Chapter 1 – Turned Into the Vicious Cannon Fodder Who Abandoned the Kids!!…

Pain…

So much pain…

Chu An felt as if her head was about to explode.

As her memories gradually returned, the sound of a child’s intermittent sobbing reached her ears. The pounding in her head worsened instantly.

She had never expected that, as a diligent office worker, she would end up like this—just because she had idly clicked on a period novel during work, she had somehow transmigrated into the story as a vicious cannon fodder who had the exact same name as her.

The original body’s father and mother were both tea makers in a tea factory. Including the eldest brother and a younger brother, there were three children in total. At that time, society generally still held a preference for sons over daughters. Although the original body was not valued, she was not an easy person to get along with either. She often quarreled with her family over trivial matters, smashing jars and bottles so loudly that the entire neighborhood could hear.

This sharp, abrasive personality made her parents, who already disliked having a daughter, even more dissatisfied with her, and they wished they could marry her off as soon as possible.

The original body did not mind getting married—in fact, she did not want to work at all. She just wanted to find a wealthy family to support her so she could idle her life away. But, relying on her beauty, she was extremely picky during blind dates. Either she found the livestock farmers too smelly, or she thought the self-employed small traders were not respectable or grand enough.

After rejecting one after another, she ended up not choosing anyone.

As she grew older, she feared missing her prime years to marry into wealth, and anxiety began to creep in. Eventually, she set her sights on Huo Zeye, who had come to the countryside for aid work.

Huo Zeye had a military background and had followed the call for rural poverty alleviation to help with construction in their town. With his handsome and upright features, he had captivated all the marriageable young women in town.

According to the original body’s investigation, Huo Zeye came from a respectable family: his father was a senior military officer, and his mother was a military doctor. Both had died during a mission earlier that year, leaving behind a young younger brother and younger sister.

Lazy and vain, the original body fancied Huo Zeye’s looks and coveted his promising future. Under the pretense of delivering gifts of sympathy, she sneaked into his quarters. After being thrown out by Huo Zeye, she deliberately spread ambiguous rumors around town and tearfully confronted him, demanding that he take responsibility.

Huo Zeye, annoyed beyond measure, made it clear that he had younger siblings to raise and no plans to marry for now. But the original body pressed on relentlessly—insisting she didn’t mind taking care of his siblings in his stead—while dramatically holding a small knife to her wrist. After persistent pestering, Huo Zeye finally gave in.

Once they had gotten the marriage certificate, the original body immediately revealed her true nature. She squandered the money and ration tickets Huo Zeye regularly gave her, and openly basked in the attention of other men who admired her beauty, flirting left and right. Even after they moved to the islands with the military, she did not restrain herself.

Although she never became physically involved with anyone, her reputation had already been completely ruined.

Naturally, there was no hope for her to treat Huo Zeye’s younger siblings well. On the contrary, she saw them as burdens left behind by his parents. When Huo Zeye was at home, things were tolerable, but whenever he was away, the moment something displeased her, she would hurl insults at the two children and beat them.

The worst incident happened when she even tried to deliberately abandon them on the street. The two children wandered helplessly, searching for the sister-in-law who had deserted them, only to encounter human traffickers. In their desperate attempt to escape, the younger sister’s face was accidentally slashed by a rock, leaving her disfigured, while the younger brother’s right arm was broken when he shielded her, leaving him permanently disabled.

It was precisely this incident that completely twisted the hearts of these two future villains.

They chose not to tell their eldest brother, instead enduring in silence for years. When the time was right, they tricked the original body into taking out high-interest loans, then watched coldly as she was beaten to death by thugs for failing to repay them.

Chu An: “…”

Wasn’t this the most cannon-fodder of all cannon fodder?

She didn’t even survive long enough to see the protagonist appear!

As for the later plot, Chu An remembered that Huo Zeye, wanting to better care for his half-grown younger siblings, eventually remarried the protagonist’s gentle and capable mother, who happened to be a widow.

With the well-mannered protagonist and the virtuous mother managing the household, they easily made the gloomy and cold villains—and Chu An, the vicious, lazy ex-wife—look like utter trash.

When people praised the protagonist’s mother for her skill in raising children, they would inevitably drag out the original body’s name to spit on it.

In short, in the book, Chu An’s role was simply to serve as a cannon-fodder comparison.

No problem, no problem…

Chu An comforted herself inwardly. At least she was still alive and had a chance to make things right!

Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly realized that the intermittent sound of a child’s sobbing in her ears had stopped for quite some time.

Her face turned pale as she abruptly came back to her senses.

The point in time she had transmigrated into was exactly when the original body was about to abandon the two children on the street!

Once she figured out the current situation, Chu An immediately turned back. The place where the original body had deliberately shaken off the two children, taking advantage of the crowd, was not far from here. If she could run fast enough, she should be able to reach them before they encountered the human traffickers.

