Chapter 165: Miss, Would You Like to See a Movie Together?

Unable to overrule Murong Shanshan, I could only brace myself and walk over to that girl, sitting down awkwardly.

The young lady merely glanced at me in surprise, ignored me, and continued eating her meal.

I racked my brains, finally coming up with n different ways to strike up a conversation—

"Pardon me, is this seat taken? May I sit here?"

The girl did not look up, but smiled—to be precise, the corners of her lips curved upward.

From afar came Murong Shanshan's grinding, teeth-gnashing voice: "You idiot, you're already sitting down, why are you still saying such useless nonsense?"

I instantly felt embarrassed, craned my neck, and looked at the tomatoes and scrambled eggs in the girl's bowl: "Miss, those reds and greens in your bowl look so lovely. Can I order the exact same thing?"

The girl lowered her head and smiled again.

I was utterly speechless. After a moment, staring at the ring on her hand, I said, "Miss, your ring is so colorful and pretty. Is it Beijing Cloisonné?"

The girl stopped, because she had already finished her meal. She lowered her head, drew a facial tissue from her small handbag, carefully wiped her mouth, and then looked up at me, saying, "I'm finished. Would you like to take me to the movies?"

I was instantly frightened silly, sitting there in a daze for a long time without saying a word. The girl smiled slightly: "Then I'll be going. Goodbye!"

...

Until the girl walked out, I had still not recovered from the shock. Picking up girls could really be this effortless...

"Hey, stop staring. She's already far away." Murong Shanshan patted my shoulder, then suddenly asked with a serious expression, "Have you ever felt like you've seen this girl somewhere before?"

"Seen her? No way!"

Murong Shanshan thought for a moment, then suddenly realized with a flash of insight: "This girl seems to be that female thief named 'You Lan' who used to hang out with Romantic Young Master. Remember? We saw her at the first auction."

I carefully searched my memory but came up empty-handed, so I asked, "I've dealt with Romantic Young Master quite a few times, why haven't I ever seen this girl? In my impression, Romantic Young Master's subordinates were all men, and there basically shouldn't be any women."

"She definitely didn't show up later, but at the auction, she was definitely with Romantic Young Master. I'm certain of that."

I shook my head and said, "Stop thinking about it. Aren't you hungry? Hurry up and eat, I'll take you back later."

After finishing the meal, Murong Shanshan, still unsatisfied, dragged me into a nearby audiovisual shop. The boss was very enthusiastic and asked the beauty, "Miss, what kind of films are you looking for?"

Murong Shanshan glanced at the discs on the shelf and asked, "Do you have any new movies that are a bit special? I want genuine copies!"

"Yes, yes! These are hot new films that just came out!" The boss swiftly pulled a disc from the shelf. On the packaging box was a nearly naked woman biting into a juicy cherry. The film was titled *Cherry*. The boss's face was beaming as he introduced it: "This is a newly released masterpiece that can rival *Apple* from back in the day! It stars the popular actress Liu XX, and features many novel positions. Young people should all love her!"

How could Murong Shanshan have expected the boss to pull out such a film? Her face instantly flushed crimson, and she blurted out, "Who told you I wanted this kind of film? Do you have anything a bit more thrilling, but not that kind..."

The boss thought for a moment, and immediately took several discs from the shelf, saying, "These are pretty good. Horror films, very thrilling!"

Murong Shanshan weighed her options and finally decided to buy two of them. I took a look: one was a zombie movie, and the other was a Western horror film.

Stepping out of the audiovisual shop, I asked with some puzzlement, "Shanshan, weren't you scared half to death by the monsters in the game today? Why do you still want to watch this kind of horror movie?"

Murong Shanshan giggled and said, "It's different now. Aren't you here? With you keeping me company, what is there to be afraid of? You have no idea, living alone here is driving me crazy. If I don't watch something thrilling, I'll lose my mind."

I was speechless for a moment before saying, "You need to mentally prepare yourself. My own courage isn't particularly great either. If the movie is too terrifying, I might end up diving into your arms first."

"You wouldn't..."

...

Entering the door, I turned around and locked it. Murong Shanshan took some drinks into her bedroom and said with a smile, "Make yourself at home, there's only me here anyway."

I was instantly astonished and said, "Make myself at home? What's that supposed to mean? Are you hinting at something?"

Only then did Murong Shanshan realize her previous words had too much ambiguity. Her snow-white face instantly turned as red as a tomato. She glared at me and said, "What? Even if I were hinting, would you dare to pull any wild stunts?"

Seeing that she was about to blow her top, I quickly said, "Of course not. Didn't you want to watch a movie? Why don't you hurry up and turn on the computer?"

Murong Shanshan closed the bedroom door with a "bang" and said with a smile, "How can you watch a movie on a computer? The quality is too poor. It's much better to use a disc player."

Only then did I notice a thin, large-screen television in Murong Shanshan's room, with what looked like a compact projector placed on the floor beside it.

