What would you do if you transmigrated into a character doomed to become cannon fodder?
Jiang Nian: Thanks for asking. Just transmigrated. I choose to drop dead on the spot.
Jiang Nian had died a heroic death, crushed beneath a truck while saving a child. She had thought that when she opened her eyes again, she would be in heaven, reunited with her older brother.
Instead, before the heart-pounding terror of the collision had even faded, a sudden commotion reached her ears, followed by an aggrieved accusation:
"I've already apologized! Aren't you going too far by being so aggressive?"
Her blurry vision gradually cleared. Pain throbbed across the top of her foot, and she saw a delicate, fragile-looking girl standing before her.
The girl's eyes were red at the corners, her lips slightly pursed. The way she stubbornly held back her tears was enough to tug at anyone's heart.
"It was my fault for accidentally stepping on you, but I really didn't mean it."
The girl's tearful words spilled out along with her tears. Her suddenly raised voice brought the passing students to a halt, and their condemning gazes shot toward Jiang Nian like a volley of sharp spikes.
"What's going on?"
"I think someone accidentally stepped on this girl. They apologized, but she won't let it go."
"Isn't that a bit much? It was just an accident. Does she really have to act like this? She's even made the poor girl cry."
"Shh, watch what you say. I think that girl is the Jiang family's young lady who just returned from abroad. Careful, or she might come after you."
As the chatter buzzed around her, Jiang Nian surveyed her surroundings, her mind still a little muddled.
She stood beside a pool of emerald-green water. Students in matching Western-style uniforms had gathered in small groups around her and the tearful girl.
Her gaze settled on the name badge pinned to the girl's chest-Fu Zhenzhen.
Wait... Fu Zhenzhen?
Jiang Nian's eyes flew wide. Remembering what the onlookers had said, she glanced down at her own name badge and noticed the school crest embroidered above it.
Pluto Academy.
Holy shit. She'd transmigrated into a novel!
The heroine, Fu Zhenzhen, was an orphan who had only managed to survive to eighteen thanks to help from kindhearted donors. Then she transmigrated and became a little girl in an orphanage all over again.
She had thought she would have to start another life on hell difficulty, only to unexpectedly meet the kidnapped male lead, Song Jici. The encounter forged an inseparable bond between them.
Years later, at Pluto Academy, the heroine not only reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Song Jici, but also met the aloof star student Wen Jincheng, the sunny, puppy-like Tan Xuguang, and the playboy Shen Hui, one after another.
She wavered among the four male leads, keeping things maddeningly ambiguous. After a series of kidnappings, cliff jumps, and "I'll give you a million to leave my son," she resolutely added all four of them to her harem and achieved a happy ending.
Meanwhile, Jiang Nian, one of the cannon-fodder female supporting characters, ended up in prison alongside the vicious secondary female character, her family ruined and dead.
Fuck!
After finishing that transmigration novel, Jiang Nian had felt her head buzzing.
She had never imagined that she would get into a car accident the very next day and end up inside it.
Looking at Fu Zhenzhen in front of her and listening to everyone criticize her, she was already performing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree, invincible Thomas-flare spin into a massive explosion inside her head.
She had thought death would be a release. Instead, she had landed in this ridiculously dramatic world, with a potential prison sentence waiting in her future!
I'm tired. Let it all burn.
This had to be the scene where Fu Zhenzhen first met the main cast.
On the first day of the new term at Pluto Academy, the innocent, kindhearted heroine accidentally stepped on the supporting character Jiang Nian's foot.
What should have ended with a simple apology instead escalated when Jiang Nian hurled insults at Fu Zhenzhen. As they argued, the crowd's commotion drew over Song Jici and the other male leads.
Seeing poor Fu Zhenzhen being bullied, the four male leads felt sorry for her. Then, when her necklace slipped into view during the shoving, Song Jici was utterly shocked.
He had only intended to watch the commotion, but happened to spot the ring he had given the girl he liked as a child hanging around one of their necks.
Before he could react, there was a splash, and both girls fell into the water.
Without a second thought, Song Jici jumped in and rescued Fu Zhenzhen, leaving Jiang Nian to crawl miserably onto the bank by herself and begin her life as cannon fodder.
Jiang Nian covered her eyes. How had she gotten framed the moment she transmigrated?
Her foot was clearly swollen from being stomped on hard, and it hurt so much it had gone numb. Her mouth twitched. No wonder the original Jiang Nian had flown into a rage.
