Translator: 549690339
She bought rice from Sun’s Rice Shop and was told to have the quilt covers and sheets delivered there the following day. She then rushed to another store to buy several seasonings such as soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and star anise, and twenty jin of white sugar. Carrying all of these items, she went again to buy five beds of well fluffed cotton padding and five covering waddings.
Without the cotton wadding, the sheets and quilt covers bought from Lady Li would have been useless. It was necessary to buy everything.
Only then did she go to where Wang Crippled awaited customers, and she asked him to drive the cow’s car to the shop that sold cotton wadding. She loaded up the ten beds of wadding along with all the other goods she had bought and took the cow’s car back to the village.
Su Qingyue sat in the cow’s car, and just as they were about to leave the town, she saw roadside stalls selling umbrellas, and heard customers bargaining. She looked up at the scorching sun, and said, “Grandpa Wang, please stop. I’m going to buy a couple of umbrellas.”
“Okay.” Wang Crippled stopped the car.
Su Qingyue headed towards the umbrella stall. The woman who had been looking at the umbrellas screamed in fright when she saw her.
Hearing the scream, all the nearby passersby and vendors looked in their direction. When they saw Su Qingyue’s appearance, they all gasped in horror.
“Look…look…that woman is so ugly!” someone pointed at her.
“She’s so horrendous, I’ve never seen such an ugly woman in all my life.”
“My god, she’s so ugly… she must be sick or something.”
Crowds of people pointed and gawked at Su Qingyue, and even those who didn’t speak looked down on her.
Su Qingyue had a strong heart. No matter where she went, she faced other people’s pointing and gossiping. She still smiled and said, “Don’t be afraid, everyone. It’s not my choice to be ugly. Who would want to be ugly? Especially for a woman, who doesn’t want to be as beautiful as a fairy? Rest assured, I’m not infected with any disease. It’s just pus sores on my skin and it’s not contagious.”
Upon hearing her words, everyone slowly stopped pointing. A well-dressed woman snorted, “Just because you say it’s not contagious, it’s not?”
“Yes, it’s not contagious because I say it’s not.” Su Qingyue turned to a middle-aged man in the crowd and said, “Hello, older brother!” Although this man was old enough to be her father, calling him younger was more pleasing. No one liked being called ‘old’.
The middle-aged man recognized Su Qingyue because her ‘unique’ ugliness, “Oh, it’s you. The one who was selling stir-fried tasty fern at the vegetable market this morning.”
“Yes, that’s me.” Su Qingyue nodded and saluted everyone, “Fellow villagers, I am Su Qingyue. I have been selling stir-fried fern at the vegetable market for the past few days, and I’ve had many customers. Look at this uncle…” she pointed towards the middle-aged man, “He has bought stir-fried fern from me. Look how healthy he is, any sores on his face? He even looks more robust than a few days ago! In our town, no one who has had contact with me has any pus sores. It means it’s really not contagious.”
Being praised by a young woman, even though she was ugly, made the middle-aged man very happy, “She’s right. Nobody wants to be ugly. Let’s not make it hard for a young woman.”
“Makes sense…she’s right. Which woman doesn’t want to be as beautiful as a flower and as pure as jade.”
“She’s already pitiful enough for being so ugly…”
“That’s true, look how young she is, I wonder if she’s engaged or not, if she’s not, with this kind of appearance, she definitely can’t get married…” some kind-hearted people even started to worry about Su Qingyue’s marriage situation.