She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-ChanCall Number: Fic Parker-Chan, Shelley
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness. In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family's clever and capable second daughter is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies.
(Description from catalog)