"You'll marry whether you want to or not," Madam He hissed as she slapped me across the face.
The slap landed harder than my borrowed cheek expected. My head snapped, straw dust fell into my hair, and the whole yard fell silent except for someone chuckling too loud.
"Good. Keep your mouth shut," one brother said, stepping forward with a grin. "We don't have time for a stubborn girl."
"She'll bring good money," another added. "Zhao Pandi is young. City money."
I tasted copper. I pushed my hands up to my face and watched them tremble.
"Do you even know your place?" Madam He spat. "You think you're better than the family because you were born with a different name? You owe us obedience."
"I'm not Zhao Pandi."
The words cut clean and quiet. Heads turned. A woman at the well clicked her tongue. The brothers exchanged looks, annoyed more than worried.
"What's that?" the taller one demanded.
"I'm not Zhao Pandi," I repeated, voice low but steady. Saying it out loud made the memory press against the new skin like a map under a hand.
"You speak like you're lost," Madam He said. "Lost girls get married to settle them."
They hauled me toward the woodshed before I could breathe properly. Two big hands on my arms. The sunlight narrowed to a strip behind them, and the yard's gossip swelled up behind the men like a crowd in a market
