Chapter 258: Careful, Someone Might See Us

Chapter 258: Careful, Someone Might See Us

Once Song Xuan and Wu Yurong were inside, Wu Yurong’s female bodyguard Chu Yan drew the door shut from the corridor.

The private room was not large, though not cramped either. Sofa booths, lavish furnishings.

Wu Yurong looked the room over first, and only then turned her eyes to Wu Chen. Everything about it seemed perfectly natural.

Wu Chen stood.

“Mom, this is Senior Wu Chen, the one I told you about. He’s from Donghai University too. He just graduated this year,” Song Xuan said, introducing him to her mother in her soft, sweet voice.

“Senior, this is my mom,” she went on, turning the introduction the other way. “She heard the song you wrote for me had taken off and insisted on meeting you. My mom studied music back in her day. She loves it.”

As she spoke, mother and daughter came to the table together.

“Wu Yurong…” Wu Yurong acted for all the world as though she were meeting him for the first time.

With a natural, sweet smile, she put out her hand.

“Wu Chen…” He extended his own and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Wu.”

“Likewise,” Wu Yurong said.

They shook hands. And in the instant their eyes met, she gave him the smallest wink.

“When Student Wu called my daughter at noon, we were having lunch together. She’d already mentioned that Student Wu had written a song for her. I listened to it. It’s very well written. And Antidote for the Soul, the one Student Wu sang himself, is very good too… There aren’t many people with as much talent as Student Wu.”

Student Wu, over and over.

And she opened by praising him.

On the surface it sounded like empty courtesy.

In fact she was letting Wu Chen know what had happened.

By the time she finished, he understood everything.

When he had spoken to Song Xuan at noon, Wu Yurong had been sitting right beside her.

She had heard him arrange the time and place, and had decided to come along.

She was Song Xuan’s mother, and she cared about her daughter. Her daughter’s new song had taken off, the senior who wrote it was formidably talented, and now he was going to sign a contract with her.

From Song Xuan’s point of view, there was nothing strange about Wu Yurong wanting to meet him.

But Wu Chen knew why she wanted to meet him through Song Xuan.

She was guarding against accidents.

Song Xuan could not be allowed to know about their relationship.

She could not even be allowed to know the two of them were already acquainted.

Now, by way of Song Xuan, Wu Yurong had formally “met” Wu Chen.

After this, if something went wrong—if Song Xuan happened to see them together, say—then so long as the circumstances were not too peculiar, it would be easy enough to explain.

They knew each other now, after all. If she caught them meeting privately, a reason would not be hard to invent.

“You’re too kind, Ms. Wu. Come, sit, sit… Student Song, have a seat.” Wu Chen smiled and gestured.

The three of them sat down, Wu Chen on one side, Wu Yurong and Song Xuan side by side opposite.

They called the server back in and ordered three coffees. The café served full meals as well, steak and the like, but they ordered none.

While they waited, they began to talk.

“How old is Student Wu this year?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Twenty-two. Two years older than Xuanxuan. Quite a handsome young man. Are you from Donghai?”

“Yes. A small county under the city.”

“And what does your family do?”

Wu Yurong went on asking, one question after another.

Her manner stayed gentle and sweet throughout. Put that way, the questions not only failed to give offense; they made a person want to answer her.

Of course, every one of them was pointless. She knew Wu Chen’s circumstances perfectly well.

It was all a performance for Song Xuan.

And Wu Chen played along.

A few minutes later, the three coffees arrived.

Wu Yurong lifted her cup, took a sip, and asked, “And where is Student Wu working now?”

“Mom!” Song Xuan finally cut in.

She hooked an arm through her mother’s. “Mom, are you checking his household registration or something? Why do you keep asking all these questions?”

Even she felt her mother had gone a little far. There had been too many of them.

But it was not that Song Xuan failed to understand. Her mother was afraid she might be taken in. She cared, and that was why she was trying to get to the bottom of everything about this senior of hers.

“I’m only asking.” Wu Yurong glanced at her daughter, then turned back to Wu Chen with her sweet, soft smile. “I simply want to know what sort of family raises an outstanding young man like Student Wu.”

She truly did know how to talk.

Song Xuan knew that was simply her mother’s way. She could say almost anything without making a person dislike her.

“You flatter me, Ms. Wu. Compared with you, I still have a long way to go. I wouldn’t call myself outstanding,” Wu Chen said modestly.

“Oh? You know who I am?” Wu Yurong looked mildly surprised.

“Of course. Who at the university doesn’t know Student Song’s family background? Senlan Group.” Wu Chen smiled.

“I see…” Wu Yurong smiled and drank a little more coffee.

The idle conversation went on.

But the subject was no longer Wu Chen himself. Now they talked about songs and composition.

Wu Yurong had real insight into music. She had been formally trained, and terms like adagio, polyrhythm, chords, modulation, overtones, and tremolo came off her tongue without effort.

Wu Chen naturally understood all of them.

Song Xuan had not majored in music, but music was her passion and she had studied it deeply.

She understood them too.

The three of them genuinely did have plenty to say to one another about music.

Most of it centered on Antidote for the Soul and A Song for Me, with Wu Chen answering questions about how he had created them.

They talked on for a good ten or twenty minutes.

Seeing that her mother seemed thoroughly satisfied with Wu Chen, Song Xuan finally let herself relax.

She had been afraid her mother would decide Wu Chen had approached her deliberately, with some design behind it, and would forbid her to associate with him after meeting him. She had worried, too, that her mother might interfere with her singing afterward.

But her mother and Wu Chen appeared to be getting along famously.

“…Senior, I brought the contract…”

At last they came to it. As she spoke, Song Xuan took it out of her bag.

A thick stack, in duplicate.

She had asked Senlan Group’s legal department to draft it. It was highly professional.

“Senior, have a look and see if there’s anything wrong.” She passed it across.

He took it and bent his head to read, quite carefully.

He was still playing his part.

In truth he trusted Song Xuan’s character.

He was still reading when—

“Mom, I’m going to the restroom.” Song Xuan tilted her head suddenly and said it quietly to her mother.

She picked up her bag, stood, and went out.

She was gone.

The door closed again.

“Student Wu?” Wu Chen looked up from the contract at Wu Yurong across the table and repeated the words with a smile.

His tone was subtle.

“What?” Wu Yurong answered with a sweet smile.

Then she rose, came around the table to him, turned, and sat straight down in his lap.

She looped both arms around his neck and looked at him, her eyes full of tenderness.

“Can’t I call you Student Wu?”

“It isn’t that you can’t.” Wu Chen smiled at the woman inches from him. “It’s only… rather strange.”

“Strange?” Wu Yurong drew the word out deliberately.

She brought her face closer still, met his eyes, and asked in a low, flirtatious voice, “Then what should I call you? Hubby?”

She was teasing him. And having asked, she kissed the corner of his mouth.

“Anything you like.” Wu Chen smiled.

He put an arm around her waist and patted it twice. “All right, go and sit back down. Careful, someone might see us.”

“How could they? Xuanxuan went to the restroom. That takes a few minutes at least.” Wu Yurong had been counting the time in her head.

Then she asked in a soft, honeyed murmur, “Last night, was Li Ruobing at your place, keeping you company—”

She never finished.

Rapid footsteps came from the corridor. Then—bang!

The door was shoved open.

“Senior—” Song Xuan burst in, and the word died in her throat.

Her eyes went huge.