Chapter 488: Is Qingying One of Them Too?

Chapter 488: Is Qingying One of Them Too?

When Li Ruobing said the name “An Menglan,” the world fell silent once more.

Su Ruiwen’s face froze. For a moment he even wondered whether he’d asked the wrong question or misheard the answer.

He stared at her. His eyes flickered, and his expression began to shift this way and that. He almost suspected she was making fools of him.

Not that he truly suspected it. It was just that what she said was so very hard to believe!

“Miss Li, you mean…” A full half minute passed before Su Ruiwen spoke again, slowly, haltingly. “You’re saying… Miss An Menglan is Mr. Wu’s lover, and Mr. Wu had someone leak Hezhong Media’s Zhou Shenglong scandal to help her?”

Saying it out loud only deepened his disbelief!

Because more than one thing about it didn’t add up.

Never mind what An Menglan and Wu Chen actually were to each other. Why would An Menglan want to… go after Zhou Shenglong?

Su Ruiwen didn’t follow the entertainment world, but he knew the rivalries among big conglomerates and powerful interests. He knew that Huaxing Entertainment, owned by the An family, and Hezhong Media were sworn enemies.

But An Menglan held no position at Huaxing. She’d struck out on her own. If Huaxing wanted to take a swing at Hezhong, there was no reason on earth it would need An Menglan to do it.

That didn’t add up.

And Wu Chen being with An Menglan added up even less!

The An family wasn’t a political dynasty, but it was one of Xiangjiang’s handful of financial dynasties, and thanks to where it stood, it had channels to the very highest levels. Entertainment was just one of its many businesses. And setting aside her celebrity, An Menglan was known as a hundred-billion-yuan heiress, a genuine young lady of the very top tier!

By comparison, even Wu Yurong couldn’t match the standing of Li Ruobing, eldest granddaughter of the Li family’s senior branch. But An Menglan certainly could!

That Li Ruobing had fallen for a twenty-two-year-old with no money, no power, and no background was baffling enough. Donghai had been buzzing about it for ages.

And An Menglan too?!!

What’s more!

The word Li Ruobing had used was “lover”!

She’d just said she and Wu Chen were going to marry someday!

Would a woman of An Menglan’s standing really be willing, really be content, to be some man’s lover with no name and no place?!! Even if one assumed the extreme, that she was willing, her family would never allow it!

An Menglan wasn’t Li Ruobing.

No one had ever heard of her daring to defy her family. No one had ever heard of her having Li Ruobing’s iron will!

“That’s more or less it.” Li Ruobing watched him with a faint smile. She slowed down too, though her tone stayed conversational. “A while back, the audio for An Menglan’s new album was leaked. It set off a huge uproar online. I expect you heard about it, Boss Su?”

“I saw the news.” Su Ruiwen nodded.

“And then there was the scandal about An Menglan cheating with the genius musician Morning Mist…” Li Ruobing went on. “Behind both of them, or rather pulling the strings behind both of them, was Hezhong Media.”

None of this was Li Ruobing’s own deduction.

After Peng Wei posted his exposé a little past one that afternoon, some of the wedding guests had started talking about Zhou Shenglong. They weren’t the big bosses, but the family members they’d brought along, mostly young people. Mu Qianqian had even wandered over to chat about it with Su Qingying.

But Li Ruobing happened to know that today was August 2, and that Peng Wei had originally been set to expose An Menglan’s secret meeting with a mystery man. He’d even posted a teaser.

And it had turned into Zhou Shenglong!

Peng Wei was Wu Chen’s man now. Li Ruobing knew that perfectly well. The two of them had even set up a company together, with Zhuang Xiaodie holding Wu Chen’s shares on his behalf.

For Peng Wei to dare expose Zhou Shenglong was anything but ordinary. It meant breaking with Hezhong Media completely, and in public.

So… it had to be Wu Chen’s doing!

Li Ruobing had had a quick chat with Wu Chen about it and picked up a few key details. She hadn’t asked any more than that. She couldn’t be bothered.

“So Hezhong Media struck first, and Mr. Wu struck back…” Su Ruiwen said slowly.