“Excuse me, let me through, sorry, please make way!”

Chu An weaved through the crowd like a fish swimming upstream, occasionally bumping into plainly dressed passersby, drawing displeased complaints.

But Chu An had no time to explain.

In the original book’s plot, it was only briefly mentioned that the two villain cubs eventually escaped from the human traffickers and returned home, but the price they paid was disfigurement and disability.

Even setting aside the fact that she had now taken over this body, for humanitarian reasons alone she had to find a way to prevent this tragedy!

Chu An sprinted along the gravel road, her eyes darting rapidly as she scanned the crowd.

Finally, as she passed the mouth of an alley, she heard once again the faint sound of a child crying and an adult’s curses.

Glancing at the quiet alley, which was in stark contrast to the bustling street outside, she did not hesitate for a second. She grabbed a discarded iron rod from the roadside and rushed into the alley.

At that moment, the two cubs were desperately struggling against the human trafficker’s grip.

The limping man had one hand clamped around the crying little girl and was using the other to try to catch the boy who was punching and kicking at him. His mouth spewed filthy curses:

“Damn it, I’ve never seen kids this hard to trick! Don’t even want candy—fine, then you’ll take the hard way!”

Huo Ran, his face marked with a handprint from a slap, said coldly: “You’re a trafficker! We’re not going with you! My sister-in-law will be here any moment to find us!”

Though he spoke threateningly, Huo Ran’s heart was uncertain.

He knew very well that his sister-in-law had always seen him and Huo Mian as burdens. If she found them gone, she would probably be secretly pleased rather than come looking for them.

The limping man could see right through Huo Ran’s false bravado and laughed carelessly. “You think I didn’t notice? That woman clearly abandoned you on purpose—she doesn’t want you anymore!”

When his inner suspicion was confirmed, Huo Ran’s small body didn’t move, but his face turned slightly pale.

Huo Mian, whose arm was being yanked by the limping man, bit her lip so hard that all the color drained from it.

Was it true?

Did Sister-in-law really not want them anymore?

Seeing that the two children remained silent, the limping man took the chance to coax them. “So you might as well come with me. I’ll find a good family for you, and you’ll get to eat candy and meat every day…”

Before he could finish speaking, the little boy in front of him suddenly sank his teeth into the web of flesh between his thumb and forefinger.

He bit down hard, and the limping man immediately let out a cry of pain, loosening his grip on Huo Mian’s hand just slightly.

Huo Ran shouted: “Mian Mian, run! Go find an adult!”

He didn’t even need to say it—Huo Mian had already taken the opportunity to break free from the man’s grasp. She clenched her teeth and bolted toward the alley entrance.

The limping man, realizing that the duck in his hands was about to fly away, instantly darkened his expression and grabbed Huo Ran’s right arm, preparing to twist it outward.

“Damn it, I don’t believe I can’t deal with you!”

Just as Chu An stepped into the mouth of the alley, this was the scene she saw.

Her pupils contracted sharply, and she ground her teeth as she shouted: “Let go of him!!”

The explosive female voice made the limping man flinch, stopping his actions in apprehension.

Meanwhile, Huo Mian, who had been running unsteadily toward the exit and was about to fall face-first onto a jagged stone, suddenly fell into a warm embrace.

Stunned, she lifted her head and saw a familiar figure.

It was Sister-in-law…

Sister-in-law had really come to find them!

The slim, slender woman steadied her, then raised the discarded iron rod in her hand and glared fiercely at the limping man opposite her, enunciating each word: “Give me back the child.”

The limping man, meeting the viciousness in her gaze, involuntarily shrank back.

Because of his limp, his height was actually about the same as the woman’s at first glance. Adding to that, she was holding an iron pipe as thick as a wrist—if they really fought, he wasn’t confident he could overpower her.

These two children couldn’t be taken away today.

Once the limping man realized this, he quickly shoved Huo Ran toward her and then bolted in the opposite direction.

Chu An didn’t have time to give chase. She reached out to catch the staggering Huo Ran, then pulled both children into her arms and checked them over from head to toe.

Aside from a few minor bruises from being pulled and the slap mark on Huo Ran’s face, both children were perfectly fine—no disfigurement, no broken arm.

She had made it in time…

Chu An panted heavily, only now realizing her strength was gone. Her hair was plastered to her neck, and sweat had run into her eyes, stinging sharply. But she didn’t care. She forced herself to raise her hand and patted the backs of the two unusually quiet children in turn.

“It’s all right now. Sister-in-law is here…”

“Sister-in-law will take you home.”

She didn’t know which word in her sentence struck a chord, but after a brief silence, the two cubs in her arms suddenly began to sob in extreme grievance.