Transmigrated into a seven-year-old child, my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens.

With a bang, the door was pushed open.

"You three good-for-nothings, get up and get to work!"

In the warm spring of April, a vicious curse came from a dilapidated mud-brick house in the middle of Datian Village early in the morning, scaring the rats into scurrying about.

A short, stout woman with a fierce face walked into the dimly lit room and pulled several little girls out of bed.

This woman is Li Chunhua, the stepmother of several little girls.

Li glared angrily at the two older girls: "Zhao Feng, Zhao Di, you two hurry up and go dig for wild vegetables. If you don't bring back any today, I'll teach you a lesson."

Then, Li pointed to the thin Zhao Lian beside her: "And you, you jinx, hurry up and fetch water to cook breakfast!"

Zhao Feng looked at Li Shi cautiously: "Second Aunt, Zhao Lian is still young, how about I cook? Shall we eat breakfast before we go? We're hungry..."

Li stared wide-eyed in disbelief, spitting as she spoke: "You've really grown up, doing exactly what your second aunt says."

"You still want breakfast? We're almost out of rice at home. We're lucky if we give you one meal a day, and you're thinking of eating several meals a day!"

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go!"

I didn't eat much last night, and now I'm starving. Before I could even have a sip of water, Zhao Feng and Zhao Di grabbed the vegetable basket and were kicked out of the house.

Seeing that Zhao Lian hadn't reacted yet, Li Shi was furious: "You jinx, hurry up and fetch water!" Then, Li Shi kicked Zhao Lian out the door.

"Pfft..."

Zhao Lian's small, thin body flew out of the room like a tattered sack and crashed heavily into the main room.

After a while, Zhao Lian finally got up. Dragging her aching body, she picked up two heavy wooden buckets and went out the door.

At the old well at the village entrance, many people were drawing water. Zhao Lian carried her buckets and joined the queue.

Looking at Zhao Lian carrying the water buckets that were almost as tall as her, the old woman Liu, with her wrinkled face, hunchback, and thin frame, said with concern, "Zhao Lian, your second aunt has made you carry water again."

"Poor child, how can you carry this water at such a small size? The buckets are so tall and heavy, and you're so short."

"Yes, good morning, Aunt Liu." Zhao Lian smiled sweetly.

"It's still chilly, why are you only wearing such a thin garment? Aren't you cold?" Liu Shi looked distressed as she saw Zhao Lian wearing only a thin, patched garment.

Liu turned her head to look behind Zhaolian, her face full of doubt: "Where are your eldest and second sisters?"

"Second Aunt sent the two of them to dig for wild vegetables."

Liu frowned: "Your family's harvest last year seemed pretty good, so why did you need to dig for wild vegetables to eat!"

At this moment, a woman next to her chimed in: "Aunt Liu, you can't say that. There are more than ten people in their family. They say that a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home. He has to eat a lot of food for each meal."

"Like now, it hasn't rained for a while, so we don't know how the harvest will be this year. I think everyone will have to tighten their belts and eat sparingly this year."

Liu nodded: "That's true. The harvest was bad the past two years, but it was better last year. We still have to be careful this year."

"Come here, Zhaolian, bring the bucket over, I'll help you carry the water up." A sturdy middle-aged woman looked at Zhaolian and reached out her hand.

"Thank you, Third Aunt." After saying that, Zhao Lian quickly took small steps and placed the two buckets in front of her Third Aunt, Wang Shi.

Wang brought up a bucket of water and poured it into two separate buckets, leaving each bucket about half full.

"Alright, see if you can lift it?"

Zhao Lian threaded the carrying pole through the rope, bent over, and used all her strength to finally lift the water after several attempts.

"Is this okay? If not, I'll pour less."

Wang looked at Zhaolian with concern; her mother, Yulan, was from the same village as her.

After Yulan died, Zhaolian's father, Hemu, remarried. This stepmother treated the children badly, often skipping meals and resorting to beatings and scoldings.

She also often took care of these children, and when she saw that they had nothing to eat, she would occasionally give them something to eat.

"Okay, Auntie, I'll be going now."

