Chapter Thirty-Six: Neurotic

“Before you broke up, you were together for a while. Don’t you think it’s a bit perfunctory to put it like that?” Ning Shuyi asked.

“That was then, and this is now—they’re not the same thing!” Li Qiao waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not sure what kind of state she was in during the time we were apart and not in contact, but once I tried to win her back, I knew exactly what she was like.”

“Wang Yuluo’s moods—honestly, they were even harder to predict than the weather in June! Suddenly she’d sink into this gloom, looking completely drained, listless, as if she’d lost the will to live. It seemed like she could give up on everything at any moment, right there and then!

“And then out of nowhere, she’d get wildly excited—no, that’s not even the word, she was practically manic! She’d act so erratic and frenzied that I couldn’t help but wonder if there was some family history of mental illness, and it had just surfaced in her…”

Perhaps Li Qiao didn’t understand why Wang Yuluo’s moods swung so wildly, but Ning Shuyi, having seen her autopsy report, had a good idea—it was almost certainly related to those illegal substances she’d been exposed to.

But there was no need to let Li Qiao in on that, so she continued as if nothing was amiss, “If you suspected she had a history of mental illness, doesn’t that mean Wang Yuluo’s condition was pretty abnormal? Why were you still so intent on getting back together with her?”

“At first, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with her mentally! To be honest with you, I thought she just had someone new. I wanted to get back together, but she didn’t say yes or no—she just kept me hanging. And then she’d be inexplicably elated one moment and deathly despondent the next. My first reaction was to suspect she’d started seeing someone else!

“She was a bit like that when we first started dating—not quite as extreme, but similar. If I treated her well, she’d light up like a flower in spring; if we argued or I was upset with her, she’d act like life wasn’t worth living.

“That’s why I ended up following her, trying to figure out if she was stringing me along while secretly seeing someone else,” Li Qiao said, looking aggrieved.

“So after following her so many times, did you discover anything? Come to any conclusions?”

“I did! She definitely wasn’t seeing anyone else!” Li Qiao replied with conviction.

“Oh? Why are you so sure? Don’t tell me you hired one of those so-called private detectives to check up on her?” Ning Shuyi raised an eyebrow at him.

Li Qiao waved his hands quickly, “No, no, I don’t have that kind of money! I did it all myself. I followed her a few times and found that she usually went to her club activities, always lugging around bags of clothes, wigs, props, and such. Otherwise, she’d head to the commercial district, but every time she went alone. There weren’t any men around her at all.

“In fact, not even any unfamiliar women—just her cousin, or a young woman from her postgraduate class who seemed quiet and well-behaved. There was nothing suspicious, so I felt pretty reassured.”

Li Qiao’s certainty made Ning Shuyi want to laugh. She couldn’t tell where this man’s confidence came from—how he could act so sure of Wang Yuluo, even with a tone reminiscent of a father policing his daughter—but none of it mattered anymore, now that Wang Yuluo was gone.

“You mentioned the commercial district—where exactly? Did Wang Yuluo go there often? What did she do there?”

Li Qiao named a location, not far from the mall with the private cinema. “I wasn’t sure what she did. She never stayed long—maybe half an hour, never more than an hour. She didn’t even bother with makeup on those trips. I guessed she was getting some kind of beauty treatment.”

“Did she drive herself or take a car?”

“She always took a taxi. I don’t think she ever drove herself to the commercial district.” As he said this, he suddenly realized something was odd. “Wait… why didn’t I think of this before? She always drove everywhere, ever since college, so why did she only take taxis to the commercial district? She couldn’t have been going out drinking, could she? But that doesn’t make sense—it was always during the day, sometimes early in the morning. Why would she go drinking then? And you don’t finish drinking that quickly anyway.”

“So, if you’re sure Wang Yuluo wasn’t seeing anyone else, why weren’t you worried her unstable moods were a mental health issue? Why keep chasing her?” Ning Shuyi asked.

Li Qiao was already close to the answer—it was likely Wang Yuluo couldn’t drive for some reason, which was why she took taxis, but the reason clearly wasn’t alcohol. Of course, there was no need for Li Qiao to figure this out, so Ning Shuyi changed the subject.

Li Qiao looked a little embarrassed, licking his dry lips before replying with surprising honesty, “Honestly, I reflected on my own behavior. I realized I’d been too domineering, too impatient. No wonder Wang Yuluo couldn’t stand it and broke up with me. Sure, some of her actions weren’t right, but we were both single—she had every right to live as she pleased, and I had no say, especially since even her father didn’t interfere. My meddling only hurt our already fragile relationship.

“So I thought, I should lay a better foundation. If we were ever going to spend our lives together, we’d have to influence each other over time…”

Ning Shuyi understood—his “self-reflection” was really a strategic reassessment of his tactics, and his new plan was a slow campaign of lifelong reform.

“Let me ask you something off-topic. If Wang Yuluo had been exactly the same in personality and preferences, but her family was just ordinary working class, would you have still pursued her so persistently?” Ning Shuyi asked.

Li Qiao, likely never having considered or been asked this before, shook his head instinctively. “Probably not…”

Realizing how terrible that sounded, he opened his mouth to explain, but Ning Shuyi cut him off with a raised hand.

“Mr. Li, thank you for cooperating with our work.” She rose from the sofa. “You still have to get to work, so we won’t take up any more of your time. Please keep your phone on and accessible in case we need to contact you. After all, if we can’t reach you directly, we’d have to go through your family, colleagues, or supervisors, and that would be troublesome for both of us, wouldn’t it?”