Dressed As a Cannon Fodder For the Rich and Powerful

TL: Hua

The night was quiet in the western suburbs of S City, a well-known wealthy area. A black Maybach gently slid into a courtyard covered by tall trees.

A gust of cool autumn wind blew in from the open car window, blowing away the young man’s bang, revealing a well-shaped widow’s peak1This M-shaped hairline. In English, it’s called Widow’s Peak, but in Chinese, it’s literally translated to beauty tip. It was a beauty standard of some sort in ancient China. If you watch Chinese period dramas, you will see that men all have this kind of hairline. and a small face the size of a palm, glowing white in the night.

Qi Xiaoyu was woken up by the cool wind and vaguely heard someone shouting, “Why did you make the person unconscious? What if word goes out that our Xun family is robbing people?”

Then an extremely flattering voice said, “Mr. Cheng, don’t be angry. He volunteered, and we’ve made an agreement. I promise, it’s absolutely voluntary.”

A shadow shrouded Qi Xiaoyu, and the flattering voice said again, “Mr. Cheng, look, don’t you think this kid looks exactly like the person in the third master’s painting?”

Mr. Cheng’s voice was still angry, “I can’t say they are exactly the same. It’s only about seventy or eighty percent similar.”

“Yes, yes, as long as you said so. Now…are we sending him in?”

Mr. Cheng said slowly, as if deliberately pinching someone’s lifeline, “The person is already here, so just send it. If the third master likes him, perhaps the warding-off wedding can be done.”

Warding-off wedding2冲喜[chōnɡ xǐ]: a wedding arranged for a young man who was dangerously ill, in the hope that the joyous occasion would ward off imminent death.? With a man? Qi Xiaoyu’s temples suddenly jumped. He didn’t recognize anyone, and he had never heard of this third master or whatever. Was he being drugged and sold?

Who dares! He, Qi Xiaoyu, has been in the Red Moon Troupe for twenty years. He has grown from a bullied apprentice to a pillar of the stage. His name was popular and widespread, from Beiping City to Shanghai Beach. What big storms has he not seen? Who would dare to drug and sell him? Aren’t they afraid of being cut alive by him when he wakes up?

Prince Rong from Deyue Building, Boss Jiang from the Qing gang, Commander Sheng from the army, and those theater fans who waited at the door of the Red Moon Troupe every day waiting for him to take the stage, any one of these people could be the third master he had never heard of.

But… It seems that something is wrong.

Qi Xiaoyu heard the flattering voice trying to curry favor with this Mr. Cheng again: “Mr. Cheng, the person is already delivered, then the money…”

Mr. Cheng snorted, “Give me his IOU, and the money will be in your account tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, Mr. Cheng.”

Then Qi Xiaoyu was carried out from the back seat of the Maybach.

The world was spinning; the drug made him want to vomit, but everything that entered his eyes made him forget to vomit.

Who are these people? Where is he? Is he still in Shanghai in the 14th year of the Republic of China3History 101. The Republic of China (1912–1949) was formed after Chinese people successfully overthrew the Qing dynasty and ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China.?

Why is everything so strange?

Qi Xiaoyu quickly scanned everything around him.

There are no more than 100 cars in the whole of Shanghai, none of which look like this, all black and airtight.

No one’s bodyguards are all dressed in black clothes with white shirts like this.

The prince in the Deyue Building and his house’s servants all wear long robes4.

The boss of the Qing Gang and all his subordinates wear Mandarin jackets5.

The commander of the army and the soldiers he leads are naturally dressed in neat military uniforms.

The stewards at those places are all so proud that their chins are turned high toward the sky. On the surface, they are not as friendly and peaceful as the people in front of him.

There are also the overly fashionable decorations of the villa: the porch made of stones, the door that opens automatically…

The bright light reflected on Qi Xiaoyu’s jet-black pupils, and a large number of pictures and words suddenly flooded into his mind like a raging tide, tearing his nerves apart.

He actually inexplicably transmigrated into a novel called “Sick President Sadistically Loves Me”.

Although he hadn’t read the novel, the plot flooded into his mind automatically.

The main plot of this novel is the story of Xun Qian, the sickly president, and Tang Yuning, the forbearing and gentle movie king. They fell in love, healed the president’s mental and physical sickness, and eventually got married.

And Qi Xiaoyu, who has the same name as him in the novel, is pitiful and hateful cannon fodder.

