Cannon Fodder – Chapter 76 – Collapse, Confusion, Agony

She no longer restrained her emotions. Tears streamed from her eyes as one hand clutched at her chest, her hair disheveled.

“Ye Liang, are you really going to force me like this?!”

Her trembling voice was no longer calm but instead erupted into a suppressed shout. “You want me to choose? You want me to choose?! Do I even have a choice? What else can I do besides accepting Xiaocheng?!”

Su Tao smiled through her tears. “Just like you said, she’s a yandere. I know that too. But what do you want me to do? Abandon Xiaocheng? Ignore her? Or send her to a mental hospital?

“Ye Liang, we could’ve just cut ties cleanly. If we met in the future, we could’ve been passing acquaintances. If you ever needed help, as long as it didn’t endanger Xiaocheng, maybe I could’ve even helped you.

“But why did you have to push me?!

“Why force me to choose between her and you?!”

Su Tao’s chest heaved violently as she sucked in lungfuls of cold air, each breath agonizing. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably, though she didn’t even know what she was afraid of.

Yes. As long as she severed ties in front of Xiaocheng, that would be enough.

After this, they could minimize contact and remain distant, like strangers who occasionally nodded at each other.

If it were Sicheng or Dongfang Yang here, they might’ve understood the subtext in Su Tao’s words.

But Ye Liang, relentless as ever, pointed at Chi Xiaocheng and demanded, “Why can’t you choose? Whether her yandere tendencies can be treated or not, I have the money and resources to hire professional psychiatrists for her! If you care about her, I can help you with that too!

“You never believed in me to begin with! How could you ever choose me?!”

Su Tao let out a laugh. “How could I believe you?

“How many times have you said things like that in front of me? ‘If I hadn’t stopped it.’ ‘Just because I allowed it.’ ‘If not for me, Chi Xiaocheng would’ve disappeared long ago.’ Do you even remember how often you’ve said these things?

“Are you going to claim it was all for my sake?

“You say you love me, yet you keep emotionally manipulating me ¹ Chi Xiaocheng nervously coughs , using Xiaocheng to pressure me?”

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Ye Liang flung his hand out. “I didn’t!”

Su Tao shouted back, “Then what about earlier?! When you said you’d make Xiaocheng ‘stay here forever’! Was that a lie too?!

“The way you reached for that knife was truly pathetic.

“A grown man, the heir of the Ye family in the capital, a CEO worth hundreds of millions, driven to murderous rage just because you couldn’t stand a teenage girl?”

Su Tao’s voice turned icy. “Give it up, Ye Liang. Even if I had a choice, I wouldn’t choose you over Xiaocheng!”

The words were out now.

All past memories and affection shattered alongside Su Tao’s cold laughter.

If her earlier words had merely been about cutting ties in front of Chi Xiaocheng, still leaving room for private reconciliation….

Then now, Su Tao was severing all connections with Ye Liang for good!

Rage dissolved under the weight of Su Tao’s words.

Ye Liang let out a dazed chuckle. “You had no choice… just because Chi Xiaocheng is a yandere?”

‘So just because she’s insane, she gets all the love?’

Su Tao shook her head, her gaze now devoid of any fondness or nostalgia for Ye Liang. “I told you at the banquet too, didn’t I? Xiaocheng grew up with me. She’s my one and only. Why did you think spending four or five months with me would ever replace her?”

‘She is irreplaceable!’

“Besides… I only ever saw you as a friend.”

Another icy sentence spilled out, and finally, Ye Liang’s pain twisted into laughter.

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Then, something unhinged.

“Hah… hahaha!

“So all of this… was just me deluding myself?

“I’m inferior to Chi Xiaocheng?

“I’m actually inferior to Chi Xiaocheng?!”

Ye Liang took a step forward, the snow beneath his feet seeming to melt from sheer fury. His eyes burned crimson, looking like he was about to have a mental breakdown.

“Su Tao, did you really think a flimsy ‘cutting ties’ would settle everything?”

Ye Liang loomed over Su Tao and the unconscious Chi Xiaocheng in her arms.

His smile was either self-mocking or resigned. “I invested so much time, money, and connections in you. You led me on all this time, and now you just say ‘let’s cut ties’?

“My reputation, my wealth, my network, how do you plan to repay me?!”

A dark, oppressive aura radiated from him.

Su Tao tightened her grip around Chi Xiaocheng, her hands hidden in her sleeves trembling. “Ye Liang… what exactly do you want?”

“Ten million!”

“W-What?”

Ye Liang grinned savagely. “All those banquets, all the people I invited, all the expenses wasted because of you and Chi Xiaocheng, do you have any idea how much that cost? At least ten million, don’t you think?

“If you don’t pay back those ten million, did you really think I’d let you walk away? Or do you two ordinary girls actually believe you can stand against me, against the Ye family?”

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Covering his face with one hand, Ye Liang burst into maniacal laughter.

How exhilarating it felt to flip the table!

Watching Su Tao bite her lip, torn between pain and indecision, filled him with perverse satisfaction.

In Jiuzhou City, the Ye family reigns supreme!

Yet just as he thought victory was assured, a voice cut through the air from afar.

“Ten million? I’ll pay it for them!”

Ye Liang’s head snapped up. A one-armed man covered in scars strode forward.

The man’s face was grim, his muscular frame radiating suppressed power. With each step, the snow beneath him seemed to melt away.

Beside him were several thug-like men, their faces similarly scarred.

“Who the hell are you?”

Ye Liang swaggered toward the one-armed man, sneering. “Do you even know whose territory Jiuzhou City is? It’s mine, Ye Liang’s!”

The man’s remaining arm bulged with veins as he drove a fist straight into Ye Liang’s gut.

The tall, grown man was sent flying ten meters, bile spewing from his mouth!

Chi Song’s voice dripped with fury. “I’m their older brother!”

The bodyguards, who’d been spectating until now, finally snapped into action.

But before they could react, Liang Hei, already moving, knocked them out cold.

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At that moment, several cars screeched to a halt. The backup bodyguards Ye Liang had called earlier had finally arrived.

Chi Song clenched his fist and signaled to his men behind him. “They dared hurt my little sister. None of them leave here alive!”

He then approached Su Tao, his gaze softening instantly. “Don’t worry, Xiao Tao. I’ll protect you both.”

That gentleness vanished as he turned back to Ye Liang, now writhing on the ground, face contorted in pain.

Rage ignited anew!

Perhaps due to the crowd’s arrival, the surrounding temperature seemed to rise.

Su Tao simply held Chi Xiaocheng quietly, not daring to touch the knife embedded in her abdomen.

Two fresh trails of hot tears streaked down her cheeks.

The sounds of fists meeting flesh and screams of pain gradually blurred into insignificant noises.

Everything around her seemed to slow down.

A gust of wind blew.

The snow fell harder.

Su Tao lowered her head, her hand brushing Chi Xiaocheng’s pale face as tears dripped onto it.

Her eyes were hollow with exhaustion as she pressed her forehead against Chi Xiaocheng’s.

Her voice was hoarse, lips trembling as she whispered, each word filled with confusion and fear.

“Hey, Xiaocheng… this is the choice you wanted, isn’t it?”