After the Paranoid Female Lead Lost Her Memory, She Insisted on Pursuing This Cannon Fodder - Chapter 2

Lin Zhaoyue felt utterly helpless, as if she couldn’t slap the System even if she wanted to.

“Shen Yuan… my dear Shen Yuan… you must be okay!”

She threw herself beside Shen Yuan’s hospital bed, clutching the pale, cold hand in her own. Tears streamed down her face as if they cost nothing, her voice so mournful it broke the hearts of all who heard it.

As she wailed, she glanced sideways at the figure on the bed. Still no movement.

“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have…”

I shouldn’t have driven the car into her, then run her over twice… But she couldn’t say that aloud.

“I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard! If you wake up, I swear I’ll treat you right from now on. I’ll never bully you again! I’ll take responsibility for you, for the rest of my life!”

Lin Zhaoyue grew increasingly agitated, sobbing as if her heart were breaking. The entire ICU echoed with her heart-wrenching cries.

Just as she was about to hyperventilate from crying, the hospital room door slammed open with a bang.

“What’s with all the noise? Who’s wailing in the ICU like someone died?!”

A sharp, shrill voice exploded through the room.

Lin Zhaoyue flinched, her sobs abruptly ceasing, and she even let out an undignified hiccup.

Through tear-blurred eyes, she looked up to see a man and a woman standing in the doorway.

System: Ding! Critical character detected! Male: Lin Wangba, original novel’s male lead.

Lin Wangba, the quintessential domineering CEO, his eyes held three parts coldness, three parts mockery, three parts indifference, and one part nonchalance… or at least, that was how he was described in the original novel.

But as Lin Zhaoyue gazed at his greasy, shiny, oddly crooked, shoehorn-shaped face, she thought the following tags would be more fitting:

#Bizarre #Gore #Caution: Not for the Faint of Heart #Oil Field Exploitation Permit Holder

It was practically “Dating Pig’s Head Meat.” She nearly called the slaughterhouse.

The thought of the original owner having lived and died for such a man made Lin Zhaoyue cringe with secondhand embarrassment.

System: Female: Xiao Zhang, main heroine Shen Yuan’s best friend, loyal and fiercely protective, combat power off the charts.

Ah, the obligatory best friend character every novel heroine needs.

But… Lin Zhaoyue racked her memory. Why couldn’t she recall this character ever appearing in the original novel?

Xiao Zhang frowned instantly when he saw Lin Zhaoyue.

“Miss Lin, Xiao Yuan has already broken off her engagement with President Lin—no, clarified that there was never any engagement between them in the first place. What more do you want?”

“Woman, the affairs of the Lin Clan are none of your concern!” Lin Wangba declared with his characteristic domineering aura.

“Tsk.”

Though Lin Wangba was technically speaking up for her, Lin Zhaoyue couldn’t bring herself to feel pleased. Instead, she wore an expression of utter disdain.

As expected of the male lead of this trashy novel—still defending the villainous female supporting character even after 800 chapters without a hint of romantic development, and the story’s still unfinished.

“You weren’t the one who hit her. What are you doing here?” Lin Zhaoyue snapped rudely.

Lin Wangba’s body stiffened at her words.

This woman used to cling to me every day. Why is she looking at me like I’m a pile of excrement now?

After a moment of self-assured contemplation, he quickly grasped the reason, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

“Woman, stop playing these coy games with me.”

“Get lost,” Lin Zhaoyue retorted.

“Oh? Daring to speak to me like that? I admit, your little act has worked…”

Before he could finish speaking, a nurse in the ICU couldn’t stand it any longer. She approached with a frown, her voice stern:

“Could you please keep it down? This is the ICU, and patients need rest!”

Lin Wangba, true to his domineering nature, immediately retracted his head.

The nurse paused, then added, “Besides, the patient isn’t as seriously injured as you’re making it out to be.”

“N-not serious?”

The nurse rolled her eyes and pointed at Shen Yuan lying in the bed. “The patient is perfectly fine. The only injury is a minor scrape on her little toe.”

