kiddieliter

 Yeh-Shen is a Cinderella story, only this version is from China. In the story, Yeh-Shen is an orphan who grows up oppressed by her stepmother. Her only friend was a beautiful fish, who her stepmother killed. A mysterious stranger told Yeh-Shen to keep the bones of the fish, and when she was in serious need, she could ask them for help. One day, Yeh-Shen wanted to go to the spring festival, where young ladies went hoping to meet the man they would marry. Her stepmother would not allow her to go, so she asked the fish bones for help. She found herself dressed in a beautiful gown with golden slippers. The bones made her promise not to lose her shoes. She went to the ball and turned many heads, but when she heard one of her stepsisters say that she looked like Yeh-Shen, she ran off, losing one of her shoes. Her clothes turned to rags and the bones wouldn’t speak to her, so she cried herself to sleep. The lost slipper ended up in the hands of the king, who was determined to find its owner. He placed it in a pavillion and watched from a hiding place while many women tried it on and failed. Yeh-Shen came in the dead of night to reclaim her shoe, in the hopes that the bones would speak to her once she retrieved it. The king followed her home and asked her to try on the golden slippers. When she did, her dress transformed again, and he asked her to marry him.