Chapter 180: What Gives Him the Right?

Chapter 180: What Gives Him the Right?

Wu Chen made no attempt to hide from Wu Yurong what he intended to do.

Because he understood her character too well.

Every word he spoke was cut to fit it.

In temperament Li Ruobing bore certain resemblances to Wu Yurong.

That was one reason Li Ruobing regarded Wu Yurong as a senior worth admiring.

Neither woman would submit to fate.

Both meant to resist.

Wu Yurong had already succeeded.

Where they differed was in how they resisted.

Li Ruobing was forceful and domineering. She met people head-on and drove them to the point where nobody knew what to do with her.

Not even the old master of the Li family could make her yield.

She indulged nobody.

No meant no.

She was exceptionally hard and strong.

Fearless, always.

Wu Yurong was not like that.

In that respect she was very nearly Li Ruobing’s opposite extreme.

Not that she swallowed humiliation to keep the peace.

Rather, she calculated.

She took the long way round.

She could pretend to agree.

On the surface she could be perfectly friendly while laying out the board in the dark.

And then, when the time came, one stroke, fatal.

Wu Yurong had already succeeded in taking hold of her own life.

What she pursued now was more money, higher standing, and absolute control over that life.

She hated anything she could not understand.

Li Ruobing did not care how many secrets Wu Chen kept. So long as those secrets did not threaten her, she would not dig relentlessly for answers.

Which made Li Ruobing’s own rebellion against fate somewhat easier to bear.

Wu Yurong was not so.

Even if she had already been shown that Wu Chen posed no threat to her, anything she did not understand—above all anything touching her personally—would leave her guard high.

She would investigate.

She wanted to know everything.

The wariness would stay in her heart.

People who schemed too deeply always lived exhausting lives.

There was simply too much to think about, every single day.

Wu Yurong was exactly that kind of person.

It had a great deal to do with the shadow left on her by the sudden loss of control over her life all those years ago.

In that respect she was neither as strong nor as fearless as Li Ruobing.

There was one more thing Wu Yurong and Li Ruobing had in common.

They liked strong people.

“The Ding family? You’re going after them?” Wu Yurong stood there staring at Wu Chen, and there was something thoroughly wrong with her expression.

The thing she found hardest to understand had finally arrived.

Wu Chen!

He was only—

He was only the boyfriend of the Li family’s eldest granddaughter of the senior branch.

He was not even a member of the Li family.

A man with no background of his own, someone with nothing especially remarkable to his name except an extraordinarily formidable, extraordinarily well-connected girlfriend.

That was Wu Yurong’s understanding of Wu Chen.

She could guess he must have exceptional qualities. He might even possess extraordinary skills.

Otherwise Li Ruobing would never have looked twice at him.

But in modern society there were limits to what any one man could accomplish.

This was an age of relationships, of networks, of background.

So—

Wu Chen?

Going after the Ding family?

The very notion carried a ridiculous flavor of a man boasting past the heavens.

Where did that confidence come from?

This was already beyond confidence, beyond arrogance, beyond even megalomania.

It had crossed a line into something that sounded like the ravings of a madman.

“Ruobing likes you very much, President Wu.” Wu Chen smiled at her. “She respects the way you carry yourself, and she likes your style. To her you’re a senior worth learning from.”

Wu Chen brought Li Ruobing up abruptly, then turned the direction of it.

“So I thought I ought to warn you. I’d rather Ruobing had no cause to feel sorry for you later.”

It was a very strained excuse.

Because the excuse did not matter.

What mattered was that he had mentioned Li Ruobing.

Wu Yurong had already reached the point where she had no wish to go on talking to him.

Everything he said sounded too absurd.

But his words reminded her of something.

Wu Chen had said from the beginning that Li Ruobing knew.

Wu Yurong now found it exceedingly difficult to believe a word of his nonsense.

Still, one part of his logic was clear enough.

If something really did happen to the Ding family, Huo Wanqiu could indeed become the link that dragged her into the fallout.

“Mr. Wu, would you mind waiting a moment?” Wu Yurong asked with a lovely smile.

Wu Chen raised a hand in a gesture that said, Go ahead.

Wu Yurong sat down, picked up her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and found the number saved under Li Ruobing.

She had known Li Ruobing a long time.

