After the Paranoid Female Lead Lost Her Memory, She Insisted on Pursuing This Cannon Fodder - Chapter 25

After finishing their meal, Shen Yuan received a message.

She glanced at her phone, her face immediately lighting up with undisguised joy.

“Zhaoyue! Weiwei says she has some urgent business and will be late. She asked me to wait for her here.”

“…Really?”

Lin Zhaoyue leaned over to check. Shen Yuan wasn’t lying; Zhang Wei indeed had something come up. Shen Yuan had even replied:

“No worries, Weiwei! Take care of your business first. I’ll wait here for you. It’s perfectly safe. ♥♥♥”

Mysterious hearts.

Lin Zhaoyue felt a headache coming on.

But the situation was what it was. With several hours until the afternoon, they couldn’t just stare at each other awkwardly.

Lin Zhaoyue ran a hand through her hair in frustration, her gaze sweeping across the spacious living room.

“Alright, alright, I get it. Then… find something to do yourself.”

With that, she strode over to the massive sofa, collapsed into it, and began flipping through channels aimlessly with the remote, her mind elsewhere.

The intense, almost melting gaze beside her made her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.

Finally, the sofa cushion dipped slightly as Shen Yuan settled beside her, bringing with her the familiar, crisp scent of cedarwood. They were so close that Lin Zhaoyue could feel the warmth of her body.

Lin Zhaoyue reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, immediately scooting away to create a wide gap between them. She glared at Shen Yuan warily.

“What are you doing? Stay away from me!”

Shen Yuan blinked her innocent yet alluring peach blossom eyes, her voice tinged with just the right amount of confusion and hurt.

“But… I’ve lost my memories. Besides staying by your side, I don’t know what else to do… This place is so big, and I’m all alone… It’s a bit boring.”

Lin Zhaoyue was taken aback by her demeanor. It made a certain amount of sense.

“Then what do you want to do?”

“I want to.” Shen Yuan nodded eagerly.

“I want to watch a movie with you. How about a horror movie?”

A horror movie?

Lin Zhaoyue’s heart skipped a beat.

The thought of those jump-scare-filled horror films set in pitch-black environments… she was actually… a little scared of them.

But then she reasoned that it was broad daylight, and someone was sitting right next to her. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

“…Fine, let’s watch one.”

“Great!”

With permission granted, Shen Yuan immediately perked up, grabbed the remote, and began browsing for a movie.

Heh heh, horror movies are perfect. When Zhaoyue gets so scared she loses her composure, she’ll come crawling into my arms!

Skin-to-skin contact, racing heartbeats… the Suspension Bridge Effect!

While mentally plotting her scheme, Shen Yuan meticulously scrolled through the options. Finally, she settled on a film with an ominously dark poster and a synopsis brimming with terms like “vengeful spirits,” “ancient mansion,” “curse,” “escape room horror,” and “gore.”

“This one looks good,” she said, her voice deceptively innocent. “The reviews are really high, and everyone says it’s incredibly thrilling.”

Shen Yuan turned to Lin Zhaoyue, flashing a pure, harmless smile. “Let’s watch this one, okay?”

Lin Zhaoyue glanced at the film’s details, noticing a “You’ve watched this 11 times” notification. Aunt Wang must have been watching it at home, she thought, and eleven times at that. It must be really good.

“…Sure,” Lin Zhaoyue agreed.

A barely perceptible smirk of triumph curved Shen Yuan’s lips as she swiftly pressed the play button.

Sensing the cinema mode activation, the living room’s smart curtains slowly closed, completely blocking out the sunlight.

The massive screen lit up, and the eerie opening music, accompanied by the production company’s logo, slowly faded in, instantly creating a tense atmosphere in the room.

The movie began.

A gloomy ancient mansion, flickering candlelight, and a low, unsettling soundtrack immediately set the mood.

Lin Zhaoyue instantly regretted her decision.

She straightened her back, her body as taut as a drawn bowstring, but her gaze began to wander involuntarily.

Why did I agree to watch this?

