After Losing My Memory, I Was Targeted by the Obsessive Movie Queen [gl] - Chapter 31

Yan He answered the call, her mind filled with confusion.

The phone screen flickered for a moment before switching to video. The first thing Yan He saw was a dim setting on the other end, the background looking like a hotel room. She knit her brows slightly, but before she could think further, an ambiguous, soft chuckle drifted from the phone.

Lu Youqing’s voice was naturally gentle and crisp, sounding like a clear spring striking a mountain stream—pleasant and soothing. However, perhaps due to the phone’s microphone, her voice at this moment sounded like fine wine mixed with ice: sexy and enchanting. The sound traveled through the air and into Yan He’s ear as if Lu Youqing were whispering right beside her. It was incredibly intimate, and the tips of Yan He’s ears couldn’t help but flush a deep crimson.

Yan He’s startled, dazed expression was captured perfectly by the camera, prompting another soft laugh from the person on the other end—a laugh both tender and suggestive.

“A-He,” Lu Youqing called her name softly while adjusting the camera to face herself.

The image flipped, and the hazy background shifted. Lu Youqing’s breathtaking face appeared on Yan He’s screen. She seemed to have just showered; she was wearing a thin, lightweight silk camisole nightgown that exposed a large expanse of her fair skin. The small mole on her left collarbone looked particularly alluring under the dim yellow light. Lu Youqing’s damp hair clung to the side of her face as she gazed at Yan He with profound, misty eyes.

Yan He’s breath hitched for a moment. Her hand holding the phone trembled slightly. “What’s wrong? Why did you call so early today?” she asked, her voice sounding as though she were trying hard to suppress her breathing.

Lu Youqing smiled again, her eyes curving. Her cheeks were slightly pink from the steam of the bath, making her look exceptionally delicate. It seemed she couldn’t wait even a second after her shower to call Yan He; she hadn’t even had time to dry her hair.

“I missed A-He. I wanted to see you immediately,” Lu Youqing replied.

That was why she had called without even drying her hair. In the video, strands of her hair were still dripping, one drop after another. The fabric visible on screen was soaked through, and glistening beads of water rolled down her skin until they disappeared past the edge of the frame.

“Why didn’t you dry your hair?” Yan He frowned, looking at the damp hair clinging to her body and the water dripping down. Lu Youqing seemed a bit drunk; the way she looked at Yan He was filled with blatant intimacy and desire.

Hearing Yan He’s question, Lu Youqing simply curved her lips without a word. She leaned against the headboard, her posture and movements relaxed. Her alcohol-laden brain was a bit dizzy, but she remembered she was on the phone with Yan He. She gripped the phone tightly so she could see the Yan He inside it clearly.

“I can’t touch A-He… I want to pull you out,” she murmured, staring obsessively at the Yan He trapped inside the small phone. Her voice had the characteristic rasp of intoxication, the end of her sentences hooked like a barb, pulling straight at Yan He’s pounding heart.

Yan He couldn’t help but smile. At this moment, Lu Youqing’s eyes, heart, and voice were all full of her. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t happy. She could feel her day-long loneliness dissipating the moment she saw Lu Youqing. Her heart felt like a bottle of sparkling water being opened; bubbles of joy rose slowly at Lu Youqing’s childish, drunken words, and the confusion she felt when the call first came in vanished completely.

It must have been a coincidence, she thought.

“Why did you drink so much?” She pushed her doubts to the back of her mind, her eyes focused only on the Lu Youqing before her as she asked with concern. “Do you feel unwell?”

Hearing this, Lu Youqing curved her lips again and brought the phone closer. “The cast had a dinner today. I drank a little. I don’t feel unwell now that I see A-He.”

She rambled on, but Yan He couldn’t quite hear what she was saying. Because of the proximity, she could see Lu Youqing’s features more clearly—her brows, her eyes, her nose, her lips—every detail was etched vividly into Yan He’s sight.

The longing from their long separation turned into something tangible in this moment. Yan He’s gaze followed every line of her face seriously, like an artist sketching their most satisfying masterpiece, unwilling to look away. It felt as if a hole had been torn in her heart, and a gust of wind was howling through it, making her heart surge with emotion.

