Chapter 480: Lu Guangnian’s Wedding

Chapter 480: Lu Guangnian’s Wedding

Wu Chen got up to wash. Not long after he went into the bathroom, Su Qingying came back to the bedroom. She hadn’t been up long either and had gone out to exchange a few words with Li Ruobing.

She was still in her nightdress. Seeing that Wu Chen wasn’t in the sitting area and hearing sounds from the bathroom, she walked over and pushed the door open.

Wu Chen was in the shower.

“Hubby, I think Ruobing’s figured out… about us…” she said the moment she’d shut the door.

“So what if she has? Did she ask you?” Wu Chen turned his head and smiled.

“She did, but I… didn’t say anything,” Su Qingying replied, blushing a little. When Li Ruobing had asked her earlier, she’d blushed just the same and refused to answer.

They chatted a little, finished washing, came out to dress, and soon left the bedroom fully ready.

Su Qingying took Wu Chen’s arm as they went downstairs.

In the living room on the ground floor, Li Ruobing wore a long black evening gown and a diamond necklace. She was dazzling: makeup immaculate, bearing cool and aloof, lipstick vivid.

Coming down beside Wu Chen, Su Qingying wore a long blue evening gown, her long hair styled in flawless waves. Moving or still, she looked as though she’d stepped out of a painting, like a fairy.

Mu Qianqian, who’d been up since eight, was dressed far more casually.

She didn’t like long gowns. She wore a girlish, mid-length pleated skirt in a purple gradient. She’d put on some jewelry but hardly any makeup, and she certainly didn’t dare go with her beloved smoky eyes.

Her parents would be at Lu Guangnian’s wedding today too, so she had to look respectable. She was only eighteen, after all. Otherwise she’d get an earful from them.

Wu Chen and Su Qingying reached the bottom of the stairs.

Su Qingying let go of his arm.

“Let’s go.” Wu Chen checked his watch and looked up with a smile.

Li Ruobing rose gracefully from the sofa, stepped over, and straightened his collar. Then she flicked a glance at Su Qingying, moved to Wu Chen’s side, slipped her arm through his, and said, “Let’s go.”

They set off!

Soon after, the south gate of Zunrong Donghai Huafu slowly opened. Several luxury cars drove out of the compound, joined up with two other convoys, and headed together toward the northern outskirts.

Mu Qianqian and Su Qingying shared a car.

Li Ruobing got into Wu Chen’s Lamborghini.

Lu Guangnian had invited her separately.

But she felt it was more fitting to attend as Wu Chen’s girlfriend! So rather than have him ride in her car, she rode in his.

…

Tangsha Private Club, on Donghai’s northern outskirts.

It was the most exclusive club for the wealthy in Donghai, offering accommodation, dining, swimming, bowling, tennis, golf, and every other leisure pursuit imaginable. But it was not a place for weddings.

Not for lack of a suitable venue.

Quite the opposite. Its grounds were perfect in every respect. The problem was that Tangsha was a high-end, members-only business club. Its guests included not only Donghai’s wealthy, but people from all over the country.

All of them had paid for the privilege.

Close the grounds for a wedding, and how was the club supposed to serve everyone else?

Tangsha didn’t host weddings, either.

And yet today, Lu Guangnian’s wedding was being held there!

Outsiders had little way of knowing how much he’d spent or how many strings he’d pulled. All they knew was that Tangsha would be closed for the whole day. No one but wedding guests would be allowed in.

Ten in the morning.

A convoy of eight cars arrived, passed through the club gates, and pulled into the parking lot.

Everyone got out.

Arm in arm, Wu Chen and Li Ruobing walked out of the lot and looked toward the main clubhouse entrance. An arch of fresh flowers had been set up in front of the doors, and at first glance the place seemed swarming with people.

Su Qingying and Mu Qianqian got out and joined them, pausing by the road to look.

None of the four had an invitation.

Other guests would naturally have to show theirs to get in. Wu Chen didn’t need one. Plenty of people might not recognize him, but they’d certainly recognize Li Ruobing.

The same went for Su Qingying. Many people wouldn’t know Mu Qianqian, but no one could fail to know Su Qingying.

There were too many people trying to get in.

The four of them were in no hurry. They joined the line and ambled slowly forward. Wu Chen certainly wasn’t going to call Lu Guangnian and ask him to come out and fetch him over something like this.

At the entrance.

Lu Guangnian and Ma Huifang weren’t there to receive guests; presumably they were still getting ready. Instead, a man and a woman in their thirties, both formally dressed, were greeting arrivals. They were Lu Guangnian’s son and daughter-in-law, Ma Jiawei and Tang Mei.

Ma Jiawei had since changed his surname back, so by rights he was now Lu Jiawei.

Lu Jiawei looked confident and full of energy as he welcomed the guests. He’d been something of a business high-flyer before, well educated and talented, but in the end he’d been just a salaried worker earning a bit more than most.

Now he was the only son of Lu Guangnian, one of Donghai’s ten richest men.

And he’d already started at Juli Group as a vice president.

There was no doubt he would be the sole heir to Juli Group and Lu Guangnian’s eight-billion-yuan fortune!

It looked as though Lu Guangnian had put him through plenty of coaching lately.

Greeting one wealthy guest after another at the door, he showed no sign of nerves.

Before long, Wu Chen and Li Ruobing were near the front of the line.

Even with several people still between them, Lu Jiawei spotted them at once. He quickly signaled others to handle the door, then took his wife around the crowd and hurried straight over to Wu Chen.

“Uncle! Uncle, you’re here… This way, please. Miss Li, please…” The moment he arrived, he was calling Wu Chen “Uncle.” It sounded rehearsed. Heaven knew what Lu Guangnian had told him beforehand. The word rolled off his tongue surprisingly easily.

