Chapter 452: Did You Rob a Bank?

Chapter 452: Did You Rob a Bank?

“What?” Zhang Xiujuan, who had barely begun and had a whole stomachful still to say, froze.

She shifted toward Li Ruobing without thinking.

“Preg… pregnant?” She was completely stunned. A smile appeared, faded, and appeared again, her feelings swinging between joy and bewilderment, her eyes dropping instinctively to Li Ruobing’s stomach.

She… wanted to believe it, but hardly dared.

“How… how far along?” she asked.

“Not far. I found out at a hospital checkup a few days ago. The doctor said it had only just happened. Less than twenty days,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

With current medical technology, a hospital could detect a pregnancy about seven to ten days after conception. A home test strip generally took around fifteen to twenty days.

“You only… just found out.” Zhang Xiujuan veered between delight and nerves.

She knew Wu Chen and Li Ruobing were living together. Wu Jiao had stayed at Li Ruobing’s place and told them all about it when she got back.

These days, that sort of thing was nothing unusual. Quite normal, in fact.

“Then, Bingbing, you were drinking just now.”

“Only half a glass of red wine. The doctor said once in a while is all right, but I should avoid it as much as I can.”

“Exactly. It’s bad for the baby. You have to be careful.”

“I know, Auntie.”

“Look at you two, this was an accident…”

“It wasn’t an accident, Auntie. Wu Chen and I were trying.”

“Trying?”

“Yes. I thought, I’m twenty-seven already, and my career is established. It’s time to think about settling down. Having a child now isn’t late, and if I have one early, I’ll be able to put more energy into my career later… Wu Chen’s been very supportive.”

“Honestly, that Xiaochen. Starts seeing someone and doesn’t tell the family, then doesn’t even tell us you’re trying for a baby. Something this important… and you two aren’t even married…”

“As for marriage, I’d like to. Wu Chen’s not in much of a hurry. He’s five years younger than me and only just out of college. Maybe he doesn’t want to get married so soon…”

“That—that little bastard!” Zhang Xiujuan was instantly furious.

Furious at her own son.

An enormously wealthy female CEO was willing to marry him and bear his child, and he still wanted to drag his feet about getting married?

Li Ruobing had just thrown Wu Chen under the bus.

But in fact, Wu Chen was the one who had told her to say all this to his mother.

The point was to give Li Ruobing a “positive image.” His mother would come away believing that Li Ruobing truly wanted to be with her son and marry him, that she took it seriously, while Wu Chen was the one who hadn’t fully settled down.

That would ease his parents’ worries about her being too rich. They wouldn’t even need to fear their son falling apart over a breakup.

“Then… when the baby’s born, whose surname will it take?” Zhang Xiujuan asked next.

It wasn’t that her imagination was running wild. The gulf in status between Wu Chen and Li Ruobing forced her thoughts in that direction.

Would he be marrying into her family? Becoming a live-in son-in-law?

“Of course the baby will take Wu Chen’s surname. Wu,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

“A Wu. Right, then… Bingbing, have some fruit… We’ve done nothing but talk. Go on, eat… Let me peel you an apple…”

“Auntie, there’s no need. I’ll eat it with the skin on.”

“No, no, no. Sit, sit. I’ll get a knife. Now where did that fruit knife go…”

…

Meanwhile.

In his parents’ bedroom.

The master bedroom had a small balcony of its own, smaller than the one off the living room and without a sliding door. Wu Dahai leaned sideways against the open window, smoking, now and then waving a hand through the air so the bedroom wouldn’t smell of it.

“Dad, smoke less. It’s bad for your health,” Wu Chen said from beside him, one hand in his pocket.

Wu Dahai didn’t take him up on it. Smoking was the last thing on his mind. It was full of his son and Li Ruobing.

“I just talked with your mom in the kitchen… told her a few things about Bingbing.”

He let out a stream of smoke, worry etched between his brows, and looked at his son.

“Xiaochen, tell your dad the truth. Can you and Bingbing really make it work? Is this solid? With our family’s circumstances, what we earn in a year might not match her pocket money for a month. She’s that rich and that beautiful. What does she see in you?”

“Maybe I’m just really handsome,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Cut the crap. You’re all grown up now, cracking jokes with your old man.” Wu Dahai took another drag.

The Wu household had always been a warm one. Zhang Xiujuan ran the house. Wu Dahai was no stern father. More often than not, after she scolded the kids, he was the one who smoothed things over.

Wu Chen had been self-disciplined since he was small. It was simply his nature. His sister used to call him a “block of wood,” and back then he really had been rather wooden. The family had always been comfortable, so he’d had a computer early, and nearly all his interests revolved around it.

Since he had always been a model student in both grades and conduct, his parents seldom had to “set him straight.” Compared with all the scoldings Wu Jiao got for her mischief, he’d had far fewer. The one real exception was a stretch when he got hooked on games and his mother nagged him about it.

“Handsome? Better-looking than Bingbing?” Wu Dahai said through a mouthful of smoke.

“Dad, these things come down to chemistry. Mom was a real beauty when she was young. You always said she had all kinds of men chasing her, and in the end… she married you, didn’t she?”

“That’s different. That was a whole other era. Besides… I’m a good cook.”

“I’m a good cook too. You taught me, Dad.”

“You’ll argue with anything.” Wu Dahai waved away the smoke again.

Wu Chen smiled. He was really just easing the mood.

“Dad, I’ll be honest with you. Your son has money now,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“From Bingbing? Ah…” Wu Dahai didn’t want to hurt his son’s pride, so he left some things unsaid.

“Not from Ruobing. I earned it myself.”

“You just graduated. How much could you possibly earn? What’s Bingbing paying you?”

“What I do for Ruobing is more like helping out. The real money… I didn’t make it from her.”

“Real money? How much counts as real money?”

“Quite a lot. Dad, you’d better brace yourself,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Wu Dahai’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth. Then he took two quick drags, stubbed out the cigarette, brushed off the ash that had fallen onto the windowsill, and asked, “A hundred thousand?”

Wu Chen had only been out working for a month!

A hundred thousand yuan in a month was no small sum!

Wu Dahai was already guessing high. The family noodle shop only netted a hundred, two hundred thousand a year.

“Higher,” Wu Chen said.

“Two hundred thousand?” Wu Dahai looked at him.

“Five hundred thousand?”

“A million?!”

“Xiaochen, what have you been doing?! No… son, you haven’t broken the law, have you? I know dating a girl as outstanding as Bingbing puts pressure on you, but you… you can’t… you absolutely can’t!”

Wu Dahai was panicking. He’d guessed all the way up to a million, and his son still hadn’t nodded. It was terrifying!

What could bring in money that fast, if it wasn’t from Li Ruobing?

Nothing he could think of, except the things written in the criminal code!

“Dad, you can guess higher. Go big,” Wu Chen said with a smile, taking out his phone.

“Even higher? Did you rob a bank?” Wu Dahai blurted, his thoughts in a whirl.

He watched his son look down at the phone, swipe, and scroll.

Wu Chen had opened his messages and found a bank alert notifying him of a balance change. It showed the current balance of that account.

He looked up at his father and handed him the phone.

“What’s this?” Wu Dahai took it and read the message.

First he went still.

Then his eyes widened.

Then, without thinking, he put a finger to the screen and began counting the digits.

“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten millions… a hundred million?!”