Chapter 326: Sorry to Bother You. I’m An Menglan!

Chapter 326: Sorry to Bother You. I’m An Menglan!

Li Ruobing saw the caller ID on the screen as well. The instant she
registered that it was her younger brother, she snatched the phone,
answered, and put it to her ear.

“What’s wrong with you, calling this late? Whatever it is, can’t it wait
until tomorrow?”

She was furious.

Though not entirely because they had been “interrupted.” She was still
annoyed that Li Ruotai had kept things from her too.

“Uh… Sis, well… Sis, is Brother-in-law there?” Li Ruotai sounded briefly
flustered, then hurried his words. “It’ll be quick, Sis. Just a couple
of sentences.”

Li Ruobing handed the phone back to Wu Chen without another word. In
truth she had mostly been looking for an excuse to scold her brother.

“Hello, A-Tai,” Wu Chen said as he took it.

“Brother-in-law, we caught him.”

“Mm. Good. I know.”

“All right, Brother-in-law. You and Sis get some rest. I won’t bother
you anymore.”

It really was only a few sentences. Li Ruotai hung up at once.

He understood perfectly well why his older sister had lost her temper at
him for calling his brother-in-law at this hour. Obviously he had
interrupted something.

Wu Chen set the phone down and turned to Li Ruobing with a smile.

“Jiang Hongguang has been caught.”

“He chose to run?” she asked at once.

“Yeah.” Wu Chen smiled.

Only if Jiang Hongguang chose to flee would Li Ruotai have him taken.
Otherwise there was no practical way to seize him. Jiang Hongguang had
not been alone; only once he deliberately shook off the others and
slipped away by himself was there a good opportunity.

Exactly as it had been with Jiang Chuan.

And from the Ding family’s side, no one would think Jiang Hongguang had
been abducted. They would only think he had fled of his own accord and
vanished without a trace.

“Vanished into thin air, and now there’s no witness left to contradict
the story.” The corners of her mouth lifted into a faint smile.

“Exactly.” Wu Chen smiled too.

The Ding family was now certain to carry the blame for the fire at Crown
Entertainment.

In truth, whether Jiang Hongguang fled or not, the Ding family would
still be able to trace the matter to Jiang Chuan.

But there was one important difference.

With Jiang Hongguang gone, the Ding family would not even be able to
discover why he had gone in and out of Room 1029 twice.

It would make the whole thing murkier still.

Impossible to explain, however much they wanted to.

The Ding family would compensate Li Ruotai. And given their present
attitude toward the Li family, they would certainly pay a heavy price to
calm the Li family’s anger.

As for what Wu Chen gained from it, causing trouble for Ding Ruilong
could be counted as a gain.

But the far greater benefit would unquestionably go to Li Ruotai and the
Li family.

Li Ruobing could see all of that.

Only she knew what she felt inside. She was not an emotional woman, and
yet the way she looked at Wu Chen now was extraordinarily tender.

“Darling,” she murmured.

“Mm?” He looked at her.

She planted a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down…

More than an hour later.

It was already past one in the morning.

Only the bedside lamp remained lit. Wu Chen and Li Ruobing lay under a
blanket, her head resting on his shoulder. Now they really were about to
sleep.

Before they did, she asked again about the handgun’s failure.

Wu Chen told her.

He had indeed tampered with Ding Ruilong’s handgun at noon the previous
day.

What he had done could have been caught if the weapon had been inspected
before use. But if it was not inspected, then according to Wu Chen,
after the first shot the gun would no longer eject or lock properly, and
on the second or third shot a jammed casing or a failure to lock could
blow it apart.

It was impossible to know with certainty whether it would fail on the
second shot or the third.

That uncertainty was deliberate, because Wu Chen wanted to keep anyone
from discovering the weapon had been touched. Making it blow apart on
the first shot would have been easiest, but investigators would
certainly have been able to tell it had been altered.

Instead Wu Chen had made only a tiny adjustment.

An adjustment that would not produce a malfunction until after the first
shot had been fired.

And when the failure came, the gun itself would be damaged and deformed
to some degree. His minute alteration would become impossible to
identify. Even if someone noticed it, they would put it down to the
explosion.

Wu Chen knew that when Ding Ruilong killed a man in a rage he had the
habit of firing several shots in succession to vent his fury.

