Collection 6: "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China" by Ai-Ling Louie

Overcome with grief, the girl collapsed on the ground and dropped her tears into the still waters of the pond.

Yeh-Shen wanted to ask the old sage many more questions, but he rose to the sky before she could utter another word.

When finally the holiday arrived, the stepmother and her daughter dressed themselves in their finery and filled their baskets with sweetmeats.

“You must remain at home now, and watch to see that no one steals fruit from our trees,” her stepmother told Yeh-Shen, and then she departed for the banquet with her own daughter.

At once she found herself dressed in a gown of azure blue, with a cloak of kingfisher feathers draped around her shoulders.

They were woven of golden threads, in a pattern like the scales of a fish, and the glistening soles were made of solid gold.

He was entranced by the tiny thing, which was shaped of the most precious of metals, yet which made no sound when touched to stone.

A search was begun among the ladies of his own kingdom, but all who tried on the sandal found it impossibly small. Undaunted, the king ordered the search widened to include the cave women from the countryside where the slipper had been found.

He ordered the sandal placed in a pavilion by the side of the road near where it had been found, and his herald announced that the shoe was to be returned to its original owner.

He ordered the sandal placed in a pavilion by the side of the road near where it had been found, and his herald announced that the shoe was to be returned to its original owner.

Wearily, the king continued his vigil into the night.

It wasn’t until the blackest part of night, while the moon hid behind a cloud, that Yeh-Shen dared to show her face at the pavilion, and even then she tiptoed timidly across the wide floor.