After Redeeming the Paranoid Villain [Transmigration] - Chapter 12

The onlookers treated the news as a joke, and some even burst out laughing. “Can we at least know who the lucky person in Young Master Su’s home is? With your reputation, if you had married, we would have known long ago. You aren’t all teaming up to prank us, are you?”

“You didn’t know? This matter has been causing quite a stir lately. I thought you would have heard by now,” one of the meddlers interjected. “It is that person from the Gu family.”

“There are two of them in the Gu family, and they look exactly the same,” someone joked. “Are you talking about the one who sits or the one who stands?”

Sitting in the corner, Su Yu’s brow furrowed. The tone these people used when discussing Gu Chen made him extremely uncomfortable. Although he did not know how they had treated Gu Chen in the past, he knew the man should never have become a laughingstock for anyone.

Su Yu thought of how Gu Chen used to be. Back then, he must have been a man of high standing, so far above these people that he likely did not even know their names. The ache in Su Yu’s heart grew so heavy that he began to down the wine he usually avoided, hoping the alcohol would quell the anger and sorrow swirling inside him.

Meanwhile, the ridiculing remarks continued.

“What do you think Su Yu is after?”

“Who knows? A year ago, after seeing Gu Chen, Su Yu pursued him like a madman. I still remember the floor beneath the Gu Group building being covered in roses. They were so bright and red that if I were a woman, even I would have been moved.”

“A pity, then, that Gu Chen is not a woman,” someone added, their voice dripping with sarcasm directed at Su Yu.

“If Gu Chen is in this state and Su Yu still married him, wouldn’t Gu Yian have been a better choice? He is healthy, and he looks exactly the same.”

“Perhaps that is what they call love?”

“Or maybe Gu Chen is better in bed than Gu Yian?”

“Hahaha! Have you tried him then?”

“Who the hell would have tried him? You would have to ask Su Yu that. Though Su Yu is quite pitiful now. Looking at Gu Chen’s paralyzed state, who knows if he can even satisfy him anymore?”

Once the crude jokes began, the private room was filled with foul language. No one noticed Su Yu sitting in the corner, staring intensely at his wine glass. It was the silence before a storm. As the crowd roared with laughter, the sound of glass shattering cut through the noise. Su Yu, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly stood up. Before him lay the remains of a wine glass he had smashed against the floor.

Su Yu’s eyes were dark. “Say that one more time,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.

Back at the villa, Gu Chen sat in his wheelchair, staring at the carved wall clock. It was already half past eleven, and Su Yu had not returned. He tapped his index finger anxiously against the armrest. He had checked the security footage and knew Su Yu had left around seven that evening. He had left in such a hurry that he didn’t even stop to eat. Was there something so important?

Gu Chen closed his eyes. Even though he told himself not to speculate on Su Yu’s actions, he had become deeply suspicious since the accident. He could not help but overthink; he was terrified of being hurt again.

Suddenly, his phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts. Gu Chen saw an unfamiliar number and instinctively declined the call, but the caller was persistent. After a moment of hesitation, he finally answered.

As he listened to the voice on the other end, Gu Chen’s pupils contracted. He lunged forward instinctively, but in his haste, he forgot his condition. His legs gave way, and he fell heavily beside his wheelchair.

The commotion brought the butler running. He rushed to Gu Chen’s side and helped him up. “Young Master, what happened?”

The butler was stunned. In his mind, Gu Chen was always calm and composed. Even after the accident cost him the use of his legs, he had accepted it with stoic silence, facing the world’s rumors from his wheelchair.

Gu Chen ignored his disheveled appearance. He gripped the butler’s arm with terrifying intensity, his eyes dark with fury. “Get the car. Take me to the police station. Su Yu got into a fight and has been detained.”

Even the butler found this hard to believe. In his eyes, Su Yu was like a white rabbit—simple and harmless. How could he have ended up in a police station for fighting? Nevertheless, he moved quickly to prepare the car.

At the station, Su Yu—who had recently been a fierce figure threatening to break a beer bottle over someone’s head—was now sitting restlessly in a chair, clutching his hands in agitation.

A police officer looked at him and could not help but ask, “Are you really the one who tried to hit someone with a bottle?”

