Chapter 052: Becoming My Friend Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make!

Chapter 052: Becoming My Friend Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make!

Wu Chen’s original plan had always ended in some kind of trade with Lei Cheng.

The game had only ever been the opening move.

Lei Cheng had kept plenty of women, and put more than a few actresses on the map besides—but the one he genuinely doted on was still Tao Manying, the very first one he’d taken under his wing.

A few lines exchanged over private message during a game were never going to be enough, on their own, to make a man go through the trouble of calling his favorite star back from Thailand.

Wu Chen had given himself a deadline going in.

Two hours.

Settle everything within two hours of meeting Lei Cheng in person. The plan had been simple: trade information about his older brother for Tao Manying’s endorsement of Huancai.

He hadn’t expected to close it out in under an hour.

That was Li Ruobing’s assist at work. A perfect one.

The handful of lines he’d exchanged with her on the phone had completely reshaped how Lei Cheng saw him. Wu Chen had originally just been hired to find her a spokesperson—and ended up turning her own call into leverage, riding the momentum wherever it carried him.

Without that call, Wu Chen suspected he’d have needed another hour or more of conversation before Lei Cheng would have agreed to any kind of trade at all.

And the shift that call caused didn’t end there.

It had completely redrawn the shape of whatever relationship the two of them were about to have.

Tao Manying already held a cosmetics endorsement—an exclusive one, with a noncompete clause. She legally couldn’t take on another brand in the same category.

Doing so would be a breach of contract.

Which meant a penalty.

That earlier deal had been signed three years ago, before she’d hit it this big, so the fee had been modest—and the breach penalty sat at thirty million yuan.

And Lei Cheng had just said, plainly, over the phone, that he’d cover it himself.

Which meant calling Tao Manying back wasn’t some casual favor settled with a single phone call.

He was going to lose money over it. Tens of millions, just to help Wu Chen out—and after hanging up, he hadn’t so much as hinted at wanting anything back for it.

That wasn’t the behavior of an ordinary man. That wasn’t a small favor.

Why?

Because he’d already decided he wanted Wu Chen as a friend. Actively wanted it.

And quietly cultivating ties with powerful, wealthy men behind closed doors was something Lei Cheng had been doing for ten straight years. He liked people owing him. He understood the give and take of favors better than almost anyone.

Over that decade, he’d built himself a web of connections across Donghai, all out of sight. That line he’d tossed off earlier—there’s nothing in Donghai I can’t settle—hadn’t been bragging at all.

Keeping his distance from the family. Playing the fool. Building alliances in secret. Waiting for his moment. Planning a counterstrike, all along.

Ten years without a single day off from the disguise. It hadn’t been an easy life, and the depths of his patience were frankly terrifying.

Still, he didn’t befriend just anyone. Li Ruotai, for instance—not because Li Ruotai lacked power, but because the man was too loud, too visible.

Privately, though, he’d long kept good terms with Lu Guangnian.

Lu Guangnian collected friends the way some men collected watches. Among all of them, Lei Cheng might not have stood out as anything special—but he’d certainly left an impression.

Quietly cultivating people who might prove useful down the line—Lei Cheng had already decided Wu Chen belonged on that list.

He still had no idea what Wu Chen’s actual background was.

It had been Li Ruobing’s phone call that pushed him into the wrong conclusion.

And Wu Chen genuinely hadn’t seen any of this coming. They’d only just met, after all—their very first meeting in person. A trade of favors and a new connection would have been plenty.

Instead, Lei Cheng had taken the lead entirely…