She tried to focus on the irrelevant subtitles scrolling across the bottom of the screen, or even studied the wood grain of the coffee table in front of her—a coffee table that was just too coffee table-y…

Anything to avoid looking at the scenes where a ghostly face might suddenly jump out.

Shen Yuan sat beside her, outwardly engrossed in the movie, but her peripheral vision never left Lin Zhaoyue.

Watching Lin Zhaoyue’s adorable act—pretending to be calm while clearly terrified, her eyes darting around—Shen Yuan’s lips curled into an almost imperceptible mischievous smile. She subtly edged closer to Lin Zhaoyue, closing the distance between them.

As the movie’s plot deepened, shadowy figures and eerie sounds began to flicker across the screen.

Suddenly, an old, tattered doll on the screen turned its head without warning and let out a piercing, ear-splitting laugh!

“Ah!”

Shen Yuan let out a perfectly timed gasp, simultaneously “accidentally” grabbing Lin Zhaoyue’s arm, which was resting on the sofa armrest.

“!!!”

Lin Zhaoyue, already on edge from trying to avoid the horror scenes, jolted violently at the sudden touch and scream, nearly leaping off the sofa.

She whipped her head around, glaring at Shen Yuan, who wore an “innocent” expression beside her.

“What was that?! You scared me half to death!”

Shen Yuan immediately released her grip, blinking innocently.

“Ah? I’m sorry, Zhaoyue… That doll suddenly laughed, it was so creepy… I didn’t mean to.”

What a typical “pure white lotus” main heroine, Lin Zhaoyue thought to herself, rolling her eyes inwardly. I’m even better at this than she is.

But as Shen Yuan subtly moved closer, Lin Zhaoyue didn’t pull away. Instead, she felt a strange sense of reassurance, just a tiny bit.

The movie continued playing.

The secrets of the ancient mansion were gradually revealed, the atmosphere growing increasingly eerie and tense. Long, silent corridors, creaking floorboards, and fleeting dark shadows glimpsed through the windows…

Lin Zhaoyue was on high alert, not only trying to avoid the terrifying scenes on the screen but also wary of the “unstable element” beside her.

Shen Yuan refrained from making any deliberate noises, but occasionally, at crucial moments, she would very “naturally” adjust her posture, “accidentally” let her knee brush against Lin Zhaoyue’s thigh, or “involuntarily” lean toward Lin Zhaoyue when a particularly frightening sound effect blared.

Each subtle touch tightened Lin Zhaoyue’s nerves further.

She felt like she was about to be driven mad by this double torment. The ghosts in the movie hadn’t scared her to death, but the person beside her was about to!

Finally, the film reached its climax. The protagonist was trapped in a cramped, sealed room. Bl00d began seeping through the walls, frantic banging echoed from outside the door, and a grotesque, shadowy figure was slowly squeezing through the crack.

The sound effects were cranked to maximum volume, and the visuals were overwhelmingly intense.

Lin Zhaoyue squeezed her eyes shut, curling into a ball as if trying to burrow into the sofa cushions.

“Oh my god!”

Shen Yuan’s voice suddenly rang in her ear, laced with feigned surprise and urgency.

Lin Zhaoyue, confused but afraid of missing any plot points, instinctively cracked open one eye—

Just then, the screen exploded with a monstrously magnified, twisted, and terrifying ghost face, filling the entire frame accompanied by an ear-splitting scream!

“——!!!”

The last thread of her sanity snapped.

Lin Zhaoyue erupted in a heart-wrenching scream, her mind going completely blank. Before she could even think, her body was driven solely by the primal instinct for survival. Like a rabbit cornered by a hunter at the edge of a cliff, she bolted from the corner of the sofa, desperate to escape the source of terror.

In her panic, she didn’t even register her surroundings, only knowing to lunge toward the only nearby source of “human presence.”

Shen Yuan had anticipated her reaction perfectly. As Lin Zhaoyue lunged, she casually opened her arms and adjusted her posture.

Thus, Lin Zhaoyue landed squarely and solidly in Shen Yuan’s lap.

The force of her momentum, combined with Shen Yuan’s practiced embrace, threw her off balance. With a startled cry, she tumbled awkwardly but precisely onto Shen Yuan’s thigh!