After Transmigrating Into A Book As The Protagonist’s Cannon-Fodder Lackey - Chapter 1

The sky was deeply, heavily black. Outside the small window, the headlights of passing cars occasionally flashed by, briefly illuminating the pitch-dark space.

Inside the little forty-square-meter room, a girl was curled up under her blanket. The warm yellow glow of her phone screen fell across her face, lighting up the sly, sneaky curve at the corner of her mouth.

Who knew what she had just read, but her eyes curved, and the corners of her lips could not stop rising.

She was so excited that even her hands were trembling slightly. Finally, when her emotions built up to their peak, she let out a howl, threw her phone aside, yanked the blanket over her head, and punched the air in a full-on flurry.

Only after Su Linye had vented enough did she hurriedly fish her phone back. In a tragic turn after too much joy, she discovered that she had been too excited just now and had accidentally thrown her phone under the bed. The screen, which had already been shattered beyond shattering, was now even worse off.

Her heart aching, she wiped the dust off it twice, urgently pressed the phone on, and continued reading the novel.

That was right. Su Linye’s series of deranged actions was not because she had done anything illegal or criminal.

She was just reading a novel.

A novel where the protagonist, an O pretending to be an A, had her disguise exposed and was then marked by her sworn enemy.

Extremely melodramatic.

And extremely thrilling.

This chapter had just reached the heart-pounding reveal. The protagonist had been framed, unexpectedly gone into heat, and was miserably hiding away, only to be accidentally discovered by her sworn enemy.

And this sworn enemy was written as “sworn enemy” but should be read as “secret admirer.” On one hand, she could not help wanting to attract the protagonist’s attention. On the other, she had to desperately suppress the surging feelings in her heart.

With only a few sparse sentences, the author described an utterly steamy scene.

Su Linye’s eyes grew wider and wider, and her teeth bit down harder and harder on her finger.

Amid the sworn enemy’s wildly pounding heartbeat, at the crucial moment when the protagonist tugged down her collar and, lashes trembling, asked to be marked, the chapter ended with a sharp “click.”

All of Su Linye’s excitement turned into disbelief.

She read it back and forth several times, simply unable to believe that the author would stop at a place like this.

Originally, she had planned to go to sleep after finishing the novel. Unfortunately, after reading it, she transformed into a baited dog, so excited that there was no way she could sleep.

She restrained the upward curve of her lips, opened the comments section, left a comment saying, “Love you, author! Please update more!” then closed her eyes, intending to dream the rest herself.

Perhaps it was because she had stayed up too late, but after closing her eyes, she actually felt as if the sky had turned bright.

The white expanse of light over her eyelids made her suspect that she had ruined her eyes from reading too much and developed cataracts.

She tentatively opened her eyes.

As it turned out, it would have been better if she had not. The moment she opened them, the surrounding clamor and noise surged toward her all at once, like a deaf person suddenly regaining her hearing.

Su Linye’s mind went blank. She took a moment, then stared at the emerald-green branches and leaves in front of her.

Wait.

Branches and leaves?!

Her eyes flew wide open.

She was clearly sleeping in her little rented room. How could she be seeing branches and leaves? What kind of joke was this?

Su Linye shot upright and looked around in alarm, only to discover that, for some reason, she had ended up outdoors. The surroundings were noisy and bustling.

A crowd of people was pointing at her and whispering.

Su Linye had no idea what was going on. A cold voice sounded from above her head. “What do you want?”

She looked up. The first thing she noticed was the other person’s tall, straight figure. Her wrist was snowy white, her sleeve loosely rolled up, revealing a black-cord bracelet. The sharp contrast of black and white made that frost-pale wrist stand out even more.

Further up was a face with striking impact. Her whole aura was cool and clear, like a jade vessel beneath an autumn moon.

Su Linye’s gaze lingered a little too long. The person being stared at remained expressionless, seemingly long used to it. She merely shifted her gaze from the broken bicycle to Su Linye and repeated, “What do you want?”

Su Linye abruptly snapped back to her senses.

She quickly looked around, trying to judge the current situation.

Quite a few people were standing nearby, their heads lowered together as they whispered among themselves.

Su Linye’s hearing was fairly good, so she pricked up her ears.

“This little girl is so pitiful. Her bike got smashed like this. Looks like it can’t be used at all anymore.”

“Sigh, isn’t that right? And this was the only vehicle her family had.”

The auntie speaking shook her head with a sigh of pity. “A rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and misfortune always seeks out those already suffering.”

Su Linye glanced at the flattened bicycle, then looked at the expensive sports car. Things gradually became clear in her mind.

With a howl, she threw herself over, heartbrokenly stroking the mangled bicycle. Tears streaming down her face, she cried, “My poor Little Gray, how could you leave me just like this? How am I supposed to go on living all alone in this world—”

As she spoke, she buried her head in the crook of her arm, her shoulders trembling as she sobbed too hard to speak.

The surrounding voices grew even louder.

