Chapter 1161: Chapter 1161: Only She Can Make Him So Anxious and Madly in Love

Because he would be returning to Switzerland soon, Richard Shaw had been quite busy these past few days. By the time he rushed through his errands and came back to the Shaw Mansion, he couldn’t find Leah anywhere inside or out. When he heard from Auntie Zhao that Leah had driven out, his expression instantly darkened.

The man sat in the living room, ill at ease. Leah hardly had any friends in the Imperial City—what was she going out to do?

Richard’s expression shifted several times. After enduring for over ten minutes, he could no longer sit still and stood up to call Leah.

The call rang for a long time, but no one answered.

In the teahouse, after learning about Richard and his ex-wife, Leah’s mood suddenly became heavy. All these years, Richard had treated her well for virtually no reason—was it really because he’d killed his ex-wife and was wracked with guilt, so he projected all his compensation onto her? Was he using her as a substitute?

Leah lowered her eyes to the tea leaves floating in the cup. The faint fragrance of tea diffused through the room. The Shaw sisters had already pushed their limits by asking Leah out and naturally didn’t dare say too much, but Hawk Howard was different.

Richard had loved and lost, but Hawk had been secretly in love from beginning to end, never having had her and then suddenly losing her—that was the hardest to bear.

"Everything I said today is true. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Richard Shaw," Hawk said coolly.

"All right, thank you for the treat. I’ll head back first." Leah stood up and left with a smile.

As soon as Leah left, the Shaw sisters looked over at Hawk and asked, "Is she Crystal Landon?"

Hawk’s eyes narrowed slightly as he said in a low voice, "I’m not certain, but there’s an eighty to ninety percent chance it’s her. It’s just that there are still many things I can’t figure out."

Maybe a person’s name, background, and experiences could change, but that feeling of heart-fluttering wouldn’t. Hawk felt that whenever he looked at her, his heart pounded fiercely. Even if the look she gave him was unfamiliar, that long-lost feeling still came back.

But why was Crystal Landon pretending not to know them—was it amnesia or something else? And what was the story with that "brother" of hers?

Hawk felt the whole matter was shrouded in dense fog; there might be things he didn’t know. He suddenly thought of that Uncle Hao Crystal had taken him to meet back then, a man daring enough to investigate a Major General in the Military District. A jolt of alarm shot through him—how could he have forgotten that person? If Crystal’s background itself was problematic, then none of this would be hard to explain.

"If she really is Crystal, then why do Grandma Shaw and Cousin keep saying she isn’t?" Calliope Shaw asked in puzzlement. "Even if Cousin once had some fake innocent first love, Grandma Shaw always treated Crystal like a granddaughter. Why can’t they acknowledge her past identity now?"

"I’ll look into this and get to the bottom of it. You two go back first," Hawk said, standing up, his tone light.

Lana Shaw and Calliope Shaw exchanged a look, then glanced at Hawk and nodded. "Then are you still going back to the United States?" they asked.

"Not for now. I’ll decide after I’ve fully clarified this matter." Hawk gazed at the winter scene outside the window and spoke faintly.

Leaving the teahouse, Leah looked at the clean, wide street. Because it was the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, there were very few pedestrians. She had held herself together fairly well in the teahouse, but once she stepped outside and the cold wind hit her, she suddenly felt a bit chilled.

Over the past few years, her temperament had changed somewhat, especially after Griffith Squire disappeared and Delphine left with the child. She’d gained a strong sense that the world was unpredictable. Richard Shaw had stayed by her side all along; even if she never said so aloud, in her heart she had always considered him the person closest to her apart from her brother and Delphine. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

A substitute? She bit her red lip. If only Griffith Squire were here.

When Leah arrived at the Shaw Mansion and had just gotten out of the car, she saw Richard waiting at the door. The man sat in his wheelchair, his face somewhat ugly. When he saw her, a trace of relief flashed across his handsome, brooding features. He wheeled forward and said heavily, "I couldn’t get through when I called you."

He had been calling her for a full half hour. Leah never picked up, and in the end the call simply wouldn’t go through anymore.

Richard’s face was so dark that the servants in the Shaw Mansion didn’t even dare breathe too loudly.

He had already sent Shuangzi to check on Leah’s movements. When he learned she had gone to a teahouse to meet Hawk Howard, he didn’t even know whether he felt more panic or more anger.

He couldn’t question her, couldn’t limit her freedom, couldn’t even bring himself to ask about Hawk. All he could do was tamp down his temper and wait at the gates of the Shaw Mansion for her to come back.

Seeing that he was actually waiting at the door, Leah finally remembered to take out her phone from her bag. The phone had completely died and the screen was black.

"My phone must have run out of battery." Leah met his deep gaze and answered half a beat late.

The man stared fixedly at her and reached out to take her hand. All his agitation, panic, and unease condensed into one lightly spoken sentence: "Why are you dressed so thinly? What if you catch a chill?"

Leah looked at his own outfit—just a gray cashmere sweater—and had no idea how long he’d been waiting in the cold wind. Even his ears were a bit red from the cold. She stared blankly at him and asked, "Richard Shaw, what is it you like about me?"

He hadn’t expected her to ask such a question. In fact, he’d never really dissected it, only knowing that she should be the most important person in his life. As for what exactly he liked—if anything, the right question was what he didn’t like. He didn’t like her being too close to other men, didn’t like her going out without telling him where she was going, didn’t like that she still hadn’t married him. Everything else, he liked.

He liked her so much that in the dead of night his heart ached to the point of suffocation.

"I like everything," the man murmured, pulling her into the Shaw Mansion. That spring had come unusually early; by the time they returned, all the snow in the Imperial City had already melted. "Leah, let’s go back to Switzerland."

In Switzerland, there would only be the two of them—no grudges from the past, no prominent families of the Imperial City, no one standing in their way. Just the two of them.

Leah nodded. "Okay," she said.

She looked at Richard’s profile and didn’t ask any questions about his ex-wife. Hawk’s words had made her a bit panicked, but the bond between people always had an expiration date. As long as they could still be together now, they should cherish it. No one knew what might happen later.

"Richard Shaw, do you know what I like most about you?" She pushed his wheelchair, her black-and-white peach-blossom eyes blinking as she asked with a squinting smile.

The man’s heart skipped a beat. His long, calloused hand gripped the armrest tightly and the wheelchair came to a halt. He turned sideways, his gaze bright as he asked in a low voice, "What do you like about me?"

"I like that you’re the most like a block of wood." Under his deep, intent gaze, Leah felt her face grow a little warm, but she had always been someone who loved and hated openly—if she liked something, she’d say it.

Richard’s lips curved up involuntarily. His tea-colored pupils lingered on her, his gaze tender and lingering. All of a sudden, he felt that blocks of wood were probably the most adorable things in the world.

"Wood is very stubborn. Once you like it, you’re not allowed to go back on it." He took her small hand, his voice low and husky with a trace of laughter. Half an hour ago he’d felt as if he were in Hell; now he’d returned to heaven.

In this world, only she could make him so afraid of losing what he had, so madly in love.