Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

But today, Liu’er’s mother seemed to have gone berserk. She was brazenly defiant, like a dead pig that no longer fears boiling water. She refused to back down even as she was being beaten. The moment Yang Family and He stopped to catch their breath, she’d start right back up, cursing Juhua with every word. This drove Yang Family and He to lose their minds, and they laid into her without mercy, beating her face into a swollen, colorful mess.

Juhua’s head ached. ’This can’t go on,’ she thought. ’If they accidentally kill her, it’ll only bring trouble to our family. More importantly, it’s just not worth it. This is so unfair. It’s a classic case of doing a good deed only to get harassed and blackmailed.’

The curses from Liu’er’s mother were so vicious that Zhang Huai worried they would upset Juhua. He urged her to go inside. "I’m going to tie that old hag up and gag her," he said. "Then we’ll let the village chief and Sun Tiezhu deal with her."

Juhua nodded. For now, it was the only thing they could do.

But before Huai Zi could go inside to find a rope, Zhang Dashuan, Zheng Changhe, and Qingmu returned. They hurriedly shouted for He and Yang Family to stop and demanded to know what was going on.

Liu’er’s mother wasn’t actually fearless. Just a moment ago, she had simply been locked in a battle of wills with He and Yang Family. Seeing that Zhang Dashuan and the others were back, she no longer dared to curse Juhua. Instead, she started screaming all over again about how Zhang Huai was a meddlesome busybody who had ruined a marriage, trying to drag the onlookers in to pass judgment.

She blocked the Zhang family’s doorway, raising a huge ruckus. Zhang Huai, his mother, and Yang Family together couldn’t subdue her. However, she managed to provoke a certain hothead—Li Changliang.

He had gone to Xiatang Market earlier that day and run into Huai Zi’s group, and they had all returned to the village together. So, of course, he knew what had happened with Liu’er. In fact, he had even carried her for part of the journey, taking turns with Liu Sanshun and Zhang Huai. The road was too long for any one person to carry her the whole way.

Seeing the once flower-like Liu’er now reduced to skin and bones filled him with an indescribable feeling—in his eyes, Liu’er was pure and sacred, the object of a village boy’s first, secret crush.

He was in low spirits after returning, still thinking about Liu’er. His older brother, Li Changming, had just called him over to have dinner with their parents. When Liu’er’s mother stormed the Zhang family’s home, he was at his brother’s place, listlessly playing with his little nephew, Li Jingwen. When he suddenly heard Liu’er’s mother cursing Zhang Huai for breaking up a marriage, he froze. He listened intently for a moment, and as the fight escalated, his entire family came out to watch the spectacle.

The more he listened, the more furious he became, his eyes practically spitting fire!

At that moment, Liu Sanshun and Liu Sixun came jogging up to Huai Zi’s gate. From the deep shade of the willow trees, Village Chief Li Gengtian, Sun Tiezhu, and his wife, Mrs. Wang, also rushed over. For some reason, Sun Jinshan was not with them.

Li Changliang shoved his nephew into Granny Hua’s arms, stormed up to Liu’er’s mother, and pointed a finger at her nose. "You hag, you’re worse than a pig or a dog!" he roared. "You have the nerve to call yourself a mother? Your own daughter is on death’s door, and all she wanted was a few peaceful days at home before the end, yet you couldn’t even grant her that? Are you even human? So, what you’re saying is, when we found Liu’er passed out on the road, we should’ve just left her there for the dogs to eat?"

Liu’er’s mother was stunned by his tirade. Her face was a swollen mass of red and purple, her eyes puffy. She stood there dumbfounded for a moment before shrieking, "Of course I’m grateful to you for saving her, but the Tang family sent people...!"

Li Changliang didn’t wait for her to finish, roaring, "So people from the Tang family came to get her, and she should have gone back. You think we need you to tell us that? It was your own daughter who refused to go! Were we supposed to just stand by and watch her die on the road?"

Liu’er’s mother yelled back, "How could she have died on the road? Weren’t the people from the Tang family there to take her home...?"

Li Changliang cut her off again, his voice booming, "So what if the Tang family came to get her? She escaped from them! She would rather collapse on the road than go back with them. I’ve said it twice now! Are your ears just for show? Didn’t you hear me? Be taken back to die at the Tang family’s place, or escape and die on the road. You tell me, should Huai Zi and I have brought her home or not? Just say we shouldn’t have, and we’ll take her right back and dump her where we found her."

Liu’er’s mother, seeing this hothead overpowering her with every word and giving her no chance to get a word in, his voice drowning hers out, began to tremble with rage. She barely waited for him to finish before she shot back, "If you hadn’t stood in their way when the Tang family came, wouldn’t she have just gone back? Why would she die on the road? She would have gone back, seen a doctor, taken her medicine, and gotten better after a few days!"

Li Changliang burst out laughing. "HA HA! See? I told you you were worse than pigs and dogs. You can lie to yourself with that nonsense, but do you really think you can fool all of us? Why not just say what you mean: ’It’d be much cleaner if the Tang family just took Liu’er back to die at their place.’ And you’re talking about her getting better in a few days? That’s hilarious. Bottom line is, you just want her to die at the Tang family home. Even if she managed to escape, you’d send her right back. Is that the plan?"

Juhua and Zhang Huai felt incredibly gratified listening to this—it was truly a case of setting a villain to grind down a villain. They realized they’d fallen into a trap earlier, getting bogged down arguing with Liu’er’s mother over the twisted details of Liu’er’s divorce, while forgetting to remind her of the state Liu’er was in at the time.

But Li Changliang didn’t get tangled up in the convoluted rights and wrongs of the divorce at all. He just unloaded on her, dragging out all her selfish little schemes and laying them bare for everyone to see. He held nothing back, laughing and cursing as he pleased. Since his arrival, no one else had gotten a word in. Even Village Chief Li Gengtian, who had arrived, was left standing awkwardly to the side.

Liu Sanshun, who had already heard the story from Little Shitou, finally found a gap in the tirade. He stepped forward and said to Liu’er’s mother, "Huai Zi, Changliang, and I found Liu’er collapsed on the road and decided to bring her back. Then the Tang family people came, but Liu’er refused to go with them. She knelt and begged Mr. Tang to divorce her. He agreed. Only after that did we carry her back to the village. How can you blame Huai Zi for ruining her marriage?"

Liu Sixun added, "If we hadn’t helped Sister Liu’er, she definitely would have died on the side of the road."

Li Changliang sneered. "She’s just looking for someone to take her anger out on—she can’t stand that her daughter left that rich family. Bringing her home means paying for a doctor and medicine, right? That costs money! If she dies, you’ll have to buy a coffin. Even without a coffin, you’d need a reed mat. Then you need a burial plot—burying her in some random patch of weeds would make you a laughingstock, wouldn’t it? You’ve got it all calculated, haven’t you? I just wonder, if she dies at someone else’s house, could you get a few taels for burial money?"