That was simply the kind of man he was.

Wu Chen also knew the bodyguard Tang Wu had come along. So he had
deliberately told Ding Ruilong that Tang Wu had cuckolded him, which
ensured that once Ding returned to the hotel he would dig out the truth,
fire the gun, and blow up his hand.

Wu Chen had conceived the plan step by step at noon the previous day,
after watching Ding Ruilong leave the hotel with his entire entourage
from the fast-food restaurant across the street, then slipping inside
and finding Ding Ruilong’s handgun in his case.

Wu Chen did not lay out every detail for Li Ruobing. He gave her the
broad outline.

When he had finished she did not ask much more. She simply leaned over
and kissed him twice on the cheek.

She was happy.

In a single day Wu Chen had struck Ding Ruilong from two directions at
once. Ding had not only been injured badly enough that he might be left
disabled, he had also been saddled with an enormous amount of blame.

Li Ruobing was genuinely happy.

Conversation over. Time to sleep.

—

A new day.

July 23, 2020. Seven in the morning exactly.

Wu Chen woke on time, looked up at the ceiling with a smile, then turned
to look at Li Ruobing, still asleep.

He closed his eyes again.

He would sleep a little longer.

When he woke a second time it was already past eight.

Li Ruobing had gotten up and washed. In her pajamas she sat at the
dressing table in the corner of the bedroom doing her makeup. She had
woken half an hour earlier and gotten up without disturbing him. She had
something extremely important to do today. He did not.

“What time is the press conference?” Wu Chen asked, sitting up slightly.

“Noon,” she said, working on her eyebrows.

“Want me to come?”

“No need. You handle your own things.”

There really was no need for him to attend today. The schedule had
already been finalized. It would be livestreamed, with a great many
reporters present. If Wu Chen went he would only be watching. There was
nothing for him to do.

Besides, Li Ruobing knew he was always busy. After the two enormous
things he had pulled off yesterday, he would certainly have matters to
deal with today.

They talked a while.

Once her makeup was done and she was dressed, she kissed him on the
cheek and hurried out.

She did not even eat breakfast. She went straight to the company.

Wu Chen got up, washed, and dressed. By the time he went downstairs it
was nine in the morning.

Tang Xinbao, Guo Qiqi, and Zhuang Xiaodie were all in the first-floor
living room. Several bags sat on the coffee table, filled with steamed
buns ordered in for breakfast.

All three had gotten up early today. Wu Chen had no idea which of them
had placed the order.

“Boss, you’re up. I just saw Miss Li head out… Boss, want some buns?”
Tang Xinbao greeted him.

“The buns have gone a little cold. I’ll warm them in the microwave.”
Before Wu Chen could answer, Zhuang Xiaodie picked up two of the bags
and headed for the kitchen.

“You’re recovering well. The swelling in your face is basically gone.”

“Of course. Boss, I told you already. I’m in great shape!”

Wu Chen sat down on the sofa and chatted with Tang Xinbao.

Before long Zhuang Xiaodie brought the buns over, steaming hot.

They ate and talked.

Tang Xinbao also asked about the fire at Crown Entertainment and Ding
Ruilong’s injury. He knew about both because Tang Jingbin had called him
a little after eight that morning and mentioned them.

The Crown fire had already made the morning news. Tang Xinbao had seen
it himself.

“…They’re still investigating the cause, I think. A-Tai hasn’t called me
about it either…” Wu Chen offered a few casual words and naturally
revealed nothing of the truth.

Ring, ring…

A phone rang.

Wu Chen’s.

The others stopped talking. He took it out, glanced at it, and raised an
eyebrow.

An unfamiliar number on the screen.

But he knew exactly whose it was.

He answered.

“Hello.”

“Hello. May I ask if this is Mr. Morning Mist?” A rich, magnetic woman’s
voice.

“Mm… yes. And you are?”

“Sorry to bother you out of the blue. I’m An Menglan.”

An Menglan, the leading diva of the new generation of the
Chinese-language music scene, nicknamed the Great Demon King.

She had called him.

“Oh… Miss An. What can I do for you?” Wu Chen asked.

His reaction was remarkably flat. Not a trace of excitement at a
personal call from a superstar like An Menglan.