"You little wretch, you'll marry if I say you marry. Even if you don't want to, you still will. This ain't your call!"
Inside the dark, cramped mud-brick house, a middle-aged woman with sharp, triangular eyes kept shoving a skinny girl, cursing without pause. A man stood off to the side, looking over with plain disgust.
"Mom, hurry it up. Boss Liu'll be here any minute."
When Margaret Ashford heard her son's urging, she lifted her foot and gave the girl lying motionless on the ground a vicious kick.
"Get up! Who are you playing dead for? Mr. Liu's a big factory boss, pockets full of money. Marrying into that house means you'll live in comfort, so you'd better learn what's good for you!"
The girl on the floor twitched a little. A searing pain shot through her palm, and that sharp sting yanked Evelyn Hartley out of the fog in one go.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked around.
Above her was a broken thatched roof, with a lone lightbulb hanging there like it might drop at any second. The dirt floor underfoot was full of pits and hollows. The walls were mottled with peeling mud plaster. Under the dim yellow light, the whole room looked even poorer and colder.
Where was this?
Hadn't she been on the battlefield, pierced clean through by a rain of arrows from the emperor's men?
How was she not dead?
Before the thought had even settled, a flood of strange memories crashed into her mind.
So she'd transmigrated.
Into the body of an Eighties girl called Ugly Girl.
Ugly Girl had lived a bitter life.
She had no father. Her mother, Margaret Ashford, either beat her or cursed her out. Even when she got into the best high school in the city, Margaret had only said, "What's the use of a girl reading so many books?" and cut off her tuition on the spot.
Later, her homeroom teacher stepped in and pleaded for her, and only then was she able to stay in school. She scraped through her first year by working while studying.
Now the final semester was right ahead, but her older brother, Bruno Ashford, had racked up gambling debts. When the creditors came pounding on the door, Margaret got the bright idea of using her daughter to pay it off.
Ugly Girl refused no matter what.
Margaret shoved her hard. Her head struck the corner of the table. Frail to begin with, she died just like that.
And so Evelyn Hartley had come into her place.
At that moment, Margaret Ashford came in carrying a bowl of brown sugar water and slammed it hard onto the table.
"Drink it and get changed, quick. If you ruin this today, I'll break your legs!"
Even after barking that out, she still wasn't satisfied, and kicked Evelyn Hartley several more times.
Evelyn had only just sorted out the background of this body, and those sudden kicks caught her off guard. Anger flared straight up from her chest.
She slammed her palm on the table and sprang to her feet, eyes cold as she fixed them on Margaret Ashford.
Margaret was startled by that sudden force in her bearing and froze on the spot.
"You... what do you think you're doing? You wanna hit your own mother now? I raised you for over ten years, and instead of being grateful, you're pulling that dead face at me. Who are you showing it to?"
Smack!
Before Margaret could finish, Evelyn Hartley swung her hand and landed a solid slap across her face.
She'd scraped her palm when she fell earlier, and blood was still leaking from the wound. That slap landed hard, leaving a bright red bloody handprint on Margaret's face.
Evelyn glanced at the injury on her own hand, expression flat, eyes cold as winter water as she stared at Margaret.
"Big mouth. No sense of your own place."
Margaret Ashford took the slap and didn't even react at first. She covered half her face, eyes wide and round, staring at this daughter of hers—usually meek as dough—with utter disbelief.
"You... you dared hit me?"
This had gone straight to hell. For all these years, hadn't this girl always kept her head down in front of her? If told to go east, she never dared go west. If told to feed the chickens, she wouldn't so much as touch the dog.
And today she'd actually laid hands on her?
"What a wild streak you've got! I'll rip your mouth apart!"
Margaret finally came back to herself, shrieked at the top of her lungs, and lunged over with bared teeth and claws, reaching for Evelyn's face.
Evelyn lifted her hand and slapped that greasy, fleshy face twice more in quick succession. Margaret was knocked straight to the ground. Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, and two teeth dropped out with it.
