Chapter 52: Midnight Terror

Luo Qing cast a glance at me, curled her lip, and then, with a mischievous grin, pressed the play button.

As the eerie music began to play, the film officially started. I couldn't help but shiver. Did every horror movie really have to establish such a gloomy atmosphere right from the opening?

The screen opened on a large gate. Once it opened, it revealed an ordinary two-story house. The place was deserted. Following the camera, our gaze scanned through each room in sequence. As the names of the lead actor and director appeared one after another, the scene shifted into a small attic and then froze.

Drawing on my years of experience sharing horror movies with friends, I knew a jump scare was imminent.

I quickly squeezed my eyes shut. As expected, within a few seconds, the sound effects intensified, and a woman's scream echoed through the room...

"Trying to play me like that? You're still too green," I thought, smiling to myself as I slowly opened my eyes. I was startled to find a pair of large eyes right in front of me. Luo Qing was inches away, staring at me face-to-face, her beautiful eyes filled with blatant disdain.

"Let's get this straight: regardless of whether the movie is good or not, you are not allowed to try and scare me," I said, preemptively setting a boundary. This girl had too many tricks up her sleeve; if she caught me off guard and spooked me, my battered heart really couldn't take it.

"Pfft. And you said you weren't scared. Why close your eyes then?" Luo Qing returned to her original position and went back to watching the movie.

"You weren't looking either, were you? Otherwise, how would you know I closed my eyes?" I retorted weakly, turning my gaze back to the computer screen.

As the plot unfolded, I gradually found myself drawn in. I realized this wasn't just a film intended solely to shock the audience. There were many details worth pondering, along with dialogue and actions that felt cryptic. It seemed to have a suspenseful layer. Once I realized that, I perked up, watching more closely, analyzing every plot point, and feeling either anticipation or sorrow in sync with the protagonist's actions.

"Ah..."

Just as I was completely absorbed, a scream pierced the air like a thunderclap, crashing into my slightly numbed brain. I instinctively recoiled, only to see Luo Qing covering her mouth, laughing happily. In the darkness, her red hair shimmered under the glow of the screen, stirring a flicker of anger in my already startled heart.

"Do you find this amusing?" I demanded, annoyed, of Luo Qing, who was trying her best to suppress her laughter.

"I think it's pretty fun," she said after a moment, putting away her smile and looking at me with an innocent expression. "The atmosphere was too oppressive, so I was just trying to lighten the mood a little."

"With your way of 'lightening the mood,' I’ll be scared to death by you sooner or later." I got off the bed in dissatisfaction. "You watch it yourself. I can't watch this movie anymore."

"Stingy. Getting angry over a little joke." Luo Qing followed me off the bed. I headed toward the kitchen, and she picked up some trash from the table, followed me in, and tossed it into the bin. She added, "Don't be mad. Have a cigarette and cool off."

Actually, that was exactly what I had been thinking. But since I had decided not to smoke indoors, I had to keep my word. This led me to stand in the kitchen with the balcony door open to cool down.

"You're the one who suggested it," I said.

Luo Qing didn't disappoint me; she walked into the room, pulled a pack of women's cigarettes from her bag, and handed it to me.

Looking at the familiar pack, I felt an indescribable ache. Once, she had bought me a carton of these, hoping to help me quit smoking. Now, encountering them again under these circumstances—it was a classic case of things remaining the same while people change.

I clamped the cigarette in my mouth. Before I could find a lighter, Luo Qing had already produced one, flicked it to life, and leaned in toward me. I watched her silently, bowing my head slightly to light the cigarette, and muttered, "Thanks."

Luo Qing ignored my gratitude entirely. She pulled out a cigarette for herself, mimicked my action of holding it in her mouth, and then shoved the lighter into my hand.

"What are you doing?" I didn't know what game she was playing now.

Luo Qing didn't speak; she just pointed at the lighter and then tapped the tip of her cigarette.

Baffled, I lit the flame and copied her, leaning in to light her cigarette. For a moment, the kitchen was filled with smoke under the moonlight, like a dance floor that had just opened—hazy and permeated with a faint, smoky mist.

I took a deep drag and looked at Luo Qing. She was smoking, staring out the balcony window as if lost in thought.

"Have you been smoking lately?" I leaned against the empty wall of the kitchen, watching the distracted girl, and asked softly.

Luo Qing heard me, looked up to meet my eyes, and nodded without a word.

"Why?" I pressed.

This time, Luo Qing didn't give me any verbal response. She just exhaled a puff of smoke, turned around, and began to walk back. "The cigarette's lit now, so stop being angry. Come back and watch the movie."

