After Transmigrating Into A Cannon Fodder Character, I Only Want To Survive (GL) - Chapter 18
At 5:30 PM, Fang Bai drove home.
Wu Mei, who had been waiting in the living room for Fang Bai, was genuinely surprised to see two people in school uniforms suddenly accompanying Fang Bai and Ji Yuning.
Ji Yuning was taciturn, and Wu Mei was quite worried that Ji Yuning would be bullied at school because of her personality, let alone make friends.
Now, not only did Xiao Ji bring classmates home, but they were also brought back by Miss Fang herself. And it seemed Miss Fang not only had no objections but was also very happy?
The four of them changed into slippers in the entryway.
Wu Mei greeted Fang Bai, looking at Mu Xuerou and He Ziyan, and asked softly, “Miss, are these two Xiao Ji’s friends?”
Fang Bai nodded, “Yes, they’re here to play for a while.”
After saying that, Fang Bai turned to the three behind her and asked, “What would you like to drink? Warm or iced? Cola or juice?”
He Ziyan had been here a few times with Zhu Ping, so she naturally took off her backpack and replied, “Anything is fine.”
Mu Xuerou stood beside Ji Yuning, somewhat restrained, and said softly, “Anything is fine for me too.”
Receiving their replies, Fang Bai turned her gaze to Ji Yuning.
Ji Yuning pursed her lips, “I’ll get it.”
With that, Ji Yuning put down her backpack and walked towards the kitchen.
Fang Bai nodded to herself: “Good, she’s acting like the host.”
Fang Bai didn’t dare to expect Ji Yuning to treat this place as her home, but Ji Yuning’s current attitude gave Fang Bai a glimmer of hope. If Ji Yuning considered this place her home, wouldn’t things be much simpler?
With two extra guests at home, Wu Mei thought the two dishes she had prepared might not be enough, so she followed Ji Yuning into the kitchen, planning to cook two more.
Fang Bai, knowing Wu Mei’s thoughts, said to the two still standing there, “Dinner will be ready in about half an hour. Are you going to watch TV or do some homework?”
Mu Xuerou gripped her backpack strap, “…Do homework.”
Fang Bai pointed to the dining table, “Then do it here. It’s big enough.”
Ji Yuning came out of the kitchen with cola. When Mu Xuerou saw Ji Yuning, her nervous and uneasy feelings subsided. She smiled at Fang Bai and said, “Okay, Aunt Fang.”
The girl’s smile was healing.
Fang Bai thought that it made sense for Mu Xuerou to be the second female lead. A cute person like her, staying by Ji Yuning’s side, could indeed bring light to Ji Yuning’s dark youth.
Just as she was thinking, a red can with cold condensation suddenly appeared, followed by Ji Yuning’s voice, “Here.”
Fang Bai looked surprised. Ji Yuning’s pink lips were closed, as if she hadn’t just spoken.
Ji Yuning, taking the initiative to give her a drink?!
Ji Yuning saw the surprise in Fang Bai’s eyes. She couldn’t explain why she had taken an extra can.
Maybe she just took an extra can, or maybe it was because of the peach-flavored candy in her backpack…
Fang Bai was pleased with Ji Yuning’s initiative. When her hand touched the cola, the cool condensation brought a refreshing sensation.
Fang Bai raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Xiao Ning is so good.”
“…”
A cold snort came from behind.
Fang Bai turned her head and saw He Ziyan taking a sip of cola, saying to her, “Aunt Fang, Yuning is 16. Isn’t it childish to praise her with the word ‘good’?”
Fang Bai frowned, regretting bringing He Ziyan home.
She wasn’t here to deepen her relationship with Ji Yuning, but to cause family conflicts.
“You’re just a kid in my eyes too.”
Fang Bai added, “And a very disobedient one.”
“!”
Being compared to Ji Yuning and even being told she was inferior, He Ziyan was too angry to speak.
While Fang Bai and He Ziyan were talking, Ji Yuning had already taken her backpack and sat in her usual dining spot, with Mu Xuerou sitting next to her.
Seeing this, Fang Bai said, “I won’t disturb your homework. I’m going upstairs.”
With that, she took her cola and went upstairs.
After Fang Bai’s figure disappeared up the stairs, Mu Xuerou looked at the person sitting opposite her and couldn’t help but ask, “He Ziyan, what are you doing here?”
He Ziyan raised her eyes, “What?”
Mu Xuerou wasn’t targeting He Ziyan, but she genuinely didn’t understand why, if she didn’t like Ji Yuning, she would tell Fang Bai she wanted to deepen her friendship with Ji Yuning.
Mu Xuerou repeated, “Why did you come to Yuning’s house?”
He Ziyan curled her lips and said, “Allow me to correct you. This is Fang Bai’s house.”
Mu Xuerou: “Isn’t it the same?”
Ji Yuning paused for a moment and then calmly took out her homework from her backpack.
Ji Yuning recovered quickly, but He Ziyan still noticed, and a hint of triumph flashed in He Ziyan’s eyes.
A few minutes later, the living room was filled only with the sounds of Wu Mei busy in the kitchen, pages turning, and pens scratching across paper.
Suddenly, a “ding” broke the silence at the dining table.
Ji Yuning’s eyes moved from her textbook to her phone. A WeChat pop-up from “Aunt Fang” appeared.
Ji Yuning held her pen with her right hand and picked up her phone with her left.
Aunt Fang: [Xiao Ning, come to my room for a moment.]
“?”
Ji Yuning hesitated and then put down her pen.
As she got up to leave, she felt her clothes being tugged.