Watching her staggering figure, Madam Wang shook her head: "Those three girls in their family are really pitiful. They eat little and work a lot, while their son is treated like a treasure."

"That's right. Who can blame her? Li is a stepmother, and she gave birth to a son. Of course she has to dote on him. These three daughters aren't her own, so of course she treats them like servants."

"Ugh……"

Liu sighed, "You'd better keep quiet. If it gets to Li's ears, she's not someone to mess with."

Zhao Lian's stepmother, Li, was notoriously shrewish in the surrounding area.

Only her mother-in-law could manage her, as could her two sisters-in-law, both of whom were sharp-tongued and difficult to deal with.

Standing in front of the courtyard gate, Li saw Zhaolian returning from afar and cursed loudly, "You wretched girl, why are you so slow? Hurry up, do you want another beating?" With that, she turned and went back into the house.

Zhao Lian's face turned red, the bucket of water on her shoulder felt like it weighed a ton, making her shoulder ache. Her house was not far away, but it felt so far.

Finally, they were almost at the gate of the courtyard, and Zhao Lian breathed a sigh of relief. But just as she was about to go in, her four-year-old brother, He Zhaofu, ran out and the two bumped into each other.

Zhao Fu immediately fell to the ground and then burst into loud tears.

"Woooooooo..."

Zhao Lian lost her balance, and the water on her shoulder spilled to the ground. Seeing that the water had reached her doorstep and had spilled onto the ground, Zhao Lian was terrified.

This sudden turn of events caught her off guard, leaving her completely flustered and at a loss for what to do.

Hearing her son crying, Li rushed out and saw him sitting on the ground. She quickly helped him up, saying, "Oh dear, Fu Bao, what's wrong?"

When the younger brother Zhaofu saw Li Shi come out, he cried even harder, pointing at Zhaolian: "Mother, that jinx bumped into me and made me fall, my bottom hurts!"

Zhao Lian's eyes widened in fear, her shoulders shrank, and she quickly explained, "Second Aunt, it's not my fault, Fu Bao bumped into me when she came out!"

Li helped Zhao Fu up, then turned and pointed at Zhao Lian, scolding, "You stubborn brat, still talking back!"

Before she could finish speaking, she saw the bucket had fallen to the ground, spilling water everywhere. Li Shi immediately became furious again: "You jinx! The water was right at our doorstep, and you spilled it all!"

At this moment, a vicious voice came from the hall again: "Eldest daughter-in-law, it's your turn to cook today, why hasn't anyone gone to cook breakfast yet?"

Immediately afterward, a sarcastic voice rang out: "That's right, sister-in-law, it's your turn today, why is there still no sound from the kitchen?"

“We should have been eating breakfast by now, you know perfectly well that Dad and Mom eat breakfast at this time every day.”

When Li turned around, she saw that Liang, the second wife, was supporting her mother-in-law Yang's arm and looking at her with a strange expression.

Li quickly put on a fawning smile and said, "Mother, it's all because of this jinx. The water was already carried to the doorstep when she spilled it again."

Zhao Lian mustered her courage and said, "Grandma, it wasn't me, it was Fu Bao who bumped into me and made me fall."

Old Madam Yang ignored Zhao Lian with a cold face, but when she looked at Zhao Fu, she put on a smiling face: "Zhao Fu, check if Grandma has fallen."

After saying that, she pulled Zhaofu over to check if he had fallen anywhere. After several checks, she found that he was fine, and only then was Old Yang relieved.

"You good-for-nothing, just like your unlucky mother, all you do is eat, you can't do any work, you can't even do a small thing right."

“But it’s not my fault that the water spilled, it’s Fu Bao’s fault,” Zhao Lian explained, mustering her courage.

Li glared at her: "Who gave you the right to speak? You jinx, I'll slap you to death!" With that, Li slapped Zhao Lian hard across the face.

Li was fat and strong. This big slap was like a large fan, causing Zhao Lian to lose her balance and stagger backward.

As luck would have it, when Zhao Lian fell to the ground, the back of her head hit a stone on the ground, and blood immediately flowed out, staining the ground red.