After the Cannon Fodder A Accidentally Marked the Paranoid Female Lead - Chapter 21

The booth door opened, and Gu Xing, Zheng Jiaxin, and Yu Nuo walked out.

Ming Sian was standing right outside the door. As Gu Xing passed her, she suddenly stuffed a business card into her hand: “Contact me if you need.”

Ming Sian: “?”

Contact her for what? Looking at the card in her hand, she felt as if a gust of wind had blown a piece of filthy trash into her hand in a place where there were no trash cans—it felt wrong to throw it away, yet wrong to keep it.

Huo Qi walked outside and signaled for Ming Sian to go in, but Ming Sian quickly shook her head, indicating she wouldn’t enter.

He Yining rotated her chair, her gaze meeting Ming Sian’s, and issued an order: “Ming Sian, come in.”

“Go on in, otherwise it won’t be good if Lawyer He gets angry,” Huo Qi said with feigned nervousness, though her eyes were filled with the desire to watch the drama unfold.

Ming Sian shifted her feet, walking step by step toward the round table.

She looked back at Huo Qi with a pleading gaze: Come here, you come too!

Huo Qi shook her head; she wasn’t going in. Watching the show from the doorway was just fine.

However, He Yining gave her a chilling look, scaring her into closing the door immediately. Now, she couldn’t even watch the show.

Ming Sian: “…”

“Lawyer He.”

Team Leader Huo was truly too cowardly; what on earth was she afraid of, leaving her alone with He Yining?

He Yining looked at the business card in her hand: “Throw it away.”

“Huh?”

Ming Sian dazed for a moment and was about to toss it—wait, why should she listen to He Yining?

For some reason, when He Yining spoke, it always made one want to obey instinctively.

“It’s a card someone handed to me; it wouldn’t be polite to throw it away, right?” She was relatively tactful.

He Yining tapped the table, signaling her to come closer. Ming Sian approached indifferently.

He Yining took the card from her hand. Using a lighter she had produced from nowhere, she set the card on fire. The flames flickered against her face, looking eerie yet enchanting.

Ming Sian raised an eyebrow. She didn’t actually mind that He Yining burned the card, but she said: “What, is Lawyer He jealous?”

When she got back to school, she definitely had to ask for advice on how to be a proper “bad woman.”

He Yining’s bright eyes narrowed slightly, creating a sense of pressure: “Is that not allowed?”

Her mind was full of the content from her dreams. Ming Sian should belong to her; whether there was love or not wasn’t important—what belonged to her should be held firmly in her hand.

The daily dreams were the process of her and Ming Sian getting to know and love each other. In the dreams, she fell in love with Ming Sian; in reality, she did not.

But why should she sink into the entanglement of whether she loved her or not? As long as Ming Sian belonged to her, that was enough.

In the plot of her dreams, Ming Sian was just like she was now, trying to flee from her side again and again. They fell for each other under the entanglement of fate—but why should she follow the script? She could just imprison Ming Sian by her side and stop her escape.

At first, He Yining only felt that Ming Sian’s existence might be exploited by certain people in the He family, so she signed a contract with her. As the dream plot progressed, she developed further ideas.

Hearing He Yining’s counter-question, Ming Sian didn’t know what to say.

She took a half-step back, thinking about how many seconds it would take to run from here to the door. He Yining probably wouldn’t have time to call her back.

But before she could move, He Yining suddenly stood up and stood right in front of her. Ming Sian was wearing flat shoes, making her slightly shorter than He Yining in high heels.

The booth was silent, without a trace of the loud music outside.

She hated it most when people looked down on her with a condescending gaze, so why did it feel a little… thrilling when He Yining looked at her like this?

Ming Sian quickly took a step back: “What are you doing?”

She met He Yining’s gaze, looking into those spirited eyes. She straightened her back, but her heartstrings were inexplicably stirred; a numbing sensation made her body feel weak.

She swallowed subconsciously, a certain longing growing in her heart—it was the sweet scent of the cedar forest. A trace of heat rose in her body, her throat felt parched, and she desperately wanted a large glass of ice water.

He Yining approached step by step until Ming Sian’s calves hit the sofa.

He Yining still didn’t stop. Ming Sian tumbled back onto the sofa; the distance between them was simply too close.

When she showered tonight, she had changed into an ordinary suppressant patch. She thought she wouldn’t run into He Yining at night, but they were almost pressed together. She could clearly smell He Yining’s pheromones.

She felt her own pheromones surging slightly, like a breeze passing over water, causing ripples. It felt as if something was about to merge.

Now, He Yining was truly looking down on her, just a hair’s breadth away from kneeling on the sofa on one knee.

He Yining stopped her approach. She felt her glands swelling; she couldn’t get any closer, or she would be playing with fire.

“Don’t move,” He Yining ordered her sternly.

Ming Sian didn’t listen; she stood up to move to the side, but He Yining wasn’t joking. She suddenly pressed Ming Sian’s shoulder down with her hand and leaned down inch by inch.

An idiom appeared in Ming Sian’s mind: Ear and temple rubbing (intimate whispering).

Ming Sian subconsciously tilted her head to the side, but her chin was caught by He Yining: “Not obedient at all.”

