Transmigration: The Cannon Fodder Suddenly Made a Comeback!

Lin Manru had a rare good night's sleep.

After freshening up, she specifically went to Jiang Yan's room on the fourth floor, only to find that no one answered after calling out for a while.

Feeling uneasy, Lin Manru then headed to the third floor.

And there, Jiang Li's room was also empty.

Hurriedly, Lin Manru took the elevator downstairs and immediately caught Aunt Zhang, who was cleaning the foyer, and asked:

"Where are Jiang Yan and Jiang Li? Why haven't I seen them both?"

Could it be that they took advantage of last night to run away from home again?

After all, this wasn't the first or second time.

Aunt Zhang sighed, "Madam, I really haven't seen the young master since last night, and as you know, his frequent disappearances have become the norm."

"As for the young mistress..." Aunt Zhang's expression suddenly became strange, "The young mistress has been up since a little after six o'clock this morning, then, then she went straight into the storage room."

Lin Manru's face filled with disbelief.

Jiang Li was up after six o'clock?

How could that be?!

She used to sleep until the sun was high when she was home.

Now that it was a holiday, she had even less reason to get up early.

Even if she had suddenly changed her ways, there was no need to be so diligent, right?

The more she thought, the more puzzled Lin Manru became, and without bothering with breakfast, she quickly threw on her clothes and headed to the storage room.

But just as she walked into the backyard, she heard the whoosh of a sword cutting through the air and was so startled that she froze on the spot.

Through the gaps in the lush trees, Lin Manru vaguely caught a glimpse of a black silhouette.

On the open grass, a girl dressed in a simple tracksuit, her black hair tied up in a high ponytail, waved in the wind with her agile figure.

The face without any stray hairs was clean and bright, revealing an incomparable beauty, and her exposed neck was long and fair, seemingly sculpted from jade.

However, what drew more attention than the girl's appearance was the red tassel spear in her hand.

The blade at the end of the spear had become a silver dragon, tearing up the invisible air, colliding and creating a chilling sharp sound.

The girl holding the spear moved like a dragon in water, light on her feet, each move both agile and fierce.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the girl in her field of vision was the flesh and blood born from Lin Manru's ten months of pregnancy, she almost doubted whether she had stumbled onto a martial arts film set.

"Oh my, Lili, how can you play with such dangerous things!"

In her urgency, Lin Manru hurriedly ran over, calling out.

Hearing the noise, Jiang Li paused, drew back her long arm, and swung the red tassel spear over her shoulder.

"Mother." She called out softly as a greeting.

Lin Manru snatched the spear from her hand, but failed to hold on to it, and it fell to the ground.

She couldn't help but show a shocked expression again.

This spear was so heavy? Then why did it seem so easy for Lili to maneuver just now?

Immediately, Lin Manru's face was filled with concern as she checked her daughter's physical condition.

"You're not hurt, are you, Lili? Why would a young girl like you touch such dangerous things? What if you got hurt?"

Jiang Li smiled, "It's okay, mother, I won't get hurt."

Back in Daqi, she had practiced with it almost every day.

Before her grandfather, the Dingyuan Marquis, was appointed National Guardian General, his claim to fame on the battlefield was a family heirloom of spear skills.

Though in ancient times it was the men who went to battle, her enlightened grandfather had not restricted her from learning and had personally passed this set of spear skills on to her.

Even when she came of age, he had gifted her with a red tassel spear forged by a master.

Back in Daqi, she had already gotten into the habit of waking up at 5:00 AM every day to practice with her brothers.

Now, even though she had returned to modern society, the habits she had developed were already etched in her bones.

But clearly, Lin Manru was unable to accept that her delicate daughter had suddenly become a "female hero" who got up at six in the morning to practice Dancing Gun.

"Lili, don't scare Mom, tell me the truth, have you been bullied outside?" Lin Manru asked anxiously.

Jiang Li knew she couldn't explain it all at once and could only link arms with Lin Manru, saying,

"No, I joined a club at school that promotes Shaolin Kung Fu. The teacher there taught us some gun skills, saying it could strengthen the body and promote health."

"Really? Does your school have such a club?"

"Yes, really, it's for promoting intangible cultural heritage," Jiang Li said with a very earnest expression, then quickly changed the subject, "Mother, I've been practicing for over an hour now and am quite hungry. Let's go have breakfast."

As expected upon hearing her daughter was hungry, Lin Manru immediately put her doubts aside and pulled her hand, walking out of the back yard.

As they left, Jiang Li turned her head back, casting an inadvertent glance toward the fifth floor.

In a room in the corner of the fifth floor, a frail figure hid behind the curtains, gesturing awkwardly at their own shadow.

But after waving the arms a few times, the figure collapsed wearily onto the bed.

The youth's eyes, in addition to confusion, bore a hint of envy that was not easily detected.

Her figure, twirling the spear under the sun...

Looked kind of cool.

-

In the dining room, the servants had already laid out breakfast.

After yesterday's "kill the chicken to warn the monkeys", today's atmosphere in the Jiang Family was noticeably more buoyant.

The servants no longer loafed aimlessly to earn their salaries. Seeing Jiang Li get up before dawn, they quickly followed suit and began to tidy and clean.

Not a single person slacked off or dodged work; even after completing their tasks, they were still nervously looking for other things to do.

Lin Manru, sitting with Jiang Li, kept adding pieces of sea cucumber to her bowl.

"Lili, are you tired from getting up so early? Try the braised sea cucumber Aunt Zhang made to replenish your strength."

Jiang Li ate a piece, then glanced around at the empty seats.

"Where are the others?"

Lin Manru sighed deeply, "Your brother, he went out again last night and probably won't be back for another ten days or so. Don't worry about him, just eat up."

"That's not what I meant, Mother. I mean, where are the rest of the family?"

If she remembered correctly, aside from Jiang Yan, there should be other people living in this house.

Old Master Jiang had three sons and a daughter; apart from her father who had died early, the others were still alive and had been living together since the beginning, never splitting the household.

But that was only a facade of unity.

In her memory, her uncles and aunts never actually lived together — if one wasn't out, another was unwilling to come home. The family had long been disunited in heart and presence.

So much so that she now had little recollection of the others.

Lin Manru continued to serve her food while sighing again.

"You know full well what your second and third uncles are like. It's good enough if they come back once a year."

"This time your grandfather went back to the countryside to pay homage to the ancestors, and your third aunt went with him. We're the only ones left at home."

"Oh right, Shi Xu is at home, but you know his situation—"

The mention of this name brought back some of Jiang Li's long-buried memories.

Jiang Shixu, the child of her second uncle.

Because of a harmonious family relationship, the child had been reticent since childhood.

Entering adolescence made it even worse; he would spend almost every day locked in his room, venturing out only at night, avoiding everyone.

Later she found out that from the beginning, he had suffered from severe depression and autism.

And in the novel, there were even fewer references to him, with his ending being briefly concluded in a single sentence—

"On a snowy night, the youth leaped from his room.

The young, vibrant life was buried amid the vast expanse of white, along with the Jiang Family."