The hotel lighting was somewhat dim. Under the yellow glow, Lu Youqing’s features and expression seemed to carry a hazy fragrance. Across the distance, Yan He felt as though she could almost smell it. She couldn’t stop her heart from fluttering.

Lu Youqing could always capture everyone’s attention with ease, and Yan He was no exception. Just a single sentence, just a casual sitting posture, could make Yan He’s heart tremble.

“I miss A-He so much.” Lu Youqing didn’t notice anything unusual about Yan He; she continued to speak softly of her longing. Sometimes, unintentional flirting is the most heart-tugging of all. Yan He could only hear the vigorous thumping of her own heart. The effort she had put into distracting herself over the past few days crumbled into dust. Her prideful self-restraint ultimately could not withstand her bone-deep longing for Lu Youqing.

“I… miss you, too.” Looking at Lu Youqing’s face, Yan He couldn’t resist the impulse to speak. She saw Lu Youqing’s expression freeze for a moment before she suddenly looked at her, her misty eyes turning clear with surprise.

“Good A-He, my good A-He… I miss my A-He so much.” Lu Youqing gripped the phone, a smile playing on her lips. Her gentle eyes were moist, and her long lashes fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. Hearing “her good A-He” spoken in such an intimate and sultry tone, Yan He felt her heart melt. She looked back with a hidden smile, only then noticing that Lu Youqing’s nightgown was soaked through by her dripping hair, and she was shivering slightly.

“Go dry your hair, quickly. What if you catch a cold with your hair so wet?” she said with a slight frown, her voice urgent and full of worry.

Hearing Yan He speak of her concern, Lu Youqing was overjoyed even though the voice was a bit stern. She was so happy she wanted to drop down beside Yan He, hold her tight, and breathe in her scent.

“Then A-He should come find me,” Lu Youqing leaned toward the screen, intentionally teasing the Yan He on the other side.

Yan He let out a deep sigh, her face full of helplessness. “Go dry it, quickly. Falling ill is very miserable.”

“Okay,” Lu Youqing agreed, her heart surging with emotion. “I won’t catch a cold. If I do, it’ll be miserable without A-He by my side.” Her voice was low, laced with a bit of a pout.

Yan He sighed deeply again, her gaze full of resignation. “Go dry your hair.” Yet, her heart was undeniably happy because of Lu Youqing’s intense longing and expectation after getting drunk.

Lu Youqing finally listened and went to dry her hair. Yan He intended to wait for her to finish and continue the video call, so she didn’t hang up. She sat silently listening to the sound of the hairdryer through the earpiece. However, Lu Youqing’s phone seemed to have run out of battery and shut down, ending the call. Yan He could only stare at the disconnected screen, her heart feeling as though it had fallen into a clear, cool spring.

She suddenly realized that her feelings for Lu Youqing were no longer characterized by avoidance and guilt as they had been before. She would think of Lu Youqing; she thought of her when she saw things she liked, when she saw things she didn’t like, and while she ate. Even now, with the call ended, she just stared silently at the black screen.

She seemed to have truly fallen for Lu Youqing. Thinking this, Yan He couldn’t help but cover her face. Then it occurred to her—Lu Youqing was her fiancée. Wasn’t it perfectly natural to like her own fiancée? Was there any need to be so shy?

She suddenly thought of Lu Youqing’s suggestion to come find her in Hengdian. Truth be told, she wasn’t actually unwilling; she even felt a slight stir of excitement.

Thinking this, Yan He hurriedly shook her head to cast these emotions aside and calm herself down. But her heart still skipped beats, and her hand holding the phone couldn’t stop stroking the screen, which felt a bit tingly.

On the other end, Lu Youqing picked up her phone after drying her hair and saw it had shut down. She knit her brows, the mist and muddle from the earlier call long gone from her eyes, replaced by total clarity.

Lu Youqing gripped the phone and looked up. The computer in front of her clearly showed the scene inside the house.

The house had always been equipped with surveillance to allow for immediate checking in case of a break-in. Previously, to avoid upsetting Yan He, Lu Youqing had removed most of the extra devices, leaving only the basics for security.

