Chapter 254: Feeling Inferior! Shutting Down!

Chapter 254: Feeling Inferior! Shutting Down!

Where was he staying?

The moment Wu Yurong asked, Li Ruobing’s expression changed. She narrowed her eyes at her. Asking where he was staying was asking who Wu Chen would sleep with tonight, wasn’t it?

To ask that in front of everyone—she really was uninhibited.

Li Ruobing looked back at Wu Chen.

How was he going to handle this?

“Where else would I stay?” Wu Chen saw that all eyes were on him and swept a smiling gaze over them. “Home, obviously.”

Then he looked at them one by one with a very subtle expression, an odd curl at the corner of his mouth.

Home.

Such a simple answer.

And yet several of the women immediately looked strange.

There was far too much suggestion in that gaze, in that expression.

Every one of them found herself wondering whether she ought to go to Wu Chen’s house tonight. If she went, would the others want to go too? And if they all went together, then what—a round of mahjong?

To say they were not embarrassed would have been a lie.

Even Su Qingying looked troubled.

Wu Yurong simply gave him a mildly reproachful look.

“All right… everyone go home and get some rest.” Wu Chen rose as he said it. He had used that look deliberately to make them misread him. Now that he said this, they actually relaxed.

The others stood with him.

It really was time to leave.

Soon the group left the private room together, went downstairs, and walked out of the restaurant.

Li Ruobing naturally had her arm through his. The other women kept an appropriate distance.

Several bodyguards followed nearby.

Even an acquaintance seeing a scene like this would have thought nothing of it.

Outside the entrance they exchanged a few more words, said their goodbyes, and went their separate ways.

They had all been drinking, so no one could drive. Wu Chen, Li Ruobing, and Zhuang Xiaodie rode in one car, Li Ruobing’s Mercedes-Maybach. Wu Chen and Li Ruobing sat in the back, Zhuang Xiaodie in the front passenger seat, with Li Ruobing’s driver at the wheel.

One of Li Ruobing’s bodyguards would drive Wu Chen’s Lamborghini back as well.

Wu Yurong and Su Qingying had both arrived with bodyguards, so neither had to drive. The drunken Mu Qianqian left with Su Qingying.

A little over half an hour later.

Zunrong Donghai Huafu.

Wu Chen, Li Ruobing, and Zhuang Xiaodie went into the villa.

They sat in the living room a while to rest.

Zhuang Xiaodie sat in an armchair with a strange look on her face. She had looked like that in the car too. In fact, her expression had started looking more and more off during dinner.

Because from the other women’s conversation, she had learned that not one of them was ordinary.

They were nothing like her.

She was only a young lover who had been given to Wu Chen.

Any one of those women, taken on her own, stood far beyond her reach.

Li Ruobing came from an illustrious family, ran Huancai Fashion as its president, and was worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

Wu Yurong was CEO and vice chairwoman of Senlan Fashion Group, worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

Su Qingying was the daughter of Jinfu Jewelry’s chairman, the only daughter of Donghai’s richest man, an executive vice president, worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

Mu Qianqian might still be a student, but she was an extremely rich second-generation heiress in her own right. Her family was worth several billion yuan, and she too was an only daughter.

Zhuang Xiaodie felt that she alone was nothing more than a pretty vase. She could not even surpass these women in looks, let alone in anything else. The pressure inside her had climbed to the point of bursting.

She felt inferior.

Deeply inferior.

Close to shutting down entirely.

To Zhuang Xiaodie, these were outstanding women who ought to have existed only in the news. That was certainly how they had always seemed to her. They came from another world altogether.

And every one of them was Wu Chen’s woman.

So was she.

It felt surreal.

On the long sofa, Li Ruobing tossed her bag aside and sat down beside him. Then she leaned her weight against his shoulder. The alcohol was catching up with her, leaving her light-headed.

Wu Chen turned to glance at her. She was still in the same outfit she had worn at noon: business attire and black stockings. Relaxed now and faintly drunk, she carried an added trace of allure between her brows.

