Viper (Mulan x Cinderella Retelling)

Chapter 1

"Get out of the way, little brother." Lifei sneered as she shoved me aside. I lurched forwards, catching myself on the wall with my shoulder, a dull thud sounding upon impact, as the firewood tumbled out of my arms.

I glared up at her, my expression stony. Lifei was my cousin, the eldest daughter of my mother's sister. She was of the perfect age to get married, and it showed that she was looking to. Her black hair was neatly brushed and styled, sitting atop her small head in a glossy bun without a single hair out of place. Her eyes were small and graceful, the kind that would look beautifully mysterious when peering over a silk fan.

Yet those eyes only appeared to be cold and hard when they looked at me. I knew that expression very well. All three of the Liang women had the same eyes and the same sense of disdain towards me; I encountered that expression almost every day at home. Every day was another routine of constant shunning and underhanded insults, of dirty looks through narrowed eyes.

"No one will want to marry you if you're so clumsy," chimed in Lihui, the younger daughter, her voice higher and sharper than her sister's. "Oh wait, no one wants a boy for a wife, anyways."

I gritted my teeth and picked the scattered branches up, one by one. They pricked against the tough calluses of my palm, but I clenched them with a viselike grip, attempting to contain my growing anger. It wasn't my fault I'd been forced to act as the son of the family. I'd never asked for that, but my cousins always addressed the situation as if I had. As if it had been my idea to pretend to be a boy, to be void of all truthful relationships with anyone, regardless of gender.

Lihui widened her eyes innocently as she glanced at the firewood I had just picked up from the ground. I braced myself for the worst, knowing that she was the biggest brat in the family. Tucking a strand of silky hair behind her pale ear, Lihui clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

"Ah, little brother, you got some dirt on the firewood." She stared me down, not breaking eye contact as she slapped my arm, causing me to drop the wood again, the clattering disrupting the quiet of the village. As the firewood rolled down my tanned forearm, splinters embedded themselves into my skin, but I held my tongue. I knew better than to complain. "Replace it. I won't have dirty firewood in this house."

Lifei laughed lightly and turned on her heel, going back inside the house. Lihui threw a snide smirk at me before following after her sister, like she always did. Behind her, the door slammed shut, leaving me out.

I leaned my back against the wall with a great sigh, rubbing my arms to rid myself of the splinters. How typical. My cousins' constant jabs at me had been a part of my daily life for almost 15 years now. I'd learned to adapt and maneuver between their ridiculous requests and sharpened words, but even after all this time, it was tiring.

Most people didn't remember their toddlerhood, myself included. Everything before the age of four was a jumbled blur, but I wished  that I could remember. My parents had, no doubt, treated me better than my mother's sister's family, but I couldn't recall a single memory. Aunt Tiaolin had always refused to discuss it as well; she'd only ever told me that my parents died. She hated them too much to ever talk about them.

I hid the pile of firewood behind a tree near the house as I walked away. I'd just bring it back later--it wasn't like my cousins would notice anyways. Heading towards the city, I decided to wander until I was amused. I didn't believe that I could stand another moment with my mother's family.

Aside from sparring and the occasional hunting trip, I did not socialize with others. Aunt Tiaolin never let me, since I was her "son." She thought that people would figure out that I was a girl if they got too close. When I'd retorted that I was, in fact, a girl, Aunt Tiaolin had slapped me and said that I was her son, and that a good son would help out instead of forcing his family to hire a servant they couldn't afford. I was just a servant to her, and I suspected that the only reason she forced me to crossdress was only because no self-respecting young lady would be caught performing half of the laborious tasks that Tiaolin assigned me.