I know this will be a hard change to make, Fa Li had told her, but it’s for your own good. Men want a girl who is quiet and demure, polite and poised—not someone who speaks out of turn and runs wild about the garden. A girl who can’t make a good match won’t bring honor to the family. And worse yet, she’ll have nothing: not respect, or money of her own, or a home. She’d touched Mulan’s cheek with a resigned sigh. I don’t want that fate for you, Mulan.
Her mother telling her to be a girl
