“Ouch, this child is so pitiful, having such a vicious stepmother. Her bitter days are far from over!”
In a small courtyard beneath a rundown apartment building, a thin woman with a face covered in blood lay on the ground.
(Note: The cover of this book is a red envelope—blessings to all my readers who open it, may fortune roll your way. If you don’t like it, please leave. If you insist on reading and still leave a bad review with harsh words, the author will fight back. This author has a mouth and isn’t a punching bag. If you think it’s no good, then go write your own book instead of blabbering on.)
Hearing the buzzing chatter around her, her long lashes trembled as she frowned in displeasure, the movement tugging at the wound on her forehead and making her face turn pale with pain.
A memory that didn’t belong to her flooded into her mind without warning. Interesting—so she had transmigrated into a book, landing in the body of Li Qingge, who shared her name, and she was even the vicious female supporting character in the story.
Her biological mother had died when she was three, and her father had remarried a stepmother who bore him two more daughters.
As the eldest child, she had started doing housework at age five. In short, she never had enough to eat, was frequently beaten and scolded by her stepmother, and was bullied by her two younger stepsisters.
Years of malnutrition hadn’t stunted her development—she had curves in all the right places and fair, delicate skin, which made her two plain-looking stepsisters burn with jealousy. Together with their mother, they tormented and abused her.
Then the most promising young man in the alley came to propose to her, and that stirred up a hornet’s nest—because he was the man her second stepsister had set her sights on. He was handsome and held a proper job.
The stepmother decided her stepdaughter was no good, scheming to steal a man from her own daughter, so she secretly signed Li Qingge up for the rustication program.
Once she went down to the countryside, no one would compete with her daughter anymore.
But the three of them still weren’t satisfied. They conspired to find an excuse, beat Li Qingge up, and spread rumors around the neighborhood, claiming she had seduced her sister’s man.
Seeing Li Qingge in such a miserable state, the neighbors couldn’t stand it anymore and began murmuring among themselves.
“So pitiful. Such an obedient child, and she still gets bullied by them.”
“That whole family is no good. Never marry a daughter from that house—rotten tree, rotten fruit.”
The mother and daughters were completely unmoved by the gossip. They had thick skin and were known in the area as unrepentant troublemakers.
The second daughter, Li Huan, tugged nervously at her mother An Fenglan’s sleeve: “Mom, she’s not moving at all. Is she dead?”
She wanted to torment Li Qingge badly, but she didn’t want to go to prison either.
The third daughter, Li Le, also looked uneasy. If Li Qingge really died, wouldn’t they all be murderers?
Ignoring the neighbors’ pointing fingers, An Fenglan spat contemptuously on the ground: “Pah, you little slut, stop playing dead. Get up and go cook dinner for us.”
With that, she paid no heed to the blood streaming down Li Qingge’s face and reached out with her dark, fat paw, ready to grab her.
Just one palm’s distance away, her hand was suddenly seized. An Fenglan’s heart jumped, and she saw Li Qingge still lying there motionless—but her eyes had opened at some point, her dark, pitch-black pupils staring fixedly at her, sending a chill down her spine.
An Fenglan was used to throwing her weight around. Enraged by that gaze, she opened her mouth to curse: “You—”
“Ah—”
Her curses turned into a scream of agony. A heart-rending pain shot through her, and looking down, An Fenglan saw her hand twisted into a strange shape by Li Qingge. It only then dawned on her—that little slut had snapped her wrist.
“Ah, you damned little bitch!”
…
An Fenglan’s hand was injured, but her mouth didn’t stop. All sorts of foul language came spilling out of it.
Li Qingge staggered to her feet and, without hesitation, slapped An Fenglan across the face.
The onlookers were stunned for a few seconds. No one moved to break it up—instead, they felt it was satisfying. They’d long been fed up with those three women; someone needed to put them in their place.
An Fenglan’s cheek visibly swelled up.
