Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or the characters

Thank you's today go to Hamsterzlife. The story today is the Chinese folktale of Yeh-Shen. The characters are as follows: Taiwan as Yeh-Shen, Japan as the wicked stepmother, Hong Kong as the stepsister China as the wise man

Taiwan, a Chinese Cinderella

Long ago there lived a man who had two wives, each of which gave him a child. One day the man and his favorite wife suddenly died, leaving their young daughter Taiwan in the hands of her stepmother, Japan. Japan was not fond of Taiwan, however, for the girl was more beautiful and kind than his own son, Hong Kong. Due to this, he made the poor girl do all of the worst chores and gave her barely enough food to live on.

As Taiwan worked, she had only one friend; a beautiful fish with large golden eyes. Every day, the fish would meet with Taiwan in the shallow water by the river's banks and here she would feed the fish what little food she could. One day Japan learned about the fish, so disguised as Taiwan he went to the river, enticed the fish over, and killed it with a knife. That evening, he then served Taiwan her friend for dinner.

Distraught over the death of her only friend, she began to cry. As she cried, an old man with long, brown hair in a pony tail came up to her. After she told him what happened, the man told her that the fish's bones held magical properties, and that if she prayed to them when she was in need they would help her. He then also warned her to not overuse this ability.

So Taiwan gathered together the bones from the trash heap and kept them in a safe place for several months. Soon spring was coming, and with spring came the annual festival where all the young men and women met to find husbands and wives. Taiwan longed to go to the festival, but Japan forbade it fearing that someone would take her and not Hong Kong.

On the night of the festival, Japan and Hong Kong left for the festival and left Taiwan. Still wanting to go, she went to the bones and asked them for an outfit so that she could look proper. In response she found herself wearing a beautiful, blue dress with a feathered cloak and slippers made of spun gold. Before she left however, she was warned to not lose either of the slippers.

She walked to the festival, and in a matter of moments she was the center of attention. Japan and Hong Kong also noticed the beautiful stranger, and thinking that she looked familiar they tried to move closer for a better look. Taiwan noticed this however, and so not wanting to be found out, she ran off back home; leaving behind one slipper.

Once she reached home, she changed back into her rags and hid the remaining slipper in the straw of her bed. After the festival, a merchant found her lost slipper and decided to sell it to another merchant; who gave it to the king called Korea.

Curious as to whom the owner of this slipper was, he had everyone in his kingdom try it on, only to have it fit no one. After this, he had the slipper sent back to the square where it was found and a proclamation made that the slipper was to be returned to its owner.

After this announcement, Korea had his men wait in the shadows and watched as every woman past and tried on the slipper; none of them fitting. Then that night Taiwan came to the square and tried to take the slipper, only to have one of Korea's guards grab her and take her to the palace. When he saw Taiwan, he was angered to think that anyone who went around in rags could be the owner of the beautiful slipper. But when he took a closer look he noticed that she was indeed beautiful and did have feet small enough to possibly fit the slippers.

Korea ordered Taiwan to take him to her house and show him that the slipper was indeed hers. So she took him home where she showed him the other slipper and placed them both on her feet. The instant she stood up with the slippers on, her rags turned into the beautiful dress that she had worn to the festival and Korea knew that she was truly the owner of the slipper.

Upon seeing Taiwan in the dress, Korea became filled with love for the girl and proposed to her. The two of them were then married and lived happily. Japan and Hong Kong however were ordered to never visit Taiwan nor could they leave their home.

Hope you liked it and as always if you have a request for a certain story or for certain characters please give them to me in a review.