Quick Transmigration: I Was Cannon Fodder But Became the White Moonlight

"Chen Su".

The voice was very soft, dry, and weak, and it sounded behind her.

Chen Su's hand, which was on the doorknob, froze.

She almost thought it was a hallucination, and stood there stunned, without turning around.

He heard heavy, limping footsteps behind him.

Shen Que walked a few steps behind her and stopped.

She didn't turn around, but she could feel his gaze on her back, heavy and intense.

Shen Que's eyes were complex and dark, like thick clouds piled up before a storm.

He tugged at the corners of his mouth, forming a barely perceptible smile, and spoke in a low voice, breaking the suffocating silence:

"I'm going to fight in underground boxing matches."

Chen Su's heart sank suddenly, as if it had been gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

She finally turned around slowly, her face filled with disbelief: "Why...?"

Why?

The answer to this question had been churning in his heart a thousand times over.

Why?

Because of you, Chen Su.

All that frustration, all that unvented rage, all that heart-wrenching pain of seeing her cry but having to force myself to turn away...

He was agitated and anxious, like a trapped beast unable to find a way out.

Fighting is the most direct form of catharsis; at least the pain is tangible.

Shen Que's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he forcefully swallowed back all the words that were about to burst from his chest.

Ugh.

Doesn't he know anything?

During summer vacation, she never let him walk her to the entrance of the residential area. Couldn't he guess why?

She forced a smile when she came back after being called away by the homeroom teacher. Didn't he expect what the teacher would say?

Grandma was appearing at the school gate more and more frequently. Didn't Chen Su understand his anxiety?

Her pale pretense on the phone at the villa, and the tears that followed after she hung up...

Doesn't he understand?

He remembers even more clearly what happened after that unpleasant night.

He hid in the shadows behind the wall, smoking irritably.

After watching her get into the taxi safely and see her car disappear into the night, I turned around to go back to the villa and saw an old man standing not far away.

Without even thinking, his intuition told him that it was Chen Su's grandmother.

She didn't go to the school to find Chen Su at all; instead, she followed them all the way here.

He subconsciously stubbed out the cigarette in his hand.

The specific content of the conversation is now vague, but he remembers that the old man's attitude was not aggressive, and could even be described as polite and humble, but every word he said felt like a needle pricking his heart.

"We are just an ordinary family. We only wish for our child to be safe and well, to get into a good university, and to have a stable future."

"Your family is of higher social standing, so your path is different."

"Chen Su is a child who can't afford to lose; her future cannot be compromised in the slightest."

He was the "mistake".

Finally, the old man looked at him almost pleadingly: "Young man, please... stay away from my Susu, don't give her unrealistic hopes."

He seemed to have been silent for a long time.

He said, "Okay."

Was he agreeing to his grandmother's request?

No.

He didn't want to see Chen Su in a difficult position anymore, didn't want her to choose between family and him, and didn't want her clear eyes to be clouded with gloom and tears again.

Staying away might be better for everyone.

These turbulent thoughts, these struggles and self-loathings in the unknown nights, finally swirled on his tongue, condensing into an explanation that seemed simple but actually drained all his strength:

"I've been under a lot of pressure lately, and I need to vent."

He looked at Chen Su's eyes, which instantly reddened, and at the tears that quickly welled up in them. The coldness and aloofness he had been holding onto seemed to crumble instantly in the heat of those tears.

He gave a bitter laugh, a laugh filled with self-loathing and helplessness:

"Tsk... I made you cry again."

He lowered his head, his voice trailing off, carrying an almost resigned dejection, "Looks like I really am... a bad student."

His eyes were complex and hard to decipher.

He had clearly made up his mind to stay away from her and cut ties with her, but when he heard her say "I will never come to see you again" and "I will never care about you again," his heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly by an invisible hand, and the pain was so intense that he could hardly breathe.

His intuition was sharply warning him that if he didn't try to stop her now and let her leave like this, then it might really be the end between them.

He couldn't bear to part with it.

"Yes."

Chen Su suddenly stepped forward, tears streaming down her face, yet with unwavering determination, and threw herself into his arms, burying her face deep in his chest, which smelled of medicine and faint blood. Her voice was muffled, trembling with sobs, yet it sounded like a pronouncement: "You are a bad student."

A bad student who's only mean to me.

This time, Shen Que did not push her away.

The bandaged, scarred arm finally rose slowly, with a hint of hesitation and indescribable caution, and gently wrapped around her thin shoulders, pulling her even tighter into his embrace.

He lowered his head, his chin gently resting on the top of her soft hair. His eyes, which were always filled with hostility or indifference, closed briefly, and when they opened again, they held a tenderness that no one had ever seen before.

He gently patted her back, his voice hoarse: "Don't cry."

Chen Su shook her head in his arms, raised her tear-streaked face, looked at him with wet eyes, and then softly and stubbornly refuted his words: "...No, not exactly."

"Shen Que," she sniffed and looked at him seriously, "bad students won't do good deeds, won't adopt homeless stray cats, won't patiently teach people to play billiards, and won't... even though they haven't touched a textbook in so long, they can still solve such difficult math and physics problems."

Shen Que is not a bad student.

No.

Time flows.

The moment I was woken up by a loud noise while sleeping in my first year of high school.

Shen Que.

Before I'm grumpy when I wake up, the first thing I notice is a girl's helpless, tearful eyes.

The moment you kicked the boy down, you cursed him in your heart, thinking, "How dare you bully a girl? What a coward!"

Later, you helped Zhou Qian, who was being harassed by her ex-boyfriend, by taking Xiao Ju, who had been chased up a tree by three stray dogs, home.

Beneath your irritable and easily angered exterior lies a heart that is both braver and more tender than anyone else's.

You just don't say it, or perhaps you haven't even realized it yourself.

Shen Que listened quietly to her words, neither admitting nor denying them.

He simply gazed intently at her, at her eyes, exceptionally clear after her tears, and the certainty and understanding within them, like a ray of light, trying to illuminate the corners of his heart that he himself was unwilling to face.

A long silence flowed between the two, but it was no longer cold.

After a while, he suddenly bent down, put his arm under her knees, and with a forceful movement, lifted her up in his arms.

"Ah!" Chen Su exclaimed softly, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck.

Shen Que carried her and walked steadily to the sofa, carefully putting her down.

"Hungry?" He looked down at her, abruptly changing the subject, his voice still a little hoarse. "Order some takeout."

Chen Su was taken aback by his abrupt change of thought and subconsciously frowned, trying to bring him back to the previous topic.

But his thoughts were interrupted when his stomach growled at an inopportune moment.

Since school ended at noon, she went to the club first, then ran to the villa. Her emotions went through ups and downs, and she cried countless times. She was indeed starving.

She nodded honestly.

"Hungry."

Shen Que didn't say anything more, nor did he ask her what she wanted to eat. He simply picked up his phone, swiped a few times, and quickly placed an order.

He put down his phone and looked up, only to meet Chen Su's eyes, which were still slightly red but staring straight at him without blinking.

His gaze was crystal clear, still tinged with tears, and filled with undisguised inquiry, concern, and a focused intensity that made his heart clench.