Chapter 1 Previous And Present Life

Even in her wildest dreams, Celia Tang hadn't imagined that her fiance would have the audacity to humiliate her in public. It was her wedding day and her dreams were about to come true. Everything was supposed to be perfect. But the groom refused to marry Celia Tang because she was too ugly.

The word 'ugly' began to ring in Celia's ears. Now she realized she would die a spinster because no man would want to live with her.

Before William Liu came into her life, Celia was living a normal life. She had worked hard and succeeded in becoming the CEO of a listed company.

Although she had a successful career, her love life was non-existent but that didn't matter to her. What's more, she often showed her strength and power at work hence no man dared to express his love to her. But William Liu's entry changed her life.

William Liu was an ordinary employee in the ministry of personnel. Their love story was a real cliche, which started when William Liu saved Celia Tang. He was a handsome man and Celia Tang fell in love with him at first sight. However, she was afraid to express her feelings because she knew she wasn't a match for him when it came to looks. Just when she was trying to forget about him, William Liu spoke to her and confessed his love. This confession changed her world. She became less like herself, slowly losing her interest in her job and everything else.

Soon, she made herself believe that perhaps William Liu was the man she had waited for more than 30 years.

Unable to see him work under her, Celia Tang did her best and promoted him to the manager of the personnel. What's more, Celia Tang gave him money and everything that he needed because his happiness was her happiness.

But to her shock, he mysteriously disappeared on the wedding day. The host announced that the groom had kept a surprise ready for Celia Tang. Quickly, he inserted a USB drive into the computer.

In the presence of all her relatives and friends, the host played a video. On the big screen, William Liu's charming face appeared. "Sorry, but you are too ugly for me. I prefer Evelyn more," he said and flashed a smug smile. Everyone let out a gasp on listening to this confession.

Celia Tang felt her legs would give up on her. She had to hold onto the wall to keep herself from falling. It was a huge humiliation to her. And to make things worse, Evelyn Lin was Celia's one and only best friend.

In fact, she had already known that William Liu and Evelyn Lin were close, but out of trust, Celia had never doubted them. However, now she felt like an idiot for not having seen the truth. That wretched man stole her money to live a good life with her best friend.

The wedding ceremony was a complete mess. After the video was shown, everything began to look blurry. Without anyone noticing, Celia decided to go to the hotel nearby. All she wanted to do was stay somewhere quiet to calm herself down.

Although this betrayal came as a shock and hit her hard, Celia wouldn't live a life of a wimp. Life had to go on and she was determined to look past this ghastly day. She crossed the road with such thoughts spiraling in her head. As a consequence, she didn't bother to look left or right. A huge truck crushed her, splashing her blood all over the place.

When Celia woke up next, she didn't know where she was.

The sticky quilt made her feel very uncomfortable. She opened her eyes and sat up, wanting to inspect her surroundings. She found she was in a dark and damp room. It smelled of mildew. On the wall, there were posters of four male superstars and a female star, Emily Zhou. The posters were dim and shabby, and a calendar was hanging on the bottom of them. A gasp came out of Celia's mouth when she noticed the date on the calendar. According to it, it was July 8th, 1995 today.

There was a simple table beside the bed. On the table was a mirror that was broken. Celia glanced at it and was astonished to find that it wasn't her face.

The girl in the mirror couldn't be older than eighteen. She was pretty and elegant even without makeup. In fact, she could be summed up as the epitome of beauty. She bore no resemblance to the Celia Tang she used to be.

'Who am I? Where is this? What is happening to me?' she wondered worriedly.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the noise that came from outside.

Wanting to know what was happening, she quickly got down the bed and carefully opened the door. A middle-aged woman was kneeling down in front of a hideous old lady. Beside her, two middle-aged women were sitting with a smug expression.

The sound of Celia opening the door startled them. Then the thin middle-aged woman who was kneeling on the ground stood up at once. She wept with joy. She held Celia's hand and exclaimed, "You finally woke up! Tell your mother if you are feeling uncomfortable."