Ji Yuning looked down and said to Mu Xuerou, who was tugging her clothes, “I’m going upstairs for a moment.”
Mu Xuerou let go and nodded, “Okay.”
Before leaving the dining table, Ji Yuning and He Ziyan briefly met eyes, neither of them revealing what was hidden in their eyes.
Breaking eye contact, Ji Yuning went upstairs.
Standing in front of Fang Bai’s door, Ji Yuning knocked, and then received another message from Fang Bai.
Aunt Fang: [The door isn’t locked. Just come in.]
Ji Yuning: “.”
Ji Yuning had never been in Fang Bai’s room in the three years she had been here.
Of course, she didn’t feel regret or anything else. She had never wanted to go in.
She turned the doorknob, and the door opened a crack.
Ji Yuning pushed the door open and entered. The room was large, and she could see at a glance that no one was inside.
Empty.
In the distance, there was an open can of cola on the table, with water droplets on the bottle.
Aunt Fang: [I’m in the bathroom.]
Ji Yuning looked at the closed door inside the room.
Aunt Fang: [Can you get me a sanitary napkin from the drawer of the cabinet against the wall…]
Aunt Fang: [Confused.jpg]
Ji Yuning read the message twice, finally confirming that Fang Bai wanted her to get a sanitary napkin.
Ji Yuning couldn’t help but say, “You can use paper first…”
A muffled voice came from the bathroom, “There’s no paper either. Get me a roll.”
“…” Ji Yuning finally relented, “Okay.”
Walking to the cabinet, Ji Yuning didn’t know which drawer Fang Bai was referring to.
Glancing at the bathroom, she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
Ji Yuning could only squat down, preparing to check each drawer.
There were three drawers.
The first drawer wasn’t it. She opened the second drawer…
Ji Yuning’s emotions were extinguished in an instant when she saw the coiled whip in the drawer.
The whip was all too familiar.
Every inch of her skin had memorized its size, deeply felt its texture, and knew the heat of its friction against her skin.
The fading bruise on her back suddenly began to ache.
The thing used to hit her was kept so preciously in the drawer…
Everything was unspoken.
Closing the drawer, Ji Yuning opened the last one and took out what Fang Bai needed.
Walking to the bathroom door, Ji Yuning tapped on the door twice with her fingertips, her voice indifferent, “I’m opening the door.”
The person inside said, “Oh, okay.”
Ji Yuning opened the door a crack and then reached her hand through the gap.
Ji Yuning handed her a whole pack.
As Fang Bai took it, she said gratefully, “Thank you.”
At that moment, Ji Yuning was her savior.
Fang Bai never expected that just a few sips of iced cola would cause her stomach to ache, and then…
Ji Yuning’s indifferent”You’re welcome” sounded from outside the door, followed by the bathroom door closing, and then the sound of the room door closing.
Fang Bai came out of the bathroom, taking the whole pack of sanitary napkins with her.
After putting the items in the drawer, Fang Bai stood up, and a memory suddenly flashed through her mind—the original owner opening the second drawer.
The fleeting image gave Fang Bai an indescribable sense of horror.
Fang Bai stared at the second drawer, perfectly aligned, unable to tell if it had been opened.
Fang Bai slowly reached out her hand.
When the drawer opened, the coiled object inside caught Fang Bai’s eye.
Two words flashed through Fang Bai’s mind: “I’m doomed.”
••••
The three of them were good students, and their homework was relatively simple. If they encountered a difficult problem, they would think about it themselves, without asking questions or interacting.
Before Fang Bai came downstairs, the dining table was quiet.
When they heard the sound of shoes scraping against the floor from the stairs, the three doing homework were momentarily distracted.
He Ziyan was the first to shift her attention from her textbook to Fang Bai, asking politely, as a guest should, “Aunt Fang, where did you go?”
Fang Bai stopped, instinctively glancing at Ji Yuning.
The girl was writing her homework, not giving her a single glance.
Fang Bai’s heart was in her throat. She hoped Ji Yuning hadn’t opened the second drawer.
Suppressing her anxiety, Fang Bai replied, “I changed my clothes.”
He Ziyan looked closely. Fang Bai had changed into a knee-length dress. The dress was loose, concealing Fang Bai’s alluring figure.
Fang Bai walked to the dining table, sat in the main seat, and propped her chin on her hand, looking at the textbooks on the table, filled with dense writing, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Fang Bai asked, “Have you finished your homework?”
He Ziyan pouted, “The teacher gave us too much. There’s no way we could finish in such a short time.”
Fang Bai cleared her throat, “What about Xiao Ning?”
The person whose name was called stopped pretending not to notice Fang Bai’s presence. The pen in her hand stopped on the paper, “No.”
Although she got an answer from Ji Yuning, it didn’t mean Ji Yuning hadn’t seen the whip. Fang Bai’s cautiousness didn’t ease.
Fang Bai paused for a few seconds, smelling the aroma of food coming from the kitchen, and said, “Then stop writing for now. Put everything away and wait for dinner.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Wu Mei came out of the kitchen, saying that dinner was about to be served.
The three of them had to put down their pens and clean up the table.
During dinner, apart from He Ziyan saying a few words to Fang Bai and Fang Bai responding, Mu Xuerou, being socially awkward, didn’t say a word. Ji Yuning, as if trying to focus on eating, ate in silence.
The meal was quickly finished.
He Ziyan’s driver had been waiting outside the villa for a while. After He Ziyan was picked up, Fang Bai asked Uncle Li to drive Mu Xuerou home.
Wu Mei was cleaning up in the kitchen.
For a moment, the once lively living room was left with only Fang Bai and Ji Yuning.