“Not going back tonight?” Wu Chen asked softly, smiling.

“Do you want me to go back?” Li Ruobing looked at him, her smile just as soft as their eyes met.

“No,” Wu Chen answered without hesitation.

“Then I’m not going back,” she said, just as decisively.

Smiling, she raised a hand to his cheek, leaned in, and kissed him.

For quite a while.

Then they parted.

Her breathing had gone slightly heavier, and she was still looking into his eyes.

“Go upstairs first. Take a shower,” Wu Chen said.

Li Ruobing smiled and pressed her lips together. “Okay.” She kissed the corner of his mouth once more, then sat up straight, picked up her bag, and rose.

Before she started toward the stairs, she glanced at Zhuang Xiaodie, but said nothing.

Li Ruobing went up.

Only after the click of her heels had faded above the stairs did Wu Chen speak.

“Xiaodie.”

Zhuang Xiaodie had been sitting off to the side in the armchair, head slightly lowered. At his call she looked up, then sprang to her feet. “M-Mr. Wu.”

She was nervous around him again. His other women were all so remarkable that she already felt unworthy of him, as though she did not even qualify to be his lover.

She could no longer begin to guess how formidable Wu Chen truly was, or what level of big shot he actually was.

“Come here.” Wu Chen beckoned.

She walked over. Following his gesture, she turned and sat down beside him. Wu Chen slid an arm around her waist, and she leaned into him, both arms around his neck.

“Mr. Wu…” Her voice was smaller than a mosquito’s. She looked up at him with watery eyes, nervous and a little afraid.

“What’s the matter with you? You’ve been strange since dinner.” Wu Chen leaned closer to her face and asked it softly, smiling.

“N-nothing.” Zhuang Xiaodie lowered her head, not daring to meet his eyes.

Wu Chen knew exactly what state she was in. He had considered in advance what effect bringing her to that dinner would have on her.

“Look up,” he said.

She lifted her head again. She did not dare disobey, and her eyes looked wetter still.

“What’s wrong? Answer me,” he asked again.

“M-Mr. Wu…” Her gaze flickered. Her eyes reddened all at once. After a moment she asked, “Are you… going to stop wanting me?”

“Of course not.” Wu Chen smiled, paused, then added, “You’ll go back to Modu in a few days.”

That put a flutter of panic in her. He had said he would not cast her off, and now he was telling her to leave in a few days. Was he going to banish her to the cold palace?

Her imagination was off and running again.

“I’ll speak to Boss Mao. He’ll cooperate with you fully, and he’ll teach you how to run Chenghai Entertainment,” Wu Chen said with a smile, looking at her. “And… if you want to act, Chenghai Entertainment’s next production should be a major one. You’ll be the female lead. You’ll have to work hard. Understand?”

Zhuang Xiaodie stared blankly a moment before she grasped what he meant.

Wu Chen was giving her a career.

He was going to make her a star.

Though she would have to work for it herself.

If she became famous… then maybe she would just barely be worthy of being Mr. Wu’s lover.

“Mr. Wu, I—I won’t disappoint you! I’ll work as hard as I can!” she promised at once, a little excitement in her voice.

“Do your best,” Wu Chen said, encouraging her with another smile.

“Mm-hm! Mm-hm!” She nodded again and again, then leaned in and kissed him on her own.

Wu Chen stayed on the sofa with her a while longer, holding her close and talking. When he judged the hour right, he said, “Go to sleep. Get some proper rest.”

“Mm-hm, Mr. Wu.” She answered, stood, kissed him once more, then headed upstairs.

She went back to the guest room and closed the door.

Wu Chen made a circuit of the downstairs living area, turning off all the lights, then went up as well.

The second-floor master bedroom.

He pushed the door open and closed it behind him.

The room was brightly lit, but there was no one in sight. Li Ruobing’s high heels lay on the floor, her skirt draped over the back of a nearby chair. The bathroom door was shut, the light on inside, and the sound of running water came through it.

She was still showering.

Smiling, Wu Chen walked toward the bathroom.