As evening approached, the sky turned a dim yellow, and kitchen smoke began to rise from the farmhouses.
At the edge of Baoshan Cun, a group of young women and new brides were not busy cooking. Instead, they were gathered by the small river, surrounding and mocking a slightly plump farm girl.
“White Fatty, how do you even have the face to stay silent? Someone like you in our village is a total disgrace. If I were you, I would have jumped into a well long ago.” A mean-looking girl finished speaking and gave a violent shove, unexpectedly pushing the girl into the river.
“Hahaha, it really is different when a fatty falls into the water; the splash is much bigger than a normal person’s!”
“Help!” The girl in the water had eyes full of terror, but her cries for help were drowned out by the ridicule on the shore. After a period of splashing, her lungs choked on water, and her struggles slowly ceased.
The people on the shore laughed together, their jeers and insults seeming to drift further and further away from her…
Suddenly, the girl who had fallen into the water opened her eyes again. However, the fear was gone, replaced by a sense of bewilderment.
She raised a hand to clutch her head. Good heavens, where am I?
One moment, Bai Banxia had been in her laboratory conducting medical research, only to fall asleep from exhaustion. How could she be in the water the next time she opened her eyes?
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her head as a flood of memories rushed in.
She had actually transmigrated to a small village called Baoshan Cun in Juexia Guo. She had become the “little wretch” of the village whom everyone bullied.
Her predecessor had been plagued by rumors of a premarital pregnancy and was bullied by several girls. They had pushed her into the river, where she drowned, and now, she had become the Bai Banxia of Baoshan Cun.
Bai Banxia looked down at her hands and then at her current physique. She was a bit plumper than her original self, but she was only rounded and slightly chubby—clearly a sign of good fortune. However, since the village girls were mostly dark and thin, her predecessor had become a “white and fatty” anomaly in their eyes.
Coupled with the predecessor’s timid and cowardly personality and the fact that she had such a pair of parents…
“White Fatty, what are you pretending for? Why didn’t you just drown?” The mean-looking girl on the shore shouted with her hands on her hips.
A flash of killing intent flickered in Bai Banxia’s eyes. Why didn’t she drown? That poor girl actually did drown!
According to her predecessor’s memory, this mean-faced girl was the third daughter of the Wang family, Wang Taohua.
The Wang family had many sons, and Wang Taohua was extremely spoiled. Not only was she arrogant and bossy, but she had also frequently mocked the predecessor in the past. Now, she had gone so far as to push her into the river.
The group of women laughed heartily; the scene was quite lively, their faces filled with unspeakable irony and contempt.
Bai Banxia surfaced from the water and waded to the bank. Just as her hand reached the shore, a foot stomped down toward her ruthlessly.
She dodged quickly and reached out, grabbing that foot and pulling it hard. With a loud thud, the other person fell flat onto the ground. The movement was so fast and the sound so loud that everyone was stunned.
Wang Taohua screamed in pain. Feeling she had lost face, she cursed loudly, “You shameless fatty, you actually dare to hit me? Tell us quickly, which scoundrel does the bastard child in your belly belong to?”
Bai Banxia stepped firmly onto the back of her hand. Didn’t she want to step on her hand just now? Then she would return the favor twofold.
Her voice was crisp and clear: “None of your damn business. Which eye of yours saw it? Spreading such filthy rumors at such a young age—I bet you only know the details so well because of things you’ve done yourself, right?”
Wang Taohua didn’t expect the usually easy-to-bully Bai Banxia to suddenly become so sharp-tongued. Her hand throbbed with excruciating pain. “Take your filthy foot off me! I saw it with my own eyes. You weren’t sleeping in the middle of the night; you were having a tryst with a man at the edge of the village. And you’ve always loved flirting around—the other day by the fields, you were giving a handkerchief to Brother Xiulin. Several people saw it!”
Bai Banxia thought for a moment. The late-night tryst was a fabrication, but the handkerchief incident was true.
Her predecessor had indeed admired the young man named Yu Xiulin. Two days ago, she saw him cut the back of his hand while doing farm work by the fields, so she summoned the courage to give him a handkerchief to bind the wound.
