Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

"Shouldn’t she be eating nourishing food since she’s so weak?" Meizi asked, puzzled. "Congee seems too plain."

"She’s been sick for so long and taking medicine for ages, so her digestion must be weak," Juhua said, shaking her head. "She can’t handle anything greasy. And since her body is so frail, she can’t have rich, restorative foods either. We can only use whole grains to nurse her back to health slowly. Once she’s mostly recovered, then we can start making chicken soup and bone broth for her. Oh, just listen to me for now. Let’s just try this first. And tell her not to overthink things. If someone’s been sick this long, they’re not going to recover in two days unless an immortal personally came down to help."

Meizi couldn’t help but laugh.

Juhua added, "This diet is just to help her eat more and regain some strength. We still need to see a doctor to find out what’s really wrong with her and how to treat it."

Meizi nodded and went back to make some vegetable congee for Liu’er.

Juhua didn’t actually know anything about medicine or dietary therapy. She was just going by what she’d read in *Dream of the Red Chamber*. In the Jia Mansion, the custom for managing health, for everyone from masters to servants, was to treat common illnesses primarily with fasting, supplemented by plain congee and simple side dishes to regulate the digestive system. She particularly remembered a passage where Xue Baochai told Lin Daiyu that someone who has been chronically ill shouldn’t eat rich, restorative foods. First, they had to regulate their digestion so the body could absorb the nutrients from grains, and only then could they slowly recover.

Ever since, whenever she had a cold, fever, or stomach issues, she would only eat congee. And it actually worked. After just two meals of it, her stomach would feel settled, her internal "heat" would subside, and her appetite would return. She’d start craving food, and that’s when she’d gradually add some meat back into her diet, keeping the meals light. Soon, she’d have her strength back. ’Of course,’ she thought, ’if it’s a cold from getting chilled, you need to sweat it out. Like that time I used spicy stewed Ni Qiu to cure a cold. A good sweat from the spice is really effective too.’

’I don’t know if this diet will work for Liu’er,’ she thought, ’but it certainly won’t make her any worse. If she keeps drinking things like rich chicken soup, she might actually decline.’

Meizi went back and made the congee for Liu’er, cooking it until it was thick and fragrant. She was quite skilled at it, as she often made it for Li Jingwen.

When Li Changliang saw this, he couldn’t hold back his question. "Meizi, didn’t my mother bring over a chicken? You should butcher it and make a stew for Liu’er. We’ve raised plenty of chickens this year." He thought Meizi was reluctant to kill the chicken, so he told her he would catch them for Liu’er’s meals himself from now on.

Meizi quickly explained Juhua’s reasoning. "Changling, don’t worry. If Liu’er could eat it, I’d slaughter every chicken we have without a second thought—a person is obviously more precious than a chicken. I just think what Juhua said makes a lot of sense, and I want to give it a try."

They were both straightforward people, so the matter was cleared up with a simple question and answer.

Li Changliang scratched his head, embarrassed. "We’ll do it your way," he said with a smile. "Juhua does have some good ideas. She’s a great cook, too, so this diet must be for the best." With that, he went to check on Liu’er.

Sure enough, the next day Liu’er said to Meizi, "I’d like to eat some real food. My stomach feels so empty." Eager to get better, she wasn’t being fussy; she just told Meizi exactly what she was craving.

"Let’s wait for Juhua to come take a look," Meizi said quickly. "She said she was coming to see you today. For now, you should just have some more congee for breakfast."

Liu’er had no choice but to eat congee again. She even had an extra small bowl, saying she was still hungry.

Li Changliang’s heart ached when he heard this. He wanted Meizi to scramble a few eggs for her, but Meizi insisted on waiting for Juhua.

When Juhua arrived at the Li Family home and heard that Liu’er felt hungry and wanted to eat meat, she smiled happily. ’This diet is working,’ she thought. Liu’er’s appetite was returning. It was just as the saying goes: "To eat grain is to live." Thin congee is absorbed and digested very easily, which is why it makes you feel hungry. It’s what people mean when they say their mouth tastes bland and they’re craving a big meal.

She then asked Liu’er what she used to eat at the Tang family’s home and how they had cared for her.

Liu’er sighed. "It’s not that they mistreated me. I even had two whole ginseng roots. Every time my mother went to visit, she’d cry and make a scene, and she managed to get all sorts of good things for me. But no matter what I ate, nothing worked."

Juhua figured Liu’er’s mother was definitely the type to do something like that. She said to the others, "Even if we tried to feed her the most nourishing foods, could we do better than the Tang family? Since years of their remedies didn’t work, it means that approach was wrong. Let’s just use a simple farmer’s method: eat some light congee and simple dishes, and maybe that will do the trick. Liu’er, you should eat congee for two more days, but have several small meals throughout the day. If you get a really strong craving, Meizi can make a Little Cabbage soup with lean cured pork for you to have a bowl. You can also have some thin pancakes, but with no sauce on them."

So, when they made the congee again, they added a few red dates. After two more days of the congee diet, Juhua had Meizi make a crucian carp soup for Liu’er, telling her to drink two bowls a day. Later, they started gradually mixing things like diced ham, fish fillets, and bits of pork liver into her congee.