Chapter 109: Too Shameful

Li Xuan's hands were both trembling.

This name was the shame of her first twenty years of life.

No! It wasn't calling her!

Li Xuan covered her ears and hid under the round table set for the banquet.

The neighbors watched this scene, feeling that their time today had certainly not been wasted.

Deputy County Magistrate Shen, pfft! The drama in Shen Lan's household is always one better than the last.

The clever ones had already run back to call their whole families to come and watch.

"Li Jianmei! You still dare to hide? Where do you think you're going to hide? I thought you were dead all these years, you wench!"

Although the old woman's hair was gray, she was broad-shouldered and sturdy, and with one bend of her waist, she dragged Li Xuan out from under the table.

She grabbed Li Xuan by the neck with her left hand and swung her right hand back and forth, "You unfilial thing! You found a man and stopped caring about your own father and mother! You cheap thing! I'll show you cheap! I'll show you bitch! I'll show you craving men!"

Li Xuan's fear of her was carved into her bones; she shrank her neck and let her beat and scold her without moving.

Shen Lan felt his scalp tingle as he watched this scene.

Although this wedding was nothing more than a perfunctory affair, seeing it turn into such a spectacle made him feel extremely embarrassed.

It was too shameful.

However, he didn't have much time to lament, because the old woman soon noticed him.

"Are you the wild man Li Jianmei found? This isn't your first marriage, is it? Did you even pay a bride price before marrying our Jianmei!"

The old woman waved her hand, and her three burly sons surrounded Shen Lan, beginning to demand a bride price from him.

In the distance, Si Rong and Ming Zi stood side by side against the wall, watching this farce.

"Serves them right!" Ming Zi spat out a sunflower seed shell, "Evil people deserve to be tormented by evil people! Someone like Li Xuan can only be handled by these people from her maiden family! Look, how obedient she is now."

Besides, I don't know where Li Xuan's mother got the inspiration back then, but the name Li Jianmei really suits her perfectly.

Through this scene, Si Rong felt as if she had seen karma.

Back then, if she hadn't intervened in Li Xuan's karma out of a moment of soft-heartedness, Li Xuan would have been dragged down by this original family for her entire life.

Dragged back to that barren little mountain village to marry and have children, drained of all value by her maiden family and her husband's family.

But because of her intervention, Li Xuan caught a glimpse of a life that didn't belong to her.

Now, she could be considered to have reconnected the karma that originally belonged to Li Xuan.

The farce lasted for a long time and finally ended only when Shen Lan agreed to give Li Xuan's mother one thousand yuan.

"It would have been better if you'd done this sooner," Li Xuan's mother was satisfied and immediately arranged for the relatives she had brought to sit down and eat.

The four tables of food Shen Lan had prepared were not nearly enough to feed them.

"Hurry home after you finish eating!" Li Xuan's vision went black as she looked at this group of her maiden family members, "I will mail the one thousand yuan back to you then."

She truly could not stand such a family, not even for a moment.

If they want money, just give them money.

Anyway, the champion of this dance competition happens to have a prize of one thousand yuan; at worst, she can just give them all the prize money.

As long as these people don't come to bother her, that's all that matters.

"Li Jianmei!"

Li Xuan's mother slapped the table, glaring with her husband-killing "three-white" eyes, "You want to drive us away? Keep dreaming! We won't leave until we get the money."

Li Dabao chuckled and chimed in, "That's right, Jianmei. We haven't seen each other in so many years, Mom has missed you. We plan to stay and catch up with you properly."

"Jianmei, did you forget that Third Brother gave you candy when you were little?"

Third Brother Li Sanbao was the person Li Xuan loathed most in this world.

She would never forget that when the whole family slept on one kang, and her parents made those sounds in the middle of the night, Li Sanbao, who was sleeping beside her, used his hand to lift the corner of her clothes.

Giving her candy was nothing more than a way to plug her mouth.

He was just worried she would tell others about the filthy things he did.

However, Li Xuan had known since she was a child that what she said at home didn't matter; she wasn't loved simply because she was a girl.

"Enough! Don't call me Li Jianmei anymore! My name is Li Xuan now!" Li Xuan covered her ears in a breakdown and emphasized.

And then she brought another brutal beating upon herself from Li Xuan's mother.

"You ungrateful thing! What's wrong with calling you Jianmei? If it weren't for me, you would have been drowned in a urine bucket by that rotten-hearted thing, your Nainai, long ago!"

"Your life was given by me; without me, there would be no you. I call you Jianmei, so you are Jianmei! You will be called Jianmei for the rest of your life!"

Li Xuan fell into a silence of resignation.

After finishing the banquet, the whole family followed the couple home.

"Not bad, Li Jianmei. No wonder you abandoned your parents; it turns out you've been living such a good life in the city."

As soon as Li Xuan's mother entered the door, she began to look around. With a chandelier and a kitchen, in the eyes of these country folk, this was already a top-tier house.

Li Xuan didn't say anything, but for some reason, a thought surfaced in her mind.

What kind of good house is this?

If they could see what it looked like when Si Rong lived in this house with all the appliances and furniture, who knows what kind of exclamations they would make.

In the room, Shen Yuan was knocking on the door again.

Having entered the house, Li Xuan's mother already considered herself the master and walked over to the room making the noise to open the door.

She was shocked when she smelled the odor inside and saw the girl locked up with iron chains.

"Give me back my child... my child! Hehe, I'm going to be a mother."

Shen Yuan laughed in a foolish, demented way.

"Who is this?"

Li Xuan hurriedly closed the door from the outside, "This is my daughter. She's crazy. You've seen it too; my life hasn't been easy all these years."

So, take the money and leave quickly; don't harbor any delusions of getting more.

Mother Li, however, began to ponder other things.

"Look at what you're saying; every family has soot on the bottom of their pot. No matter how hard your life is, it's still better than your brothers scratching for food in the fields."

"Your eldest and second brothers are doing alright, but your third brother especially hasn't had a child in all these years," Mother Li urged. "The hospital in the city says it's infertility, and treating it costs a lot of money. Our whole family feels inferior in front of your third sister-in-law, and you, as the younger sister, cannot just ignore this!"

Hearing the words "infertility," the corners of Li Xuan's eyes twitched inadvertently.

"We agreed on one thousand yuan; I don't have any more than that."

Li Xuan began to go into the kitchen to heat up the leftover food she had packed for Shen Yuan.

"Tsk tsk, look at this, you're already using a coal stove; we still have to burn firewood to cook at home!"

Li Xuan did not speak.

"By the way, has your daughter been promised to a husband yet?" Mother Li calculated. "Her dragging you down like this is no way to live. There is a family in our town looking to find a wife for their son; as long as she can bear children, they'll pay two thousand yuan in bride price. I think this girl looks fine, and she'd live in comfort if she married over there. The boy in that family doesn't have any major issues, he's just not very bright, you see..."

Which meant a fool.

Li Xuan slammed the kitchen knife onto the cutting board hard. "Enough! Don't you dare set your sights on my daughter! I will not marry her off to a fool!"

"Heh," Mother Li sneered and walked out. "As if you haven't locked her up just like a fool."

Li Xuan closed her eyes tightly.

Her hand gripping the knife handle gradually tightened.

Sometimes, she really wanted to kill someone.

Shen Lan walked in at this very moment.