"Xin Jian! Wake up!"
When Xin Jian heard her stepsister call her, she opened her eyes with difficulty.
'Hey, would you like it if I woke you up in the same way?! Seriously, I want to sleep...'
She rubbed her eyes, dressed up, went to her stepsister's room and tried to stay as polite as possible, even though she was really annoyed.
She was given a lot of chores and just kept a fake smile on her face.
'Hey, can't you just hire a maid if you have so much money that you could buy such a big house?!'
She did all the chores and kept silent.
'I am a servant, I am a servant I tell you...'
As she was rubbing the floor, a lot of mice traversed the room (why are there mice? Is there a problem with this house? Didn't we have a cat? Can't the cat do his job properly?) and began to sing to cheer her up.
'Wait, why are mice singing?? Am I dreaming?'
She slapped herself.
'Ouch. It was a bad idea... No, I'm apparently just hallucinating.'
Xin Jian rubbed her cheek and continued to clean the floor.
After that, she did the rest of the chores but was called to come to her stepmother's room because her stepsisters found a mice in a cup of tea.
'How is it my fault?!'
She entered her room and found her stepmother in bed.
"Mother, you don't believe that..."
She was cut off. "Shut up insolent."
'What the- Why are your words so violent?!'
As if she didn't just tell to shut up, the stepmother made a soft smile:
"So, you waste your time to make jokes?"
"Mother, I just wanted..."
"Silence."
Xin Jian's lips twitched.
'You really don't want me to explain myself, huh?'
The stepmother continued:
"You have fun making dubious jokes, maybe we could find something to make you busier? Let's see, there is..."
And she began to list various things to do.
'At this point, weren't you just searching for an excuse to make me do more chores?! Calm down, calm down, at least I had nothing better to do...'
While Xin Jian was cleaning everything once again, she heard the awful voice of her stepsisters (unsuccessfully) practicing their singing.
'Ugh. I hope you both lose your voices for eternity, are you trying to kill somebody? Do you hate me that much?'
Soon after, they received a royal letter that said that all the young girls to marry were invited to a ball.
'It's fine if they're trying to find one girl for the prince, but if you invite so many people as candidates, it will end with polygamy... What if he falls in love with many young girls and can't choose, huh? And if nobody is to his taste, then will he search for a wife in another country?'
Since her stepsisters seemed so unwilling to let her come, Xin Jian insisted to come (only to annoy them). However, the only thing she got was more chores to do...
'No, why?!'
In the end, when a carriage arrived to take them to the castle, Xin Jian just looked at them leave through the window.
