where you sleep."

Iris was still so small, with short arms and short legs. No matter how nimble she was, she couldn't dodge every blow. She got hit several times, and tears spun in her eyes. "I really didn't steal it. It wasn't me. I was out chopping firewood the whole day!"

The commotion was so loud that the neighbors nearby all came running out to watch.

They stood around for a bit, craning their necks, and once they figured out what had happened, someone spoke up to smooth things over. "Blossom Stanton, that's enough. Iris is only three. It's just one hen that lays eggs. Why are you getting worked up with a child?"

Blossom shot that person a sharp look and said, "If you feel that bad for her, then take her home and raise her yourself."

The woman immediately waved both hands. "No, no, I am not taking her in."

This was Heishui Continent, in Daoqiao Village.