The Cannon Fodder NPC Went Too Far [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Shen Zheng glanced at Shen Tingyu with a half-smile, then stepped past him, leaving him standing aside, and bent down to gently place the white flower she held beneath the portrait on the altar.
However, her unperturbed expression and emotionless eyes showed no trace of affection for her prematurely deceased husband.
Xia Yu, similarly being ignored, watched Shen Tingyu’s barely contained frustration and felt inexplicably delighted.
A shrill alarm blared in Xia Yu’s mind. Under the system’s repeated urging, Xia Yu slowly took a step forward, let out a cold snort, and loudly reprimanded, “Shen Zheng, why are you at my father’s wake? Who gave you permission to pay your respects?”
The young girl pursed her lips, her pale face looking even gloomier beneath her lowered brows, as she glared at Shen Zheng with hostility.
Shen Zheng paused, slowly turned around, and seemed to eye her with confusion for a moment, as if trying to figure out who she was.
Seeing a slight resemblance between the girl’s features and the man in the photo, she finally reacted, raising an eyebrow and drawing out the final syllable: “Xia… Yu?”
“You actually don’t remember me?” The girl seemed enraged by Shen Zheng’s indifferent attitude, making her weeks of struggle feel like a fight against thin air.
Xia Yu was like a keg of gunpowder ready to explode. Her pale face flushed crimson, and her listless eyes fixed on Shen Zheng, like two leaping flames that instantly burned the surrounding lifelessness to ashes, bursting with vibrant vitality.
She looks much more pleasing to the eye this way, Shen Zheng evaluated to herself.
She slightly raised her gaze, her dark eyes landing on Xia Yu’s face. A moment later, she spoke from her superior position: “Lack of decorum. You should address me as Mother.”
“Who wants you as my mother? Are we even ten years apart? People who know will think you’re the new wife my father just married; those who don’t will think you’re my sister!”
The girl was so angry she laughed, each word seemingly squeezed through gritted teeth.
She couldn’t bring herself to say the most insulting words from the novel, but it didn’t matter; she figured her earlier move of punching the male lead had already achieved 50% of the required accuracy. Now, she would just improvise and play it by ear.
Actually, she had a good impression of this major villain. When the original owner was devastated by her father’s death, it was Shen Zheng who single-handedly managed the funeral. Although she didn’t know why Shen Zheng married the original owner’s father, she felt it wasn’t that simple.
“Aunt, your so-called stepdaughter doesn’t seem to appreciate you. Do you need your nephew to teach her a lesson?” Shen Tingyu, seeing the two in a cold, rigid standoff, added fuel to the fire.
Shen Zheng didn’t even look at him, coldly reprimanding: “This is no place for you to interject. If you can’t behave, go back to the old mansion.”
Shen Tingyu clenched his fists. The momentarily feigned obedience in his downward-cast eyes was instantly filled with resentment. She had given him no face in public.
Shen Zheng casually glanced at the woodenly stiff Shen Tingyu after her rebuke, and let out a light chuckle. This nephew of hers did have some cunning, a bit better than her good-for-nothing older brother.
But he was still too green. Why was he in such a hurry to cause trouble at a wake? Was he genuinely sticking up for her, or trying to undermine her?
Xia Yu was about to say more, but Shen Zheng shot her a faint glance. Xia Yu immediately froze. She felt as if the surrounding atmosphere had instantly erupted into a surging storm, freezing all the surrounding noise along with her, as if she would be crushed by this powerful coercion in the next second.
After dealing with the two troublemakers, Shen Zheng turned away, ignoring them. Her expression softened dramatically as she faced the group of shrinking guests, and she continued with the rest of the proceedings.
Xia Yu stared blankly at Shen Zheng’s tall, straight back, which resembled an unshakeable mountain, exuding natural authority and arrogance.
She had only ever seen such a powerful, monarch-like aura on her own father and elder brother.
