Chapter 476: You Can’t Back Out Now

Chapter 476: You Can’t Back Out Now

“Su Ruiwen called you?” Wu Chen could tell what had happened from her tone. He had, of course, anticipated that Su Ruiwen would call her. Exactly when was harder to say. It could be before the body was dug up or after. Either was possible.

“Darling! Next time you pull something this big and need me to play along, could you at least tell me first?” Li Ruobing was genuinely angry.

“And if I told you, what if your acting wasn’t convincing? You never studied acting,” Wu Chen said with a laugh.

“You really aren’t afraid of it blowing up in your face. Tell me… what if your little game hadn’t worked? What if Su Ruiwen found out about you and Qingying first and refused to accept you? What would you do then?” Li Ruobing demanded.

Wu Chen was playing Su Ruiwen!

Now, Su Ruiwen… If Wu Chen were simply out to play him, Li Ruobing wouldn’t have worried in the least. Wu Chen probably had ten thousand ways of handling the man.

What set Su Ruiwen apart wasn’t that he was the biggest local power in Donghai, or that his being the city’s richest man made him such a threat.

To Wu Chen, those were minor problems!

The real problem was that Su Ruiwen was Su Qingying’s father!

Li Ruobing knew Wu Chen well enough to know how much he doted on Qingying. He would never do anything to hurt her. That meant he could never use threats, intimidation, or any extreme measures against Su Ruiwen.

Which meant that if Wu Chen’s plan went off the rails, it would be very hard to salvage!

If Su Ruiwen turned on him over Qingying, what then? No matter what Wu Chen did, it seemed impossible for him to pull off the kind of flawless result he always achieved.

That was why Li Ruobing had been so tense during the call.

She’d been afraid she’d misunderstood Wu Chen’s scheme and played her part wrong.

And none of that was her fault. It was Wu Chen’s, for launching something this big again without a word of warning. That was why she was so, so angry.

“What you’re describing could never happen,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Darling! You’re too confident! That’s Su Ruiwen!” Li Ruobing said. She truly felt it had been a close call.

She cared about Wu Chen. And she didn’t know that he held a trump card capable of correcting any mistake: the reset! So to her, what he’d done today was far too reckless.

They bickered back and forth a little longer.

“So what exactly did you tell Su Ruiwen? The first thing out of his mouth was how I’d have to look after Qingying in the future…” Li Ruobing asked.

“A lot. It’s complicated,” Wu Chen said with a smile. “I’m driving right now. I should be at your place in ten-odd minutes. I’ll tell you when I get there.”

“Hmph.” Li Ruobing gave a soft snort. “Fine. I’ll be waiting.”

Ten-odd minutes later.

The underground parking garage of Donghai CBD Tower 7.

Wu Chen parked, got out, and headed for the elevators. He had a Huancai Fashion employee card, so he could go straight up.

The thirty-third floor. The president’s office of Huancai Fashion.

Creak.

“Mr. Wu.”

“Mr. Wu.”

The bodyguards outside greeted him as the door swung open, and Wu Chen, in a sharp suit, walked in. Behind her desk, Li Ruobing was working through some documents. She glanced up at him, then lowered her head again and went on signing.

Wu Chen didn’t disturb her. He went straight to the sofa, turned, sat down, crossed one leg over the other, and pulled out his phone to scroll and tap away.

He sent a few messages and chatted.

For anything that wasn’t urgent or important, Wu Chen preferred messaging to calling. He traded a few Weixun messages with Su Qingying first, then with Gu Ruibo, and with Old Dao.

Old Dao had been in the hospital for half a month now.

As the saying went, it took a hundred days to heal an injury to the sinews and bones. But in fact, Old Dao’s sinews and bones were intact. Wu Chen had deliberately spared his life because he meant to recruit him. Every stab had avoided vital spots, and none had left a wound that would be hard to heal.

They were only deep soft-tissue injuries.

By now, Old Dao’s stitches were just about ready to come out.

Another ten minutes or so went by.

Snap! Li Ruobing shut a file folder with a crisp sound and tossed it aside. Then she stood up.

Her heels clicked across the floor as she walked over to Wu Chen.

“You haven’t even tried to make it up to me,” she said, stopping in front of him. When he’d first come in, she’d made a show of being a little angry, but Wu Chen hadn’t said a word.

Anyone else present would have been astonished. Li Ruobing, of all people, complaining that a man hadn’t tried to coax her out of a mood, with a hint of petulance in her voice.

From any other woman, it would have been perfectly ordinary. But coming from someone with Li Ruobing’s personality, it could only mean one thing: she loved this man deeply!

