The little girl was stunned as she watched the dust in front of her, kicked off by horses who was long gone by now. She blinked a few times, even rubbed her eyes with her little hands—perhaps the dust went in her eyes. No change. She was all alone.

Alone.

Feng Yue had never been alone in her five years of life. There was always her mother, who treated her best, or even the servants, who ignored her, but at least they were there. Now she was alone.

She squatted down and started to think about her life. Her little fingers started to count. One, she was alone. That was a certain fact. Two, she was far away from home. At least she thought so, because it took a while for the carriage to bring her here. Three, the only things she had was the clothes she was wearing and a jade pendant her mother left her.

Any other children would cry in this unfamiliar situation, but not Feng Yue. Since the beginning, she understood that crying, at most, would only make her mother hug her and cry along with her. Now that her mother was gone, that benefit was gone. She wasn’t like her younger brother Feng Sheng, who would immediately be fawned upon when he cried. Therefore, she decided, crying was useless and would only waste time.

Feng Yue stood up again and turned to watch her surroundings. There was only road around her and houses a little bit further away. She was a few minutes away from the group of houses that she remembered was called village. That was what Concubine Yao said, that she was going to be thrown to some village.

She rubbed her head for a few moments and decided to walk towards the village.

It was evening, and there were few people on the road. Feng Yue walked faster to reach the village and finally arrived when there was barely any sunlight. She furrowed her brows as she considered her next move. Should she knock on one of the doors? But she was just a strange child in dirty clothes who arrived in the nick of dusk. What would the house resident even do?

Thankfully, she was saved from having to make a decision, because someone called her. “Xiao guniang¹little girl!” Feng Yue turned around and saw a woman bringing a basket, frowning when she saw her. “What are you doing here? Where are your parents?”

Feng Yue tilted her head. Parents? She meant mother? “Mother died,” she said, remembering what the other adults said. Don’t really know what it meant, but she never saw Mother again since. Maybe if she cried Mother would appear, but before she could test the theory, she was brought to this faraway place.

The woman’s face turned even worse. “Poor child,” she whispered. Scanning her up and down, she asked, “do you have a place to stay?”

Feng Yue tilted her head, and shook her head.

The woman looked at her, then at the direction of one of the houses. “You wait here,” she said. “I’ll… I have to ask my husband first.”

She nodded. “Thank you,” she said well-behavedly with a smile.

The woman returned her smile then slowly walked, as if it was a really hard thing that she was going to do.

Feng Yue waited for a while, and she heard the sounds of quarrel from inside the house. She was about to walk forward, but before she could, someone grabbed her from behind.

“Such a good child… Oho, whose child are you?” Feng Yue’s whole body was lifted. She strained and struggled to break free, but how could her strength compare? She had started to study martial arts when she was three, but it obviously wasn’t enough to beat an adult.

She smelled a bad smell as the man’s hand tightened around her mouth. She knew it was the smell that came from guard uncles occasionally at night, when they gathered around a table to play something. What was it called? Liquor? This bad man was drunk!

Feng Yue gritted her teeth and tried to kick the man, but she only kicked air. The bad man leaned at her neck and breathed deeply, causing her to shudder. “Ah, a good one,” the man said sloppily and dragged her away.

She tried to scream, but she couldn’t. Feng Yue began to feel panic and anger rising in her simultaneously. In all five years of her life, no one had ever behaved without respect towards her like this. She kept struggling, and when the man almost stumbled, she used that momentum to kick behind at him.

The man hissed and inavertedly released her. She used the chance to scream as loudly as she could.

The bad man swore because of that and tried to drag her again, but this time someone stopped him. A man in a dark robe kicked him away, causing the bad man to groan loudly. Feng Yue watched in astonishment as the dark robed man exchanged a few flashes of blows with the drunken man.

Was this… a legendary hero, like from the storybooks?

The bad man was knocked out cold just in a few blows that she couldn’t count because they were too fast. Feng Yue looked at the sorry figure lying on the ground, hmphed, and kicked his waist. Bad man! He deserved it. She kicked him a few more times on different places.

She didn’t realize that the dark robed man was watching her in wonder. Realizing there was someone else there, Feng Yue turned to her savior. The man was neither young nor old. She couldn’t ascertain his age or status, as he looked exactly just like a normal person. If it wasn’t for how amazing his martial arts were, Feng Yue wouldn’t know that this uncle had a heroic aura.

She beamed. “Thank daxia²hero shushu³uncle for saving me,” she said, offering the uncle hero a smile. Then she remembered that she needed to be respectful, so she bowed deeply before straightening up again. “Shushu was really amazing. I want to be as strong as you!” She declared.

The uncle hero looked at her strangely, then looked towards the bad man who was in an even worse state because of her kicks. “Xiao guniang, you are a good seed,” he said. “Do you want to be my disciple?”

“Disciple?” Feng Yue frowned. “What is that?”

The uncle hero said, “That means you call me shifu⁴Master/teacher and I will teach you what I know.”

Feng Yue widened her eyes. That means she could be as strong at him? “Then okay!” She nodded enthusiastically. “Shifu, teach me to be strong!”

Her five-years-old self didn’t know that this decision was the one that changed the outcome of her life. That evening, the legendary heroine Feng Yue was born.