Hairpin and Ribbon

At fifteen, Zhou Ying lived deep in the mountains—poor, destitute, and illiterate, with nothing but small earnings on her mind. Yet one day, this very girl dared to commit two utterly audacious acts. The first was braving death to rescue a prisoner from a snow-covered wilderness and bring him home. The second was recorded in history with a single line: *"In the summer of the fifth year of Zhaoning, she crossed Han Pass, slew the rebel leader, and repelled five hundred enemies."* The annals glossed over it, but no one knew she was but a peasant girl, long confined within palace walls, with no skill or courage for battle. Her perilous venture was driven by nothing more than s...