Perhaps her sense of immersion was too strong.
Just a few minutes after realizing she had transmigrated, Shen Yueliang climbed up from the ground and got into a fight.
Together with the original owner’s mother, Lin Qinfen, the two of them took on all four members of the Luo family.
And they won!
Both of them had suffered a few scratches and bruises, but compared to that, the Luo family looked as though a hurricane had swept through their home. Nearly everything that could be smashed had been smashed. The grain, oil, rice, and flour in the kitchen, along with bowls, chopsticks, cups, and plates, were scattered all over the ground.
Of course, the Luo family was poor to begin with. Even after everything was dumped out, all there was amounted to cornmeal and wild vegetable porridge. As for the basket of eggs—the most valuable thing they owned—the eggs and basket were now both in Lin Qinfen’s hands.
“Bah! Shameless things! Back when you begged to marry my Yueliang, you two old fools were practically kneeling in front of me. One moment it was ‘Yueliang is wonderful,’ the next it was ‘once she marries into our family, we’ll treasure her like the apple of our eye.’ The more I think about it, the angrier I get. If I wasn’t afraid of ending up in prison, I’d gouge out your eyeballs and feed them to the dogs!”
After confirming that Mother Shen was still safe, Shen Yueliang picked up a cleaver and walked into the courtyard.
On the Luo family’s side were four people: Luo Genzhu and his wife Liu Amei, along with their son Luo Shengli and daughter Luo Xiaomiao.
All four of them bore the marks of the fight. The moment they saw Shen Yueliang emerge carrying a cleaver, fear appeared on every one of their faces.
Ignoring everyone else, Shen Yueliang stared at Luo Shengli for a few moments.
He was the original owner’s fiancé.
Even by countryside standards, he was unusually refined and handsome. It was precisely because of that face, coupled with the Luo couple’s endless praise of “Yueliang this” and “Yueliang that,” that the original owner had agreed to become engaged to him.
Who could have guessed that only half a year later, the Luo family would stumble into outrageous good fortune?
It turned out that Luo Genzhu had an older brother.
The man had gone to war in his youth and never returned. In reality, he had long since died in battle. However, before his death, he had saved the life of an army officer who had since risen to the rank of an old revolutionary leader.
The old leader had never given up searching for the Luo family. After countless hardships, he finally found them and decided to repay them—giving them money and arranging jobs for them.
The Luo family instantly began to think they were superior.
Now they looked down on the original owner, a mere country girl, and wanted to break off the engagement.
But Shen Yueliang knew the truth.
She had transmigrated into a brainless male-oriented wish-fulfillment novel.
The male lead was Luo Shengli.
A man with no real ability, yet blessed with incredible luck. Relying on his refined and handsome appearance, he captured the hearts of one woman after another and eventually became a powerful tycoon.
As for the original Shen Yueliang?
She was merely his first stepping stone.
Heh.
Shen Yueliang waved the large cleaver in her hand.
Still think transmigration is something to envy?
“If you want to break off the engagement, then break it off. Back when we got engaged, you said your family was poor and couldn’t afford a bride price, so you only gave us ten jin of soybeans. During the first month of our engagement, Luo Shengli said he had a stomachache and needed to visit the clinic, so he borrowed five yuan from me. In the second month, Luo Xiaomiao had a stomachache—another five yuan. In the third month, Uncle Luo had a headache. In the fourth month, Aunt Luo said her stomach hurt and claimed she might be pregnant with a third child despite her age…”
Her mouth rattled off the details nonstop.
Shen Yueliang had no intention of suffering losses.
Anything that belonged to her had to be returned.
“Over the past six months, you’ve taken a total of thirty yuan from me. Add another thirty yuan for all the clothes and pants I made for your family. That’s sixty yuan altogether. Pay up!”
The commotion at the Luo household had attracted half the village.
For the current Luo Shengli, sixty yuan was nothing.
Although the old leader from Beijing had not arrived in person, the first installment of money had already been sent over—one thousand yuan in cash, along with various ration coupons.
All of it was currently in Luo Shengli’s possession.
With such a powerful backer behind him, how could he possibly take the Shen family seriously?
“Shen Yueliang, do you really have to take things this far? We all live in the same village. If your family ever runs into trouble in the future and needs my help, then for the sake of what we once had—”
“Don’t talk to me about feelings. Feelings cost money.”
What feelings?
If the original owner hadn’t known how to sew clothes and earn money, would there have been any feelings at all?
“Shengli, you can’t give it to her!” Liu Amei immediately protested. “She willingly gave us that money. Why should we pay it back?”
Her son was so handsome.
What was wrong with him spending a few dozen yuan from the Shen family?
That was his ability.
To be honest, Luo Shengli was also somewhat displeased.
