Chapter 76 Chapter 76: Collapse, Confusion, Pain (Bonus Chapter For Xunyin Lingtu)
Chapter 76: Collapse, Confusion, Pain (Bonus Chapter For Xunyin Lingtu)
She no longer controlled her emotions; tears welled from her eyes. One hand clutched the fabric over her chest, her hair disheveled.
“Ye Liang, must you force me like this?!”
Her trembling voice was no longer calm, but filled with suppressed roars, “You tell me to choose, you tell me to choose! Do I have a choice? What can I choose besides accepting Xiaocheng?!”
Su Tao smiled through her tears, “Just like you said, she’s a yandere, very dangerous, and I know that. But what do you want me to do? Abandon Xiaocheng? Or ignore her? Or perhaps send her to a mental asylum?”
“Ye Liang, originally, if we had just broken ties, it would have been fine. In the future, if we met, we could still be strangers who nod in passing. And if you ever had trouble, as long as it didn’t endanger Xiaocheng, perhaps I could even help.”
“But why must you force me!”
“Must I choose between her and you?!”
Su Tao’s chest rose and fell ceaselessly; large gasps of cold air filled her lungs, making her incredibly uncomfortable. Her body trembled uncontrollably, unsure of what it was she feared.
Yes, it would have been enough to simply break ties in front of Xiaocheng. Afterwards, with less contact, they could have remained ordinary friends, like passersby.
If it had been Si Chen or Dongfang Yang, perhaps they would have understood the meaning behind Su Tao’s words.
But Ye Liang, still acting with the same coercive manner, pointed at Chi Xiaocheng and said, “Why can’t you choose? Whether a yandere can be cured is beside the point. I have money, I have resources; I can hire professional psychologists to diagnose and treat her. If you care about her, I can help you with that too.”
“You never believed in me in the first place, so how could you possibly choose me!”
Su Tao let out a hollow laugh. “How can you expect me to believe you?”
“How many times have you said such things in front of me? ‘If it weren’t for me stopping them,’ ‘It’s just me giving face,’ ‘If it weren’t for me, Chi Xiaocheng would have disappeared long ago.’ Do you even remember how many times you’ve said things like that?”
“Are you trying to say this is for my own good?”
“You like me, but you constantly manipulate me like this, constantly using Xiaocheng to pressure me?”
Ye Liang waved his hand dismissively. “I did not!”
Su Tao roared, “Then what you just said, about keeping Xiaocheng here forever, was that fake too?!”
“The way you reached for that knife, you looked truly pathetic.”
“A grown man, the Princeling of the Capital’s Ye family, a CEO worth hundreds of millions, developed a murderous intent because he couldn’t stand a little girl?”
Su Tao’s voice turned cold. “Forget it, Ye Liang. If I had a choice, between you and Chi Xiaocheng, I still wouldn’t choose you!”
The words were out, irrevocably. Past memories and sentiment, too, were severed with Su Tao’s cold laugh.
If her previous words had merely been about breaking ties in front of Chi Xiaocheng, implying there might still be a chance for private contact, then now, Su Tao was severing all ties with Ye Liang completely!
Rage, in Ye Liang, was extinguished by Su Tao’s words. He laughed aloud, a dazed, disbelieving sound. “You have no choice, just because Chi Xiaocheng is a yandere?”
She’s crazy, so she gets all the favoritism?
Su Tao shook her head, her gaze on Ye Liang devoid of any remaining goodwill or lingering affection. “I told you this at the banquet before, didn’t I? Xiaocheng and I grew up together; she’s my one and only. Why do you think that after accompanying me for four or five months, you could replace her?”
She is irreplaceable!
“Moreover, I’ve always just considered you a friend.”
With another cold, cutting remark, Ye Liang’s pain finally twisted into laughter. And then, he became somewhat deranged.
“Haha... hahaha!”
“So all of this... was just my wishful thinking.”
“I’m not even as good as Chi Xiaocheng?”
“I’m actually not as good as Chi Xiaocheng!”
