After Losing My Memory, I Was Targeted by the Obsessive Movie Queen [gl] - Chapter 57

Li Qing didn’t seem to feature much in Yan He’s fractured memory fragments. Yan He had gone to Wucheng No. 2 High School while Li Qing was at No. 3 High School, so they hadn’t crossed paths often during their academic years. Furthermore, since Yan He’s attention had been entirely monopolized by Lu Youqing, her time spent hanging out with friends had dwindled significantly, causing her bond with this friend from the neighboring high school to gradually fade.

Fortunately, their families still shared business ties, so they weren’t completely left without topics to discuss.

But right now, looking at the woman before her, Yan He suddenly found herself at a loss for words. Her remaining memory of Li Qing was strictly limited to them being high school friends; everything else had been buried deep in the recesses of her forgotten past.

“Li Qing,” she said tentatively, receiving a positive response from the woman.

“I didn’t expect to run into you here. Did you come with Lu Youqing?” Li Qing asked.

Yan He’s brow twitched slightly in the dim light. It appeared Li Qing knew about her relationship with Lu Youqing. With that thought, she gave a slow nod.

“I see. I figured the person the internet was calling Lu Youqing’s assistant had to be you.” Li Qing stepped forward excitedly. Yan He imperceptibly took a half-step back, leaning her torso against the balcony railing.

“And you are here for…?” Yan He masked her blankness, trying to appear as though she were perfectly in the loop.

Sensing Yan He’s aloofness, Li Qing paused for a brief second before quickly resuming her original smile. “This gala was hosted by my older sister. Since I had some free time, I tagging along with her to check it out.”

“Aren’t you going back inside to accompany Lu Youqing? Come to think of it, you and Lu Youqing must have been together for quite a while now, right?” The joy of reuniting with an old friend caused Li Qing to overlook Yan He’s array of anomalies. She walked over to stand beside Yan He, resting her hands on the railing as she gazed at the stars.

“Seven years?” she asked. In her memory, during the summer break right after their college entrance exams, Yan He had suddenly messaged their close-knit friend group saying she had news to share. It wasn’t until they gathered that they found out Yan He had entered a relationship.

“Seven years,” Yan He replied. Sensing that Li Qing hadn’t detected anything amiss, her tense heart slowly settled, and she turned her body to converse with her.

“To think so much time has already passed. To be honest with you, back then I truly believed you and Lu Youqing would end up breaking up. I even felt terribly wistful about it for several days. Looking at it now, I guess I was just overthinking things.” Li Qing let out a light chuckle, treating it as casual banter. Yet, the remark caused Yan He’s relaxed posture to suddenly go rigid, and the mellow atmosphere around them instantly turned heavy and solemn.

“Breaking up?” Yan He knit her brows, murmuring the words.

“Yeah. Right around the time you graduated from university, remember? I recall that even though I wasn’t in Qingcheng at the time, I still heard about it.” As she spoke, Li Qing suddenly registered the heavy, suffocating atmosphere around them. Realizing she had grown too relaxed and spoken out of turn, she hurriedly added,

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.” No matter how one looked at it, that argument back then had been quite severe, and bringing it up at a moment like this was entirely inappropriate.

Yan He’s knit brows didn’t relax at Li Qing’s words; on the contrary, they furrowed deeper, her amber eyes turning incredibly dark.

A breakup? Did Lu Youqing and I actually break up during university? What on earth could have happened to drive us to a breakup? And Lu Youqing has never mentioned a single word about this to me.

Her head began to throb with a growing dizziness. She forced herself to try and awaken those sleeping memories, but she still couldn’t recall a single thing. A massive sense of absolute powerlessness instantly enveloped her, sinking her into a paranoid, desolate slump.

“Um… have you seen Miss Wu Yu recently?”

Hearing a familiar name from her memories, Yan He’s spiraling thoughts were slowly pulled back. She looked at Li Qing. “Wu Yu?”