Murong Shanshan darted over lightly, turned on the television, inserted the discs, ran back all the way, grabbed a blanket to hug in her arms, leaned back against the head of the bed, and conveniently turned off the only light in the room.

I sat right beside her, the unique fragrance belonging to a young girl drifting over in waves. Murong Shanshan also seemed to be wearing some kind of light, sweet perfume, so I asked, "Shanshan, do you usually wear makeup?"

"Generally no, there's no time. If I'm going out to meet friends or taking photos, I might apply light makeup. Why? Why ask that?"

I gave a dry laugh and said, "Just curious."

Murong Shanshan curved the corners of her lips in a faint smile and asked, "Do you like girls who wear makeup or girls who don't?"

I hesitated for a moment and replied, "Generally speaking, if a girl is pretty enough, she looks fine without makeup. But women who wear light makeup give me a more refined temperament."

"Oh, I know."

"What do you know?"

Murong Shanshan smiled without answering, instead saying, "The movie is starting. I'm the one treating you to this, so you have to watch attentively~"

...

Half an hour later, Murong Shanshan had lost her smile. The plot in the movie was wonderful yet full of novelty, and most importantly, those zombies were simply too terrifying. China finally produced another great zombie director after the passing of Master Lam Ching-ying!

Murong Shanshan whispered, "Can we change the movie? This one is just too scary. How about watching *Crayon Shin-chan*?"

"No Japanese movies..."

"Then let's continue..."

Over an hour later, Murong Shanshan didn't even dare to drink water because she said if she drank too much, she wouldn't have the courage to go to the restroom at night.

When it was close to 11 o'clock, the zombie movie finally ended, and Murong Shanshan refused to watch the next one no matter what—she simply couldn't take it anymore.

I rubbed my somewhat aching lower back, looked at my watch, and said, "Shanshan, I should be heading back. Otherwise, Sister Lin and the others will think I've gone missing."

"That..." Murong Shanshan hesitated, leaving her words unspoken.

I turned my head and looked at her in surprise: "Is something the matter?"

Murong Shanshan bit her lower lip and whispered, "Could you... stay the night here today? I'm a little scared..."

I couldn't help laughing: "You silly girl, aren't you afraid of inviting a wolf into the house? I'm no upright gentleman. Aren't you afraid I'll make a mistake if you say things like that?"

"Afraid of what?" Murong Shanshan discarded her previous fragility, glared at me, and said, "There are two quilts in the next room. Tonight, you can make a floor bed right here in my room!"

I immediately raised an objection: "No way! The floor is too cold, I'll catch a cold!"

Murong Shanshan said with absolute confidence, "You won't. I'll turn up the air conditioning. Besides, there's a fairly thick mattress next door, just go bring it over."

Left speechless, I had no choice but to prepare my own bedding. When I brought the things over, I saw that Murong Shanshan had already changed her clothes and was holding her toiletries, ready to head into the bathroom: "Lin Fan, I'm going to take a shower. You can surf the net for a while before sleeping."

The bathroom was right next door. Before long, the sound of gushing water began to flow, setting off very wistful thoughts.

I turned on the computer, opened the official forum of *Yueheng*, and tried hard to focus my attention on the screen. Unfortunately, my disobedient ears seemed able to filter out all other noise; I could only clearly hear the faint sound of Murong Shanshan's shower, and my mind inevitably began to wander: If Xinyu were in Murong Shanshan's place right now, I估计 wouldn't be letting my imagination run so wild. Though her body held immense attraction for me, what moved me most about Xinyu was the lingering sorrow deep within her heart. Every time I saw her lonely expression, my heart ached. Once upon a time, she too was an adorable girl worthy of tender care...

As for Liu Xuehan, my feelings were likely more akin to admiration and cherishing. Her ice-snow intelligence was enough to stir any normal man, or else I wouldn't have recklessly shielded her back then.

As for Xu Lin, though she was an elegant and poised beauty, the pity was that for a whole year I had never seen her heart move for any man. I secretly guessed that either she too had been deeply hurt, or she might be a lesbian. Let's hope it's not the latter—that would truly be a waste.

Just as I was thinking this, the bedroom door suddenly pushed open with a "swish." I looked up and saw Murong Shanshan, just out of the shower, and was instantly struck dumb—

A cascade of wet, raven-black hair hung from her delicate shoulders, glistening with crystal droplets. Her snow-white face seemed to be coated with a layer of holy radiance under the light. Her large, beautiful eyes carried a faint mist, and her long eyelashes fluttered up and down like a tiny brush, causing a sudden suffocation of breath.

None of this was everything—after all, spending these days with Murong Shanshan, I had seen her beautiful face often enough to be practically immune. Yet, Murong Shanshan's attire at this moment made my heart leap in panic: a rather narrow bath towel tightly wrapped around her exquisite body, slightly crowded at the chest where her full, upright breasts were on the verge of bursting free. From her slender waist down, her plump, rounded hips seemed about to split the towel apart, and her two plump, snow-white thighs were exceptionally alluring. For a moment, my throat went dry and I was utterly lost in a trance.