“Exactly!” Li Ruobing nodded, then smiled. “And I’d guess this is only the beginning. Knowing my Mr. Wu… the real show is still to come!”

The first thing that didn’t add up, or the first question at least, had its answer!

There was still the second!

The most crucial one, and the hardest for Su Ruiwen to believe.

“But… Mr. Wu and Miss An… the two of them…” No matter how Su Ruiwen turned it over, it seemed impossible. Wu Chen and An Menglan didn’t even have the chance to see each other regularly. It wasn’t like with Li Ruobing. Wu Chen was a Donghai native, and Li Ruobing had been running her company in Donghai for four years. For those two, the basic conditions were there.

They could see each other often!

But An Menglan lived mainly in Modu. Even if Wu Chen had been to Modu on business, surely he couldn’t spend a few days there, somehow get close to An Menglan, and turn her into his lover?

Wu Chen had graduated from university barely more than a month ago!

“You’ve heard of Morning Mist too, I’m sure, Boss Su?” Li Ruobing asked him instead.

“Of course.” Su Ruiwen nodded. “He’s been the most famous name on the internet these past few days. My wife’s talked to me about him. She’s listened to his songs. She says his compositions, his piano pieces, are of a very high standard.”

“Haven’t you noticed any connection between Morning Mist and my Mr. Wu?” Li Ruobing asked with a smile.

“A… connection?” Su Ruiwen faltered. “Mr. Wu… Morning Mist… Wu Chen… Morning Mist… Wu Chen?!” As he murmured the names, his eyes went rapidly wider, and he blurted out, “Mr. Wu is Morning Mist?”

“That’s right.” Li Ruobing smiled, and a little more pride crept into her voice. “Music is just a hobby for him. People online call him a prodigy, a wizard, a once-in-a-century talent… but really he’s just playing around. Maybe it’s for An Menglan’s sake, or maybe he has something else in mind…”

“As for An Menglan, that woman has been poisoned by my Mr. Wu. She’s past all cure.” Li Ruobing paused, thought for a moment, and went on. “She still doesn’t dare admit it to me, but she’s already decided to give my Mr. Wu fifty percent of Menghua Music. No money asked. Equity in exchange for his technical contributions. My guess is… An Menglan and my Mr. Wu have already done everything they should and shouldn’t have. And she’s already thinking about next time…”

Her tone grew noticeably more pointed, and the corner of her mouth twitched down without her meaning it to.

Su Ruiwen stared at her, his face rigid, and said nothing, as if he suddenly had no idea what to say.

Their conversation hadn’t lasted long at all, yet he’d taken in an enormous amount. He needed time to digest it.

Li Ruobing raised her cup again and savored it slowly.

A long while passed.

“Miss Li.” Su Ruiwen finally spoke again, far more grave and earnest now. “More than ten days ago, Qingying won majority support at the board meeting. Even Yao Honglin…”

“Wu Chen arranged that,” Li Ruobing cut in bluntly.

Su Ruiwen paused for several seconds, then asked, “And yesterday, when Mr. Wu came to Jinfu, about Xu Zhenyuan…”

“Him too,” Li Ruobing cut in again.

They’d come this far. There was no need to waste words, and no need to hide anything! Yes, Wu Chen had done all of it!

“How did he find it all out? All of that, so much…” Su Ruiwen asked again.

“I’d like to know that myself.” Li Ruobing gave a small smile. “Incredible, isn’t it? I think so too. Remember what I said about him earlier? He’s powerful, he’s extraordinary, and there’s something… truly unique about him. That’s all I can tell you. If you’re still curious, Boss Su, you could ask Wu Yurong. I imagine she’s felt it more deeply than I have.”

Li Ruobing didn’t know exactly what Wu Chen and Wu Yurong had said to each other the first time they met.

But she was sure Wu Yurong must have glimpsed that almost mystical side of him. Otherwise there was no way she’d have become his lover on the very first day they met.

The café fell silent again.

About ten seconds later.

“Is Qingying one of them too?” Su Ruiwen looked Li Ruobing in the eye. “One of his lovers?”