Recalling the brief skim she had given the introduction to this world due to the rush of time, she blinked quickly. In this world, can a woman also achieve this?
Can I, too?
Xia Yu bowed her head, lost in thought. When she finally came back to her senses, the simple funeral had already ended. The guests quietly and orderly began to depart.
Shen Tingyu, having gained no advantage, didn’t wait for Shen Zheng to chase him off and scurried away, tail between his legs.
Shen Zheng was surrounded by a group of people, dealing with the scattered remaining tasks. The empty, silent wake hall was soon left with only Xia Yu’s figure.
Xia Yu silently looked at the portrait, and the system’s mechanical voice suddenly sounded in her mind: “Host, you need to keep vigil for the original owner’s father for one night. This was her only request.”
Xia Yu nodded seriously upon hearing this, knelt properly on the cushion placed before the portrait, heavily kowtowed three times, and then straightened her back, kneeling in place.
Although she didn’t know what agreement the original owner of this body had made with the system to allow her to transmigrate with her own body, her mother had taught her since childhood that one must repay kindness. She intended to honor her commitment.
Time flew by, and the sunset glow gradually faded. Xia Yu felt a tingling, numbing pain spreading from her knees throughout her body. She cautiously tried to shift slightly, immediately gasped in pain, and dared not move again.
Her father and mother had never punished her like this. Xia Yu pursed her lips, nervously wringing the cuffs of her sleeves, staring blankly at the black and white portrait before her.
She had lost her memory and been transported here right after falling off the cliff. Following that was a string of urgent tasks, leaving no time for reflection. It was only now, in this quiet moment, that the feeling of having died in that world finally sank in.
Her nose felt sore, and the tears she had been holding back immediately began to fall, one drop after another, hitting the ground.
“Host, what’s wrong? Don’t cry. Are you uncomfortable somewhere? Or are you sad about not completing the task? Don’t be sad. The system will add 1 point for you… 2 points, 2 points… Don’t cry, I’ll add 5 points, is 5 points enough?”
“Wuwuwu, the system wants to cry too, I really can’t give more, wuwuwu.” The system, which had been comfortably slouched in Xia Yu’s mind, abruptly sprang up, anxiously circling in her mind. Seeing the host’s tears still falling, it plopped down, pouted, and sobbed dramatically.
Xia Yu gently shook her head, burying it lower, and forcefully blinked, but the tears wouldn’t stop.
Everyone before had thought and acted that way, and she hadn’t felt anything was wrong. However, after reading the information about this world, her mind kept recalling fragments of how her father and mother treated her elder brother versus her. Every time it surfaced, her heart inexplicably ached.
She knew she shouldn’t compare herself to her elder brother; she should compare herself to her younger sisters, and she was indeed the most favored princess. Yet, no matter how favored, she couldn’t compare to a younger brother whom her father disliked, let alone her elder brother. But she and the Crown Prince were born of the same mother.
Why couldn’t she have the same treatment as the Crown Prince? Dragon and Phoenix, a rare auspicious sign in the Great Xia Dynasty for a hundred years. Thus, her elder brother was made Crown Prince at birth. But she was the Phoenix among the Dragon and Phoenix. Why couldn’t she… why couldn’t she…
Xia Yu’s oxygen-deprived mind was momentarily blocked, unable to articulate the reason.
She gave a bitter laugh. Having stayed in this world for so long, would I really still want to go back?
“CEO Shen, are you heading back to the apartment?” After dealing with the residual affairs of the Xia family, Shen Zheng frowned, rubbing her throbbing temples, and leaned against the doorway of the wake hall. Her assistant, who had been following her like an invisible person, quietly asked.
Shen Zheng tilted her head and glanced at the frail figure in front of the altar. The shoulders were slightly trembling. Even at this moment, the girl stubbornly bit her lip, suppressing the whimpers in her throat; only the shaking of her shoulders hinted at her distress.
