Chapter 51 Part 1

After the City Lord departed, the City Lord’s Mansion was completely taken over by Liuli and her group.

Liuli crouched in the back garden, poking at ants with a small twig. Ants were one of the few bugs she wasn’t afraid of—unless they crawled onto her body, that is.

“Since ancient times, it is rare for any matter in this world to have two perfect sides.” When no one was around, the Feng Xiwu-brand Little Cloth Doll would quietly crawl up onto Liuli’s shoulder and talk to her. “Liuli, you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

Gold is never a hundred percent pure, and no person is perfect. No matter how hard you push, it’s impossible to achieve perfection in everything.

Liuli nudged a tiny ant away from the main group and watched it spin in circles a few times, only for it to quickly rejoin its ranks.

Liuli said, “I understand the logic, really.”

But understanding didn’t mean she could let it go, nor did it mean she could accept it.

Just how complex the human heart could be, Liuli couldn’t explain. Sometimes, she couldn’t even fully understand her own thoughts. So she never expected anyone to completely understand her, nor had she ever hoped for it.

Feng Xiwu touched the tip of her ear gently. “Liuli, I know you’ve already done your best.”

A sting shot through the root of Liuli’s nose, and the world before her eyes instantly blurred.

This gentle woman was always so forgiving, so powerful. She gave her affirmation without the slightest reservation: “You’ve already done very well.”

Liuli desperately wanted to say thank you. Thank you for staying with me and comforting me. But when the words reached her lips, she couldn’t get them out.

Her small face instinctively puffed up, her mouth tightly pursed, and her eyes widened as she tried to force the tears back.

In the end, only a heavily nasal “Mm” came out.

The chirping of insects and croaking of frogs rose and fell in a continuous chorus. Slowly, footsteps approached from behind, and the Little Cloth Doll concealed its form.

Liuli didn’t turn her head.

Lin Mengxian lifted the hem of her skirt and gently crouched down beside her. She watched Liuli teasing the ants for a moment, then asked, “Still angry?”

“…”

Liuli: I poke! I poke! I poke-poke-poke!

Suddenly, a bright red tanghulu was held out in front of Liuli. The dark brown earth and the emerald green blades of grass were nothing compared to the vivid color of that candied hawthorn skewer. Liuli was instinctively drawn to look at it.

“I’m here to apologize.” Lin Mengxian spoke in a soft and gentle voice. When she finished, she turned her head away and coughed lightly twice.

Lin Mengxian apologized: “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have made a decision on my own. Liuli, please forgive me, okay?”

Liuli had always been susceptible to soft tactics rather than hard ones. If Lin Mengxian had given her the cold shoulder, she could’ve gone a whole day without speaking to her. But the moment Lin Mengxian showed weakness, Liuli felt just as terrible in return.

Liuli took the tanghulu and bit off a large piece, saying thickly, “I’m not angry at you.”

What had Lin Mengxian actually done wrong? She had her own reasons. Thinking about it carefully, Lin Mengxian’s approach had even been the best course of action at the time.

“I’m angry at myself.”

Lin Mengxian tried to console her: “Liuli, don’t overthink it. The dead cannot be brought back to life…”

Liuli viciously bit off another mouthful of the tanghulu: “I understand the logic!”

But understanding didn’t mean she could stop caring!

Liuli dropped a small crumb of sugar coating onto the ground. Ants followed the scent, and in no time, the crumb was completely surrounded by them.

Liuli said, “I was thinking about it for a long time just now.”

“What?”

“Ants living in a colony follow orders their entire lives because it’s the instinct of the entire nest. So an ant will never see a problem with sacrificing itself as a cornerstone of the colony.”

Lin Mengxian looked down at the anthill by their feet. The ants, moving in a single-file line, were busily transporting the sugar crumb back to their nest to feed the queen.

Liuli crunched down the last hawthorn berry: “The biggest difference between humans and ants lies in the brain. An ant cannot accept a second way of thinking, but a human can.”

“So let’s go. We should be leaving.” Liuli clapped her hands to dust off the sugar residue, stood up, and walked back.

Lin Mengxian was slightly puzzled, but it was a good thing that Liuli was no longer feeling dejected.

Liuli gathered the remaining twenty-plus girls together.

“The business at the City Lord’s Mansion is more or less finished. I think it’s time for us to leave.” Liuli looked around at their faces. “No one’s thinking of dying for the time being, right?”

All remained silent. It was unclear whether it was silent agreement or they were just too afraid to speak in front of Liuli.

Liuli said, “You’re all from Huishui City and the surrounding areas. If any of you want to go home, tell me, and I’ll escort you back one by one.”