Lu Youqing sat at the desk and clicked the mouse twice. The time on the quiet screen began to rewind, going back twenty minutes. The colors in the video were a bit distorted, but it was still easy to see who the person was.

Yan He stepped out of the bedroom, went to the study downstairs to get the storage room key, and then returned to the storage room to open the door. In the footage, she walked to the mirror in the corner of the room. The surveillance wasn’t clear enough to see exactly what she did, but she left the storage room again very quickly.

Lu Youqing stared at the computer, her eyes gradually darkening. In the dim room, she watched that few-minute clip over a dozen times before suddenly breaking into a smile.

I need to properly cure this little puppy’s habit of rummaging through things.

It might have been Yan He’s imagination, but ever since that last phone call, the photos Lu Youqing sent her began to get a little strange.

After filming, Lu Youqing would send photos of herself after removing her makeup. The frame wouldn’t capture her face, but rather her damp chest and water-beaded collarbones. While eating, she wouldn’t photograph the food, but her flushed cheeks and sultry gaze. Even for their nightly video chats, the time they stayed on the line grew later and later at Lu Youqing’s request. One day recently, they even stayed on the call all night; Yan He suffered from insomnia all night listening to Lu Youqing’s shallow breathing.

She suddenly felt a desperate urge to find Lu Youqing. Lu Youqing’s previous suggestion had planted a seed in her heart that had now completely taken over her thoughts.

She tried to take her camera out to take photos, but even when she reached the nearby scenic area, her interest was flagging. After wandering all day and returning home, she had only taken a handful of photos.

Yan He felt something was truly wrong; she missed Lu Youqing like crazy. She suddenly had a faint suspicion as to why her past self had quit her job to become Lu Youqing’s assistant.

Over the past few days, Lu Youqing had been working overtime on set, and their chatting time had decreased significantly. Even at night, Lu Youqing could only say a few words before she couldn’t help but yawn. Yan He couldn’t bear to see Lu Youqing forcing herself to stay awake to chat, so she proactively suggested they go to sleep early. More often than not, Lu Youqing had night shoots and couldn’t call her at all.

Yan He opened her phone to look at her chat with Lu Youqing. The last message from three hours ago was: 【I have a night shoot tonight, A-He, go to sleep first.】

Yan He let out a long sigh. She couldn’t resist opening Weibo and entering Lu Youqing’s “Super Topic” to look for the latest candid photos. The most recent post was about an encounter with Lu Youqing.

【Ahhhh! Lu Youqing is filming in the Hengdian in my city! Today my friend and I went to Hengdian as extras and happened to see Movie Queen Lu’s crew filming. I waved at her and she waved back (crying). Later when she finished work, I went to find her for an autograph and she even took a photo with me! What is this luck, ahhhh!】

The comments below were a stream of envy, but Yan He stared at the post and fell into a daze. She exited and checked her chat with Lu Youqing again.

It was still the same—no new messages. Her brow furrowed even deeper, and she couldn’t help but bite her lip.

A sour, swelling emotion churned in Yan He’s chest. She looked at their chat box and typed out a long paragraph, only to delete it in the end. Finally, she lay on the bed dejectedly, re-read the fan’s post, and felt terrible.

So you have time to take photos and sign autographs for fans, but no time to send me a message, huh?

Yan He ground her teeth in resentment, not even realizing she looked exactly like a jealous little wife. She only felt as if her heart were stuffed with cotton—miserable.

I’m not going to be easily appeased; even if Lu Youqing herself comes to coax me, I’m still angry.

The frustration wouldn’t dissipate. Yan He rolled back and forth on the bed. Staring at the plain white ceiling, she suddenly noticed something in the corner of the room.

Yan He got up and walked over. She knit her brows as she looked at the corner of the wall, standing on her tiptoes and squinting her eyes to look closely. She discovered a faint mark in the corner—a light gray streak that abruptly crossed the corner. She suddenly had an epiphany; there must have been something here before.

Yan He backed up a few steps, intending to get a better look at the mark. Not paying attention, her foot struck the nightstand beside the bed, and she almost fell.

She looked down with a frown, her gaze landing on the three drawers of the nightstand. Her tightly knit brows suddenly relaxed.