The Favored Heiress
Chapter 452: His Paranoia Seems to Have Flared Up

Chapter 452: Chapter 452: His Paranoia Seems to Have Flared Up

In less than five minutes, everyone at the scene had evacuated the lobby.

Tu Anliang stood on the steps, his gaze lingering greedily over every scene and object inside the nightclub.

At last, he bent over, leaning on the staircase railing, lowering his head and beginning to laugh to himself.

However, the laughter was hoarse and filled with bitterness.

Life, indeed, was bitter.

After that night, Athena Sleepless City announced it would close its doors for good.

Three days later, the building that housed Sleepless City was put up for sale, and for many years to come, no one in South Sea City saw a trace of Tu Anliang again.

On the way back, Li Qiao sat in the car, silent for a long time.

Shang Yu, sitting beside her, also looked out the window, his deep-set eyes casting heavy shadows, dark as the deep sea.

A column of cars sped past the main road of the old city district. Li Qiao leaned her head against the chair back, her gaze unfocused.

She hadn’t intended to truly help Tu Anliang, and even now, she wouldn’t say that she had.

After all, arranging for a native South Sea person to leave his land forever was actually quite cruel.

But what could he do if he didn’t leave?

South Sea no longer had a place for him.

Tu Anliang wasn’t fundamentally a great villain; born into the once wealthiest Tu Family, he had received very good family education since childhood.

It was only after the family fell into decline and he faced too much injustice that he became the ruffian he was today.

Li Qiao never imagined that Master Zhong Jiugong, the gold-medal mortician respected by everyone, would sell his teenage son to a business partner as a chattel for the sake of family interests.

At that time, the Tu Family was already on the decline, and perhaps he was trying to turn the tide, which is why he committed such an inhumane act.

Suddenly, Li Qiao understood why Jiugong chose to be a mortician.

Like her, he was atoning for his sins, accumulating virtue.

Perhaps he couldn’t truly accept the respect and praise from the world with a clear conscience, and only when facing those who had passed away could he find a semblance of peace in his soul.

No wonder, Tu Anliang had cut off his own wrist without hesitation, yet Jiugong still couldn’t bear to be too harsh, even going so far as to ask her to give Tu Anliang another chance.

She indeed couldn’t and shouldn’t get involved in such a father-son feud.

No one but Tu Anliang had experienced his suffering, so no one had the right to preach kindness to him.

The world always seems beautiful and vibrant, yet most human suffering grows wildly, hidden in corners invisible to the naked eye.

...

At the Royal Hotel, Li Qiao followed Shang Yu up to the suite they had been in the day before.

He Chen and others returned to the private dining room where they had gathered for a meal earlier and had the meal served again.

Earlier, when their meal was halfway through, Liuyun had suddenly come in, whispered something to Shaoyan and, without knowing what was said, Shaoyan threw his chopsticks down and strode out.

His expression was extremely grim, and on the short walk from the restaurant to the parking lot, he had summoned quite a number of people from the Mansion to rush towards South City’s Sleepless City.

He Chen and the others were clueless about what had happened and had only learned that Li Qiao had had a car accident when they asked. They promptly set their chopsticks down and followed.

At that moment, Qiu Huan picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it, and exhaled a relieved breath, "Fortunately, Li Qiao was unharmed tonight."

He knew what Li Qiao was capable of, but against a cornered Tu Anliang, no one could guarantee what he might do.

He Chen also took a cigarette, biting it at the corner of his mouth, yet not lighting it, his eyes and brow lowered in thought.

Gu Jin, sitting opposite him in the north city, took a sip from his teacup, "Did she say something to Tu Anliang? Looking at Tu Anliang’s behavior just now, it seemed somewhat abnormal."

As he finished speaking, the few people at the table all looked towards him in realization.

Gu Jin looked around and reached out, "Why are you all looking at me like that? Haven’t you noticed that Tu Anliang is acting really off tonight?"

...

In the upstairs suite, Li Qiao sat on the sofa by the window, looking down and rubbing her wrist.

She had been dragged upstairs by Shang Yu, by her wrist, from the moment she got out of the car to entering the door.

He seemed angry, his grip on her particularly strong.

Li Qiao glanced at the phone he’d left on the table, picked it up to unlock it, and then noticed the notifications for more than a dozen missed calls, some from Shang Yu, and others from her three assistants.

Her pupils tightened, and she couldn’t help but cast a guilty look toward the man beside her.

After the car accident, she hadn’t paid attention to her phone, and as soon as she regained her senses, she had gotten out of the car.

And on the ride back just now, Shang Yu hadn’t said a word.

She guessed he must be really angry this time, since it was a car accident, after all.

Li Qiao rubbed her forehead, feeling no pain, but there seemed to be a small swelling, probably from the airbag during the collision.

She pursed her lips, put the phone back on the table, and looking at the man’s tense profile, she cleared her throat, "Why aren’t you saying anything?"

At that moment, his thin lips moved slightly, but still no words came out. He reached out stiffly for the cigarette pack, drawing out a cigarette and holding it between his fingers.

However, the next moment... the cigarette suddenly broke in half.

Li Qiao frowned at the half-cigarette that fell to the floor, and her gaze returned to Shang Yu’s hand, only then realizing that the muscles under his shirt seemed to be locked in an extremely tense state, such that the cigarette couldn’t withstand the force and had snapped.

Her gaze darkened as she stood up, walked over to him, and pinched his upper arm, indeed finding his muscles very tense and rigid.

"What’s wrong with you..." Li Qiao gently stroked his arm, trying to get him to relax.

As she finished speaking, her wrist was suddenly gripped by the man.

Shang Yu seemed unable to control his strength, his breathing rough and heavy, his stiff muscles beginning to tremble, his voice so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable, "Do I really have to lock you up to keep you from getting hurt?"

Li Qiao hadn’t time to feel the pain in her wrist, instead, she intently looked into the man’s increasingly red and struggling eyes.

He seemed trapped in some sort of thinking he couldn’t pull himself out of, and he was enduring an extreme struggle with self-control.

"Tell me, is that it?" He tugged at her wrist, seemingly very fixated on this question.

In a flash, Li Qiao’s mind raced with the typical characteristics of certain cases she had seen before.

His paranoia... appeared to be surfacing.

Li Qiao’s heart tightened, she said nothing and smoothly sat in the man’s embrace, hugging his neck patiently, "I’m not hurt, not the slightest bit."

This kind of personality disorder at the mental level can cause one to be sensitive and irritable during an episode, sinking deeply into subjective consciousness and losing self-control.

Yet clearly, Shang Yu was still trying hard to contain the impact of this extremely adverse emotional state.

Li Qiao hadn’t delved deeply into this condition, but Shang Yu’s current state was very close to the clinical case features she had seen before.

She sat in the man’s lap, arms around his neck, her left hand gently stroking his spine.

Her right wrist was still held by him, and the pressure hadn’t lessened at all.

"You are hurt," the man stated hoarsely in her ear, his Adam’s apple moving erratically as he closed his eyes.

If he hadn’t found Li Qiao today, or if she had been seriously injured in the car accident—

He might have killed Qiu Huan, killed Uncle Zhong the Ninth, killed Tu Anliang, and killed everyone related to this incident.

This had been his plan as he rushed to South City.

Because all these disasters had been caused by them.

Li Qiao hugged Shang Yu tightly, her cheek pressed against his tense face, feeling his body relax slightly, then she kissed his handsome face, "I forgot to take my phone after the crash, I won’t do that again. Don’t worry, I know my limits..."