Chapter 027: You Slept with That Con Artist?

Chapter 027: You Slept with That Con Artist?

None of Li Ruobing’s trusted bodyguards were ordinary men—all retired special forces. Their salaries alone ran into the millions each year, though the money came from the Li family, not from Li Ruobing personally.

However deep the rift with her family ran, Li Ruobing remained a core descendant of the Li family.

Eldest granddaughter of the eldest branch.

The family might tear at each other’s throats behind closed doors, but that was family business. When it came to the safety of a Li, toward outsiders, no one ever cut corners.

Wu Chen wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the tail.

Li Ruobing’s bodyguards had caught it too—they weren’t without counter-surveillance instincts of their own.

The difference was that Wu Chen had already pinned down exactly who’d sent the car. Her bodyguards had no way of knowing that.

“Lose them.” Li Ruobing said only that.

She was used to this.

Given who she was, being followed was nothing new—especially these past four years, with that bastard Ding Ruilong forever sending people to trail her, particularly whenever she went out alone, as though he needed to account for her every movement.

The man had a genuinely intense need for control.

Bordering on pathological.

The convoy picked up speed.

Li Ruobing’s brows knit faintly. She felt a flicker of irritation—being followed brought Ding Ruilong to mind, which brought the pressure from her family to mind, which brought the five-year wager to mind.

If she was honest with herself, she didn’t have absolute confidence she could outdo Ding Ruilong in business.

She’d considered other paths, other ways out. None of them looked easy either.

Wu Chen suddenly reached over and took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers.

Li Ruobing turned to look at him. Irritated as she was, the smile from earlier had drained away, her gaze gone dark and distant. But Wu Chen only smiled back, and seeing her eyes on him, he said, “Ruobing. Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to your brother. I’ve got it handled.”

The name—Ruobing—landed like a cue.

A signal that he was performing.

The driver and bodyguard were still in the car. All of them were her people, true, but she’d made clear they needed to fool everyone, so a little theater in the car cost nothing.

Still, something about the timing, the way he’d chosen to say it just then, felt oddly precise.

I’ve got it handled.

Something in her eased.

Wu Chen wasn’t a god. But he understood her—understood well enough, it seemed, to guess exactly what had been running through her mind a moment before.

He’d known, for instance, that she’d likely mistaken the tailing car for something Ding Ruilong had sent.

Half an hour later.

The convoy arrived back at Huancai Fashion’s offices, Tower 7 of the CBD.

Wu Chen formally completed his onboarding, becoming the company president’s assistant at a monthly salary of twenty thousand yuan. Afterward, Li Ruobing personally walked him through every floor of the building—ostensibly to familiarize him with the place, but really to announce, to everyone who cared to notice, that Wu Chen was her boyfriend.

She kept her arm through his the entire time.

She no longer seemed like the cold, imperious CEO everyone knew. Beside Wu Chen, the smiles came far more easily.

—

South District, Qinghe Courtyard villa complex, Villa 5.

“You absolute traitor—finally picking up, huh? You had the nerve to turn your phone off! Ditching your best friend for some guy, and after everything I’ve done for you—” Mu Qianqian stood by the window, shouting into her phone.

She was genuinely furious.

She’d spent all morning failing to reach her best friend. She knew, of course, that the friend’s boyfriend had come back into the picture, which meant the two of them had almost certainly been up to no good. But arranging for someone to mess with her one day and going dark the very next was too much.

“Qianqian, let me explain—I didn’t turn it off on purpose…