In the video, Liang Yanni's voice rang out, deliberately husky, with just the right touch of hurt mixed in.
"My parents... they're farmers through and through, and they really, really favor boys over girls."
She used "really" twice in a row.
"Ever since I could remember, all the chores at home were mine. Feeding the pigs, cooking, harvesting wheat in the fields... I did everything. My brother is three years younger than me. Whenever he cried, whether it was my fault or not, my dad would slap me across the face."
"I loved going to school, I really did. Only at school did I feel like a person. No chores, no scolding, and the teachers even praised me for being smart. Every day, I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, because I... I didn't want to go home."
"When I finished elementary school, my dad said, what's the point of a girl getting so much education? She'll belong to someone else's family sooner or later. A waste of money. The family's money had to be saved for my brother's college education and marriage."
"But I refused! The more he tried to stop me from studying, the more determined I was to make something of myself! I treated all those award certificates like military medals, pasting them one by one onto the earthen wall of our house! In the end, I came first in the whole town!"
"Junior high meant boarding at school in town, which cost even more. My dad flat-out refused. But my homeroom teacher wouldn't stand for it. He thought I had promise, so he went straight to our village chief."
"The village chief was my dad's older cousin from my grandfather's generation. He was a senior member of the family, and his words