Chapter 044: Bet You Won’t Get Jealous

Chapter 044: Bet You Won’t Get Jealous

“Name your price.” Li Ruobing looked straight at him. She wanted to buy it.

“Can’t give it to you.” Wu Chen turned her down flat.

Her expression shifted, eyes narrowing—for a moment, suspicion crept back in that Wu Chen might have some tie to Ding Ruilong after all.

“Don’t let anger cloud your judgment. You know how much weight the great families carry. Even if I handed you his dirt right now, you couldn’t bring him down with it. The Ding family would shield him—and so would your own Li family,” Wu Chen said, smiling faintly.

“It might even void the bet outright, and your family would force you straight into marrying him. However bad your relationship with the family is, you’re still a Li. Move against him like that, and you’d drag both families into open conflict—your family would owe the Dings an apology for it. So ask yourself honestly: with what you’ve got right now, can you take on your own family? And the Dings too?”

Li Ruobing said nothing.

He was right. She hadn’t thought it through.

When she’d called him, she’d been at her angriest, wanting nothing more than to see Ding Ruilong destroyed.

But his words now had cooled her down.

He was right. She couldn’t go after Ding Ruilong directly—the same way he’d never once come at her directly. That was the line neither of them crossed. He only ever went after the people around her, or her company.

Ding Ruilong wanted to marry her. He didn’t want a war to the death.

She thought it over, then looked back down at the files.

“Reviewing spokesperson candidates?” Wu Chen asked.

“Mm.” She answered through her nose, still reading.

Because Deng Xunya had been badly hurt and hospitalized in an “accident,” the contract between Huancai and her agency fell squarely under force majeure.

It would dissolve automatically. Neither side in breach.

Huancai needed a new spokesperson.

Fast—but fast wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy at all.

Fourteen days stood between now and the launch. Nowhere near enough time. Set aside scheduling conflicts and existing endorsement deals—most reigning top-tier actresses simply wouldn’t touch a niche brand at all.

They’d already climbed high enough to endorse international names. There was no reason to step down.

The rare few willing to take it on would only do it for the money.

But—

Ding Ruilong kept muddying the water. Interfering at every turn.

Whenever Li Ruobing struck a deal with some star’s agent, Ding Ruilong would go straight to that agency’s owner the next day and talk them out of it. And since nothing had been signed yet, they always found some excuse to back out.

It had happened too many times already to count.

Nor could she call on family power to solve it. She hadn’t even asked her brother for help—Li Ruotai’s reach was the Li family’s reach, and using it would break the terms of the bet.

She had to negotiate this one alone.

She knew, probably, that her chance was already gone. Without a spokesperson, the launch could be delayed, or held as scheduled with far less impact than she needed.

She kept reading without a word.

The office sat heavy with silence.

“Boss Li.” Wu Chen spoke up suddenly, smiling. “Want to hire me to find one for you?”

She looked up.

He kept smiling.

“Aren’t you an information broker? You dabble in this too?” she said coldly, dropping her eyes back to the files. Whatever warmth had been in her yesterday was gone—today she’d put real distance between them.

Even after they’d kissed.

But that was simply who she was.

They were alone in her office now. No audience left to perform for.

“It’s money, that’s all. Pay the right price and I’ll bring you Tao Manying if that’s what you want. Or any other star who’s caught your eye—whoever I find, she’ll meet your standards. Guaranteed. Red-hot, top of her game.”

The boast came out so smooth even Wu Chen half believed it himself.

And the truth was, he did have a way to land Huancai a spokesperson fast—one that would meet…