Synopsis

Aunt Xianglin was a thirty-year-old widow. Her mother-in-law tried to sell her to Laoliu as his wife in the back mountain. She stubbornly ran away and went to Lu Town to work as a servant for the landlord Lu's family. Unfortunately, her mother-in-law took her back and sold her to Laoliu. Luck was on her side as Laoliu was an honest, reliable, and kind person, so she followed him and had a son the following year. Life was going well but misfortunes struck again. Laoliu passed away, her son was taken away by a wolf, and the house was seized to pay off debts. She had to go back to Lu's family to work, but the feudal lord thought she would bring bad luck. Facing rampant discrimination, she nearly broke down. She went to the temple to donate a threshold, hoping to rid herself of her sins and have a new beginning. Sadly, during the New Year's celebration, when people were blessing the offering, she was thrown out of the house and had to live a life of begging. She died alone amidst the sounds of firecrackers on the following New Year's Eve. The tragedy of Aunt Xianglin was caused by the different authorities of the feudal society Her story epitomized the miserable fate of millions of working women in the old society.