Bruno Ashford, standing nearby, saw red on the spot.
"You've got a death wish! You dare hit my mom? I'll deal with you today!"
He rolled up his sleeves, raised those fan-sized fists of his, and charged over in a rage.
Evelyn cut him a sidelong look.
His steps were weak, his stance loose, and there were dark circles under his eyes. A hollowed-out wreck.
With the eye she'd honed from years crawling through battlefields, handling trash like this was nothing more than lifting a hand.
Bruno's fist was about to smash into her face when she simply shifted aside, light and easy, and avoided it.
He couldn't stop his momentum and pitched forward.
Evelyn gathered force and drove a kick into his back. Bruno spun like a snapped-top and slammed headfirst into the mud wall with a dull, heavy thud.
"Ahhh—!"
He let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered, clutching the hand that had hit the wall. Blood seeped through his fingers.
Evelyn stepped forward and planted her foot firmly on one of his legs. A crisp crack followed.
Bruno gave another heart-rending scream.
That leg was finished.
Evelyn looked down at the mother and son, the corner of her mouth lifting faintly.
"You want to sell me? You two think you're worthy?"
She was General Shen. On the battlefield she'd earned countless military merits. After returning in triumph, she learned her mother and younger brother had been framed and killed. Alone, she stepped into her enemies' residence and slaughtered the whole household clean.
But by the time she'd cut down the last one, the emperor's men had already surrounded her, arrows packed thick and aimed right at her.
Her revenge taken, she had no reason left to live. So she drove a sword into herself first—then was riddled with arrows by the emperor's men.
She hadn't expected heaven to leave her one more chance and let her live again.
But family like this?
She could do without.
She raised a foot and headed for the door, but the moment Margaret saw it, she scrambled up from the floor and grabbed her ankle with both hands.
"You can't leave! I raised you for eighteen years, and you haven't paid me back yet!"
Boss Liu was about to arrive. If this girl ran off, what was she supposed to use to plug that hole?
Boss Liu had said the gambling debt would be wiped clean, and on top of that he'd give her another five hundred yuan.
Five hundred.
That was enough for her to live easy the rest of her life.
Evelyn lowered her eyes and glanced at Margaret Ashford, sitting there on the floor. She gave her ankle a slight twist and kicked her away, sending her crashing right into her precious son.
"Ah—"
Margaret's leg struck the base of the wall with a crack, and the pain knocked her out cold on the spot.
Evelyn didn't even blink. She pushed the door open and walked outside.
A ring of neighbors had gathered outside to watch the commotion. The second they saw her come out, they all pulled their heads back.
Everybody knew what kind of shrew Margaret Ashford was. Once she came storming out, whoever got caught in it would be asking for trouble. Better stay well back.
Just then, a group of men strode into the yard from outside, looking aggressive as hell. Leading them was a bald man with a huge belly and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
The moment the bald man stepped into the yard, his narrowed little eyes landed on Evelyn Hartley, and they lit up at once.
"Yo, this little thing's pretty fresh-looking. Just too skinny."
He flicked ash from his cigarette and turned his head to shout, "Margaret Ashford! How'd you raise her into this? Dock a hundred off!"
As he spoke, he reached out to grab Evelyn.
"Stick with me and I'll make sure you eat good and drink good. I'll fatten you up nice and fair."
That greasy fat hand was just about to touch her when Evelyn's eyes turned cold in an instant.
So this was the Boss Liu Margaret had been talking about.
She seized his wrist with her backhand, twisted it sharply behind, then lifted her leg and kicked hard into his round belly.
Boss Liu flew backward through the air like a fat pig and crashed straight into the pile of thugs behind him.
Clutching his wrist, Boss Liu howled in pain.
"Are you all dead or what? Get up there! If any of you let this bitch get away today, you'll answer to me with your heads!"
"Who dares touch her!"
From the back of the crowd, a steady, commanding voice rang out all at once.