They had met not long after Li Ruobing first came to Donghai.

But no particularly close relationship had ever formed between them, and no frequent contact. It was the sort of acquaintance made by exchanging business cards at banquets.

It was worth noting that Wu Yurong’s relationship with Li Ruotai was much the same.

Li Ruotai had never managed to befriend her.

Within Donghai, however, Wu Yurong had deep relationships with local tycoons such as Lu Guangnian and Su Ruiwen.

Wu Yurong dialed Li Ruobing’s number.

It connected quickly.

“Hello, Ms. Wu.” Li Ruobing’s voice came through the phone.

She habitually addressed Wu Yurong as Ms. Wu—a respectful form that carried no particular implication.

“Boss Li. May your business prosper,” Wu Yurong greeted her, smiling.

“May yours prosper as well,” Li Ruobing replied.

Her tone lacked its usual coldness. She simply sounded ordinary.

“Boss Li, your boyfriend Wu Chen is with me at the moment. I took the liberty of inviting him over rather suddenly,” Wu Yurong said.

“I know,” Li Ruobing said. “Wu Chen mentioned he’s been in contact with your daughter recently. I’m sorry… Wu Chen has his own way of doing things. It isn’t really convenient for me to interfere.”

Wu Yurong’s brows lifted as she listened.

Li Ruobing could not control Wu Chen?

Was this a performance?

She had already suspected that his alarmism and grand talk were meant to manipulate her.

Now she began to wonder whether Wu Chen and Li Ruobing were working together to manipulate her.

But a second thought said that made no sense either.

Wu Yurong liked Li Ruobing very much.

She liked her character, and her hardness.

She felt Li Ruobing lived more freely than she did herself.

Their contact had been limited, and yet a certain mutual appreciation existed between them.

Wu Yurong did not believe Li Ruobing would suddenly join a scheme against her for no reason at all.

“Mm…” Wu Yurong murmured thoughtfully.

She glanced at Wu Chen, then smiled into the phone.

“Your boyfriend was just telling me the Ding family is going to have trouble, and that he intends to go after them. Does Boss Li know about that?”

“I know,” Li Ruobing said.

Wu Yurong’s expression turned subtle.

Li Ruobing really did know.

And her attitude was strange.

No surprise.

No explanation.

Nothing further.

Not the faintest ripple in her voice.

“Boss Li knows? Then you—your Li family—or is it…” Wu Yurong hardly knew how to frame the question.

It was simply too strange.

“You should discuss the particulars with Wu Chen,” Li Ruobing cut in. “Ms. Wu, in truth… I don’t really know everything Wu Chen has arranged either. There are things he discussed privately with my father. He hasn’t told me all of it, and my father wouldn’t tell me either…”

Not everything Li Ruobing said had been dictated by Wu Chen.

In fact he had only given her the key points and told her to improvise.

He had specifically reminded her that she did not need to lie.

She could simply tell the truth.

Li Ruobing cooperated.

Because Wu Chen had told her his ultimate purpose in approaching Wu Yurong—

To make Wu Yurong a significant force against Ding Ruilong, and against the Ding family itself.

That was something Li Ruobing wanted.

Of course she wanted formidable people helping Wu Chen.

Because helping Wu Chen was helping her.

By the time Li Ruobing finished, Wu Yurong’s expression had changed entirely.

Wu Chen had gone around Li Ruobing and joined forces directly with the Li family?

On what basis?

What standing did he have?

What ability?

Weren’t the Li family allied with the Dings?

Li Ruobing had not explained it very clearly.

But Wu Yurong could feel it.

Never mind controlling Wu Chen—Li Ruobing did not even know much about what he was actually doing.

Wu Chen had already reached the point where he could hold private counsel with Li Maoren.

“I see. Then… we’ll talk. Sorry to have troubled you, Boss Li.” Her expression had changed, and yet her voice came out light and smiling, without the slightest alteration.

She ended the call and looked at Wu Chen again.

A brilliant smile blossomed across her face.

“Mr. Wu, would you like something to drink?”

Wu Yurong rose as she asked and walked toward the liquor cabinet in the corner of the office.

She was going to turn the tables on him.

Wu Chen knew that whenever Wu Yurong brought out alcohol for a guest—

That was where her handling of him began.