Just as she thought He Yining was going to do something else, the other woman suddenly stood up and left. The fragrant wind brushed her face, taking away the fresh crispness and sweetness of the cedar. Disappointment? Emptiness? Perhaps both.

Ming Sian felt that the emotions appearing in her heart were simply absurd. She hurried to stand up from the sofa and fled toward the booth door in a panic.

“Ming Sian.”

He Yining suddenly called her. Ming Sian’s hand paused as she was about to pull the door handle, waiting for what came next.

“Are you afraid of me?”

No, she wasn’t afraid of He Yining; she was just afraid of the “plot kill.” In the novel’s plot, He Yining would kill her—even if she didn’t do it directly, she was the primary cause.

Actually, sinking the original host into the sea wasn’t He Yining’s doing; it was done by the so-called male lead, Wei Qin. Since many people thought the novel was a “Female Lead Only” story with no romance, they exploded when a male lead suddenly jumped out, and the comment section was overrun.

No one wanted to see a male lead in a “Queen” novel, even if he was just a tool. Later, the author was scolded until they stopped writing romance and simply finished the female lead’s career plot in a rush, so it was impossible to determine if Wei Qin was truly the male lead.

One could only say the author wanted to write it, but in the end, it was an open ending. However, most readers believed the male lead didn’t exist; their romantic scenes were so few it felt forced. Wei Qin expressed his admiration, but He Yining never did; at most, she just singled him out from the opposing forces.

Wei Qin was the partner the He family chose for He Yining, but she suspected he was a spy her uncle’s family wanted to plant by her side. Thus, she quickly found a partner—marrying the original host.

At that time, He Yining’s grandmother, the head of the He family, was seriously ill. Her requirement was for the eligible third generation of the He family to marry as soon as possible and ideally have children—especially He Yining. As for why she emphasized He Yining, Ming Sian didn’t know yet.

However, it was understandable why Grandma He did this. It was like many emperors choosing heirs; since the next generation was already set, they would look at the grandchildren—the future. And the young He Yining had once stated she wouldn’t marry or have children, which might have been one of the reasons.

To get the He family’s resources, He Yining thought she had no choice. In fact, her mother and her “mama” also wanted her to marry. They didn’t just go along with the grandmother’s request; they added fuel to the fire and began designing the trap.

That’s why He Yining wanted to find someone easy to control to marry; it was just a contract marriage, and they could separate later.

But she misjudged and was deceived by the original host, who wanted to be a “Phoenix Woman.” If she hadn’t awakened to the plot, she would have thought the original host was an honest person. After all, the original host played the part perfectly; even though she plotted much behind the scenes, her surface was always obedient. Also, He Yining’s energy was entirely on her career, so she never gave the original host a second glance.

The original host lured He Yining out to sea. At the critical moment, He Yining awakened to the plot, learned the original host’s true character, and used the ship’s signal channel to contact Wei Qin, who was also at sea, while simultaneously saving herself and leaving the ship.

Perhaps she knew that once Wei Qin boarded the ship, the original host’s death would be certain—but what of it?

Just as He Yining expected, Wei Qin boarded the ship alone to rescue her, knocked the original host unconscious with a wrench, tied heavy objects to her body, and sank her into the ocean.

The novel stated that Wei Qin had wanted to kill the original host for a long time. To be precise, he wanted to kill anyone in a close relationship with He Yining; he would have acted regardless of who it was.

Furthermore, He Yining fled alone because she didn’t want to see the scene of Wei Qin acting, nor did she want to owe him a favor. There is a big difference between predicting what someone will do and seeing it with your own eyes. She could refrain from acting for self-preservation, but staying on the ship would be a liability that could drag her into a public opinion crisis—leaving was the best choice.

Moreover, why did Wei Qin happen to appear at sea? It was too coincidental. She inevitably suspected that Wei Qin had known everything the original host was planning and was just waiting for an opportunity.

He Yining successfully escaped the crisis and even obtained leverage over Wei Qin’s crime.

Regardless, the original book had many inconsistencies. Initially, the author shaped He Yining’s “Queen” image well, until they wanted to write a male lead but feared being scolded, so they continued in the struggle of the “Female Lead” focus. Thus, the plot and characters were multi-faceted and full of internal conflict. He Yining changing from a career-focused female lead to a paranoid one was also for this reason.

However, none of that was the point. Ming Sian felt that who killed the original host wasn’t important—the original host deserved it anyway. But one thing was clear: as long as you got close to the female lead, the final outcome wouldn’t be good. Too many people coveted the female lead, and she had too many enemies; even if it wasn’t being sunk into the sea, there would be other disasters.

Mainly regarding the “plot kill,” Ming Sian didn’t think the novel’s logic was very reasonable, but since she was currently in the plot, she could be killed by it if she wasn’t careful.

Therefore, staying away from He Yining was still her primary goal.

He Yining said she was afraid of her. It wasn’t exactly fear; having lived twice, she had picked up an extra life—if she could live well, who would want to die?

Of course, she wasn’t afraid of death; the question was why and for whom she would die.

He Yining?

She’d have to be crazy to want to die for He Yining.

They are destined to take different paths.

[Author’s Note]

Ming Sian: I can’t withstand seduction.

He Yining: Me neither.