Chapter 050: A Man Can’t Back Down—Screw Ding Ruilong!

Chapter 050: A Man Can’t Back Down—Screw Ding Ruilong!

It wasn’t that Lei Cheng thought Li Ruobing herself was some unstoppable force.

But no one existed in isolation. Her background mattered, and her temperament mattered even more. She’d once pointed straight at old Master Li’s nose and cursed him out to his face. The whole family had no idea how to handle her. Her own mother had practically gotten down on her knees begging before Li Ruobing finally agreed to stay in the country instead of leaving for good.

Lei Cheng had heard all of it.

So what kind of background—what kind of man—could hold that kind of woman down? Could talk to her like this and get away with it?

He’d already started guessing that Wu Chen wasn’t just sitting on some terrifying pedigree. He had to have real ability of his own, and some rare, magnetic pull besides. Missing either one wouldn’t cut it.

“What’s wrong, Boss Lei? I talk to my woman like that. Is that a problem?” Wu Chen asked, smiling as though genuinely confused.

“You—” Lei Cheng didn’t quite know how to phrase the question.

Ask about his background outright? Wu Chen had been dodging that all afternoon. He wasn’t about to answer now.

“Ah—you mean what I just said to her?” Wu Chen seemed to catch his meaning after a beat, and his tone eased into something more casual. “It’s nothing. We’re a couple. She’s throwing a bit of a tantrum, that’s all. We’ve got a bet going, and it got a little out of hand, but between two people together, it’s really not much.”

A woman like Li Ruobing, playing around like that?

Just how close were these two, exactly?

Lei Cheng turned the thought over, then broke back into that easy grin and raised his teacup in invitation. “Come on, little brother. Drink.”

“After you.” Wu Chen lifted his own cup.

They drank another round. Lei Cheng wiped his mouth and asked, casual as anything, “What’s the bet about, then? Can you tell me?”

He wasn’t usually the curious type.

But Wu Chen’s tone with Li Ruobing had genuinely rattled him.

So this time, he wanted to know.

“The bet—nothing secret about it. It’s about her company. You know her company’s been under attack lately. I offered to step in and handle it. She said no. You’ve probably heard what she’s like—stubborn as anything—so we ended up arguing over it. Truth is, I know she was only trying to protect me…”

He paused, then asked, “Boss Lei, you know Ding Ruilong?”

“I know him. That bastard from the Ding family,” Lei Cheng said, nodding without a flicker of surprise.

Because the moment he’d learned Wu Chen’s woman was Li Ruobing, he’d already known exactly who was behind her troubles.

The bet itself—that he didn’t know. Too private for word to have spread.

But he did know Ding Ruilong had spent years harassing her, blocking her career at every turn, warning people off from working with her. The man seemed determined to keep her from ever succeeding.

He’d even let it be known that Li Ruobing was his, and that any man who got too close to her would pay for it.

The intent couldn’t have been clearer.

He wanted to force her into marrying him.

“The car that hit the spokesperson—Ding Ruilong’s work, I’d guess,” Lei Cheng said.

“Right. It was him.” Wu Chen nodded. “Boss Lei’s probably got a read on him already—obsessive, lawless, stops at nothing when he wants something. Small-minded, vicious. A genuinely nasty piece of work.”

“I know, I know. That guy—” Lei Cheng went on, “wasn’t he the one who broke the youngest Wei boy’s leg? Third branch of the family. Years back now—seven, eight years, maybe. The Ding family nearly went to war with the Weis smoothing that one over.”

“That’s exactly why Ruobing won’t let me get too involved in her company’s business,” Wu Chen said, spreading his hands. “We’ve been together a while now. She’s always been terrified Ding Ruilong would find out about me—that he’d lose his head entirely and come after me without a thought for consequences, no matter who I turned out to be. I…