Given his current status, he would much rather see Shen Yueliang crying and begging him not to leave her.
Not that he would soften his heart.
But it would certainly make him happy.
Still, things had already escalated this far.
Paying the money back was fine.
After all, he understood very clearly that his status was now different. There was no reason for him to remain entangled with a poor country fiancée.
“Since you insist on handling things this way, then I can give you the money.”
Shen Yueliang immediately cut him off.
“What do you mean, I insist? You owe me money. Repaying debts is only natural. Don’t act as though you’re giving me charity.”
Seeing her attitude remain so firm, Luo Shengli glanced at the gathered villagers.
“Fine. Since you insist on calculating everything so clearly, there’s nothing I can do.”
In front of everyone, he slowly pulled out a thick stack of bills.
All of them were crisp new ten-yuan notes.
The sight instantly drew gasps from the crowd.
Many villagers had doubted whether the story about the old revolutionary leader’s repayment was true.
But now that Luo Shengli had produced so much money, it proved something.
The Luo family was really about to rise in status.
Immediately, the villagers’ gazes toward the Luo family changed.
After fully enjoying the admiration in everyone’s eyes, Luo Shengli finally counted out six ten-yuan notes.
“Take it.”
“Mom, go get the money. Not a single cent that’s ours can be missing. But I won’t take even a single cent that doesn’t belong to us.”
While sending Mother Shen to collect the money, Shen Yueliang continued holding the cleaver as a precaution.
Lin Qinfen was furious, but she wasn’t foolish.
Every cent of that money had been earned by her daughter through hard work at the sewing machine.
Now that the engagement was over, the money rightfully belonged back with them.
Once the money was in hand, Shen Yueliang carefully thought things over.
Had the original owner suffered any other losses?
Probably not.
The social atmosphere of the era was still very conservative.
Even engaged couples wouldn’t dare do anything inappropriate before marriage.
After confirming that nothing had been overlooked, Shen Yueliang smiled.
“If the engagement is broken, then so be it. Those two chickens in your yard look pretty good. We’ll take them home to nourish ourselves.”
This was the 1970s.
Every household was limited in how many chickens they could raise.
Even if she brought them home alive, she wouldn’t be able to keep them for long anyway.
Too lazy to argue further, Shen Yueliang raised the cleaver and brought it down.
Slice!
Both chickens were killed instantly.
Chicken blood flowed across the Luo family’s courtyard, bright red and strangely beautiful.
Who knew if it would work?
Maybe it could bring some bad luck to the Luo family.
Carrying the money, the chickens, and a basket of eggs, mother and daughter left the Luo household.
“Bah! Shameless things! The more I think about it, the angrier I get. How was I so blind back then that I arranged this engagement for you?”
Mother Shen rolled up her sleeves to her elbows.
Thinking back on the fight just now, she felt a little regretful.
Why hadn’t she taken the opportunity to scratch Luo Shengli’s mother’s old face a few more times?
What a loss!
Shen Yueliang remained silent.
Something felt wrong.
Looking at Mother Shen again, she suddenly remembered the word “blind.”
“Hurry up and spit on the ground three times. Say ‘bah, bah, bah.'”
“What for? Did I say something wrong? I wasn’t cursing myself.”
There was indeed such a superstition in the countryside.
If you accidentally said something unlucky, you were supposed to spit to ward it off.
Mother Shen knew that.
The problem was that she didn’t think she’d said anything wrong.
Shen Yueliang glanced at her.
But she quickly realized that the person most deserving of sympathy was herself.
Because according to the novel’s plot, the original owner had fallen during the argument with the Luo family while breaking off the engagement.
As a result, she never managed to recover the money.
And after that…
There was no “after that.”
The Shen family began suffering one disaster after another.
Shen Yueliang had an older brother named Shen Xiangdong who was serving in the military.
After trouble struck the family, they sent him a telegram.
The moment Shen Xiangdong received it, he rushed back overnight.
On the way home, he encountered a landslide.
He was buried alive.
And died.
Shortly after his funeral, his wife, He Erhong, discovered she was pregnant.
Father Shen had long since passed away.
For the sake of preserving the Shen family’s bloodline, Mother Shen knelt before He Erhong and repeatedly kowtowed, begging her to keep the child.
But He Erhong still chose to abort the baby.
Then, taking advantage of a night when nobody was home, she stole the family’s savings and ran away.
Mother Shen cried herself blind.
The original owner struggled desperately to support the shattered family.
By then, Luo Shengli had already begun courting the daughter of the county pharmaceutical factory director.
After hearing that Shen Yueliang had once been Luo Shengli’s fiancée, the director’s daughter claimed she could arrange a job for her.
In reality, she simply brought her home as a servant.
Shen Yueliang poured foot-washing water for her and scrubbed toilets every day…
“Urgh—”