Did this heroine never run out of brute strength?
Out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Nian spotted four tall, long-legged, strikingly handsome guys coming around a distant corner. One look was enough to identify them as the male leads.
Meanwhile, Fu Zhenzhen, who was still sniffling in front of her, suddenly lit up. She began crying even more pitifully, inching backward as she cried in an attempt to get closer to the pool.
Yes, she was doing it on purpose. After finally finding out that Song Jici attended this academy, she naturally had to find a way to get close to him.
So she had sought out Jiang Nian, the younger girl Song Jici had mentioned in childhood, and deliberately picked a fight with her. Once Song Jici recognized who she was, she would drag Jiang Nian into the water with her.
If I fall into the water with the younger girl who had a crush on you as a child, who will you choose?
Watching Song Jici and the other three draw closer, Fu Zhenzhen could not keep the corners of her half-hidden mouth from lifting.
She could frame Jiang Nian and ruin everyone's impression of her while giving Song Jici a chance to recognize the girl who had saved his life. Two birds with one stone.
If Song Jici rescued her, she would have a perfectly natural excuse to get close to him.
If Song Jici still chose to rescue his dear little Jiang Nian, she would lose nothing. With his guilt to exploit, how could she possibly fail to win him over?
Jiang Nian noticed the faint smile at the corners of Fu Zhenzhen's mouth and recalled what happened next in the story.
Just as I thought. This heroine was rotten beneath that sweet exterior!
[Ding-Congratulations, host. You have received a newcomer gift pack. Would you like to open it now?]
An electronic voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
Jiang Nian: ?
The legendary cheat ability?
Her anxious heart suddenly glimpsed a ray of hope.
[Heaven hasn't abandoned me! Open it. Open it right now!]
[The starter gift pack has been opened. Please look forward to it, host.]
As the main cast approached the ring of onlookers, Jiang Nian's heart pounded harder and harder.
[Hurry up and tell me what I got!]
[This system only provides the opening service. Please explore its functions yourself, host.]
Great.
Her anxious heart finally gave up and died.
Jiang Nian laughed in anger. After being toyed with by the system, she decided to rely on herself.
Wasn't this just playing the scheming innocent? I could do that too!
The onlookers watched as the dazed Jiang Nian took a deep breath. Then her eyes abruptly reddened.
Large tears suddenly rolled down her face. She looked both pitiful and adorable as she cried, instantly stunning the people who had just criticized her, along with the newly arrived male leads.
"You suddenly rushed over and stomped on my foot. I only... I only wanted you to apologize..."
Sniffling and crying, Jiang Nian walked toward Fu Zhenzhen by the water. Her foot had been stomped on so hard that she limped, making the onlookers' hearts tighten.
"But instead of apologizing, you called me a vile little pest who does whatever she wants just because her family is rich. You said all these things that didn't make any sense..."
"Why would you make things up about me?"
"I've never even met you..."
Barely managing to stand before Fu Zhenzhen, Jiang Nian wore an expression of wounded injustice on her doll-like face, which still retained a little baby fat.
Her trembling, tearful voice, combined with her earlier limp, made all the male leads frown and caused Fu Zhenzhen's fake-crying expression to freeze for a moment.
She had never expected Jiang Nian to repeat everything she had whispered earlier, crying instead of flying into a rage.
Was this really Jiang Nian, the hotheaded, arrogant, spoiled young lady?
"I... I didn't..."
Her face pale, Fu Zhenzhen looked toward Song Jici, who had arrived outside the crowd and was now frowning deeply, and tried to explain.
But before Fu Zhenzhen could continue, Jiang Nian stepped forward, caught her hand, and said hesitantly:
"This necklace..."
Fu Zhenzhen panicked and immediately swatted Jiang Nian's hand away, as though terrified she would snatch the necklace.
That was exactly what Jiang Nian wanted.
Following the force of Fu Zhenzhen's swat, she pretended that her injured foot suddenly twisted beneath her, then fell into the pool with a splash.
The onlookers saw Jiang Nian let out a startled cry as she fell, seemingly unable to process what had happened. Her eyes widened slightly as she stared in disbelief at Fu Zhenzhen, who had pushed her into the water.
Soaking wet, she sat shivering in water a little over half a meter deep.
[Wait, system. With water this shallow, how did the heroine in the original novel manage to need Song Jici to rescue her?!]
She had braced herself to drown, and now she was finding out that all she had to do was sit there?!
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