“Too pitiful. I’m getting old; I really can’t bear to see things like this.”

“What a good little girl. Judging by her clothes, she’s still a high school student, right? From Yuanhua?”

“Ah, she really is. These days, if you don’t rely on money to get into Yuanhua, then this child must be a good student.”

Su Linye secretly peeked at the girl through the gap.

The person opposite her almost imperceptibly glanced sideways, her gaze sweeping very casually over the woods to the right. Then her eyelids lowered halfway, and she looked down at Su Linye from above, her dark eyes fathomless.

She looked unusually calm, like a still, deep pool.

A moment later, the girl spoke expressionlessly. “How much do you want? Is one thousand enough?”

Su Linye’s wailing stopped abruptly. She sniffled and said, “Little Gray grew up with me from childhood. We had a very deep bond. It can’t be measured with money.”

Once she finished, she did not leave even a breath of space before changing tone. “But the dead are gone, and the living must live well. WeChat, then.”

She tapped at her spiderweb-like screen, pulled up her payment code, and handed it over.

The girl lifted her eyelids and glanced at her, then scanned the code and entered the amount.

Along with the payment notification chime, the girl got neatly back into the car and sped away without a trace.

Su Linye looked at the message showing five thousand received and froze. Dazed, she called out, “Wait, you transferred a bit too much—”

She looked up.

The person was already gone.

That warmhearted auntie walked over and comforted her with concern. “Little girl, don’t be too sad. Even if you’re the only one left in your family, you still have to live well. As long as a person is alive, there’s hope.”

Su Linye savored those words and slowly felt that something was wrong.

What did she mean, “even if you’re the only one left in your family”?

The auntie looked at her, eyes full of sympathy, and sighed. “Good child, your parents will bless you from heaven.”

With a crack.

Su Linye split apart.

She stood there in a daze.

The auntie thought she was grieving over the bicycle that had grown up with her since childhood, patted her on the back, and left.

The crowd dispersed.

A gust of wind blew over, ruffling Su Linye’s hair. She smoothed it down, looked at the balance of five thousand and twenty cents on her phone, and felt a little better.

She hoisted the bicycle up and had just taken a step to leave when a voice drifted over from far away.

“Boss, I got it on camera.”

The voice was not quiet. The people nearby seemed to hear it too and looked around in amusement, wondering which chuunibyou teenager it was.

Su Linye also looked left and right curiously.

“Boss, wait for me!!”

The voice seemed to be getting closer and closer to her. Su Linye finally reacted, turned her head, and asked, “Are you calling me?”

The girl bent over with her hands braced on her knees and panted twice. “Yeah.”

Feeling all those burning gazes that wanted to watch the fun, Su Linye: …

Under that kind of stare, she put the bicycle down and asked politely, “Is something the matter?”

The girl tilted her head in confusion. “Boss, you were the one who told me to record a video to threaten Lu Jiang. Did you forget?”

Su Linye instantly could not care about anything else. She subconsciously asked, “What did you say?”

As if trying to take credit, the girl showed it to her.

With a heart full of questions, Su Linye dropped her gaze to the screen.

At the beginning of the video, the familiar car appeared on the street. “She” sneakily poked her head out, found the right timing and angle, then pushed the bike and subtly leaned to the side. That car had no time to dodge and sharply swerved, crossing over the center line and narrowly scraping along the curb. Its tire flattened the poor bicycle with a crunch, and with a creak, “Su Linye” was “hit” and fell to the ground, her expression dazed and pitiful.

A crowd quickly gathered by the roadside. “Su Linye” seemed to have only just come back to herself. When she saw the bicycle, she hugged her knees and started crying, wiping her tears while guiding public opinion.

Then, the girl from the car got out. She had only just walked a little closer when “Su Linye” suddenly toppled backward onto the ground.

After that, she suddenly bounced upright.

The rest was very familiar.

Su Linye slowly widened her eyes as she watched.

This, this, this—damn it all, this was an accident scam!!

No wonder. No wonder that girl had looked so unapproachable and completely did not seem to feel she was in the wrong.

If it were Su Linye, she would have wanted to call the police directly, let alone pay money!!

Was that girl really this nice?!

Wait. What was that girl’s name again?

The bob-haired girl was still proudly wagging her head. “How was it? I listened to you. My hand didn’t shake at all.”

When the video finished playing, the bob-haired girl was about to pull the phone back, but a hand abruptly grabbed her wrist.

Su Linye’s face was full of panic. “What did you just say?”

The bob-haired girl was puzzled. “My hand didn’t shake.”

“No.” Su Linye swallowed. “You said this video was meant for what?”

The bob-haired girl said, “To threaten Lu Jiang.”

Still unwilling to give up, Su Linye asked, “Which Lu Jiang?”

“Boss, what’s wrong with you? There’s only one Lu Jiang in our school. The eldest daughter of Qinglu Group, an S-class female alpha. Lu as in ‘land,’ Jiang as in the ginger you don’t like to eat.”