Su Yu looked up blankly, uttered a soft “Ah,” and then lowered his head again. He bit his lip, trying to control his emotions. “It was me,” he whispered.

The officer looked at the cautious, rabbit-like young man in disbelief. Su Yu looked like a “good boy” through and through; no one would guess he had the temperament to get into a bar fight.

“Do you realize what you did was wrong?” the officer asked.

Su Yu’s head dropped even lower. His voice was almost inaudible. “Yes.”

“Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but this kind of behavior shows criminal intent, do you understand?” the officer lectured, looking over the police report. Su Yu remained silent, his eyes downcast.

“Why did you start a fight?”

Su Yu looked at the officer and replied unsteadily, “They said things I did not want to hear.”

“You started a fight just because of that?” The officer frowned. “You young people are far too impulsive. Think about it; if that bottle had landed on someone’s head, how would you compensate them? You couldn’t even redeem that sin with a prison sentence.”

Su Yu did not dare look at the officer. He knew fighting was wrong, but he could not hold back after hearing those foul words about Gu Chen. Combined with his low tolerance for alcohol, the drink had given him the courage to lash out.

“What did they say? Tell me, and I will go reprimand them as well.” The interrogating officer was an older man just a few years away from retirement. He was prone to meddling and loved to lecture. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say to you kids these days.”

Su Yu opened his mouth to speak but ultimately remained silent.

At that moment, a commotion broke out at the entrance. Su Yu turned to look. A Rolls-Royce had pulled up, and a man moved his wheelchair down the extendable ramp from the black car.

The man looked up and immediately spotted Su Yu sitting in the hall. In that instant, their eyes met across the busy room. Both felt their hearts race uncontrollably.

Gu Chen rolled his wheelchair over to Su Yu. Seeing him, Su Yu felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of grievance. The forced composure he had maintained at the station vanished instantly. He sniffled, barely holding back his rising emotions.

“Why did you come?” Su Yu whispered.

Gu Chen looked at the bruises on Su Yu’s face. He reached out as if to touch them but hesitated, perhaps due to a lingering doubt or concern. His hand returned to his wheelchair, where his thumb and forefinger rubbed together nervously.

Gu Chen’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he spoke in a low voice. “The police called me. They said you were here and told me, as your family, to come and get you.”

Whether intentional or not, Gu Chen emphasized the word “family,” as if he were trying to prove something.

Su Yu turned his head away awkwardly. When the police had asked for a family member’s number, he had instinctively recited Gu Chen’s number without thinking. By the time he realized what he had done, Gu Chen had already answered.

Su Yu felt a deep sense of sorrow, which only intensified upon seeing Gu Chen. He was in an unfamiliar place with no one he knew; Gu Chen was the person he had spent the most time with. The moment Gu Chen appeared, his emotions became difficult to control.

He turned away to hide the tears that were about to fall. Gu Chen, observant as ever, noticed Su Yu’s distress. He sighed and reached out his hand toward Su Yu.

Su Yu looked at the hand. Gu Chen’s expression was as calm as ever as he said, “Let us go home.”

Su Yu froze in his seat. He had heard the word “home” from Gu Chen’s mouth. Since arriving in this world, his drifting heart finally felt as though it had found a direction. He reached out, took Gu Chen’s hand, and said with a choked voice, “Gu Chen, I will go home with you.”

In the car, Gu Chen looked at Su Yu. The bruises had not faded, and his lip was cut. He looked completely disheveled. Gu Chen’s gaze darkened. “Why did you get into a fight?” he asked.

Su Yu turned to look at him. The sight of Gu Chen sitting calmly in his wheelchair reminded him of the novel’s description of a man who was terrifyingly composed. To Su Yu, it wasn’t just calmness; Gu Chen was extremely rational. Nothing seemed capable of making him lose his cool. Even in a situation like this, Gu Chen wanted to understand the cause and effect rather than impulsively seeking revenge.

Su Yu gave a helpless smile. How could I expect anything else? he thought. Getting the rational Gu Chen to lose his composure is harder than climbing to heaven.

He did not know that, back at the villa, Gu Chen had already lost his composure. He had fallen from his wheelchair in his desperate haste, a moment of vulnerability witnessed only by the butler.

And that moment of chaos had happened simply because Gu Chen answered a phone call about Su Yu.