Chapter 1

She stumbled and fell, her plump body lurching forward in a burst of laughter, landing in a heap on the ground.

Her forehead hit the hard ground with a loud thud, immediately swelling into a large, red bump.

The thing she had been holding in her palm scattered, the wild hawthorns, bruised and battered, rolling everywhere.

She winced in pain but clumsily got up, kneeling on the ground like a dog, picking up the hawthorns one by one from the dirt under people's feet, not caring about the mud, and clutched them in her palm, grinning foolishly as if she had found the greatest treasure in the world.

The villagers around her pointed and whispered, "What did the Lao Yang family do in their past lives to deserve such a foolish daughter? A girl in her teens, with a mind less developed than a five-year-old, can't even speak properly. Her mother has to take care of her eating, drinking, and even her toilet needs. She can't even chase away the birds at the threshing ground, and just wanders around the village day and night. I heard she almost fell into the village's cesspool a few nights ago... Now, look at her, holding a few rotten hawthorns as if they were precious treasures!"

"Yeah, who's to say? She's not just foolish, but also a glutton. She eats as much as a grown man, look at how fat she's become!"

"The Lao Yang family has over a dozen mouths to feed from one big pot. I heard her parents save their rations to feed her. She just had lunch a while ago, but she's probably hungry again. With so many wild hawthorns, she won't starve!"

Muzichuan stood at the edge of the crowd, watching the dirty, plump girl sitting on the hard mud ground. Her coarse, tattered clothes were unrecognizable, her hair was a mess, with leaves and straw stuck in it.

She must have crawled under someone's stove, her dirty, black face was streaked with snot and saliva, and her eyes, embedded in the folds of her fat, were dull and lifeless.

Muzichuan's handsome face twisted in disgust.

He clutched the blue cotton schoolbag his mother had sewn for him and subtly stepped back.

The schoolbag contained several Confucian classics. It was the end of the month, and the school always had a two-day break. With the autumn harvest underway, the teacher had to return home to farm, so the school was closed for two days.

He really didn't want to pass this way, fearing he might run into her, but this hard mud path was the only way into the village.

It was autumn, and the fields on both sides of the road were golden with ripe rice. A breeze blew, and the sun created waves of golden light.

Someone with sharp eyes suddenly noticed him.

"Fat girl, look who's there!"

Muzichuan felt a bad premonition and tried to run, but someone with a mean streak grabbed him and pushed him into the crowd, shoving him in front of her.

"......Hehe...... Husband......"

Her dull eyes seemed to light up. She spat out the half-chewed hawthorn in her mouth and eagerly climbed to her feet.

Before he could steady himself, her plump body lunged at him, and the world went dark as he was knocked to the ground by her force.

The back of his head hit the ground, and stars danced before his eyes. Her heavy, fleshy bottom pressed on his chest like a mountain collapsing, and he almost couldn't breathe.

"Smack......"

A loud sound landed on his face. He instinctively wiped his cheek, which was sticky and wet with her saliva, making his stomach churn.

She sat on him, waving her arms and legs in joy, mumbling incoherently, "Hu......band......"

"Sweet, for you...... to eat......" Her dirty, chubby hand offered him a handful of wild hawthorns she had just picked up from the dirt, grinning at him with a mouth full of yellow teeth, the smell almost making him faint.

Seeing that he didn't take the hawthorns, she laughed foolishly and grabbed his blue schoolbag.

"Rip......"

The new strap of his schoolbag broke, but she didn't care. She dumped all the books and papers out and started stuffing the dirty hawthorns back in.

The villagers around them burst into laughter.

"So, the fat girl was waiting at this crossroad for her little husband to come home from school? This fool, who can't even take care of herself, is already thinking about her husband, hahaha, how persistent!"

"Muzichuan, you're a lucky guy. Look at the bride your family has arranged for you. She can't wait to undress you and consummate the marriage!"

"We can't even get a single hawthorn from her, but your wife treasures you so much. You better eat them and get your strength up for the wedding night!"

"I think you should forget about the exams and quickly bring the fat girl into your home. Your wife is broad-shouldered and big-bottomed, a good omen for your family. She might even give you a child as soon as she enters your home......"

"......"

Muzichuan's handsome face turned red with anger. With a burst of strength, he pushed the fat girl, who was still filling his schoolbag with hawthorns, to the ground.

"Ow......"

She fell with a thud, landing on her back, and immediately burst into tears.

He scrambled to his feet, not bothering to brush off the dirt, and forcefully snatched the schoolbag from her dirty, chubby fingers.

"Still crying, you fool? If you touch my things again, I'll beat you to death!"

He roared at her.

Seeing his red, fierce face, she seemed to sense his anger and stopped crying, pouting and looking at him timidly.

When he ignored her, she stuffed her dirty fingers into her mouth and grinned at him, a string of saliva trailing down her dirty chin and into her black neck.

Her smile only made her look even more foolish.

He was so angry that his whole body trembled.

No matter how hard he worked at school, earning praise from his teacher and admiration from his classmates, the thought of the arranged marriage his family had set up for him made his future seem bleak!

He pinched the fat girl's dirty cheeks with his long, bony fingers, staring at her fiercely and hissing in a voice only they could hear, "Stop haunting me like a ghost. I'm begging you. If you really care about me, go die. Jump into the pond and give me a chance to live. Maybe, just maybe, I'll remember you for the rest of my life!"