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

After getting off the black Volkswagen, Chen Su blended into the surging crowd at the long-distance bus station.

The air was thick with the mixed smells of instant noodles, sweat, and cheap perfume, while the loudspeakers continuously broadcast flight schedules, creating a noisy and chaotic atmosphere.

She kept her head down, wearing sunglasses and a mask, clutching her handbag tightly, her palms damp with cold sweat.

She went to the ticket window and bought a ticket with cash for the earliest train to L City.

Then, clutching the thin ticket, she sat on a plastic chair in the corner of the waiting hall, like the other waiting passengers, her eyes lowered and her body slightly curled up, trying to minimize her presence.

Ten minutes before departure, the announcement began urging passengers bound for L City to check their tickets and board the train.

The crowd began to move toward the ticket gate.

Chen Su also stood up and followed the flow of people for a few steps, but just as she was about to reach the end of the line...

Suddenly, he turned and walked quickly toward the restroom in the opposite direction.

There were quite a few people in the women's restroom.

Chen Su squeezed into a cubicle and locked the door.

The cramped space gave her a slight sense of security.

She took off her sunglasses and mask, quickly opened her handbag, and first took out the large, thick, dark gray scarf that she had prepared beforehand. She wrapped all her hair up and tied it in a knot at the back of her neck, leaving only her eyes and part of her forehead exposed.

Then, she took out the foundation she had specially bought, which was two shades darker than her skin tone. Without a mirror, she could only rely on her sense of touch and quickly patted a layer onto her face, neck, and even the back of her hands.

The powder was coarse and the color was dull, making her look unwell, with rough skin, instantly aging her by five or six years, and making her appear much more dull and ordinary.

She took off her beige trench coat.

This trench coat is reversible; the other side is a dark navy blue.

She deftly turned the clothes inside out and put them back on. The navy blue color made her even more inconspicuous, and the style was also slightly different because of the flipping.

She pulled her scarf down to cover more of her face.

She took out her most important identification documents and most of her cash from her handbag and stuffed them into a hidden pocket sewn inside her trench coat and into her underwear.

There weren't many things, but after stuffing them in, the hem and chest of her clothes looked a bit bulging and didn't fit well. This ruined her originally slender figure and made her look like an ordinary woman with a slightly plump figure and bulky clothes.

Finally, she folded the half-empty handbag in half and threw it into the bathroom trash can.

After doing all this, she looked at the blurry reflection of the cubicle door.

The person in the reflection was unfamiliar, tired, and carried the timidity and caution common to working-class women, completely different from the glamorous Miss Chen from before.

She took a deep breath, slightly hunched her back, opened the cubicle door, and walked out with her head down.

Instead of returning to the waiting hall, she walked straight towards the back door of the station, her pace unhurried, blending into the crowd.

As she passed a trash can, she casually tore up the train ticket to L City and threw it in.

The area behind the station is a mess, with cracked concrete, overflowing sewage, and several dilapidated buses and bread carts parked there. The air is filled with the sour smell of a garbage dump.

Some unlicensed taxi drivers soliciting passengers privately and middle-aged men and women holding up signs for small hotels gathered here, their eyes scanning every traveler who came out.

"Hey beautiful, where are you going? Need a ride? Let's go right now!"

A short man with shrewd, darting eyes immediately approached and greeted them warmly.

Chen Su lowered her voice and mumbled with a slight out-of-town accent, "S City, are we going?"

"Yes, yes, of course! S City, right? We're just one seat short! Let's go!"

The man readily agreed, pointing to a dusty, old-looking seven-seater van parked next to him.

Chen Su nodded and followed him to the car.

Opening the car door, I found a middle-aged couple dressed simply sitting inside, each carrying a large woven bag.

The man solicitously invited her to sit in the middle row.

The car did not start immediately.

The driver got out of the car again, looked around at the door, and shouted a few times, "S City! S City! We only need one more person, let's go!"

Sitting in the car, Chen Su overheard the couple in the back seat talking in hushed tones: "Didn't they say everyone would be here soon? Why do we have to wait again..."

"Hey, that's what all touts say, every customer is a customer."

Chen Su silently twitched the corners of her mouth.

really.

She waited for several minutes, but the driver still didn't come up.

Chen Su rolled down the car window and called out to the man smoking outside, "Sir, don't wait any longer, let's go. I'll pay extra."

Upon hearing this, the driver's eyes lit up. He immediately stubbed out his cigarette, nimbly climbed back into the driver's seat, and said with a beaming smile, "Alright! You're so generous, beautiful lady! Let's go right now!"

With a roar from the engine, the dilapidated bread cart bumped and jolted away from the back alley of the station, merging into the city's traffic.

Chen Su chose an unlicensed taxi.

These vehicles are unsafe and uncomfortable, but their advantage is that they don't leave any regulated riding records, making them difficult to track.

This kind of opaque movement is exactly what she needs.

The journey was bumpy.

The van avoided the highway and wound its way along national and provincial roads.

The car was in poor condition; the seats were hard and the interior was filled with a strange smell of cheap leather, stale smoke, and some indescribable musty odor.

Chen Su was already under a lot of stress, and the uneven road made her feel carsick very quickly. Her stomach churned, her face turned pale, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

Fortunately, I didn't eat much all day, so I couldn't vomit anything; I just dry heaved a few times.

She endured the discomfort and rolled the car window up as wide as possible.