Only then did some movement stir among this deathly silent group of girls.

However, the first to speak actually raised an objection: “This little woman cannot repay Fairy’s immense kindness. I humbly dare to ask the Fairy to allow me to leave alone. I… do not wish to return home.”

Liuli raised an eyebrow: “What’s your name?”

“This little woman’s surname is Zhang, given name Wanniang.”

“What do you plan to do after you leave?”

Zhang Wanniang said, “Thanks to the City Lord’s handouts, I have a little spare money. This little woman plans to go elsewhere to make a living.”

“Did your family treat you badly?”

Zhang Wanniang lowered her head. After a long while, she finally spoke: “My parents gave birth to me and raised me. Their kindness is immense, so it naturally wasn’t bad. However, news of what happened at the City Lord’s Mansion has already spread outside. If this little woman were to return home, I would only face ridicule. It’s better to leave, to pretend I am already dead, and spare my family any trouble.”

“…” Liuli reached out, pointing to the left. “Come on. Those who have somewhere to go, stand on this side. Those who have nowhere to go, stand on the right.”

At this, most of the people took their places. In addition, two female cultivators of minor skill who had been tricked into entering the mansion said they wanted to return to their sects.

Compared to these mortal women, Liuli had more confidence in the female cultivators, so she let them leave first. As for the others—stay here obediently and wait.

Ye Zhenzhen coughed lightly and asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Escort them home, of course.”

Liuli didn’t say much else. She insisted on taking them home one by one. The remaining girls were placed onto a passenger carrying artifact, and a spell was cast to conceal their forms.

Leading the group of twenty-plus as if they didn’t exist, Liuli brought the first girl back to her home.

When the parents saw their daughter return, and with no one else nearby, their faces immediately changed and they yanked her inside. Little did they know, everything they did was being watched.

“How could you come back?!”

The girl timidly held out the bundle in her hands: “Before he died, the City Lord distributed some money. Father, Mother, I…”

Before she could finish, her mother snatched the bundle away. Her mother wailed, “My daughter, what am I supposed to do now!”

Her father, puffing on a dry tobacco pipe, slammed the table: “It’s spread all over town! They say you weren’t married to the City Lord, but were given to a monster as a wife! If you stay here, how will your younger brother ever get married?!”

The servants who had scattered from the City Lord’s Mansion had spread the news. The more repressed and impoverished a place was, the more its people loved to live on vile gossip.

“I, I…” Tears slowly streamed down the girl’s face.

“Stop crying, you calamity! Cry, cry, cry, all you know is crying! Why don’t you just go die!”

Her mother tried to reach for her daughter, only to be kicked aside by her father: “Stupid woman, woman’s soft heart! If Qiangzi’s marriage is ruined because of this calamity you brought, just wait and see how I beat you!”

“Go!” The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. He shoved his daughter towards the back door. “Leave now, while there aren’t many people around. And don’t ever come back! I’ll just pretend I never had you for a daughter!”

“Father, Mother…”

Bang!

The door was closed mercilessly. The girl braced her hand against the wall and slowly walked away. The city was crisscrossed by many rivers, and before long, she found herself standing beside one. She stared at the water dazedly for a moment, then closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and prepared to jump in.

Liuli stopped her and slapped her across the face.

“Wake up!”

The girl looked at her, eyes blurred with tears: “Fairy, I…”

“I saved your life, so your life already belongs to me! Who gave you permission to just go and die without my say-so?” Liuli grabbed her and tossed her back into the “Nowhere to Go Squad”.

After that, she brought several other girls home. Similar tragedies played out again and again. There was even one family who tried to sell their daughter a second time! Among all of them, only one girl was actually treated well by her family. But even so, her family’s decision was to move the entire household away from Huishui City.

Of course, what gave Liuli a sliver of comfort was that during this process, two girls secretly switched over to the “Nowhere to Go” group.

Ye Zhenzhen was stifled with anger: “These mortals are utterly unreasonable!”

Indeed, the cultivation world occasionally had situations where female cultivators were looked down upon, but it was never as excessive as with these mortals. Looking at these cases, it was as if these women weren’t human beings, but merely livestock for their families to enslave and bleed dry!

As a proud daughter of heaven, Ye Zhenzhen had never witnessed such absurd and laughable matters before!

Liuli and Lin Mengxian, by contrast, had greatly anticipated this.

Lin Mengxian sighed: “From the moment A Ruan committed suicide just for losing her chastity, I had a feeling that the social atmosphere here… was probably not very good.”

Liuli clenched her fists: “The more backward a place is, the more it loves a system where people devour each other. Especially women and children—their flesh is tender and smooth, you don’t even need to spit out the bones!”