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

Chen Su sat on the sofa, her gaze fixed on him, noticing his still slightly furrowed brows and the bruises remaining at the corner of his mouth. She recalled his casual yet heavy words, "I'm under a lot of pressure and need to vent."

She didn't want him to go to such dangerous places again, to exchange a moment of numbness for harming himself.

She hesitated for a moment, then spoke softly, breaking the silence: "Shen Que... you said you've been under a lot of pressure lately, is it because... can you tell me about it?"

She asked cautiously, with a hint of probing.

Shen Que leaned back on the sofa. Upon hearing this, he slowly opened his eyelids and glanced at her sideways.

The previous ferocity or coldness was gone from those eyes; only a deep weariness remained, along with a complex emotion after being asked about it.

He remained silent, seemingly weighing his options, hesitating whether to lay those heavy things bare before her.

After a long silence, just when Chen Su thought he wouldn't answer, he spoke, his voice lower than usual, carrying an almost resigned calm:

"It's because of... my parents."

Shen Que's parents?

Chen Su was stunned.

This answer was somewhat unexpected, yet it also seemed to be within expectations.

She had known Shen Que for so long and had visited this empty villa so many times, yet she had never sensed even the slightest trace of his parents here.

There were no photos, no mentions, not even a single phone call.

She had been curious, but Shen never brought it up, so she never asked him directly. It was his private space, and she respected his boundaries.

It was only today, through Zhou Qian, that she vaguely learned for the first time that his parents were in the United States, successful in their careers, and from a prominent family.

The homeroom teacher had also hinted that Shen Que would go to the United States after graduating from high school.

But why is he left here alone?

Why do his parents seem to be completely absent from his life?

Why do they seem to have never given him the care and warmth he deserves?

Too many questions swirled in Chen Su's mind, but she knew that only Shen Que himself could uncover the answers.

Shen Que looked at her stunned expression and gave a cold smile, as if he were mocking himself or telling someone else's story.

He adjusted his posture, which aggravated his wound, and he frowned slightly. Then, in an almost indifferent tone, he began to reveal to her the scars buried by time.

Let's start with his childhood.

In my memory, my parents' faces are always blurry and hurried. They were busy building a vast business empire, dedicating their time and energy to their business across the ocean.

Unable to care for a young child, he was handed over to a nanny.

She was a woman who appeared submissive on the surface, but secretly vented all her frustrations about life on him.

Little Shen Que doesn't know how to express himself, or even if he does, his busy parents ignore him.

Until one day, the scars were discovered by chance.

He had expected to receive protection and care, but his parents' reaction made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

They were furious, but seemed more annoyed by the potential damage to their family's reputation.

The matter was handled secretly and swiftly; the nanny disappeared as if she had never existed.

But in their eyes, there was little pity, but rather a sense of reproach and disappointment, as if to say, "How could you be so useless?" and "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

After that, the already thin connection between Shen Que and his parents froze completely.

And as time went on, they grew increasingly distant.

His parents hoped he would excel, become a qualified successor, and grow up according to the elite path they had planned for him.

Shen Que, harboring resentment at being ignored, anger at being hurt, and aversion to this cold control, began to rebel in the most intense way possible—

You want me to be outstanding? I won't.

You want me to follow the rules, but I'll skip classes, fight, and indulge in extreme sports that bring sensory stimulation and a sense of control.

Parents' patience and expectations are worn down by repeated conflicts and poor performance.

The more his parents scolded him over the long-distance phone call, saying he was "hopeless" and the more he became defiant.

They wanted him to go to the United States as soon as possible to receive an elite education and learn how to manage a business.

Shen Que, however, resisted by stubbornly remaining in China. This silent tug-of-war lasted for many years.

The parents' ultimatum was that the college entrance exam was over.

If he still refused to comply by then, they might not forcibly take him away, but that would mean they would completely abandon this good-for-nothing son, cut off his financial support, and leave him to fend for himself.

When Shen Que recounted the story, his tone was calm, even carrying a hint of cynical laughter, as if he were talking about an amusing incident unrelated to himself.

But Chen Su felt her heart tighten with each breath.

Little Shen Que was abused by his nanny. Although Shen Que did not tell her the specific methods of abuse, they must have been extremely cruel. However, his parents regarded all of this as a symbol of weakness and incompetence.

