Pretending To Have Amnesia - Chapter 9

The heater was on inside the car, making it warm and toasty.

He Mu lay sideways on the back seat with her eyes closed. She turned over and nearly rolled off.

She gave a soft hum, opened her eyes, and realized her surroundings had changed. Her head cleared a little. Like a little cat, she widened her eyes, arched her body, and sat up warily.

When she saw that Mu Qingran was the one driving, half her heart settled.

“There’s water under the seat,” Mu Qingran said.

He Mu glanced at the rearview mirror and met Mu Qingran’s gaze.

“Why am I in your car?”

Mu Qingran did not speak.

He Mu did not count on Mu Qingran answering her question either. She rubbed her temples, and fragments of memory from before she blacked out flashed through her mind. It seemed she had called Mu Qingran.

—“Miss, are you available for the night? I have plenty of money!”

She remembered throwing herself onto Mu Qingran at the bar and saying those words.

He Mu covered her eyes with her right hand and let out a long breath.

Embarrassing herself was not a big deal. But embarrassing herself in front of Mu Qingran made her want to jump out of the car!

“I accidentally drank too much. Calling you was an accident,” He Mu said. “You can pull over now. I don’t need you to—”

“You should be glad you woke up in my car and not in some unknown alley!” Mu Qingran gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, trying hard to suppress her anger.

He Mu was still a little dizzy. Being scolded for no reason while she already felt awful made grievance rise in her heart, and she said in a fit of pique, “I’m not a child. Besides, Qin Xin was there too. It’s not like anyone would’ve died!”

Mu Qingran’s voice was icy. “Perhaps you would rather wake up in some stranger’s bed.”

Anger surged in He Mu’s heart. “Yes. I went to the bar today just to have a one-night stand with some stranger. At least they wouldn’t complain that my technique is bad!”

Mu Qingran gave a cold laugh. “Then I truly apologize.”

He Mu stared at Mu Qingran’s face in the rearview mirror, her eyes like two balls of fire, wanting to burn through her mask.

“You’re angry.”

Mu Qingran’s face returned to calm, and the corners of her lips curved slightly. “I’m not a robot nanny. Any normal person would be angry after putting down what they were doing late at night to pick up a drunkard, wouldn’t they?”

“You didn’t have to come.” He Mu’s jaw tightened. “When I woke up, I wouldn’t have remembered such a small thing as calling you.”

“I didn’t know President He’s standards for a mistress were this low.”

He Mu did not want to speak anymore. She opened the window, and only the sound of wind remained in the car.

From the past to the present, Mu Qingran always made her confused and led her to misunderstand at the moments when she should least give her hope.

If she did not care at all, why put on that angry expression?

They had known each other for far too long. The traces Mu Qingran had left in her life were everywhere. With the slightest trigger, the floodgates of memory would open.

The first time she got drunk, Mu Qingran seemed to have been like this too. Very fierce. Even though He Mu had also felt terribly wronged…

“He Mu, you lost.” A classmate handed over a cup.

He Mu frowned. “Didn’t we say that if I lost, I’d drink a soft drink?”

The female classmate with a ponytail said, “Everyone else is drinking alcohol. If you’re the only one drinking soft drinks, isn’t that too unfair?”

He Mu shook her head. “I’m not an adult yet.”

“Look around. Who here is an adult? When my family has gatherings, even my uncles drink with me!” another boy wearing glasses said.

He Mu had just been about to speak when a girl beside her, with makeup on and straight bangs, smiled and said, “She’s a good little kid. If her daddy and mommy find out she drank alcohol, they’ll spank her!”

“All right, if you won’t drink, then don’t. But maybe Student He Mu shouldn’t join the rest of the games afterward?” The ponytailed girl’s tone sounded like she was discussing it, but in action, she had already shifted some distance away from He Mu and sat closer to the classmates who were drinking, making it more convenient for the next game.

The girl with straight bangs picked up the glass cup and drank the beer inside in one go, then raised her brows at He Mu provocatively.

At fourteen or fifteen, they were at an age when everyone loved competing and refusing to lose. He Mu also had a personality that disliked being outdone. She immediately rolled up her sleeves, picked up a cup full of beer from the table, and downed it in one gulp.

He Mu’s pretty brows scrunched tightly together. She covered her mouth loosely with one hand, sticking out half her tongue, wanting to drive away the bitter and astringent taste on the tip of it.

So awful!

“Whoa! Cool!” The surrounding classmates burst into cheers.

After graduating from junior high, the boys and girls who had endured three years of pressure finally had a brief chance to breathe. During the holidays, they took the opportunity to go to karaoke every few days, singing and drinking to prove they were no longer children who needed to be protected under the wings of their parents and teachers.

