Cannon Fodder – Chapter 101 – Memories of the Past

Translator Note

I just added “Chapter 0” containing some arts of Su Tao and Chi Xiaocheng. Check it out!

After chatting with Brother Long for a while while maintaining her sweet and innocent persona, Chi Xiaocheng hung up the phone and returned to her room.

She still had two things to do.

First, deal with the poisoned apple in the system space. She figured she could find an opportunity to give it to Ye Liang once he woke up and was able to eat again.

Second, give the figurine she obtained from the gacha to Su Tao. ¹ From chapter 83, if you don’t remember.

Chi Xiaocheng locked the door and took the figurine out from the system space.

The figurine was a duo set, exquisitely crafted and lifelike.

Su Tao, with her long gray hair, wore a black gothic-style dress and elegant high heels, as if dancing with Chi Xiaocheng.

Her body leaned slightly forward, one hand wrapped around the slender waist of the white-clad figure, while the index finger of her other hand lifted Chi Xiaocheng’s chin at a slight angle. Her lips curled into a bewitching smile as she gazed with an intensely predatory look at the girl in her arms.

In contrast, Chi Xiaocheng wore a pure white princess dress, posed as if she were about to fall but was caught. Her feet barely touched the ground, her eyes slightly moist with a worried and fearful expression, like a fragile little white rabbit.

Including the base, the figurine stood less than 20 centimeters tall, as if their height difference had been scaled down at a 1:10 ratio.

Chi Xiaocheng’s height: 153 cm → Figurine: 15.3 cm. Su Tao’s height: 166 cm → Figurine: 16.6 cm.

Like an angel embracing a demon, or a big bad wolf and a little white rabbit. In the figurine’s scenario, Su Tao was the dark one, while Chi Xiaocheng was timid, cute, and utterly defenseless.… except in reality, the roles were completely reversed.

Chi Xiaocheng held the figurine high with both hands, bending over to look beneath their skirts.

Su Tao’s character had a cartoon orange pattern.

Chi Xiaocheng’s character had a cartoon peach pattern.

The details were incredibly intricate.

“This is practically a work of art!

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“The system’s description said staring at it for too long would make you dazed. Just the lifelike quality and the striking contrast in the outfits are already breathtaking.

“What kind of lucid dream would it bring, I wonder?”

After some thought, Chi Xiaocheng decided to try it herself before giving it to Su Tao.

Just like the muscle-relaxant and sleeping tea from the black room incident last time, she always tested things first to ensure she could handle the situation before using them on Su Tao.

After changing into her pajamas, Chi Xiaocheng settled into her sleeping position and placed the figurine on the table beside her bed, staring at it quietly.

The chaotic thoughts in her mind seemed to gradually fade away.

She even felt her thoughts slowing down.

In her vision, the two figures in the figurine seemed to come alive.

Su Tao, in her black dress, lifted Chi Xiaocheng’s chin with her fingertip. Just when it seemed like she was going in for a forceful kiss, the girl instead revealed a terrifying smile.

A crimson moon seemed to rise around them.

The girl sank her teeth into Xiaocheng’s neck, right over the artery, greedily swallowing.

Meanwhile, the originally timid and fearful Xiaocheng’s expression twisted into one of sickly pleasure and adoration in that instant.

The horrifying scene nearly scared Chi Xiaocheng out of her wits.

She gulped and shook her head. “That’s kinda scary… Am I really going to dream about this tonight?”

But if something like that actually happened, it might not be so bad?

After the dazedness passed, drowsiness set in.

Chi Xiaocheng didn’t fight it. After all, she had wanted to experience what a lucid dream would be like. She closed her eyes and hugged her newly bought large brown teddy bear.

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Hm?

What about the previous giant panda plushie?

Well, it seemed that due to the colder weather, the panda had “expanded and contracted,” causing the fabric to tear in multiple places, the stitching on its limbs to snap, and the stuffing to spill out.

The craftsmanship was just too poor, so it had broken.

Chi Xiaocheng had no choice but to replace it with a new one.

Her consciousness gradually blurred, her thoughts grinding to a halt. She didn’t even have time to turn off the lights before she fell into a deep sleep.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly, yet also pass in an instant. When Chi Xiaocheng opened her eyes again, she found herself in an eerily familiar place.

The street across from the Flinton Hotel.

This place wasn’t just familiar. She would never forget it for the rest of her life.

It was the beginning of the end of her relationship with her girlfriend in her past life.

“Did I travel back?”

Chi Xiaocheng shuddered and suddenly turned around, spotting a blurry figure standing beside her.

She couldn’t make out its face or body shape. It looked like the shadowy figures from Detective Conan or the distorted silhouettes from horror movies.

This person was holding a beautiful bouquet of 52 white roses. Even though the face was unclear, Chi Xiaocheng knew this person’s expression was one of anticipation, joy, and happiness.

She looked down at her own hands.

“Transparent….”

Her eyes flickered. “I didn’t travel back. My past self is already dead. I almost forgot this is a lucid dream.”

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Right now, she wasn’t so much a person as a faint, indistinct spirit.

And the person holding the white roses beside her? That was her past self!

“Of all the dreams to have, why this one? Do I still have lingering attachments to my past life?”

Chi Xiaocheng had assumed the dream would be the scene she’d hallucinated earlier with the figurine.

She had even mentally prepared herself to wake up to a wet bed.

But when it came to her past self, she shouldn’t have any lingering feelings, right?

She remembered clearly what was about to happen next.

On their two-year anniversary, her past self had eagerly bought roses and a gift for her girlfriend, only to see her girlfriend walk out of the hotel with a middle-aged man after crossing this 90-second traffic light.

Turns out, her girlfriend had already betrayed her long ago.

Her past self was heartbroken. After realizing the betrayal, she broke up with her girlfriend.

And then—

“Ugh….”

Chi Xiaocheng clutched her head, unwilling to recall further.

All she remembered was staying depressed at home for three months before finally going out again.

At a café, she encountered a criminal. Though she managed to subdue him, she was still hospitalized. After being discharged, she was promptly hit by a truck and sent into this romance novel world.

After transmigrating, she made it her goal to use Su Tao’s protagonist halo for self-preservation while also teasing Su Tao for fun, eventually leading to where she was now.

Her past life had long been left behind.

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Yet this dream had dragged her back!

“What’s the point of reliving something that’s already happened?”

Chi Xiaocheng spoke aloud, addressing her past self.

But as expected, her past self couldn’t hear her.

She reached out to touch the roses, only for her hand to pass right through.

In that moment, she understood the role she played in this dream.

A spectator.

Unable to influence the dream’s course, not truly part of it, just peering into an unforgettable memory from the past.

The countdown on the crosswalk ticked away, second by second, under the weight of the dusky night.

The blurry figure holding the white roses grew more and more eager, while Chi Xiaocheng’s own heart sank.

Red light. Yellow light. Green light.

The world seemed to freeze along with the halted traffic.

Her past self took the first step forward, roses in hand.

Chi Xiaocheng sighed and followed.

With each step, the surrounding figures seemed to fade, the crosswalk transforming into a bridge as the cars on the road melted into a river of blood.

By the time she reached the other side, the bustling streets had emptied. In Chi Xiaocheng’s eyes, only one scene remained.

A man wearing a gold chain walked out of the hotel, arm in arm with her past self’s girlfriend.