It's hard to imagine what kind of people his parents were.

She remembered the ending of the original world.

Shen Que, who was imprisoned for manslaughter, became an outcast of his family, and eventually disappeared without a trace.

In that world, his parents would probably have given up on him long ago; a son with a criminal record would only be a stain on the family.

What will Shen Que be like after being released from prison, penniless and abandoned by the whole world?

Seeing his nonchalant smile masking his wounded heart, Chen Su felt as if something had ripped her heart out, causing her a sharp, suffocating pain.

She bit her lower lip, and after he finished speaking, she took a deep breath, looked at him seriously, and spoke in a soft but exceptionally clear voice:

"But Shen Que, you don't need to prove to anyone whether you're a piece of trash or not."

She paused, her tone becoming even more resolute, "There's no need to live for their approval or disapproval."

Shen Que turned his gaze to her, a fleeting look of surprise in his eyes.

Chen Su continued speaking, her thoughts becoming clearer and clearer. These words had been swirling in her mind for a long time, and now they finally found an outlet:

"However, you need to have the ability to choose your own future."

She emphasized the word "choice" and looked at him intently.

"You're staying here now, responding to them by skipping classes, fighting, and confronting them. It seems like you're rebelling, expressing your discontent and independence, but actually..."

She paused, thinking about how to organize her thoughts, her gaze fixed on him.

"You are still trapped in the framework they have set. Your resistance is based on their rules—if you don't study hard, they will be disappointed; if you refuse to go to America, they may give up on you. All your actions are still passive responses to their arrangements. Or rather, you have defiantly chosen 'obedience' over 'rebellion' in the two options they gave you, and you have hurt yourself badly, thinking that this will hurt them and prove that you are 'different'."

Shen Que frowned, his lips tightened, and a complex emotion welled up in the depths of his eyes.

Going to America doesn't necessarily mean surrendering or admitting defeat.

Chen Su's voice softened, yet carried a more powerful penetrating quality, as if guiding him to look at the other side of the fog, "That can absolutely become your springboard, the real beginning of you accumulating capital for yourself and gaining the initiative."

She leaned forward, her tone becoming more earnest and powerful:

"Go face the environment you hate, and learn those things you may scorn but are actually useful. Not to gain their respect, not to become the successor they expect, but to turn this knowledge, skills, and even connections and resources into your own weapons, your own capital."

"When you are strong enough and have mastered enough, you will have real confidence. At that time, you will have the greatest choice—you can choose to stay in that system, do your best in your own way, and change it from the inside out; or you can choose, once you are fully capable, take everything you have accumulated, turn around and leave gracefully, to go wherever you want in the world, to live whatever life you want, completely free from anyone's control. Instead of being like this now..."

She looked at the injuries on his face with heartache, "Trapped in this villa, this city, and even in your own emotions, you passively wait for their 'judgment' by hurting yourself, or you defiantly walk down a path that is getting narrower and narrower, or even a dead end."

Her words struck Shen Que's habitually closed heart like heavy hammer blows.

"Escape and passive resistance will only make you more and more passive, and your path will become narrower and narrower. On the other hand, actively reaching out, learning, and mastering those resources, knowledge, and possibilities, even if the starting point is something you don't want to be, is the only way to truly take the steering wheel of your future into your own hands."

Chen Su's tone was full of trust and encouragement, "Shen Que, you're so smart. Your abilities shouldn't be wasted on pointless confrontation and self-destruction. You should use them to create a world for yourself that is much broader than they imagine, and even beyond what you can see right now. A world that is truly in your own hands."

"So, go to America not for them, but for yourself."

She concluded softly yet with immense power, "It's so that one day you can truly choose to stay or leave; it's so that your life options are no longer limited to the dead ends of 'obedience' and 'rebellion.' It's so that you have... the absolute confidence to say 'no' to anything you don't want, and the infinite possibilities to say 'yes' to everything you truly yearn for."

After the words were spoken, the living room fell silent. Only Little Orange rolled over in the corner, making a slight noise.

Shen Que remained silent for a long time, staring intently at Chen Su. His eyes, which were always shrouded in indifference or hostility, were now filled with turbulent thoughts.

Her words were like a key, trying to unlock the cage of his self-imposed confinement and pointing him to a thorny path that led to a vast world.