Chapter 100: Wu Chen, Threatened and Tempted

Chapter 100: Wu Chen, Threatened and Tempted

“Do you have a private room?” Wu Chen asked the hostess the moment they were through the door.

“We do, sir. May I ask whether you have a reservation?” The hostess smiled, though her expression was a little odd. Today was strange. It was already dark out, and yet the customers had suddenly multiplied. In the last hour or two several more parties had come in, and every one of them had asked for a large private room.

Like Jinfu Teahouse, Qingyuan Teahouse was one of Donghai’s top teahouses, a high-end venue for talking business.

Qingyuan was in fact a touch better than Jinfu—positioned higher, its tea more expensive, its name more famous.

High-end teahouses of this sort all shared one trait: most of their business was concentrated in the afternoon.

There was some in the morning too, but the afternoon drew the crowd. Usually only after lunchtime did people come for tea, and once it passed four, a teahouse’s business began to fall away sharply, guests leaving in batches.

This matched the rhythm of people’s days, and it also had to do with the etiquette of hosting.

People had to eat dinner.

Especially when doing business, discussing business, receiving clients—whether or not the deal had been settled over tea, once mealtime arrived you had to invite your guests to dinner. You could hardly keep drinking tea together in a teahouse and go hungry together.

Which was why Wu Chen could call someone up, set the meeting at the teahouse, and even name the room outright.

He wasn’t worried the room would be taken, though he hadn’t asked in advance.

As long as the room he named was a large one, the odds of it being reserved ahead of time were minuscule. Smaller rooms were another matter—two friends who didn’t care about ceremony or face might come for tea and sit there for who knew how long.

Li Ruobing shot him a look.

Strange. He had plainly arranged to meet someone, and yet after coming in he asked about a private room. Did they need to open one and drink tea first?

“No reservation. Is Shanshui Oolong taken?” Wu Chen asked. Shanshui Oolong was the name of a private room on the fourth floor.

“One moment, sir.” The hostess brought them to the front desk and had the receptionist check.

Shanshui Oolong had no guests at present, and no reservation.

It was one of Qingyuan Teahouse’s largest rooms. A dozen-odd people could talk in there without feeling crowded. But because it was so large, few people booked it.

“This way, please, sir.” The hostess led them straight up. There was no registering, no paying first.

She took the three of them to the fourth floor.

As they neared the Shanshui Oolong room she turned her head to glance back, gesturing, then walked a few steps further and stopped at the doorway. “Here we are, sir. May I ask what tea you’d like?”

“Rock tea,” Wu Chen said. He meant Wuyi rock tea, a variety of oolong.

They went in. The room really was enormous, verging on empty.

Wu Chen gave Su Qingying a set of instructions.

Before long the same hostess brought the tea and the tea set in herself. While she laid them out on the table, she glanced at Su Qingying a few extra times, then smiled in surprise. “Are you… Miss Su Qingying?”

“I am.” Su Qingying nodded, with a polite and beautifully mannered smile.

“It really is you. When I went downstairs just now my colleague said you looked familiar, and I thought so too… I never imagined it was actually you. You’re even more beautiful than on television.” The hostess said it with a touch of excitement.

Because she’d seen her in the flesh. Donghai’s foremost heiress. Donghai’s foremost beauty.

“Thank you.” Su Qingying thanked her politely.

Listening, Wu Chen glanced at Li Ruobing. She sat on the other side without expression. She didn’t seem to mind Su Qingying stealing the spotlight in a setting like this, which suited her low profile in private.

Today wasn’t Li Ruobing’s business meeting either, so even her presence was somewhat reined in.

One minute after the hostess left.

“You two drink. I’ll go over first.” Wu Chen stood as he said it. He shook his phone at Su Qingying, then headed out.

He left the room.

Down from the fourth floor to the third. Wu Chen looked left and right, straightened his suit jacket, then walked west along the third floor, all the way to the end, to the last room.

Antique, elegant decor, with a small wooden plaque hanging on the door. The words on it read: High Mountains and Flowing Water.

Inside the room.

A greasy middle-aged man of about forty-five or forty-six, short and rather fat, sat by the table drinking tea. He looked deeply restless, and the way he drank showed it: subconscious, a cup drained and another poured, over and over, without stopping.

Wu Chen and Lei Cheng had once met here as well. Lei Cheng was greasy too, but Lei Cheng’s greasiness was on the outside. This man was dressed like a respectable person, and his bearing didn’t hold up at all.

Creak.

The door swung open. Wu Chen came in and said, “You still haven’t left?” Then he smiled.

The middle-aged man whipped around toward the door. Seeing a young man barely into his twenties, he froze a moment, then asked, “You’re the one who called—”

“That’s me…” Wu Chen said, walking further in. “How’s it been? Comfortable these past few years? Bai Kaifeng asked me to give you his regards…”

The man was on his feet at once. Not to lose his temper—he went hurrying fast toward the door.

By the time Wu Chen reached the table and sat down across from the man’s seat, the man had gotten to the door and shut it.

He had gone to shut it because he was afraid someone would hear them.

Wu Chen sat there smiling. He picked up the clean cup that had been left overturned, righted it, then lifted the pot and poured himself tea.

The middle-aged man came back and stood opposite him, staring at him fixedly. Because Wu Chen wasn’t looking at him, the gaze he fixed on Wu Chen carried both fear and killing intent.

“Sit. Why are you standing?” Wu Chen lifted the cup, raised his eyes, and said it with a smile.

“Who are you?” The man’s face sank. He pulled out the chair and sat. His momentum, at least, came up all at once.

“Wu Chen. Boss Yao may not have heard of me,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

The man frowned. The name Wu Chen sounded like something he’d heard somewhere, but he couldn’t place it.

“Where is Bai Kaifeng? How much did he give you? What do you want?” Each question came more urgently than the last, because that matter had given him nightmares for too many years. And the severity of that matter was enough to sentence him to death.

“What’s the hurry? You’ve waited this long for me already. Surely another moment won’t kill you.” Wu Chen said it with a faint smile, raised his cup in illustration, and smiled again. “Drink your tea first.”

The man’s face darkened. He could feel it—from the instant this young man had appeared, he had begun taking hold of him.

“Kid, I’m warning you.” The man lowered his voice, his eyes turning vicious. “Don’t think knowing some rotten business of mine means you can threaten me. I’m no pushover. I’d think this through, if I were you. Push me too far and I’ll fucking kill you.”

As vicious as he could make it. And then, the instant he finished, his tone eased somewhat. “But… if you can tell me where Bai Kaifeng is, not only will I not touch you, I’ll give you a sum of money. Enough that you couldn’t spend it in this lifetime.”

Threats and temptation.

Rather poorly executed.

The smile on Wu Chen’s face pulled back a little. He reached into his pocket, took out his phone, set it on the table, and smiled at the man again. “What was that, just now? Could you say it again?”

The man’s expression changed drastically the moment he saw the phone.

Because Wu Chen’s phone was in the middle of a call.