Confirming that Jun Ning was alright, the Old Secretary laughed heartily. “We have the organization, the Party, and the concern of the masses to thank for this child’s safety. And of course, thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much.”
Hearing the Old Secretary’s words, the young male doctor smiled politely. “Old Secretary, there’s no need to thank me. We didn’t actually do much. In a situation like this comrade’s, her survival was entirely dependent on her own strong will to live. As long as she doesn’t feel any discomfort, she can go back. Just make sure she eats well to nourish herself and gets plenty of rest for a few days; she should be fine.”
The Old Secretary nodded repeatedly. “Right, right. This child, Jun Ning, ended up like this because she was saving someone. Once we get back, the village will definitely reward her with some nutritional supplements so she can recover properly. Doctor, shall we head out then?”
The doctor waved his hand. “Go ahead. Let her get some good rest!”
“Yes, of course.”
The Old Secretary then turned to Jun Ning with concern. “Jun Ning, how are you feeling now? Can you manage to walk?”
Jun Ning replied softly, “Old Secretary, I’m fine. I should be able to walk. Let me try.”
During the short time the doctor had been examining her, she had already circulated her wood-element power throughout her entire body. The life force and healing properties inherent in the wood element had already mended the internal injuries and physical damage within this body.
The Old Secretary looked at her kindly and said, “Alright, give it a try. Don’t rush, take it slow.”
Jun Ning sat up, got off the hospital bed, and stood up steadily. Seeing her standing firmly, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Fu Jingwei stepped forward to support her. “A-Ning, let me help you.”
Jun Ning smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Seeing the interaction between the two, Lin Qingqing felt a surge of anger and jealousy. Fu Jingwei was the “white moonlight” of her heart. She had always wanted to build a good relationship with him, but he was always cold and distant toward her, ignoring her completely. Seeing him being so kind to Jun Ning—and remembering how he usually looked after her—Lin Qingqing hated Jun Ning even more.
She cursed Jun Ning in her heart, calling her a nuisance. You were already dead, why did you have to come back to life? Just like an unkillable cockroach! Disgusting!
Jun Ning sensed the thick malice radiating from her. She spared the woman a cold glance, dismissing her as nothing more than a pathetic, insignificant clown.
As Jun Ning sat on the horse carriage, swaying on the road back to the village, she finally remembered everything. No wonder she had felt something was off earlier.
Qin Yan, Lin Qingqing, Fu Jingwei, the Old Secretary, Jun Ning…
These familiar names were the protagonists and supporting characters from the chronological novel The Storm of Educated Youths Returning to the City to Start Businesses, which her friend Cheng Yingzi had made her read!
She remembered her friend teasing her about the name Jun Ning back then. “Oh, Jun Ning, there’s a very likable cannon fodder supporting character in this novel who shares your name. Too bad she receives her ‘lunch box’ and dies only a few chapters in. What a waste!”
Her friend had complained with a frustrated look: “A-Ning, you have no idea. The female lead of this novel is a truly cowardly and vile ‘black-hearted lotus.’ She’s incredibly timid when facing powerful bullies, but when it comes to stealing the male lead or harming the supporting characters, she’s incredibly poisonous.”
“I’ve read so many novels, and most female leads are upright and noble. This is the first time I’ve seen such a trashy, low-class female lead. What’s even more infuriating is that the author actually let a woman like that reach the pinnacle of life. I don’t know what kind of values the author was trying to promote. Look, the comment section is full of people cursing the female lead; the author is practically being personally attacked by the readers.”
“The character profiles of the supporting girls are actually all better than the female lead’s. Take the one named Jun Ning, for example. She was so optimistic, sunny, and helpful, but the author just wrote her off. I actually shed quite a few tears when I saw that she died saving someone.”
Jun Ning had listened to her friend’s ranting for a long time and remembered the book. During a moment of boredom, she had pulled the novel out to take a look.
The plot was exactly as Cheng Yingzi had described. The female lead was a trashy, black-hearted lotus, and the male lead was quite a jerk himself. In contrast, the various cannon fodder characters were written with distinct, appealing personalities.
There was Jun Ning, the cheerful and warm cannon fodder; Gao Yuan, the noble-born supporting character whose fiancé was stolen by the black-hearted lotus; and Xiao Yanru, the fierce and martially skilled supporting character. There were also male supporting characters full of justice and elegance…
The stories of these supporting characters were much more exciting and worth watching than those of the protagonists. Unfortunately, they were all “tool people” arranged by the author solely to highlight or assist the rise of the main couple.
When Jun Ning reached the part where the female lead, in her quest to steal the male lead, disgustingly acted like a “white lotus” while unscrupulously harming the male lead’s fiancée, Gao Yuan, she couldn’t take it anymore. She skipped ahead to check the general progression and the ending, was thoroughly appalled by the “thunderous” plot, and threw the trashy book aside.
It was no wonder her friend and the readers complained so fiercely; even she couldn’t stomach it.
But Jun Ning never imagined she would actually transmigrate into this terrible book and become the cannon fodder who shared her name and died early. In the novel, the original Jun Ning lost her life saving a drowning child. Now that the original soul was gone, the Jun Ning from the post-apocalyptic year 2180 had the chance to be reborn in this body.
To Jun Ning’s relief, her triple-element powers and her heaven-defying space had come with her! Her three powers were: Psychic, Wood, and Water.
As for her heaven-defying space, it was a fragment of the “Prehistoric World” she had obtained from a secret realm that appeared at the beginning of the apocalypse. This space was a complete miniature world. It had mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, forests, land, animals, and plants—everything one could need. It covered an area of over 6,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of a major city like Shanghai.
The apocalypse had begun in 2170, an era of high technology and information. However, terrifying crustal movements, melting glaciers, and meteor strikes brought about a horrific transformation of heaven and earth. Humans, animals, and plants all began to mutate.
At the start of the apocalypse, a secret realm hidden underground suddenly appeared. Jun Ning and countless others rushed inside, seeking treasures. She was fortunate enough to obtain this heaven-defying space.
According to the space’s spirit, Dahuang, this space was a fragment created ten thousand years ago during a war between immortals and demons that destroyed the Prehistoric World. The shattered pieces of that world had scattered across various dimensions. The fragment she had obtained was the finest piece of immortal spiritual land from that ancient world.