Chapter 407: You Can’t Spoil Her Like This

Chapter 407: You Can’t Spoil Her Like This

As she spoke, Wu Jiao turned to look at Wu Chen, only to see him put a finger to his lips.

She stopped mid-sentence on instinct and blinked at him blankly.

What did he mean?

He didn’t want her to say it?

“Hm?” Zhang Xiujuan’s voice came quickly. “Jiaojiao? What about your brother? Guess what?”

“Hehe.” Wu Jiao caught on and giggled into the phone. “Mom, guess what my brother bought me today?”

She had meant to talk about An Menglan. She had changed course.

Last time, Wu Chen had had to take her phone away to stop her from breaking the news. This time there was no need. She wasn’t throwing a tantrum, only excited and eager to tell. When she wasn’t upset, she listened to her brother.

“Bought you what?” Zhang Xiujuan’s voice went up. “You girl, didn’t I give you money? Wasting your brother’s money again? He’s only just started working, he hasn’t even been paid yet! Which summer job has he ever had where he didn’t spend money on you? How old are you now, and still…”

She launched into a lecture.

It wasn’t that Zhang Xiujuan favored her son. Quite the opposite. Wu Jiao had always been the more spoiled one at home, being the daughter and five years younger.

But Wu Chen had joined their parents in spoiling his sister. He had even spent half of what he’d worked so hard to earn at his vacation jobs on her.

Zhang Xiujuan had disapproved of that for a long time.

Spoil her that much and she’d be ruined.

“Mom! Mom! He really didn’t spend that much. You’re scolding me again…” Wu Jiao pouted.

“Don’t you play the injured party. A trip into the city, meet up, have a meal, and that should’ve been it. Didn’t I give you money? How much could your brother possibly have right now…” Mid-lecture, her tone shifted. “Where’s your brother? Is he there? Put him on!”

“Okay!” Wu Jiao agreed with tremendous enthusiasm. She skipped to the doorway and held out the phone. “Bro! Mom wants you.”

She was grinning at him, because she knew he was in for it.

“Hi, Mom,” Wu Chen said, taking it.

“Xiaochen! I don’t mean to nag, but you can’t spoil her like this. You’ve only just started working. How much money do you even have? Have you been paid yet? I gave Jiaojiao money before she left, so what are you buying her things for? Your sister’s right in the middle of being a teenager. If she gets into the habit of throwing money around, what then…” Zhang Xiujuan had always taken her children’s upbringing very seriously.

A lecture from Mom.

All he had to do was listen.

Wu Chen stood there smiling and said nothing. Wu Jiao sidled over to listen in, pulling faces at him.

“…Xiaochen! What did you buy Jiaojiao? How much did you spend?” Having given him a thorough talking-to, Zhang Xiujuan asked.

“Not much. Just a few clothes,” Wu Chen said.

“Not much? Don’t you fool me. If it wasn’t much, why was Jiaojiao telling me to guess?” That was the whole reason she’d started lecturing. From the way Wu Jiao had said it, she had obviously spent a great deal.

“It really wasn’t much.” Wu Chen smiled. “Mom, Ruobing will be home soon. Let’s leave it there.”

“Ruobing?” For a moment Zhang Xiujuan didn’t place the name.

“Your daughter-in-law,” Wu Chen said.

“Oh… your girlfriend. All right. Give the phone back to Jiaojiao, then.”

She knew it wouldn’t do for her son’s new girlfriend to hear him being lectured, but she still had a few more words for Wu Jiao.

Wu Chen held the phone out.

Wu Jiao backed away two steps, waving both hands frantically. Then, struck by inspiration, she pointed toward the bathroom.

She didn’t want it. She was afraid of a scolding.

“Mom, Jiaojiao’s in the bathroom,” Wu Chen said, raising the phone again.

“In the bathroom? She just doesn’t want to talk to me, does she? You two! Go on, gang up on me…” Zhang Xiujuan saw straight through their little trick. “Oh, never mind. I’m busy anyway. I’m hanging up.”

“Okay, Mom.”

“Oh, right. Have you two eaten?”

“Not yet. We’ll cook in a bit.”

“Cooking? Good. Make sure you eat on time.”

“I know, Mom.”

“All right. Bye.”

The call ended.