I took one last deep drag, snuffed out the cigarette, tossed the butt in the trash, and returned to the bedroom. Luo Qing was already in her seat, staring at the screen with intense concentration—I couldn't tell if she was truly engrossed or just zoning out.

"Don't smoke anymore in the future. It doesn't look good for a girl to smoke. People might mistake you for a delinquent."

"What's wrong with being a delinquent?"

"I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. But you're a classic 'white, rich, and beautiful' girl. If you break these bad habits, you'd be a goddess to everyone, definitely the target of every 'tall, rich, and handsome' man's pursuit."

"Mind your own business," Luo Qing snapped, suddenly angry. "Are you going to watch or not?"

I reluctantly sat down next to Luo Qing. I noticed that a small section of the plot had been skipped, so I had to ask her to rewind it. She still seemed to be sulking and, without a word, just skipped it back to the beginning.

"It's a waste to let you watch this movie," I said, waving my hand and lying back on the bed, ignoring her.

"Yang Chen, what do you mean by that? What's a 'waste'?" Luo Qing stood up and pointed at me, shouting. "Don't play dead. Get up."

"Fine. Then tell me, what story is this movie telling? What are the protagonist and his family running around doing?" I sat up, looking at the furious Luo Qing. "If you can answer that, then it wasn't a waste."

As soon as I asked, Luo Qing was rendered speechless. Her fair finger tapped her lips as if she were trying to recall the plot. After waiting a while, she still couldn't answer a single question.

"I told you," I said, lying back down on the bed and staring at the pitch-black ceiling. I wondered if I would be heading back to the cold drink shop tomorrow. Should I continue with the old management style? Or should I follow Yang Xiaoyu's approach—putting ideals and pursuits aside, prioritizing profit above all else, and maximizing publicity and earnings?

"Who says I can't answer..." Luo Qing looked at my lazy demeanor and said indignantly, "It's a ghost movie. They're catching ghosts."

I looked at the earnest-looking Luo Qing and couldn't help but burst into laughter. "You thought about it for ages and that's all you've got? Even without watching, I knew that much. Ghost movies are either about catching ghosts or getting caught by them."

"Oh, look at you, acting so smart. You tell me then, what is this movie about?" Luo Qing, feeling challenged, climbed onto the bed and stared into my eyes at close range, as if she would make me pay if I couldn't answer.

I cleared my throat and said, "This story seems to be about the protagonist's family, but it's actually using the strange events happening to the little boy to let us understand the backstory. In other words, this horror film actually has two narrative threads: one about the little boy and one about the protagonist. Furthermore, the point of this film lies in concealment and speculation. When a ghost possesses a person, it inherits that person's memories along with its own—what fantasy novels call 'body snatching'."

"And then?" Luo Qing seemed intrigued, lying down beside me, urging me to continue.

"How would I know what happens next? You skipped the whole thing."

"My fault, is it?"

"Would I dare blame you? ...I’ve already given up on this movie anyway."

Luo Qing crawled to the edge of the bed and skipped the movie back to the point where we had gone out to smoke.

"Let's keep watching. You've piqued my interest now."

"I'm not watching."

"Come on." As she spoke, Luo Qing grabbed my hand and tried to pull me up, but her strength was limited, and she couldn't move me an inch. "Watch it with me. It's no fun watching it alone."

Unable to resist Luo Qing's mix of soft and hard tactics, I sat back down next to her and continued to study what I considered to be an excellent film. And indeed, with my reminder, Luo Qing began to watch it seriously. She stopped joking around, staring fixedly at the screen, as if she didn't want to miss a single frame.

Seeing Luo Qing like this, a thought suddenly crossed my mind to get back at her. As the plot deepened, the background music became increasingly eerie. Just as the music reached its climax, I leaned toward her ear and suddenly shouted, "Ya!" at the top of my lungs.

"Ah..." Startled by my sudden scare, Luo Qing screamed and knocked the laptop over. The expensive computer hit the floor with a crash. Just as I was about to mock her for being a coward, Luo Qing suddenly lunged at me and buried herself in my arms.

Feeling the warmth in my embrace, I looked down at the trembling Luo Qing huddled in front of me and couldn't help but feel astonished. Did the 'Heroine Luo' have a side like this? Even when facing vicious thugs, I hadn't seen her this scared. Could it be that the fearless Heroine Luo... was afraid of these intangible things?

I instinctively wanted to push her away, but the moment my hand touched her trembling shoulder, my heart fluttered. An inexplicable feeling suddenly enveloped me, just like that feeling from the past... the feeling of being in love.