Chapter 071: Wu Chen, Terrifying as an Abyss!

Chapter 071: Wu Chen, Terrifying as an Abyss!

Phone in hand, Zhan Xiumei whipped her head around. All she saw was Li Ruobing’s back, which naturally told her nothing. It was only after crossing several steps and spotting the phone still ringing on the table that she recognized Li Ruobing.

She’d been far too angry a moment ago. How could she have noticed anyone else?

“Miss Li—what are you doing here?” Zhan Xiumei was clearly surprised, and a smile appeared on her face. She swept a glance over Wu Chen too, whether by design or not.

The ringing phone sat directly in front of him.

Moments earlier her face had been dark and thunderous, her fury so heavy she could barely breathe evenly. Yet in the instant she turned to Li Ruobing, she produced a smile that was warm and utterly natural—the surprised smile of someone running into an old acquaintance on the street.

As though she hadn’t just beaten her cheating husband bloody.

The nerve of this heavyset middle-aged businesswoman was simply extraordinary.

“Madam Zhan. It’s been a long time.” Li Ruobing rose just as naturally, smiling as she shook Zhan Xiumei’s hand.

Wu Chen picked up the ringing phone, cut the call, and stood as well.

“And this must be Miss Li’s boyfriend—Mr. Wu, isn’t it?” Zhan Xiumei glanced at him at once and put the question to Li Ruobing with a smile. She knew Li Ruobing had a boyfriend, and knew his surname was Wu. Ever since that “conflict” with Lu Guangnian, word had traveled everywhere.

Li Ruobing nodded.

“Hello, Madam Zhan. A pleasure.” Wu Chen smiled and shook her hand.

“Mr. Wu is a fine-looking man indeed. Miss Li has excellent judgment—and excellent fortune.” Zhan Xiumei launched straight into praising him, and even gave Li Ruobing a small pursed-lip smile.

For all her unique position in Donghai, for all that scarcely anyone in the city’s business world would dare deny her face, for all that nearly every magnate counted as her friend—whether it was her, or Lu Guangnian, or Mu Sihai, all of them kept a certain caution in their hearts where Li Ruobing was concerned.

Li Ruobing had once come bearing gifts to call on Zhan Jianyi. She’d been courteous, polite, entirely correct in every particular.

But that had been for Old Master Zhan Jianyi. Not for Zhan Xiumei.

Zhan Xiumei was not the child who had inherited her father’s business, either. Among the Zhan children, her position didn’t rank first.

Which meant that even Zhan Xiumei, facing Li Ruobing—eldest granddaughter of the Li family’s main branch, and Li Ruotai’s own elder sister—had to think about building the relationship well and not giving offense lightly.

In social instinct and skill with people, Zhan Xiumei bore a certain resemblance to Lu Guangnian.

“Are Miss Li and Mr. Wu here on a date?” After a few pleasantries, Zhan Xiumei brought the subject back around. “Then just now… was it Mr. Wu who sent me that text?”

It didn’t occur to her to wonder how Wu Chen had her number. Li Ruobing had it, so of course he might too.

It was just… she hadn’t taken her husband out to meet anyone in years. She couldn’t afford that kind of humiliation.

And she knew Li Ruobing almost certainly didn’t know the man by sight.

Which made this a little strange.

There was something else, too. Zhan Xiumei felt distinctly uncomfortable. Family shame, as the saying went, should not be aired in public. And now Li Ruobing had involved herself. Being notified was well-meant, certainly—but with Li Ruobing tangled up in it, the story would travel that much further, becoming just another piece of gossip.

“I sent it,” Wu Chen said with a nod.

“I’m terribly sorry you had to witness such a farce.” Zhan Xiumei’s smile was slightly stiff.

Witnessed by Li Ruobing and Wu Chen was the least of it. Before long every wealthy, well-placed person in Donghai would know.

There’d likely be talk behind her back all over again—that she couldn’t even keep watch over a man who’d married into her own family, and this time the Li…