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

Three years is enough time for the plane trees lining a city street to grow into a lush canopy. It's enough time for a graduating class of high school students to go through the complete cycle of entering school with a blank mind and then packing their bags and going their separate ways.

It is enough to make a girl shed her immaturity and hesitation, and let a sense of determination and calm settle in her eyes.

As expected, Chen Su was admitted to her first choice, a national key university located in the city, where she will study a promising engineering major.

The school isn't too far from home, but it requires two bus transfers, and the one-way trip takes nearly an hour and a half.

After weighing the options, she chose to live at school most of the time, returning home once every two weeks to see her grandmother.

Grandma is still in good health and has plenty of energy, but she has a lot more white hair at her temples.

After Chen Su started living at school, her life became more leisurely. Every morning without fail, she would go for a walk in the park and dance in the square with her old friends. Her life was peaceful and stable.

Without his granddaughter's daily company, his longing for her has only deepened.

Every time Chen Su came home, she would cook delicious food in different ways, her loving gaze lingering on her granddaughter as she watched her grow into a more independent and beautiful person.

Chen Su's university life was busy and fulfilling.

She continued her diligence from high school, maintaining her top grades in her department amidst the abundance of talent on the university campus, and receiving scholarships year after year.

In her spare time, she occasionally takes on tutoring jobs, which helps her supplement her living expenses and also helps her develop herself.

She is very popular, treats people with gentleness and politeness, and always has a pleasant smile on her face.

But a careful observer can perceive that within that gentleness lies a clear sense of boundaries, an inner strength that has been tempered by time and is not easily swayed by external influences.

Her appearance has also changed.

Her hair had grown long and fell smoothly down, making her face appear even smaller.

The childishness of a high school student has quietly faded from his eyes and brows, making his features clearer. When he is silent and thinking, his slightly furrowed brows and unconsciously pursed lips exude a quiet, somewhat aloof attraction.

It added an inexplicable allure to her delicate features.

With her like this, Chen Su would inevitably attract attention walking on campus.

People from her department, other colleges, and even people from outside the university she met during her internships have all expressed their affection for her, either directly or indirectly.

Faced with these offers, she always politely and clearly refused, giving the same reason invariably: "I'm not considering dating for the time being; I want to focus on my studies and future plans."

The reasons are sound and beyond reproach.

But is it really so?

Only she knows the real reason.

It exists quietly deep within her phone's photo album. Occasionally, she opens it, and the photos frozen in time are from the summer three years ago, where photos that will never be deleted are kept.

It is also displayed on her bookshelf in her home, in that meticulously made, thick commemorative album filled with photos and words, but which was never given away.

Three years have not faded or blurred some memories; on the contrary, they have been like carefully polished jade, settling in the depths of my heart with an increasingly warm and clear luster.

She rarely tries to recall things.

But some things cannot be easily erased simply by not thinking about them.

When she passed by the billiard hall on the street corner while shopping, the swaying figures and crisp sounds of the billiards behind the transparent glass windows would always make her momentarily dazed, reminding her of that summer when someone wrapped their arms around her from behind, the temperature mixed with the faint scent of tobacco and the cool air, impatiently but precisely adjusting her posture, their breath brushing past her ear.

When she occasionally encountered a stray kitten begging for food by rubbing against people's trouser legs on campus, she would always think of another orange cat that had been raised in a villa, its fur glossy and its body becoming increasingly plump. She would remember the two of them sitting on the sofa, stroking its fur together, their fingertips touching, and then quickly pulling away.

Even when she enters the airport terminal for study tours or tourism and hears flight information announcements over the loudspeaker, she is momentarily lost in thought.

The surrounding clamor and the hum of suitcase wheels would instantly pull her back to that sweltering, heartbreaking night three years ago. She could almost hear again the strained, hoarse, and dry voice from the other end of the phone amidst the noisy background noise: "I'm leaving."

-

For the first year, their contact was even less than Chen Su had expected.

She once said, "We should keep in touch," and he replied, "Okay."

But it seems pale in the face of reality.

The sixteen-hour time difference is like an invisible chasm, separating the two people and cutting their lives into two distinct parts, day and night, that can hardly overlap.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the mutual respect that a sense of caution has arisen.

Neither of them dared to easily disturb the other's new life, fearing that too frequent contact would become a burden for the other.

Shen is indeed extremely busy.