But what young girl hasn’t felt the first stirrings of love? Who said a chubby girl wasn’t allowed to have someone she admired?
One look at Wang Taohua’s expression and Bai Banxia knew the girl in front of her also liked Yu Xiulin. But that was no reason to spread rumors about someone being pregnant out of wedlock.
Such a black heart at such a young age—she was no good!
“Are you engaged to Yu Xiulin?” Bai Banxia asked.
At the mention of Yu Xiulin, Wang Taohua’s face turned red. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
“Then it’s none of your damn business. Unless you’re going to marry him and can’t stand anyone else being near him.” Bai Banxia put her hands on her hips and tilted her chin up slightly. “If the two of you were engaged, then it would indeed be inappropriate for me to give him a handkerchief to wrap a wound. But even then, you can’t just fabricate rumors about me being pregnant for no reason, can you?”
“Stop slandering me! You’re the one who’s shameless, don’t drag others into it.” Wang Taohua’s face was red all the way to her neck. She did want to get engaged to Brother Xiulin and had already asked her father to find a way, but since it wasn’t settled yet, she naturally couldn’t talk about it.
“You said you saw me not sleeping at night to have a tryst at the edge of the village. Then why weren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night? Were you also having a tryst with someone?” Bai Banxia laughed. This method of rumor-mongering wasn’t very clever.
This time, Wang Taohua was speechless. Not knowing how to argue back, she simply reached out to grab Bai Banxia’s leg, wanting to pull her down too.
Bai Banxia gave a low laugh, grabbed her by the collar, and hoisted her up.
“Didn’t you say it’s different when a fatty falls into the water because the splash is bigger? Well, let me see how small the splash is for a ‘normal person’ like you.” After saying this, she threw Wang Taohua directly into the river.
“Ah…” Wang Taohua cried out as she hit the water. She shrieked in frustration, “What are you all standing there for? Hit her together!”
The other girls snapped out of it and rushed toward Bai Banxia one after another.
The coldness in Bai Banxia’s eyes deepened. She thought to herself, isn’t this just a rural version of bullying? The words Wang Taohua spoke were incredibly malicious, completely unfitting for her young age. And yet, those around her acted as if it were normal, which showed they were long accustomed to bullying her predecessor.
Wang Taohua knew how to swim a little. As she splashed around, her mouth didn’t stay idle: “Her father is a famously lazy bum who doesn’t work, and her mother is a lazy, greedy gossip. The daughter is a promiscuous fat pig who flirts everywhere. A family like this should have been kicked out long ago; you’re ruining the reputation of our Baoshan Cun.”
Bai Banxia sneered. If she couldn’t handle a few village girls, she wouldn’t be called Bai Banxia.
In her world, she had been able to take on three people at once since kindergarten! Later, because of her special status and the frequent dangers she faced, she had trained in martial arts. She could beat a dozen weaklings like this with one hand tied behind her back!
With a twist of her body, she took down those trying to pull her hair in just a few moves. She slapped a girl trying to scratch her face and kicked another who was attempting a sneak attack from the side…
In just a few breaths, the group was knocked every which way, instantly losing their will to fight.
“Weren’t you laughing very happily just now? Go and laugh with Wang Taohua!” Bai Banxia threw them in one by one and followed up with a few kicks, sending the entire group of pathetic fighters into the river.
“Help! I can’t swim!” someone shrieked. In her panic, she grabbed Wang Taohua, who was closest to her. Wang Taohua was dragged down with her and couldn’t shake her off no matter how hard she tried; the two of them looked as if they were fighting.
“Second Sister-in-law… let go of me… glub… help!”
The one who couldn’t swim was Wang Taohua’s newly married sister-in-law, Xu Ping’er. The sisters-in-law were tangled together, and if the others hadn’t lent a hand, they would have definitely sunk together.
The girls struggled for a long time before finally scrambling onto the bank, each of them lying on the ground gasping for air. Their hair was a mess, their hairpins were lost, and some even had their clothes torn by heaven knows who.
The sky was growing dark now. From a distance, they looked like water ghosts crawling ashore.
“Ah, my face!” Wang Taohua screamed as she looked at the blood on her hand. Her mean-looking face now had three long scratch marks on it.