Chapter 2

Chapter 2

-Story 1: The Beautiful Corpse-

I have been ugly since I was a child.

“My mother is clearly beautiful, yet I am so hideous. I even inherited my father’s tendency to gain weight easily. No one wanted to be my friend. My female classmates mocked me with the most vicious language, and my male colleagues treated me like a plague. That was until I discovered the childhood photos my mother had hidden away.”

She was actually just as ugly as I was.

“She was an orphan with no money, and plastic surgery wasn’t advanced back then. How on earth did she turn into a beauty overnight? She was deeply secretive about her past; even my father didn’t know what she truly looked like back then.”

It wasn’t until I threatened to take my own life that my mother finally spoke, her voice hesitant.

“The secret lies in the fingers.”

Mother told me that the blind beggar who raised her was a Maoshan Sorcerer who had taught her a technique called the Face-Peeling Curse.

“The process isn’t difficult. You just need to collect the fingernails of beautiful women and consume them daily for it to take effect.”

Mother tried to advise me with earnest concern: “The results vary from person to person. If there is a backlash, your life could be in danger. A girl’s inner beauty is also important…”

I sneered. “Lies. If inner beauty really existed, then when I went up on stage to give a speech as the top-ranked student, why was the audience filled with constant mockery?”

“My spot in the competition was stolen by the school belle, Fang Ya. When I went to the teacher to argue my case, I overheard them discussing how they had to consider the school’s overall image. They said, ‘If we let Xia Lin go, won’t she scare the judges half to death?'”

A burst of raucous laughter had erupted in the office.

I heard it clearly, and I trembled all over with shame.

But I had scored a full thirty points higher than Fang Ya.

Afterward, Fang Ya pinned me into a toilet stall with pure malice, shoving a toilet brush into my mouth. “So you’ve learned how to tattle, have you? Wash that filthy mouth of yours. You’re ugly and a gossip!”

I let her humiliate me, only curling the corners of my mouth into a secret smile where no one could see.

We lived in the same dormitory.

They left all the cleaning to me, which actually made things easier. I took the fingernails I had collected and cast the spell according to the ancient method.

Soon, something miraculous happened.

First, the stubborn spots on my face vanished. The puffiness subsided, my figure grew slimmer by the day, and my once-shriveled features gradually filled out.

I took off my thick glasses, learned to hold my head high, and began wearing bright, revealing clothes.

One day, my homeroom teacher exclaimed in surprise, “Xia Lin, I never realized you were so beautiful once you lost weight!”

Even the school hunk, who sat next to me, leaned in with a flushed face.

“Xia Lin, I don’t understand this problem. Could you teach me?”