Ye Liang took a step forward, and the snow beneath his feet seemed to melt away. His eyes were bloodshot, a premonition that he was about to turn dark.
“Su Tao, you don’t actually believe that a mere, flimsy declaration of broken ties can absolve you of everything, do you?”
Ye Liang stood before Su Tao, looking down imperiously at her and Chi Xiaocheng in her arms. His smile was an unreadable mix of self-mockery and something like release. “I’ve spent so much on you, invested so much in you, you’ve been leading me on all this time, and now you tell me you want to break ties?”
“How will you compensate me for the reputation, money, and connections I, Ye Liang, have sacrificed!”
His aura grew dark and turbulent, looking as though he was on the verge of snapping and turning malevolent from sheer breakdown.
Su Tao clutched the already unconscious Chi Xiaocheng tighter. Her hand, hidden beneath her sleeve, trembled, making her teeth chatter as she said, “Ye Liang, what exactly do you mean?”
“Ten million!”
“Wh-what?”
Ye Liang gave a sinister grin. “Several banquets, the people I invited, all went up in smoke because of you and Chi Xiaocheng. Do you know how much that cost? At least ten million, wouldn’t you say?”
“If you don’t pay back this ten million, do you think I’ll let you go? Or are you two ordinary people really going to try and oppose me, Ye Liang, and oppose the Ye family?”
Ye Liang covered his face with one hand and laughed maniacally. The feeling of flipping the table... it was truly liberating!
Watching Su Tao press her lips together, her expression one of anguish and turmoil, Ye Liang couldn’t help but feel a surge of pleasure. This Jiuzhou City is the domain of my Ye family!
However, just as he thought victory was assured, a voice carried from afar.
“Isn’t it just ten million? I’ll pay it for them!”
Ye Liang sharply lifted his head, only to see a one-armed man, covered in knife scars, slowly approaching. The man’s face was grim. His muscular body seemed to hold immense strength; with every step, the snow beneath his feet melted a fraction. Beside him were several other men, dressed like thugs, their faces likewise scarred.
“Who are you?”
Ye Liang, still acting with arrogant swagger, walked towards the one-armed man, scoffing, “Do you even know that this Jiuzhou City belongs to me, Ye Liang?!”
The man’s face remained grim. Veins bulged on his sole remaining right arm as a swift, heavy punch landed hard on Ye Liang’s abdomen. The tall, grown man vomited bile into the air, splattering the ground, and was sent flying a full ten meters!
Chi Song’s voice, still brimming with undiminished fury, declared, “I am their brother!”
Meanwhile, the bodyguards who had been enjoying the show only just managed to react. Just as they were about to charge over, they were knocked down by a single punch from Liang Hei, who had already struck first.
But at that moment, several cars pulled up, and the bodyguards Ye Liang had called earlier also arrived just then.
Chi Song clenched his fist and gestured to the men behind him. “Dare to harm my little sister? Leave them all here!”
Chi Song came to Su Tao’s side, his gaze suddenly softening. “Don’t worry, Xiaotao, I’ll protect you both.” Then his gentleness sharpened into a keen edge as he looked at Ye Liang, who was clutching his stomach, his face contorted in pain.
His fury burned intensely!
It seemed the arrival of the crowd had caused the surrounding temperature to rise.
Su Tao simply held Chi Xiaocheng quietly, not daring to touch the small knife embedded in her abdomen. Two lines of hot tears streamed down from her eyes once more. The screams of fists meeting flesh were ceaseless, but gradually faded into a roaring rumble, like an aftershock. Everything around her seemed to slow down, as if in slow motion.
The wind blew.
The snow grew heavier.
Su Tao lowered her head and reached out to caress Chi Xiaocheng’s delicate face, tears uncontrollably dripping onto her features. Her gaze was an unreadable mix of exhaustion and emptiness as she pressed her forehead against Chi Xiaocheng’s.
Su Tao’s voice was hoarse, her lips trembling, as she murmured in a whisper filled with confusion and fear.
“Xiaocheng, is this the choice you wanted, then? Is this what you wanted?”
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