Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Shen Banyue drifted back to consciousness. Her eyes fell upon dilapidated, rotting beams and exposed rows of grayish-blue roof tiles.

A sense of disorientation washed over her. She thought to herself, this kind of flimsy hut couldn't withstand a single shove from a zombie. Was she out of her mind, hiding in a place like this?

The thought had just surfaced when a sharp, piercing ringing suddenly filled her ears. It felt as if her head had been struck hard by a sledgehammer. An intense pain made her groan involuntarily.

Simultaneously, a torrent of information was forcibly poured into her brain.

It was like an air-filled balloon suddenly being filled with an excessive amount of water. Shen Banyue almost suspected she would explode from the overload.

"Sister~"

A soft, milky voice sounded, and a warm, soft bundle suddenly burrowed into her arms.

Shen Banyue gritted her teeth so hard she nearly cracked them, barely suppressing her reflexive instinct to throw a punch at this little thing.

Where did this child come from?

This thought had just popped up when it was immediately drowned by a tsunami of information. A name abruptly surfaced from this sea of data. Shen Banyue murmured, "Xiao Dizi, the female lead?"

The little dumpling's face was smeared with dirt and grime, like a little tabby cat. Her large eyes were clear and bright, black and white. Her soft little hands patted Shen Banyue's face gently, her mouth puffing out air as she whispered softly, "Sister, blow blow, no hurt."

Miraculously, her head really didn't seem to hurt as much anymore.

Shen Banyue closed her eyes for a moment, quickly sorting out her current situation.

She had transmigrated into a book. The little dumpling currently snuggled in her arms was the female lead of this book, Shen Di.

The little one had a protagonist halo. During a transaction between human traffickers and buyers, she was recognized and rescued by a kind-hearted couple. Later, the police couldn't find her biological parents, so the kind-hearted couple adopted her.

The other children trafficked with her weren't so fortunate. Before the police found them, accomplices of the traffickers had taken them away. Some were sold into remote mountains, others were sent to unscrupulous factories.

The police never gave up the investigation. Over many years, some children were found, some were confirmed dead. It wasn't until decades later, when the last victim was rescued, that the case was considered fully solved.

And the original host, Chen Yueyue, was this last rescued victim.

Textbook cannon fodder.

This actually wasn't Shen Banyue's first time transmigrating.

Eight years ago, she was still a university student. While visiting an elder, she inexplicably transmigrated into an apocalyptic world. During her struggle for survival in the apocalypse, she awakened two superpowers. Later, she joined an organization of ability users and gained some friends she could trust with her back.

Everything was developing in a positive direction. The ranks of ability users were expanding, and research institutes had made breakthrough progress in developing vaccines for both ability users and ordinary people. Soon, a peaceful and orderly world would be restored.

Then, while on a low-level mission to find clean water sources, she transmigrated again.

One moment she was fighting zombies, the next everything went black and she fainted. When she woke up again, the world was no longer the same world.

Yes, again.

Shen Banyue's heart sank into icy depths.

What was the difference between this and having your game account stolen just as you were about to clear the final level?

Moreover, the "new account" assigned to her was a nine-year-old girl whose parents had passed away and who had been sold to human traffickers by her own uncle—

Not only did she have to level up a new account, she had to start from age nine. Not only did she have to start from age nine, but after living through three worlds, she was still a parentless orphan.

A big, bold character for "miserable."

—

The sound of footsteps gradually approached. The door to the room was suddenly thrown open. A burly man stood silhouetted against the light in the doorway, cursing, "Those little brats." He threw a few objects into the dark, cramped interior, then slammed the door shut with a bang.

As soon as the door closed, several small figures huddled in the corners rushed over swiftly, quickly snatching up the few pieces of dark, hard bran-flour steamed buns from the ground. They each quickly found a corner and crouched down, wolfing down the food.

Shen Banyue felt the little dumpling in her arms squirm, probably wanting to go grab some food. Unfortunately, before she could even get up, the food was already snatched away. So she nestled back into Shen Banyue's arms and began to sob quietly.