The cool breeze of early autumn blew in, dispersing some of the stale air and clearing her muddled mind a little.

Seeing her discomfort in the rearview mirror, the driver kindly took a small metal box from the front seat and tossed it to her: "Girl, are you carsick? Suck on two mints, it'll make you feel better."

Chen Su thanked him in a low voice, took the tin box, inside were a few mints wrapped in green transparent candy wrappers.

She put two in her mouth, and the cool, stimulating minty flavor hit her head, slightly suppressing the nausea.

She closed her eyes, leaned back in her chair, and tried to calm herself down.

However, the couple in the back seat seemed to get along very well with the driver, talking loudly in their heavily accented dialect about everyday matters and market prices. Their voices echoed in the narrow carriage, making Chen Su's already tense nerves throb and her ears ring.

The journey was silent, filled only with bumps, noise, strange smells, and drowsiness.

After an unknown amount of time, the view outside the window gradually changed from the urban-rural fringe to denser buildings and flashing neon lights.

We've arrived in City S.

The car didn't enter the official station, but instead stopped in an area that looked like an old wholesale market.

The driver turned to her and asked, "Miss, we've arrived in S City. Where do you want to get off? I'll drop you off somewhere convenient."

Chen Su rubbed her throbbing temples, her voice a little hoarse: "Just find... a place where it's easy to find accommodation."

"Okay!" the driver replied, turning the steering wheel and the car into an area crisscrossed by alleyways.

On both sides are mostly old-fashioned residential buildings, four or five stories high, with various small shops on the ground floor. Neon signs flash with words such as "accommodation," "hotel," and "leisure," and the air is filled with the smell of cooking oil from food stalls.

This place looks like a mixed bag, but there are indeed quite a few small hotels here.

The driver stopped at a relatively open alleyway: "This is fine, there are plenty of cheap hotels around here."

Chen Su paid the fare, which was significantly higher than the normal price, so it was considered an extra charge.

The driver beamed and kindly reminded her, "Young lady, be careful traveling alone."

Chen Su nodded and slowly got out of the car.

The bread truck spewed out a plume of black smoke and drove away.

Standing at the entrance of the noisy alley, Chen Su felt a moment of bewilderment.

An unfamiliar city, unfamiliar streets, and unfamiliar smells in the air.

But soon, hunger brought her back to reality.

She had only eaten a little something since morning, and then she got carsick and vomited. Now her stomach was empty and she felt weak.

She first found a small restaurant that seemed to have a lot of customers and was fairly clean, ordered a bowl of the most ordinary soup noodles, and ate it quietly.

The hot soup dispelled some of the chill and fatigue, and also gave her a little more energy to think.

Next is accommodation.

She walked slowly along the alley, observing the small hotels on both sides.

Some receptionists sat at the entrance, dozing off or looking at their phones, while signs read "Today's Special" and "Hourly Rooms".

She tried to walk into the most inconspicuous-looking hotel, with dim lighting at the entrance. The receptionist was a middle-aged woman yawning.

"How much for a single room?" Chen Su asked in a low voice.

"Eighty-one days, deposit of one hundred." The middle-aged woman didn't even lift her eyelids.

"Um... I didn't bring my ID card, can I use something else? Or... pay more?" Chen Su asked tentatively, her heart racing.

The middle-aged woman then looked up, sized her up, and said warily, "No! They're cracking down hard now. You can't stay without an ID! If you get caught, you'll be fined! Go ask around, they all do it this way."

Chen Su's heart sank. Undeterred, she asked two smaller, even somewhat shabby, family-run guesthouses, but received similar answers.

ID registration is mandatory; there is no exceptions.

Standing in the damp, dimly lit alley, the night wind felt even colder.

Chen Su's fingertips were a little cold.

She realized that even in such a chaotic and underdeveloped area, it was almost impossible to remain completely invisible and stay in a hotel without identification.

Exhaustion, helplessness, and fear of the unknown surged in like a tide.

But then, a sense of "what's the use of trying" arose.

Since you absolutely have to use your ID card... then what's there to hesitate about?

She took a deep breath, raised her head, and glanced past the gleaming, cheap hotel signs, looking towards the wider street beyond the alley, where there were taller buildings and brighter lights.

She made a decision.

Dragging his heavy steps, Chen Su walked out of the noisy alley and came to the side of the road, which was relatively close to the main road.

She raised her hand and flagged down a taxi.

"Master, could you please find a... clean, reputable hotel? Around three stars will do."

She got into the car and said to the driver.

The weariness in his voice was unmistakable.

The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror, didn't ask any questions, just gave an answer, and the car smoothly merged into the traffic.

Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of a rather ordinary-looking business hotel.

Although not luxurious, it is clean and proper enough.

Chen Su walked into the bright lobby and approached the front desk. The well-trained receptionist greeted her with a professional smile: "Hello, ma'am, do you need accommodation?"

"Okay, single room, one night." Chen Su took out "Li Ling's" ID card from his pocket and handed it over.

Let's just get through this night first.

The waiter took her ID card, swiped it on the machine, and her personal information and photo appeared on the computer screen.

They didn't notice anything unusual.

"Okay, Ms. Li. Your room is on the 12th floor. Here is your room key. The deposit is 500 yuan. How do I pay?"

Chen Su took out five 100-yuan bills from the document bag and handed them over.

Holding the room key, she stepped into the elevator, the metal door reflecting her somewhat plump figure.

The elevator slowly ascended, and the numbers jumped up and down.