He originally had a good birth; his parents opened a company, which flourished better and better, but unfortunately, his mother passed away early. After his stepmother married his dad, they had their own children, so he was driven to a boarding school with only an 800 yuan6112 USD monthly allowance.

Qi Xiaoyu was living in exile, with no one to turn to, and was lazy and unmotivated. He lived aimlessly until the age of 22 and finally got a job at a third-rate entertainment company after graduating from university. Because of his outstanding appearance, the company sent him to participate in a singing and dancing talent show.

While participating in the program, Qi Xiaoyu had a long-term relationship with a boy in the same dormitory. Although the other party was just playing with him, Qi Xiaoyu was blinded by love and borrowed a huge amount of usury in order to repay the gambling debts of his “boyfriend”.

Qi Xiaoyu thought that this would earn his “boyfriend” true love. However, the “boyfriend” took the money and turned around to form a CP with someone else on the show. He even revealed that his roommate in the same dormitory had an ulterior motive toward him, saying, “It’s really disgusting. He even peered at me while taking a shower and helped me wash my underwear. I really want to move over and live with Zhouzhou.”

Faced with the abandonment of his “boyfriend”, Qi Xiaoyu was overcome with grief and cried uncontrollably in the dark. At the same time, the loan shark came to his door to collect the debt. He has no money. He’s just a trainee who has not yet made his debut and has to pay for his own taxi fare to record the show.

So Qi Xiaoyu could only brazenly ask his family for it. The phone was hung up after he just said “hello”, and when he sent them a WeChat message, he received “the other party has rejected your message” prompt in return.

Out of desperation to pay back the loan shark, Qi Xiaoyu promised to attend this wedding. But the loan shark was afraid that he would go back on his word midway, so he sent him here unconscious.

The mysterious and unpredictable Mr. Xun, who overtook all the business in the gray area of S City, was about to die of illness. He couldn’t get out of bed, he frequently vomited blood, and there was no cure for his illness! Mrs. Xun was a superstitious person. She said that since doctors can’t cure him, he should find someone to get married to and wash off the bad luck as a last attempt to save his life.

Third Master Xun followed Mrs. Xun’s arrangements, but he has one request. Find someone who looked similar to the person in the painting, and then he would “marry” the person.

Which child from a decent family would be willing to marry a dying person? Who would want to follow this kind of feudalistic superstition?

What’s more, Mrs. Xun is very particular about the horoscope of birth date, and Third Master Xun also has requirements for appearance, so after looking around, Qi Xiaoyu was found.

Qi Xiaoyu just happened to have a good horoscope, and his appearance was similar to that in the painting—puppy eyes, cherry lips, an exquisite nose, an adrogenous appearance, with childish and innocent buffs. Such a unique appearance is rare.

Qi Xiaoyu regained consciousness again and was already on a big, soft bed. Although it was a happy event, the Xun family handled it very low-key. After all, it was not a glorious thing, and Qi Xiaoyu was not an important person. Even if he married Xun Qian, it was just a little thing that could be divorced at any time.

Qi Xiaoyu moved. The apricot-colored silk quilt was as smooth as a baby’s skin, the white pillow was bulging and filled with goose feathers, and the crystal chandelier hung down at low voltage.

Although the taste is a bit poor, this is indeed a wealthy family. Qi Xiaoyu took advantage of the moonlight outside the window to look around this luxuriously decorated bedroom, and finally his eyes fell on the wardrobe next to the bed.

The effect of the drug has not yet passed, and he turned his head with difficulty. From the mirror on the wardrobe, he saw the face of the original owner, who looked similar to himself in his previous life. The hair that was dyed golden yellow like a bird’s nest and a set of flashy, almost tacky clothes were somewhat of an eyesore. In addition, this person lacked vitality, and his bones were also thin.

It’s fine. Hair color and clothes can be changed. The body can also be trained.

After Qi Xiaoyu was forced to accept the original owner’s information, he lay down on the bed for fifteen minutes, scolding the original owner for being stupid and ignorant, scolding the original owner’s father for being inhumane, and scolding the original owner’s boyfriend for being a scum.

Both of his parents died when he was a child, and he lived in his uncle’s house. When he was four or five years old, he was picked up by Qi Fengjian, the leader of the Red Moon Troupe, in a ruined temple and became an apprentice. After twenty years of wandering from place to place and enduring many hardships with the troupe, he was accustomed to life and death. After hearing countless supernatural stories of demons, ghosts, gods, and serpents, there was really nothing he couldn’t let go of or accept.