The three of them fell silent.

Lin Zhaoyue, still sprawled on the bed, pinched a corner of the blanket between two fingers and lifted it slightly.

Shen Yuan’s body was completely unharmed, with only a small bandage on her little toe. Remembering her earlier histrionics—crying and wailing as if her life were at stake—Lin Zhaoyue suddenly felt her face burning with shame.

Who gets hit by a car, run over twice, and ends up with nothing more than a scraped little toe?!

She looked at the nurse with a complicated expression.

“Then… why is her head bandaged?”

“Oh, the patient has a concussion. It’s highly likely she’ll experience memory loss,” the nurse said casually, shrugging.

The three of them stared in stunned silence.

Shouldn’t this have been mentioned before the toe injury?!

“Ahem…”

Suddenly, a soft cough broke the silence like a thunderclap on a clear day. Lin Zhaoyue startled so violently she jolted upright in bed.

“She’s awake!” Xiao Zhang exclaimed excitedly.

Shen Yuan propped herself up, tilting her head back in confusion. Lin Zhaoyue stiffly turned her head, her gaze colliding with Shen Yuan’s newly awakened eyes.

Those eyes were like rain-washed glass, reflecting the overhead light in a constellation of shimmering points.

Shen Yuan stared intently at Lin Zhaoyue, who was closest to her, her eyes filled with bewilderment.

“I… where am I?”

Lin Zhaoyue swallowed hard. The Shen Yuan who had knelt at her feet last night, the corners of her eyes stained with the red of humiliation, had suddenly come to life. Memory and reality overlapped, creating an absurd sense of déjà vu.

She instinctively took a half-step back, her lower back bumping into the mobile IV stand.

“Looks like she really has lost her memory.”

The nurse immediately added a note to the patient’s chart.

“Patient, how much do you remember? Do you recognize anyone here?”

“Yes, yes, Xiao Yuan, do you remember me?” Xiao Zhang looked at Shen Yuan with hopeful eyes.

“Hmm…” Shen Yuan paused, glancing around the hospital room. “Ah, I remember this person…” She pointed at Lin Zhaoyue.

Lin Zhaoyue’s eyes widened in panic.

Damn it! What happened to the amnesia? I thought I could escape legal consequences!

Shen Yuan clearly remembered her—that she had been the one who ran her over, that she had committed past misdeeds, and that she had planned her revenge.

Recalling Shen Yuan’s sinister expression, Lin Zhaoyue didn’t dare break a sweat.

If this continued, she, her parents, her grandparents—her entire family—would never be able to take the civil service exam again.

Lin Zhaoyue stared at Shen Yuan’s lips, convinced she was about to utter the word “murderer.”

Instead, Shen Yuan suddenly smiled warmly. “This is the woman my family arranged for me to marry, my betrothed, right?”

Lin Zhaoyue: ?

The others: ?

What was going on?

Lin Zhaoyue narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Shen Yuan’s gaze. It held no murderous intent, but instead seemed filled with… a tender, watery affection?

That can’t be right, she thought. Shen Yuan wasn’t looking at me like this last night.

Sensing the rising murderous intent from Xiao Zhang behind her, Lin Zhaoyue quickly waved her hands, disavowing any connection:

“No, no, no, no, no! I’m Lin Zhaoyue! You’ve mistaken me for someone else!”

They were mortal enemies. Mortal enemies couldn’t become wives!

“…Mistaken?”

Shen Yuan’s delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly as her gaze slowly swept across the room again.

From the unremarkable medical staff to the plain short-haired woman, to the ordinary slick-haired man, and finally settling on the beautiful woman with her soft features, alluring figure, perfect waist-to-hip ratio, and a voice that could hook a man’s soul.

Yes, it must be her.

But why was she claiming to be someone else?

“Hiss…”

Shen Yuan pressed a hand to her forehead, her face contorted in pain.

“Ahem! Wait, you three, come over here!”

The nurse suddenly raised her voice, pulling Lin Zhaoyue and the others into a small corner, her expression fierce.