“Uncle,” Tang Mei echoed. She clearly hadn’t had as much practice, and there was a faint trace of awkwardness about her.

Both of them were in their thirties, and they were calling twenty-two-year-old Wu Chen “Uncle.”

“Ah…” For once, even Wu Chen was caught off guard. Then he smiled. “Don’t call me Uncle. Let’s each go by our own terms. Don’t listen to your dad…”

Everyone nearby turned to look at Wu Chen and Lu Jiawei.

Every guest here was rich or powerful. They’d all heard that Wu Chen and Lu Guangnian called each other brothers. But were they really so close that Lu Guangnian had told his thirty-something son to call a man in his twenties Uncle?

That was…

“Then… Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu, Miss Li, this way, please…” Lu Jiawei said, and showed Wu Chen and Li Ruobing in ahead of the others.

The lobby was packed as well. Besides the many attendants, the men were all impeccably dressed and most of the women wore gowns.

Two bodyguards followed Wu Chen and Li Ruobing inside.

“Mr. Wu, my dad should be over in the garden…”

“Go see to your guests. It’s fine. Off you go.”

“All right, then!”

After a few more pleasantries, Lu Jiawei and Tang Mei went back to the door. Li Ruobing signaled her bodyguards to go to the north side of the lobby, sign the register, and present a wedding cash gift.

Nobody, rich or ordinary, could skip that.

Li Ruobing had prepared 660,000 yuan, a cash check tucked into a red envelope. Not too much, not too little. It was the gesture that counted.

A little over ten minutes later.

In a vast garden on the east side of the club.

This was the main wedding venue: lawns, fountains, flowerbeds, a swimming pool, groves and landscaped gardens… flowers everywhere. Lu Guangnian felt he owed Ma Huifang a great deal, and he’d likely spent nine figures on the wedding alone.

The venue was enormous, and so were the crowds.

He’d probably sent out several thousand invitations. Most guests would bring family, so the wedding might end up drawing more than ten thousand people.

With that many people, the ceremony had to be held outdoors. Only there was there room for enough tables to lay out the food and drink.

There was food and drink indoors too, of course.

All of it buffet-style.

Today’s guests could use any of Tangsha’s facilities and go wherever they liked. Food was everywhere, and so were attendants.

“Mr. Wu, what a fine young man you are! Hahaha…”

“You’re too kind, Boss Chen.”

Beside a flowerbed, champagne glasses in hand, Wu Chen and Li Ruobing soon saw off yet another wealthy businessman who’d come over to chat.

A wedding this size was also a major social occasion.

Li Ruobing had no wish to upstage the hosts. She and Wu Chen had already found a relatively quiet spot, but people still drifted over every so often to make small talk.

Su Qingying and Mu Qianqian were no longer with them.

Su Ruiwen had already arrived. Su Qingying had gotten a call and gone to find her father first.

Mu Qianqian had done the same.

At last, they had a moment’s peace again.

Ring, ring…

Li Ruobing’s phone rang. She took it from her handbag, glanced at the screen, and answered. “Are you here yet? Mm… okay… Your brother-in-law and I are already here…”

After a few more words she hung up and told Wu Chen, “Atai will be here in half an hour.”

Wu Chen nodded with a smile.

“Darling, can I ask you something?” Li Ruobing said suddenly, smiling at him sidelong and instinctively lowering her voice.

“What is it?” Wu Chen smiled.

“You and Qingying… are you two really…?” She left it unfinished, her smile turning just a touch knowing. She thought she’d worked it out.

She’d slept in the guest room last night and had faintly heard sounds from next door. And the way Su Qingying had addressed Wu Chen was… quite something!

“You guessed right.” Wu Chen smiled.

“Huh?” That actually threw her. He’d admitted it far too readily, and she’d only been guessing.

So it really was true?!

Turning it over, she looked away and took a sip of champagne, her smile subtle and strange.

It didn’t really matter. She’d simply learned the true nature of Wu Chen’s relationship with Su Qingying! If anything, it left her not the least bit worried that Su Qingying might threaten her position.

Not now, and even less in the future.

She just hadn’t expected Su Qingying to actually be…

“Mr. Wu?” A soft, sweet voice came from behind them and to one side.

They both turned to see Wu Yurong walking toward them, hair pinned up, wearing a qipao and a sweet smile, a glass of champagne in her hand.

The look in Li Ruobing’s eyes shifted the instant she saw her, but she kept smiling.

Today was Lu Guangnian’s wedding, after all. Nearly every person of wealth and power in Donghai had come, along with some of Lu Guangnian’s friends from elsewhere.

This was a public occasion!

Li Ruobing would never wreck someone else’s celebration.

So although the sight of Wu Yurong always irritated her, she would keep up appearances.

Wu Yurong came over, raised her glass to Wu Chen with a sweet smile, and they clinked glasses.

She didn’t clink with Li Ruobing.

“Miss Li, you look so beautiful today. No wonder Mr. Wu likes you so much.” Wu Yurong took a dainty sip and spoke to her in her usual soft, honeyed voice.

Li Ruobing’s face went cold in an instant.

Was there something behind those words? Was she looking for trouble?

“Wu Yurong, there are a lot of people here today. You’d better not start anything. You don’t want to make trouble for my husband, do you?” Li Ruobing said coldly.

No one else was near them. People farther off could see the three of them talking, but there was no way they could hear what was said.

“What are you talking about? Why would I make trouble for my man?” Wu Yurong smiled sweetly, her lovely eyes flicking toward Wu Chen. Then her tone shifted, turning gentle. “But… Su Ruiwen came and talked to me for a few minutes just now. He asked me a few things…”

Li Ruobing’s expression changed slightly. Her eyes narrowed. “What did you tell him?”