Su Linye’s vision went dark. With difficulty, she asked, “Is there usually someone called Qin Yu following her around?”

“Yeah.”

Su Linye released her with trembling hands, her eyes staring straight ahead as she muttered, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.”

She had just arrived and had already offended the protagonist.

A! Disaster! Opening!

The phone she was holding had not gone dark yet. At that moment, the green background and white numbers looked so glaringly hot.

They burned all the way into her heart.

Su Linye closed her eyes and took a long while to digest this. Just as the bob-haired girl was considering whether she should take her to the hospital, Su Linye spoke again, abandoning all pretense. “Who am I?”

The bob-haired girl instantly made a decision.

She should take her to the nearest psychiatric hospital.

Boss had been hit stupid by that damned Lu Jiang.

“You’re Su Linye.”

A faint, mocking smile slowly squeezed its way onto Su Linye’s lips.

Sure enough. Same name, same surname. Vicious cannon fodder.

A typical transmigration-into-a-book trope.

Did they dare let her transmigrate into a rich young lady?!

The bob-haired girl probed, “Are you okay?”

Su Linye waved her hand. “I’m not dead. Send me the video and then delete it.”

The bob-haired girl asked, “Why?”

To save my life.

Su Linye recalled the things the vicious cannon fodder had done and the mighty crusade waged by the readers in the comments section, and her whole body trembled.

She shook her head wearily. “Let me be alone for a bit. Oh right, what’s your name?”

The bob-haired girl’s eyes were round and big, and she looked pure and unsuspecting. “Xi Panpan. But, Boss, you gave me an affectionate nickname. You call me Potato Chip.”

Su Linye: …

Original owner, that’s enough. Panpan is a snack brand, but you still can’t just use it like that.

“Fine, Little Potato Chip. Let’s each go back to our own home and find our own moms. Let’s pretend this never happened.”

Xi Panpan said, “But Boss, you don’t have a mom anymore.”

“…”

Su Linye gave up on herself. “You go home and find your mom. I’ll go home and find the air, okay?”

Xi Panpan said, bewildered, “But Boss, I don’t have a mom either.”

Su Linye paused, then turned her head and coughed lightly. “Well, you know, family only disappears in physical form. They just change into a way of staying with us that we can’t see.”

She could not hold back and reached out to pat the head that was level with her own. “So go home. If you’re late, she’ll worry.”

Xi Panpan said, “Okay!”

Su Linye’s hand slid down, and she gave her a gentle push on the back. “Set off, Pika-Pan.”

Xi Panpan strode away with determination.

She went home.

Su Linye held her phone and found her home address through the Taobao app, then bent down again and hoisted the bicycle up.

She had not gone far when a three-wheeled cart drove over. “Little girl, are you planning to sell that bike?”

Su Linye turned her head. “Ah, no…”

The tricycle owner said, “Perfect timing. I’m going to sell scrap anyway. Seeing a little girl like you carrying that thing around isn’t easy either. How about this? I’ll take a bit of a loss. Ten yuan. What do you think?”

Su Linye put the bicycle down and patted it. “Uncle, this bike is thick iron, solid metal. The quality is great. Just lifting it up, it’s more than twenty jin. How much is your scrap iron price? Even if you lowball it, it should still be at least one yuan per jin, right? Besides, there’s plastic casing on it too, and that’s worth a little money. You’re offering ten yuan and still saying you’ll take a loss? We can’t be that unfair to our conscience.”

The tricycle owner said, “Hey, you little girl. What a sharp tongue you’ve got. Fine, fine, fine. My bad luck. Fifteen.”

Su Linye wagged her finger. “Final price, twenty-five. No bargaining.”

The tricycle owner clicked his tongue. “Twenty-five? You really dare to ask for that.”

Su Linye said, “Then forget it.”

The tricycle owner said, “Twenty-five it is.”

As he took out the money, he said, “I’m really scared of you.”

After Su Linye got the money, she smiled brightly. “All right, Uncle. Wishing you booming business.”

The tricycle owner laughed in exasperation. “You kid.”

He tied the bike down, shook his head, and left.

Clutching the twenty-five yuan she had once again gained without working, Su Linye grinned sorrowfully and apologized to the uncle in her heart.

Without the heavy bicycle, Su Linye traveled light, following the navigation instructions. She circled around into an alley, turned this way and that, and finally arrived at a dead end.

She looked up at the wall in front of her, then lowered her head to look at the phone that remained unwaveringly pointed straight ahead.

Su Linye fell silent for two seconds. Then her face instantly twisted. “You father’s…”

Just as she was getting irritable, she suddenly heard a voice coming from beside the corner she had just turned.

Su Linye was overjoyed. She turned and walked two steps back to the corner, then stepped out and said in surprise, “Sorry to bother you, do you know how to get to No. 28 Dongfanghong Street…”

After she clearly saw the scene in front of her, her voice slowly grew smaller.

“…by any chance…”