During the troubled times of the Warring States Period, there was a girl named Zhong Lichun in Wuyan Town. She was born with a protruding head, sunken eyes, a dark complexion, and a green mark on her forehead that made her "ugly" appearance. She was often ridiculed by her neighbors since she was a child, but she always had a sweet heart. She squatted outside a private school to eavesdrop on classes, and memorized the classics on farming and mulberry trees. When she saw fellow villagers starving, she dared to carry a hoe to the landlord's house to ask for food.
When she was twenty-five years old, she heard that King Xuan of Qi was addicted to wine and sex and ignored government affairs. She walked to Linzi for three days and denounced the king's faults in public on the stage. Everyone in the court thought she was crazy, but King Qi Xuan was moved by the sincerity and insight in her eyes. Not only did he accept him as the "Wuyan Lord", he also made her in charge of the government documents.
Since then, this "ugly girl" has become the most special existence in Qi State: she dismantled the gold bricks in the queen's palace in exchange for food, opened a vegetable garden within the palace wall, taught the concubines how to make mung bean cake, and supported the bullied palace maids; she refused to use gold, silver and jade, and often wore coarse cloth Chang ran around the fields, taught the people to dig canals to fight drought, and helped orphans get places in schools. Faced with the external humiliation of the envoys from the princes, she silenced them by saying "the happiness of the people is the virtue of the mother of the country", and even promoted the alliance between Qi and Yan to benefit the people of the two countries.
In ten years, she transformed from a country girl to a virtuous queen. She planted fireworks all over the city with her hands and won the hearts of the world with her talents and virtues. This is not a beauty legend in a fairy tale, but a long-lasting love song about an "ugly girl" who relied on her sincerity and courage to survive in the troubled patriarchal world and become the "center stone" of the Qi Kingdom.