There were a total of seven children locked in the room. The only girls were Chen Yueyue and Xiao Dizi. Age-wise, they were at opposite ends, the oldest and the youngest—one nine years old, the other three. The other five boys were all around five or six years old.

They had been locked here for four days. Chen Yueyue, being the oldest, would secretly pay attention to the conversations of the traffickers outside the room. But she couldn't understand their jargon, so even if she overheard, she didn't really grasp the meaning.

Shen Banyue recalled these conversations and combined them with the scattered bits of information from the original book. She surmised that within a day or two, the traffickers would have contacted buyers and would begin "disposing of the goods."

Transmigrating into a nine-year-old cannon fodder, Shen Banyue felt deeply despairing inside. But thinking about the cannon fodder's experiences after being sold: first, working like a beast of burden from dawn till dusk, then bearing children for a mentally disabled husband... she naturally wouldn't just sit back and wait for her fate.

However, before that, Shen Banyue decided to get some food.

Before transmigrating, she was on a mission and had only hastily eaten a few bites of compressed biscuits in the morning. After transmigrating, it was even worse. Chen Yueyue had started running a fever yesterday. She had only managed to grab one piece of bran-flour steamed bun, and most of it was given to Xiao Dizi. After that, she was in a daze and hadn't managed to grab anything else.

Now, with Shen Banyue inhabiting this body, she only felt ravenously hungry, along with the weakness and clamminess that followed a high fever.

She patted the little dumpling in her arms. "Don't cry. Sister will get you something to eat."

The quiet sobbing stopped abruptly. The little dumpling sat up in a flash. Her large, grape-like eyes stared blankly at Shen Banyue, two trails of tears on her face, her fine eyebrows furrowed. With a hint of grievance but also firmness, she shook her head. "Xiao Dizi not hungry. Xiao Dizi not cry."

The little one knew there couldn't possibly be more food and was actually trying to comfort her instead.

Shen Banyue chuckled softly and patted her fluffy little head. "Wait here obediently."

The few little boys had looked over warily when Shen Banyue stood up. Shen Banyue ignored them and looked up at the vent window located high on the wall.

This room seemed built specifically for imprisoning people. The roof beams were almost rotten, but the door was very sturdy, and the walls were solid. There were no windows on any side, only a small vent window near the roof.

Shen Banyue revised her earlier thought. This hut might be dilapidated, but for a zombie to collapse it would be quite difficult.

Of course, for her, with her enhanced strength ability, it was still no match.

Shen Banyue clenched her fist, feeling the familiar surge of power instantly coursing through her limbs and bones. She slowly let out a breath.

Good. Her abilities were still there.

Naturally, she couldn't just punch through the wall in front of a bunch of kids. That would be too shocking and extraordinary. So she chose what she thought was a more low-key, more reasonable method—

A running start, a leap, grabbing onto the slightly recessed cracks in the bricks on the wall, quickly climbing up to the vent window, easily pushing open the rusty window, and climbing out.

As she straddled the windowsill, Shen Banyue glanced back into the dim interior. She saw the little boys staring in shock, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. Xiao Dizi had both her little hands tightly covering her mouth, her big eyes blinking as she looked at her.

Belatedly, it dawned on her that this plan probably wasn't all that low-key or reasonable either.

Oh well. So be it.

Shen Banyue thought with a sense of resignation.

"Who would've thought the first one they'd sell off would be that little girl. A three-year-old, can't do laundry or cook. Even as a child bride, no one raises them from such a young age. What would that family even want with a baby?"

"You'd never guess unless I told you. Their youngest son is in the army. His wife died in childbirth two years ago, leaving a daughter for his parents to raise. Babies are a handful, and his parents couldn't be bothered. The child came down with a fever when she was seven or eight months old and passed away. Heaven knows why, but the parents kept it hushed up. Recently, their soldier son is coming home on leave, so they plan to buy another child to keep up the charade."

"Hah, what's their angle?"