He often received a long reply to the messages Chen Su sent him, and they were usually brief, consisting of only a few words.

"Um."

"understood."

"I'm busy."

His word count was stingy to the point of being frustrating, but strangely, no matter what she posted, even if it was just a meaningless sigh late at night, she would always receive a response from him after a while, without fail.

She would also visit Xiao Ju at the villa.

The villa has been empty, but it is well maintained, and the plants in the yard are trimmed by professionals.

Xiao Ju usually sunbathes on the windowsill of the living room on the first floor. She pricks up her ears when she hears the door open, and only walks over slowly when she sees it's her.

Little Orange doesn't like to move around anymore; it prefers to sleep, sometimes lying down for most of the day.

She sat on the sofa, and the cat jumped onto her lap, its weight heavy.

She stroked its smooth fur, remembering that three years ago it was just a little kitten that could snuggle up in Shen Que's palm.

Chen Su played with it for a while, took some photos, and sent them to Shen Que.

After I sent the photo, he replied with two words much later: "You've gained weight."

Once, she encountered a bottleneck in the laboratory. A key simulation experiment repeatedly failed, and the data was always inconsistent. Frustration almost overwhelmed her.

In the early hours of the morning, staring at the messy data charts on her computer screen, she inexplicably sent Shen Que a message with only three words: "It's so hard."

I didn't expect an immediate reply.

It must have been daytime for him then; he might have been in class or dealing with something else.

However, a few hours later, as she rubbed her sore eyes and prepared to leave the lab, her phone screen lit up.

Shen Que's reply came, a very simple sentence: "Take your time, you can do it."

There was no extra comfort, and it wasn't even any effective advice.

But it was just that one sentence that made her stare at that line of text for a long time before she turned off her computer, packed her things, and went back to her dorm.

That night, she slept exceptionally soundly.

As that year drew to a close, on the eve of Chen Su's birthday, she received an international express delivery.

The sender's address is San Francisco, USA, and the sender's field is blank.

After removing the heavy, shockproof packaging, there was a dark blue velvet jewelry box inside.

The moment the box was opened, even Chen Su, who had no knowledge of jewelry, was momentarily dazzled by the striking red light.

It is a ruby ​​necklace.

The main stone is a perfectly cut oval ruby ​​with a bright and rich color, like congealed pigeon blood, which refracts a crystal-clear fire under the light.

The necklace features an extremely fine platinum chain, simple yet exquisite.

Inside the box was a folded card with four characters written in strong, vigorous handwriting:

"Happy birthday."

There was no signature.

Chen Su's fingers traced the cool gemstone and the familiar handwriting, remaining silent for a long time.

_

The following year, Shen Que seemed to finally break free from that suffocating busyness.

The frequency of their contact has increased significantly.

They would make international calls, the signal was sometimes good and sometimes bad, with a slight static noise, but they could still hear each other's real voices.

They also make videos.

Shen Que appears to have changed even more in the footage.

He had lost a lot of weight, his facial features were more defined and strong, his brow bones appeared higher, and his eyes were deeper in the shadows, making them even more profound. Yet, his gaze was calmer and sharper than before, having shed the fierceness he had shown in his youth and gained more of the composure and fortitude of an adult man.

"You've lost weight," she said.

"Your hair has grown," he said at the same time.

They both paused for a moment, then she smiled, and he smiled back.

The smile was faint, but there was warmth in her eyes.

He still didn't talk much, but he would look at Chen Su very intently when she spoke.

Occasionally, he would send her some casually taken photos, the exact location of which was not apparent.

A quiet street, cafe signs along the roadside, the sky tinged with orange-pink at dusk, and rows of bookshelves in the library.

Once, he sent me a night view of the San Francisco Bay Area, its lights stretching densely to the horizon, with the Golden Gate Bridge glowing its outline in the distance.

On this year's birthday, the international express delivery arrived as scheduled.

Open it, and you'll find a ruby ​​and diamond-encrusted bracelet.

Round rubies are set in a platinum base, arranged in smooth lines, and shimmer with tiny, dazzling lights under the lamp.

The design is simple yet unique. For some reason, when Chen Su looked at it, she was reminded of the string of red agate beads that she had given him at the temple years ago.

They have different materials and textures, but they are all entwined with a touch of red.

The card remains the same, with the handwritten words: "Happy Birthday."