Tsk, what a nuisance.
Shen Zheng indifferently withdrew her gaze, not replying to the assistant. She was not unaware of the disturbances this little thing had caused over the past few days.
The reason she ignored it was twofold: first, she didn’t have the time; second, she genuinely found it beneath her attention and utterly ridiculous.
It was one thing for the girl to mistake her for a thief coveting the Xia family assets, but the way she chose to fight back was to lock herself in her room, throw a tantrum, and go on a hunger strike.
She hadn’t used that tactic since she was five.
If the girl had any capability or brains, she should have known the urgent priority was to use her identity as Xia Qiyuan’s sole daughter to tear off a piece of the Xia family fortune from her hands.
Even if she had stubbornly displayed her spoiled princess temper and foolishly tried to snatch things from her, Shen Zheng would have regarded her slightly better.
Shen Zheng’s eyes swept over Xia Qiyuan’s face in the portrait, and she scoffed. Well, her father was that stupid, so how good could the daughter be?
Recalling Xia Qiyuan’s dying face when he signed the agreement with her, and the tenderness and plea in his eyes when he spoke of Xia Yu, a hint of irritation crept into Shen Zheng’s brows.
A single, defenseless girl walking in the world with a vast fortune would likely be swallowed whole and torn apart by those covetous people. Didn’t he know this before? He doted on her for over twenty years, never realizing it until death was imminent, and then suddenly he came begging to her.
If he had cared more about his only daughter, fostering her as the ‘invisible son’ he desired, she wouldn’t be in this situation.
But then again, she knew the mentality of these old fogeys too well. Even though Xia Yu was his only child, she was not the successor in his mind. He would carefully select a man to his liking, marry his daughter off to him, and cultivate his son-in-law and his grandsons.
A jewel in the palm? This kind of pampering was a joke.
The happiest life Xia Qiyuan envisioned for Xia Yu—pampered by her father in childhood, loved by her husband in marriage, and supported by her son in old age was the best he could offer. Yet, a life where the power of life and death was completely in the hands of others was too easily shattered and too fragile. One misstep, and everything could turn to dust.
A precious daughter? This so-called affection was simply a mockery.
Stripped of her arrogant and overbearing facade, the girl’s frail and helpless figure was conspicuously painful to see.
Shen Zheng narrowed her eyes, her usually placid face showing intense sarcasm, though she wasn’t sure whose reflection she saw in Xia Yu.
“Seeing that I’ve married myself off, those old geezers can finally breathe a sigh of relief and sleep soundly.” Shen Zheng’s lips curled into a slight smile as she drew out her words, speaking sarcastically.
“Since I’ve gone this far, let them be happy for a few more days.”
“Afterward, I will personally send them a generous gift,” Shen Zheng said, a pleasant curve forming on her lips as if she remembered something interesting.
“Ask the butler to prepare a room for me. I’ll be staying here for the next few nights,” Shen Zheng instructed her assistant with a nod after making her decision.
With that, her cold expression softened a little. She patted the assistant’s shoulder and softly said, “You’ve worked hard following me these past few years. Take a break for a few days and rest well. All expenses can be reimbursed through me.”
“Understood, CEO Shen,” the assistant excitedly responded and enthusiastically went to find the butler.
Shen Zheng shook her head, her long, slender fingers moving down the collar of her suit, slowly unbuttoning the buttons one by one. Then, with a shrug, the tailored suit slipped off, revealing the straight white shirt underneath. Beneath the shirt, tight, defined abdominal muscles subtly rose and fell with her long, measured breaths.
She casually tossed the suit onto the sofa, reached up to remove the hairpin from her hair, and her ink-black hair slid down her shoulders, winding along the curve of her back, spreading out freely.
She sat down at the table, flipping through the documents her assistant had just brought.
The candlelight flickered, and Xia Yu knelt in the hall all night, while the desk lamp in front of Shen Zheng also remained lit all night.