"What else but the money and ration coupons their soldier son sends home every year? If it weren't for the 'daughter' living with them, would he send so much? He has several older brothers, so supporting the parents wouldn't cost much. That whole family lives comfortably off that money."

"People say we're wicked and heartless. Look, there's plenty of wickedness in this world. What's a few kids to us? Pah, it's like the crow calling the pot black, the turtle mocking the tortoise for crawling..."

"Hey, are you drunk and running your mouth? Who the hell are you calling a pig?!"

...

In the main room, the traffickers argued until they were practically at each other's throats, banging on the table. Just a few steps outside, a gaunt girl leaned against the wall, hands in her pockets, rolling her eyes hard.

What was there to argue about?

You're all pigs.

She turned and slipped silently into the kitchen.

These traffickers certainly didn't skimp on themselves. A stack of steamed white buns sat in the pot, and beneath the steamer was a small half-pot of stewed pork belly with glass noodles.

The drinking and arguing over there wouldn't end anytime soon. Shen Banyue rinsed a bowl and chopsticks with hot water and ate her fill first.

Habits formed in the apocalypse meant she ate quickly even when not in a hurry. After finishing, she found a lunchbox, rinsed it with hot water too, filled it to the brim with pork belly and noodles, then stuffed several buns into a net bag. Laden with her haul, she left the kitchen.

In the main room, the conflict had escalated—two traffickers were fighting while a third tried to break it up.

Shen Banyue had no interest in watching amateurs brawl. She retraced her path and scaled the wall with one hand effortlessly.

Perched on the windowsill again, she remembered her six-word principle of "low-key and reasonable." She pulled back the foot about to jump down directly and instead "carefully" probed the wall with her toes for a long while, "struggling immensely" to find a foothold. After descending two steps, she "slipped," swayed twice, "barely managed" to regain her footing, then continued "trembling with fear" as she climbed down. Finally reaching the ground, she let out a long, "relieved" sigh.

A performance worthy of an award-winning actress, met with several gasps and one sobbing Xiao Dizi.

"Sister~"

The little dumpling, tears streaming down her face, threw herself into Shen Banyue's arms. Having little experience comforting children, Shen Banyue simply held the net bag of white buns in front of her.

The little one's sobs caught in her throat with a hiccup. Her watery eyes widened instantly, and she pursed her lips, swallowing hard.

Amused by her eager expression, Shen Banyue led her to sit by the wall, gave her a bun and a spoon, then opened the lunchbox and placed it before her.

*Slurp.*

The little dumpling noisily swallowed her drool and flashed Shen Banyue an ingratiating smile. "Sister, eat."

Shen Banyue: "I've already eaten. You have it."

So the little one began eating on her own, taking bites of bun followed by mouthfuls of meat. She wasn't very skilled with the spoon—or perhaps she was just too eager for the meat, as the spoon completely ignored the glass noodles or cabbage, leaving her little mouth shiny with pork fat.

Shen Banyue left her to it, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed to rest. Estimating the child was nearly full, she patted her fluffy head. "Give the rest to the brother."

The little dumpling rubbed her slightly bulging belly and obediently carried the lunchbox over to the corner.

A boy of about six or seven lay there with his eyes closed.

The boy was named Lin Mian. Over the past few days, aside from the original host, only he had shared any food he managed to grab with Xiao Dizi. However, he had been lying there without moving since last night.

Shen Banyue suspected he had caught whatever the original host had.

If he really was infected by the original host, and the original host had died from the fever, this child might be in some danger too.

The little dumpling slapped the boy's face several times with her small hands, startling him awake. The boy looked utterly listless. He murmured a thanks, slowly got up, finished a bun and the remaining noodle soup, then lay back down.

Ever since Shen Banyue returned with the food, the other little boys had been stealing glances their way. One of them swallowed even more loudly than the little dumpling had, but none dared make a sound.

Shen Banyue tossed the remaining buns into the now-empty lunchbox, leaned back against the wall, and closed her eyes again. *Consider this a minor punishment as a warning. Let them crave it for now. They'll get to eat tonight.*