Seeing that the suffocating aura around Yan He had eased slightly, Li Qing let out a quiet sigh of relief and continued, “Neither my sister nor I can get in touch with her. You’re her best friend, so I figured she might come back to find you. If you do know where she is, you don’t have to tell me. She has her reasons for hiding from my sister. I just want to know how she’s doing lately.”

Thinking about how Li Wenqiu had spent the past few months flying all over the world day and night in search of her, to the point of absolute physical and mental exhaustion, Li Qing let out a soft sigh.

“I don’t know where she is either.” Yan He’s phone, along with her original SIM card, had been completely destroyed in the car accident, leaving her with no way to contact Wu Yu. She could only offer her absolute powerlessness regarding the matter.

Hearing this, Li Qing lowered her eyes slightly. “Thank you for telling me anyway. By the way, let’s exchange contact info so we can keep in touch more often…”

“A-He!” A soft call shattered the air, drawing both of their attention and causing Li Qing’s unfinished sentence to dissolve completely back into her throat.

Both turned their heads simultaneously, catching sight of Lu Youqing standing against the light by the doorway. Her elegant gown outlined the perfect, slender curve of her waist as she lifted her skirt and walked toward them.

As she drew near, she finally shifted her focus onto Li Qing standing beside Yan He, offering a polite nod.

“Miss Li, CEO Li is waiting for you inside,” she said, her voice entirely void of warmth.

Hearing this, Li Qing looked through the narrow doorway toward the magnificent, glittering grand hall, where glasses clinked and chatter echoed relentlessly. She hurriedly bid them farewell. “Then I’ll take my leave first. May fate bring us together again.”

With that, she walked away, leaving only Yan He and Lu Youqing alone on the narrow balcony. It grew so quiet that one could hear the wind rustling through the branches.

“Is it over?” Yan He moved to Lu Youqing’s other side, effectively blocking the oncoming cold wind for her.

Lu Youqing: “Mm. It’s freezing out here, let’s head back.” She took hold of Yan He’s hand, their palms brushing to transfer an emotion that neither chose to voice aloud.

“Okay.”

During the latter half of the gala, Yan He continued to trail behind Lu Youqing. However, compared to before, she had completely lost the heart to socialize. She simply stood by Lu Youqing’s side, drinking when a toast was required and smiling when a smile was due, her entire focus anchored completely upon the words Li Qing had shared with her.

It lasted until the gala concluded and she sat beside Lu Youqing in the car on the return journey. She remained brooding, her brows knit in deep thought. She was waiting—waiting for Lu Youqing to proactively ask what she and Li Qing had discussed, so she could smoothly ask about her doubts.

Yet, whether Lu Youqing truly didn’t care or had simply forgotten, she merely sat beside her, idly playing with her fingers without speaking a word. The slight ticklish sensation in her palm only magnified the confusion in Yan He’s heart.

Left with no choice, Yan He spoke up first.

“Did I… know Li Qing before?”

Hearing this, Lu Youqing finally released the fingertips she had toyed with until they were flushed red. Concealing the satisfied smile on her lips, she lifted her eyes to look at her. “An old high school classmate. What’s wrong? Did she say something to you?”

Yan He bit her lip. “She said… we broke up once during my university years. Is that true?”

Just as she uttered the sentence, the car happened to plunge into a tunnel, plunging their surroundings into a sudden darkness. It was during this brief fraction of a second that she missed the pitch-black, heavy gloom that completely consumed Lu Youqing’s eyes.

Lu Youqing offered no verbal response. She simply lowered her gaze, putting on an utterly crestfallen, heartbroken expression. Seeing this, Yan He’s heart fell into a chaotic panic. Instantly realizing that she had caused Lu Youqing to recall agonizing memories, she quickly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to know if what Li Qing said was true. If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t. Stop thinking about it.” She relentlessly offered comforting words to Lu Youqing, her hand gently stroking her back.