"Mom?" Celia frowned and looked at her in confusion. She then said perfunctorily, "No, I am not."

Celia was completely dumbfounded!

She had a splitting headache. Her brain was in chaos, and then everything became clear.

After the car accident, she was reborn as Celia Tang, an 18-year-old girl who had the same name as her. The girl had nothing left in her family.

Her father died the day she was born, so she was regarded as the disaster of her family. Therefore, in the past eighteen years, she had lived a hard life with only her mother to shower love on her. If she had not a mother who loved her so much, Celia Tang believed that she would have killed herself.

In the central room sat her grandmother, and next to her were her another daughters-in-law, Lucy and Mary. They were Celia Tang's aunts.

The main reason for this conflict was that the son of Lucy, Wade Tang, was going to a junior high school. However, the family could not afford the tuition for him to study. So they were having a heated debated. They wanted Celia Tang to marry the son of the head of the next village, Harold Li.

They were willing to give her five hundred dollars as bride price which could easily cover up Wade Tang's tuition.

Celia Tang wasn't against getting married because her life at home was miserable. In fact, she would happily marry some normal man. But Harold Li was diagnosed with poliomyelitis after he was born and he couldn't take care of himself. If she married him, she would only have a hopeless life.

For this reason, Celia Tang had tried her best to get out of this situation. However, nobody paid any attention to Celia Tang and her mother's protests. Their words had little value in this house. Realizing she couldn't escape this marriage, Celia Tang was compelled to commit suicide. However, her mother, Wendy Zhang, rescued her in time and saved her life.

"How dare you jump into the river! Do you think our Tang family is not humiliated enough? We brought you up and took care of you! Now your brother doesn't have money to go to school. The village head came to see you and asked you to marry his son. What is the big deal in that? I know all about your bad behaviors! You are getting old, but your conduct towards elders is awful! With all this, you won't find anyone else to marry. This is the best you can do!" her grandmother bitterly spat out as she glared at Celia.

Her mother, Wendy Zhang, knelt on the ground and began to cry. "Mom, Celia almost died today. Please don't do this to her. Let her go. None of those things are true. She's my daughter. I know her very well. Li family may be rich but you should know that Harold is not normal. If she marries Harold, her life will be similar to that of a widow. You can't destroy Celia's happiness just because Wade has to go to school---"

"Shut up! I don't want to have any further discussion on this topic. If you delay Wade's education, the consequences will be disastrous," grandmother said fiercely. And it became evident that there was no point in trying to negotiate.

"I won't marry him!" Celia said firmly. By now, she had figured out what had happened.

As the CEO of a top company in the world, Celia was not a lamb who could be bullied easily. Maybe the old Celia's body had been destroyed but her mind and soul were reborn. She would be the same old Celia who was not afraid of anything.

"Won't marry him? You and your mother have no right to speak in Tang family!" Grandmother's face darkened. She couldn't believe that Celia had spoken so arrogantly in front of her.

"Mom, it's okay if she doesn't marry. We will figure out some other way to pay for Wade's tuition. After all, if this drama goes on, our family will be laughed at by the villagers. Then we may be asked to leave the D Village," Lucy said while she looked at Celia with her venomous eyes.

"Yes, you're right. My daughter Maggie too has to get married and this isn't good for our reputation. Anyway, Wendy and her daughter can't stay here any longer. We don't have enough money to feed two extra stomachs." Mary was glib tongued, showing no sympathy at all.

"Lucy, Mary, you can't do this to us. What will we do if you throw us out? We have nowhere to live! This is my only home!" Wendy Zhang cried and begged. She knelt down in front of the grandmother and begged, "Mom, you know how helpless I am. Please help me!"

"Stop begging me for help! Also, why does Andy always visit this house? Don't think I don't know what you are doing behind my back! You have been retching lately. To be honest, I am doubtful whether you are carrying that bastard's child!" Grandmother was slinging mud at Wendy Zhang.