He Mu had not liked this kind of gathering in the first place. The reason she had gone out today was because she had pestered Mu Qingran for a very long time before Mu Qingran finally agreed to accompany her to watch the newly released Avengers. But after He Mu waited at the cinema entrance for half an hour, Mu Qingran called and said something had come up at school and she could not make it.

He Mu did not want to go home without doing anything. As it happened, she received an invitation from her classmates, so she came here.

They were playing a guessing game called “Five, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty.” Whoever lost had to drink as punishment.

It was He Mu’s first time attending this kind of gathering, and she had no experience playing the game. She kept losing. After finishing the first cup, there was a second, then a third, then a fourth… Somehow, it no longer tasted that bad.

Before long, she felt a little floaty, and the people she looked at had started to blur into double images.

With the ponytailed girl supporting her, He Mu staggered along the street. It was nighttime, and there were few pedestrians on the road. The old streetlights made a crackling electric sound.

She did not know when the gathering had ended. She only knew that she felt very dizzy and very sleepy.

“He Mu, I’ve liked you for a long time. Be my girlfriend?” A boy with wheat-colored skin and a sports headband blocked the two girls’ path with both hands in his pockets, smiling with a roguish air.

“Oh! Big Brother confessed! As brothers, we have to support the scene, don’t we?”

Several delinquent-looking boys swarmed over noisily.

“She’s drunk. If there’s anything you want to say, wait until she wakes up,” the ponytailed girl said, her voice trembling. These boys were infamous troublemakers at school. Normally, even at school, she walked around them. She had not expected to run into them here.

The boy with the headband smiled and came closer. “You’re pretty good-looking too. See if there’s anyone among my brothers you like. Your friend has someone now, so we can’t leave you lonely.”

“It’s too late. We have to go home.” The ponytailed girl was almost crying.

“How about this? Hand your friend over to me, and I’ll let you leave. How’s that?”

He Mu only felt that her ears were full of buzzing sounds. It was very noisy, and her body felt soft and limp.

It would be nice if there were a bed nearby.

“He Mu, I’m sorry.” The ponytailed girl bit her lip, let go of the hand supporting He Mu, took a few steps back, then turned and fled.

“Big Brother, Sister-in-law is too pretty. After you’re done enjoying yourself, don’t forget us brothers!”

“Fine. Once I’m tired of playing with her, you can do whatever you want!”

“Thank you, Big Brother!”

“Let go.”

He Mu seemed to hear Mu Qingran’s voice, as if in a dream. It was hazy and blurred, impossible to hear clearly.

“Who are you?”

“Let go.”

If voices had temperature, then those two words radiated a coldness capable of freezing a person’s limbs.

“Mind your own business, you stinking woman!” The thug’s anger turned into a smile. “Or do you want to have some fun too?”

But his smugness lasted less than a second before the smile on his face froze.

Something icy pressed against his throat.

The sharp tip of a blade pierced through his skin, and tiny beads of blood slowly seeped out.

A pale, slender hand held the most ordinary utility knife used for cutting paper. Fine veins rose on the back of that hand.

The owner of the hand did not say another word. Her gaze alone made people tremble in terror.

These boys were still only junior high students. Normally, they only used their fists to scare people and had never truly seen blood. Suddenly encountering a woman like a demon from hell, they were frightened out of their wits. To hell with big brothers and brotherhood—one by one, they ran faster than rabbits.

The headband boy, now left alone, licked his dry lips and said shakily, “I-I’m a good man who doesn’t fight women. Today… today, I’ll let you off!”

After saying that, he carefully retreated a few steps, then turned and ran. He failed to watch his footing and even tripped over a stone, tumbling once before scrambling up in panic and continuing to flee.

The young girl, inexperienced in the ways of the world, knew nothing of the danger around her. Dazed and muddled, she was stuffed into a taxi.

When she opened her eyes again, she was sitting limply on the bathroom floor.

Cold water struck her face, making her instantly sober.

Sister stood beneath the cold white light with a dark expression, holding the showerhead that sprayed water. She was like a god holding a scepter and passing judgment on a sinner.

…

History always repeated itself, just as it had ten years ago.

He Mu was seized by Mu Qingran’s wrist and thrown into the bathroom. Unable to steady herself, she sat down on the floor.

The hem of her white shirt had been pulled out from her jeans, wrinkled beyond recognition.

While rubbing her backside and sucking in a breath, He Mu looked up and said, “Mu Qingran! What is wrong with you?”

The moment her voice fell, the circular showerhead above her sprayed water. Like a string of pearls that had snapped, it crashed fiercely onto her face.

Mist rose.

Her god stood in the light.