The Cannon Fodder Heroine Strikes Back Online

The first rays of dawn, hazy but steadily brightening, stretched across Kaoshantun. It was August, and the northern land pulsed with the urgency of summer harvest. Every household in the backing villages was already stirring, preparing for the long days ahead, driven by the need to gather grain before the inevitable heavy rains. The Shen family, at the east end of the village, was among the earliest risers, though it was only Shen Mingxi, the third daughter of the eldest branch, who had been awake since before the roosters crowed.

She stood in the quiet morning light, her face calm, but a tempest raged within her. The memories of her past life, a decade hence, were vivid: her younger brother's desperate end, the careening truck, and then, the inexplicable return to this very night in 1979. Her family, all those she had watched disappear one by one, were here, alive and well. The thought of their future fates, a grim parade of suffering she had endured, made her face blanch. Was she truly the 'Sangmen Star' her grandmother had claimed, the harbinger of all their misfortunes?

No. A fierce determination ignited in her eyes. Since fate had granted her this second chance, armed with the knowledge of what was to come, she would not simply watch. She would fight. The destiny of her family, and her own, would diverge from the path of her previous life. These tragedies would not be allowed to unfold. Her mind, jumbled all night, sharpened with a newfound clarity.