“Is A-He blaming me? Because I didn’t share this matter with you, because I concealed the fact that we used to fight.” Lu Youqing rested her head against Yan He’s chest, her voice muffled. The incredibly expensive evening gown Yan He wore was soon dampened by a patch of cool tears, the chill sinking straight into the depths of her heart.

“How could I?” Yan He said hurriedly. “You didn’t tell me surely because you didn’t want me to recall such sorrowful things so soon. Even if we did fight back then, aren’t we still together right now?” After a flurry of reassuring arguments, she had actually managed to convince herself.

Lu Youqing lifted her eyes within her embrace, her pupils shimmering with starlight from her recent tears, appearing as beautiful as a flawless, fragile black gemstone.

“Really?” Her voice still carried a heavy sob as her hands gripped Yan He’s arms tightly, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Yan He raised her hand to cradle the back of her neck, letting her rest securely against her chest.

Cradled submissively in her arms, listening to the rhythmic thumping of Yan He’s heart, Lu Youqing spoke slowly. “We did fight. We spoke of breaking up because back then, I had just started working and went a long time without paying attention to A-He. A-He assumed I didn’t love you anymore, which is why you said the words. Once we talked it out, we naturally reconciled.”

“So that’s what happened,” Yan He murmured.

“Bad A-He,” Lu Youqing said, as if recalled the events of that time, giving Yan He a firm swat. “You truly scared me to death back then. You aren’t allowed to speak of breaking up; I hate hearing it.”

The sole reason she had entered the entertainment industry was because Yan He had been far too popular in university, and she wanted to capture more of Yan He’s attention. She had explicitly thrown herself into the industry for Yan He’s sake; how could she possibly not love her?

Leaning against Yan He’s heart, her long lashes fluttered, seemingly trying to mask the chaotic panic churning in her chest. She extended her arms to hold Yan He tighter, desperate to siphon the warmth from her body.

She had to count her blessings. Tonight, Yan He had run into Li Qing—who shared virtually no intersection with their lives—rather than Wu Yu. Li Qing knew absolutely nothing, but Wu Yu…

Lu Youqing’s arms tightened their embrace once more. Yan He’s embrace felt like a salvation, yet it felt even more like a cage, carrying Lu Youqing as she plummeted continuously toward an abyss. She found herself increasingly incapable of doing without Yan He, and increasingly terrified of Yan He discovering those truths. Yet, Yan He would recover her memories sooner or later; the reality she desperately hoped for would inevitably shatter. It was an entirely unresolvable equation.

Behind her lay a bottomless abyss that she could never bridge. The lies she had spoken now acted like heavy shackles binding her tight. Looking into Yan He’s pure, innocent eyes, she suddenly realized just how pathetic of a coward she actually was—to the point where even a completely unrelated outsider was enough to send her into a total panic, terrified that Yan He might remember something.

Lu Youqing closed her eyes tightly, her body shivering violently out of sheer terror. Yan He, entirely oblivious to the truth, simply assumed Lu Youqing was freezing because she wore too little fabric. She quickly draped her coat over her shoulders, asking softly if she wanted some hot water.

Lu Youqing lifted her head to look at her, the overlapping lights and shadows reflecting across her exquisite face, and buried herself back into Yan He’s chest.

“It’s so cold. If A-He holds me, I won’t be cold anymore.” Using the cold as a pretext, she clutched Yan He tightly, as if truly siphoning warmth. Yet, her heart remained frozen solid, completely incapable of being warmed. Yan He obediently followed her request, wrapping her entire being around Lu Youqing. It truly felt as though she would execute absolutely anything Lu Youqing demanded; she was so incredibly good.

Yan He’s mind spun relentlessly, her chest feeling so tightly squeezed by a giant hand that breathing became difficult. She lingeringly held Yan He, closing her eyes tightly within her embrace.

I only hope Li Wenqiu can find Wu Yu as soon as possible. I only hope Yan He can be as slow as humanly possible in recovering her memories.