After the Paranoid Female Lead Lost Her Memory, She Insisted on Pursuing This Cannon Fodder - Chapter 8

“Torture her slowly, right?”

Lin Zhaoyue: “……”

Lin Zhaoyue: “You’re right.”

“I knew it! Yueyue would never let her off so easily!” Shanshan declared, sounding wise and understanding.

“Yueyue, go for it! I know you can make Shen Yuan wish she were dead! Take her back, lock her in the basement, strip her naked, feed her only scraps, make her kneel and lick water off the floor—no, lick your shoes! And then…”

Lin Zhaoyue: “……”

Her lips twitched slightly as she thought, Shanshan really is something else.

How can she deliver such morally bankrupt lines with such an upbeat expression?

“Alright, alright!” Lin Zhaoyue clapped a hand over Shanshan’s mouth. “Go back now. I… I know what I’m doing.”

“Okay~”

Lin Zhaoyue stood rooted to the spot for a moment, watching Shanshan’s figure disappear down the corridor. Then she whirled around and strode purposefully toward Shen Yuan’s hospital room.

“What a pain!” Lin Zhaoyue muttered to the system as she hurried back. “It’s not like I’m going soft. I just want to check if Brother Turtle found the place.”

She concocted a high-sounding excuse for herself, but her pace quickened until she was practically running back to the room.

But when she pushed open the hospital room door, she found it completely empty.

“Where’s Shen Yuan?!”

Lin Zhaoyue froze, stunned.

She distinctly remembered Shen Yuan sitting on the bed when she left!

Are they discharging patients this quickly?

She glanced around the room and noticed a note on the bedside table, written in Shen Yuan’s neat handwriting:

“Thank you, Zhaoyue. I’ve decided to start over from scratch, building my own empire. When I become a powerful and influential CEO, I’ll return to marry you.”

Lin Zhaoyue stared at the note in silence.

Letting this lunatic out is a clear case of hospital negligence.

She crumpled the note, stuffed it into her pocket, and turned to leave the room.

“Well, it’s probably for the best she’s gone. Saves me from agonizing over this…”

Lin Zhaoyue muttered to herself as she walked.

But when she reached the hospital entrance, she suddenly stopped.

She saw Shen Yuan squatting by the roadside, silently staring at her phone. She seemed to be scrolling through her photo album, her solitary figure looking particularly frail.

She was wearing a faded hospital gown and cheap disposable slippers, looking disheveled and destitute—exactly like a mental asylum escapee.

Wait, what about the promised timeline convergence? Where’s Brother Turtle?!

Lin Zhaoyue frowned and opened Brother Turtle’s WeChat Moments.

The latest post had been sent half an hour earlier:

“Countless cigarettes smoked / Liquor drunk until I wanted to vomit / You used to gaze at me with affection / Now you treat me with disdain / Woman, is this your manipulative game of playing hard to get…? // Twelve minutes ago, landed in Hawaii. You let go first, and I’ll never look back…”

The accompanying photo was an ultra-melancholy, wide-angle selfie taken up close, filtered in black and white. The “Meitu XiuXiu” watermark at the bottom hadn’t even been removed.

Lin Zhaoyue: “……”

Could this “woman” in his post be referring to me?

Host, most likely.

Lin Zhaoyue finally understood: Brother Turtle’s “crematorium” was for anyone who looked down on him.

She commented below:

“Blur that hideous photo, thanks.”

Then she blocked Brother Turtle.

As for the person squatting on the steps… Lin Zhaoyue sighed and ultimately walked over.

“Didn’t you say you were going to build an empire from scratch and dominate the world?”

Shen Yuan looked up, her eyes flashing with surprise when she saw Lin Zhaoyue, but the light quickly faded.

“I…” Shen Yuan bit her lip, unable to speak. But when she looked at Lin Zhaoyue, her peach blossom eyes brimmed with hurt.

Lin Zhaoyue’s heart raced under Shen Yuan’s gaze. She cleared her throat and, feigning ferocity, snapped, “What are you staring at?! Hurry up and pack your things! Do you really want to end up on the streets?!”

Shen Yuan froze, her face a mask of disbelief. “You… what did you say?”

“I said, come home with me!”

The System popped up: Host, host, this doesn’t seem right, does it?

Lin Zhaoyue: What’s wrong with it? Bringing her back to the Lin Family is still bringing her back to the Lin Family, right? Lin Wangba’s already in Hawaii. If I don’t bring Shen Yuan back, how am I supposed to complete the mission?

Lin Zhaoyue planted her hands on her hips, her tone harsh as she tried to play the villainess: “Don’t think for a second I care about you. Once you’re back with me, I have plenty of ways to make you pay for everything.”

At these words, the corners of Shen Yuan’s lips curled upward slightly. “Good. I’ll make sure to serve you well tonight…”

Lin Zhaoyue’s residence.

A middle-aged woman in a mustard-yellow uniform, her hair neatly combed, stood before the television, a mop in one hand and a handful of sunflower seeds in the other.

She was Aunt Wang, the Lin Family’s head housekeeper.

Having worked for the family for over thirty years, Aunt Wang had watched Lin Zhaoyue grow up and held a position of considerable authority within the household.

Lin Zhaoyue’s frequent absences from the residence, often chasing after Lin Wangba, provided Aunt Wang with ample opportunities to slack off.

Aunt Wang cracked sunflower seeds while engrossed in a melodramatic soap opera, occasionally letting out a “tsk-tsk” of disapproval.

“Aiyo, that woman’s a real piece of work! Cheating on her pregnant wife?”

“And that mother-in-law is pure evil! Taking advantage of her daughter’s absence to torment her daughter-in-law!”

“Heavens! They’re actually sisters…”

Lost in the drama, Aunt Wang completely lost track of time.

“Sigh, the Young Miss hasn’t been back for days. Probably still chasing after that damned Lin Wangba,” she muttered to herself.

In her eyes, Lin Zhaoyue might be spoiled and willful, but her heart was fundamentally good. Her only flaw was her terrible taste in men, fixating on that lunatic Lin Wangba.

“What a tragedy…”

Before she could finish her thought, a young maid rushed in, her face pale with panic.

“A-Aunt Wang! It’s terrible!” the maid gasped, breathless.

Aunt Wang jumped in fright, scattering sunflower seeds across the floor.

“What’s all the commotion? What’s happened now?” Aunt Wang snapped, annoyed by the commotion.

“T-the Young Miss is back!” the maid gasped, breathless.

Aunt Wang froze for a moment, then rolled her eyes dismissively. “So she’s back. What’s the big deal? It’s not like she hasn’t run away before. She always comes crawling back when she’s had her fun.”

With that, she resumed cracking melon seeds.

“N-no, Aunt Wang! The Young Miss… she brought someone with her!”

“Brought someone?” Aunt Wang paused, then her eyes widened. “Don’t tell me she’s planning another party!”

She shuddered at the memory of the last time Lin Zhaoyue had dragged home a horde of handsome men and beautiful women, forcing her to work all night cleaning up the mess.

“N-no… it’s not that…” The maid’s expression grew even more peculiar. She stammered, “It’s… it’s Shen Yuan, Miss Shen!”

“What?!” Aunt Wang’s eyes bulged, and the mop handle clattered to the floor. “Say that again! Who is it?!”

“It’s… it’s Shen Yuan, Miss Shen…”

Aunt Wang’s mind went blank, a ringing silence filling her head.