Li Le and Li Huan charged over like young bulls: “Ah… you bitch, let go of our mom!”
Bearing the discomfort in her body, Li Qingge gave each stepsister a kick.
The two clutched their chests, fell to the ground, and spat out blood, questioning their very existence. When had this punching bag gotten so strong? Were they seeing ghosts?
More importantly, she actually dared to fight back. This made them burn with rage, and they resolved to tell their father when he got home and have him beat this little bitch to death.
Li Qingge felt dizzy—this body hadn’t eaten in two days. Food came first; she’d deal with everything else once her stomach was full.
She walked a few steps into the low apartment building on the first floor, slammed the door shut, and bolted it. No matter how the mother and daughters yelled and kicked at the door, Li Qingge acted as if she were deaf.
She scanned the entire room. It was a two-bedroom, one-living-room layout. Normally, her father and stepmother slept in one room, the two precious daughters in the other, while the original owner of this body, the punching bag, had to set up a makeshift bed of wooden planks in the living room, which was put away during the day.
In the living room, there was a round table and a few stools. On the storage cabinet nearby sat a radio, which An Fenglan had prepared in advance as a dowry for her eldest daughter.
Little did she know, in this neighborhood, anyone who knew of the Li family’s daughters would change their expression at the mention of them. No one wanted to marry a troublemaking shrew and bring chaos to their household.
It could be said that the reputation of these three women had gone completely sour in the area, yet they remained shameless and thought highly of themselves.
An Fenglan was stingy, mean-spirited, and vicious at heart. Even a chicken passing by her doorstep would lose a few feathers to her plucking.
She had cursed her way through the entire alley without a single rival. Once she latched onto someone, whether they were right or wrong, she would make a scene and absolutely squeeze some advantage out of them.
Everyone avoided her at the sight of her, and An Fenglan felt smug about it, believing herself to be both a master of quarrels and a master of making money.
…
The kitchen was filled with steam. Li Qingge had already found rice, vegetables, and a piece of cured meat. She busied herself washing and stir-frying the ingredients.
That piece of cured meat was something An Fenglan had specially saved to nourish her husband, Li Ming. She only dared to cut a tiny bit each day, and that piece could last her a whole month.
Li Qingge didn’t care about any of that. She swiftly chopped up the entire piece of meat. If An Fenglan saw it, she would surely be so heartbroken she’d faint.
She made stir-fried vegetables with cured meat, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, sautéed lettuce, and steamed white rice.
By then, her stomach was already growling with hunger. She set the food on the table and heard banging on the door again.
An Fenglan had already returned from the hospital, her right hand wrapped in a thick layer of gauze, looking even more like a pig’s trotter.
The aroma of meat wafted out through the crack in the door, making the three women outside drool with craving.
Li Qingge turned a deaf ear and continued eating.
The dishes on the table were cleaned down to the last bite. She ate three full bowls of rice, her belly stretched round, and only then stood up with a satisfied expression. She didn’t even wash the bowls and headed straight for the bedroom of the two sisters.
She had lost too much blood and needed rest to regain her strength.
The sisters’ room had a 1.8-meter double wooden bed and a dresser that was eighty percent new. The bedsheet had been bought yesterday and just changed today.
Li Qingge lay down directly, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
The three women outside the door were nearly furious.
They stood outside, hungry and patient, while this little wretch had grown bold.
The second daughter, Li Huan, pouted: “Mom, I’m hungry.”
An Fenglan shot her a glance: “Wait a bit longer. Once your father comes back, she’ll get what’s coming to her.”
Her eyes gleamed with cold, venomous light. She refused to believe that someone she had controlled for over a decade could escape her grasp.
A “ding-ding-dang-dang” sound of bicycle bells rang out.
An Fenglan heard the familiar ringing and became excited all over. Her man was back, and someone was about to be in trouble.
With that thought, her bulky body burst with boundless potential, and in a few strides, she rushed to the front of Li Ming’s bicycle.