“Thanks, Bro!” The moment he lowered the phone, Wu Jiao hugged his arm and grinned. “You’re the best!”

She was thanking him for covering for her.

“You…” Wu Chen poked her forehead.

“Wait, Bro!” She seemed to think of something, narrowed her eyes at him, and after a moment said, “Why won’t you let me tell Mom? You stopped me before, and now you’re stopping me again?”

“Because it’d scare Mom and Dad,” Wu Chen said. “Think about it. If they found out I was dating someone that rich… and that while our family works all year to make a hundred or two hundred thousand, I made eight hundred thousand in less than a month, wouldn’t they start imagining things? Just like you did. You even suspected I’d done something bad.”

“You’re young, so making money from songs is easy for you to understand. Mom and Dad are different. At their age, after the hard times they’ve been through, seeing me make money this fast would make them uneasy. They might even think I was lying to them. How could writing a few thousand words earn eight hundred thousand? That’s not something their generation can easily wrap their heads around…”

Wu Jiao listened, thought it over, and kept nodding.

He had a point.

“But you can’t hide it from them forever, right?” she asked.

“I don’t need to.” Wu Chen smiled. “If you play messenger, you won’t be able to explain it properly, and then they’ll call me about it anyway. Too much hassle. I’m going home in a few days. I’ll tell them in person…”

“Mm! You really think of everything, Bro! You’ve gotten smarter.” She grinned at him, sneakily implying he’d been dumb before.

Click! Bang!

Noises from downstairs, then a door shutting.

Wu Chen glanced back from the doorway. “That’ll be your sis-in-law. I’ll go take a look…”

He went downstairs.

In the first-floor living room, Li Ruobing had just come in with two bodyguards. She ought to have gotten back before Wu Chen. Both the company and the villa were in South District; in fact, she had chosen to live here precisely because it was so close to the CBD.

She was late because she had gone grocery shopping.

She and the two bodyguards were carrying bags of all sizes toward the kitchen.

“Where’s Jiaojiao?” Li Ruobing asked as she saw him coming down.

“In the guest room,” Wu Chen said.

“Have them stay tonight. Don’t let them leave.”

“Already told them.”

Li Ruobing and the bodyguards went into the kitchen. The bodyguards set down the bags and quickly left. Wu Chen went in too and found her going through the bags as if deciding what to wash and prep first. She looked ready to make a feast.

He took off his suit jacket, went out and tossed it on the sofa, then came back with his sleeves rolled up and took an apron off the wall.

Time to cook.

Li Ruobing planned eight dishes and a soup. There would be a fair number at dinner tonight. Besides the four already in the villa, Li Ruotai would be over soon.

For the next half hour, the two of them kept busy in the kitchen, chatting, washing and trimming vegetables, getting the stews on the stove first.

Wu Jiao and Chen Xue never came down.

They were in the bedroom trying on clothes, changing from one outfit to the next in high excitement. They had bought several fairly pricey new outfits. Of course they wanted to try them all on and mix and match.

Before they knew it.

It was past six-thirty.

“Bro! Bro!” Wu Jiao finally came running down, calling for him and following the sounds to the kitchen doorway.

“Bro, Sis-in-law! Does this look good?” she asked eagerly, even twirling on the spot.

“Pretty!” Wu Chen glanced at her and smiled.

“Very lovely,” Li Ruobing said with a smile as well.

Satisfied, Wu Jiao trotted off and thumped back upstairs.

“It’s nice being young. So much energy,” Li Ruobing said with a smiling sigh.

“You just haven’t seen her when she’s being a pain,” Wu Chen laughed.

Over the next half hour she came down twice more, each time in a new outfit to show them. Around seven on the dot, she came down a fourth time, with Chen Xue.

Both had changed back into their own clothes. They had come down to chat and wait for dinner.

Ten-odd minutes later.

The girls were on the living-room sofa watching TV.

Beep-beep. Click!

The villa’s front door opened. Someone outside had unlocked it by fingerprint.

Both girls turned at once. A young man in his twenties, in a suit and looking somehow “familiar,” walked in. He carried a case in one hand and a shopping bag in the other, a big luxury-brand logo blazing on its side.

Li Ruotai.

He had arrived.

And he’d brought Wu Jiao a first-meeting gift.