“Hm?” Wu Chen looked up and smiled. “My dear Miss Li, are you the kind of woman who needs coaxing?”

“I’m still a woman,” Li Ruobing shot back.

Strong-willed, domineering, and independent as she was, Li Ruobing had begun to show more and more of an ordinary woman’s heart around Wu Chen.

He had changed her, and she was like this only with him.

Wu Chen smiled up at her.

When the two of them had come back at noon, she’d been wearing a dress. Now she’d changed back into her executive suit and put on her gold-rimmed glasses with plain lenses. With her long, straight black hair, she looked every inch the boss.

“Ha.” Wu Chen gave a soft laugh and held out a hand.

Li Ruobing lifted hers and placed it in his palm.

He tugged. She twisted around and settled onto his lap, her arms slipping around his neck naturally, out of habit.

“Did I scare you?” Wu Chen asked, tipping up her chin with one finger.

“No. How could I, Li Ruobing, possibly be scared?” she said, still refusing to admit it.

“Then why do you need me to make it up to you?” Wu Chen asked with a smile. But before she could reply, he leaned in.

A kiss.

Perhaps ten-odd seconds passed before he eased back a little.

“Better?” he asked softly, smiling at her face, only inches away.

“No.” Li Ruobing put on a slightly stern look.

“Still not enough?” Wu Chen’s smile turned subtly different. He turned his head and called out, “Brother Zhou, Ruobing and I have something to discuss. Don’t let anyone disturb us.”

“Of course, Mr. Wu,” came the immediate reply from outside the door. It was her bodyguard, Zhou Huan.

Li Ruobing’s expression changed.

The truth was, her anger had come from worry. His stunt had genuinely caught her off guard, so the anger was real, but she wasn’t going to have an actual falling-out with him over it.

She’d only wanted to set the mood a little and get him to tell her more about what was going on.

But now it seemed Wu Chen was about to…

As soon as Zhou Huan acknowledged him, Wu Chen slid an arm beneath her and rose, sweeping her up in his arms.

“W-what are you doing…?” Li Ruobing whispered, a little flustered.

“Making it up to you…” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Don’t… it’s not even quitting time. We’re at the office…”

“You’re the one who asked me to make it up to you. You can’t back out now.”

Barely a few words passed between them before Wu Chen carried her into the private lounge attached to the president’s office and hooked the door shut behind them with his leg.

Before they knew it, half an hour had gone by…

Then an hour…

Coaxing a woman, after all.

Wu Chen was actually very good at it. He just preferred working on the mind rather than taking any physical action in person. With women of different temperaments, and at different stages, he used different approaches.

And not necessarily the ones the woman herself would have chosen.

Take this time. Li Ruobing was still at work and wanted to talk things over, but Wu Chen had carried her into the lounge and, somewhat forcefully… made it up to her!

He felt he could treat Li Ruobing this way now.

Li Ruobing was a powerful woman.

And what she liked even more was a man more powerful than herself. Powerful in every sense of the word!

Before they knew it, it was nearly five in the afternoon.

At last, the lounge door opened.

Li Ruobing came out holding Wu Chen’s arm. Her face was still a little flushed, and the glances she cast at him held both tenderness and playful reproach.

She’d changed clothes again. The ones she’d been wearing were no longer fit to wear.

She’d also showered and touched up her makeup. Because she’d cried a little, she’d even used eye shadow to conceal the traces, something she rarely did.

“Better now?” Wu Chen asked, turning to her with a smile.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine now.” Li Ruobing nodded at once. But the look in her eyes was complicated: reproach and annoyance, certainly, and a touch of defiance, and… fondness?

They went back to the sofa and sat down.

Li Ruobing didn’t return to her desk and had no desire to do any more work. She felt worn out, steeped in a languid heaviness that made her reluctant to move. She sat close beside Wu Chen and leaned into him.

“Hubby, what exactly did you tell Su Ruiwen?” she asked. As she spoke, she simply turned and stretched out along the sofa, resting her head on his thigh and looking up at him.

“I told him…” And Wu Chen told her.

There was no reason at all to keep this from her.

He gave her a quick rundown of several of Xu Zhenyuan’s affairs. There was no need for details; he only explained what had caused each one and what had happened. A few minutes were enough to cover the gist.

When he finished, Li Ruobing fell silent.

Wu Chen’s intelligence-gathering abilities were beyond anything she could imagine. She had thought she already knew him well enough, and even so, he still defied all reason!

This kind of thing had happened far too many times.

After about half a minute of silent thought, Li Ruobing abruptly sat up. She turned to face Wu Chen, looking almost formal, and asked him a question with utter seriousness in her eyes.

“Darling, can you tell me whether you have some kind of… supernatural ability?”