On the contrary, the situation in front of him is much more troublesome.

In the original book, Qi Xiaoyu is an important villain cannon fodder, so his plot is quite full. According to the development of the plot, his life after being given to Mr. Xun is much better than outside, but Qi Xiaoyu, who was severely lacking in intelligence, refused to accompany a dying patient peacefully. He dared to take Mr. Xun’s money to keep a little lover outside and even tried to take away the Xun family’s property under other people’s instigation.

When the protagonist shou finally made an appearance, Qi Xiaoyu framed him in various ways and even drove him into the ICU, courting his own death in order to promote the relationship between Third Master Xun and the protagonist shou.

The result can be imagined. When the two protagonists gong and shou’s relationship stabilized, the angry Third Master Xun quickly divorced him and sent him directly to the asylum. At first, Qi Xiaoyu was clamoring to go out, but after several high-intensity electric shock treatments, Qi Xiaoyu really went crazy.

The original text reads, “Qi Xiaoyu’s cheeks were sunken, his eyes were hollow, and he no longer had the domineering look of the past… The long-term detention had made his legs unable to stand upright like a normal person… He was lying on the ground like a dog, his arms folded. He grabbed a dead and crushed cockroach, played with it for a while, and then cheerfully sent it into his mouth, chewing it with rattling sounds.”

This ending is too tragic, disgusting, and disrespectful. Although Qi Xiaoyu was born into a humble background and his status as an actor is not high, maintaining his dignity is the bottom line of his life.

The year Shanghai was occupied, he did not escape. He hid in the air raid shelter and starved for five days. His arms were thinner than a rolling pin, and he was starved into an empty skin, but he did not go out to ask for a bite of food.

How could he eat cockroaches? ? ?

Qi Xiaoyu looked at the ceiling silently, bent his fingers, and clenched his fist tightly. He bit his tongue until he was bleeding and slowly felt the recovery of strength in his limbs. He had made up his mind and was determined to change the fate of the original owner, no matter what.

“click—” the sound of the door lock opening.

The moonlight outside the window streamed in like autumn water, shining on the man’s black silk shirt and protruding collarbone. His soft and warm skin was like white porcelain, and his delicate and fragile bones were like glass tile.

Soul-stirring beauty.

Qi Xiaoyu’s appearance carried a youthful innocence and naive sweetness.

But the man in front of him was indisputably stunning.

Even if he was shrouded in pain, it only added a gloomy filter to his beauty.

He is Xun Qian, the third master of the Xun family.

He didn’t expect such an old-sounding name to have such a young and handsome face.

That’s right, Third Master Xun was only 26 years old when he appeared in the book.

Sitting in a wheelchair, Xun Qian coughed twice, then hooked his thin, white, and long finger backward.

Butler Cheng understood and immediately bent down and said something softly.

As soon as the man opened his mouth, he let out a lazy, smoky voice: “They dare to send over a starlet from a talent show? Don’t you know that I have a cleanliness habit?”

****

Qi Xiaoyu likes beauties and also likes this kind of lazy and hoarse voice, but at this time, a plot in the original book about the wedding night flooded into his mind: “Xun Qian didn’t even look him in the face and asked someone to throw Qi Xiaoyu, who was unable to move after taking the medicine, into the basement… It wasn’t until Mrs. Xun, who was abroad, heard the news and called back that he was released.”

Qi Xiaoyu’s heart trembled. He didn’t want to have such a miserable first night after transmigration, not to mention he was a little afraid of the dark.

The author has something to say:

Xiaoyu: Yes, I’m not clean; don’t touch me.

Xun Qian: QAQ I didn’t say it; I deny it.

 

1This M-shaped hairline. In English, it’s called Widow’s Peak, but in Chinese, it’s literally translated to beauty tip. It was a beauty standard of some sort in ancient China. If you watch Chinese period dramas, you will see that men all have this kind of hairline.2冲喜[chōnɡ xǐ]: a wedding arranged for a young man who was dangerously ill, in the hope that the joyous occasion would ward off imminent death.3History 101. The Republic of China (1912–1949) was formed after Chinese people successfully overthrew the Qing dynasty and ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China.456112 USD