Chapter 541: Trouble on the Home Front?

Chapter 541: Trouble on the Home Front?

“Understood,” Wu Chen said calmly into his phone. Hanging up, he tapped and swiped across the screen, opening the Weibo app. The page stalled as it tried to refresh, then flashed an error: Network connection lost.

The servers had crashed!

With such a colossal deluge of traffic hitting the platform all at once, getting through was entirely a matter of luck.

Ding!

A breaking-news alert popped up from the Headlines Express app.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Virtually every app on Wu Chen’s phone with a news-push feature began bombarding him with alerts, including the built-in feeds of several messaging platforms.

Li Maoren, Gu Hongtu, and Gu Ruibo all fixed their eyes on Wu Chen. Watching him take the call and immediately dive into his phone, they could tell an emergency had flared up, though it was hardly appropriate to pry straight away.

After refreshing several more times, Wu Chen finally broke through to Weibo’s main interface.

There at the very summit of the trending list, sporting a popularity index exceeding fifty million, was the number-one search topic: An Menglan’s Romance!

Number two: I’ll Love You Forever!

Number three: An Menglan Deletes Weibo Post Within Seconds!

Number four: An Menglan Confesses Her Love.

Wu Chen tapped into the trending topics and quickly pieced the situation together.

Just over ten minutes earlier, An Menglan’s verified personal account—boasting seventy million followers—had abruptly posted a single sentence:

I’ll love you forever! Forever!

The post had remained live for less than ten seconds before being wiped clean.

Yet in those fleeting seconds, users had captured screenshots that spread across the entire internet like wildfire. It wasn’t just a handful of individuals, either; countless netizens had grabbed the image simultaneously, the screenshots corroborating one another and proving that this was no fabricated rumor.

Within minutes, Weibo was thrown into absolute pandemonium—or rather, the entire internet was!

An Menglan had never once used her personal account for promotional hype.

Nor was she the type to manufacture suggestive gimmicks for cheap attention. Other starlets might post a coy declaration only to immediately tag a fellow actress, staging a joint publicity stunt to flaunt their “sisterly bond.”

An Menglan would never stoop to that.

Never before had she mentioned a single detail regarding her private love life online—not even the faintest whisper. The previous rumors linking her to Morning Mist had by now been largely dismissed as baseless fabrications, lacking even a shred of hard evidence.

Her carefully guarded persona had always been rock-solid.

Consequently, the moment those screenshots began circulating, both her enormous fan base, numbering in the hundreds of millions and her equally vast ranks of detractors erupted with unprecedented fervor.

Unlike a male idol whose rumored romance might trigger a catastrophic exodus of fans, An Menglan was an acclaimed songstress. Her fans were mostly thrilled just to follow the gossip!

What stoked public curiosity even further was the fact that she had deleted the post mere seconds after publishing it! That sudden reversal only poured fuel on the fire.

Another related query—An Menglan Confesses to Mystery Man—was likewise rocketing up the trending charts.

She really is… brave, Wu Chen mused as he scrolled through the feed.

An Menglan must have given this considerable thought. He refused to believe she had acted purely on an emotional impulse, only to delete the post in a panic of regret. There was undeniably passion behind the act, but she was well aware of the fallout.

Others might not grasp her motive, but An Huaiguo certainly would!

This was An Menglan’s public challenge to her own father!

She knew full well that her personal clout paled in comparison to his. The only weapon she possessed to push back against him was her astronomical fame. By publishing that post, she had seized the attention of the entire nation.

If An Huaiguo dared to push things too far, she could retaliate by exposing even more online.

She was making her father think twice, forcing him to stay his hand!

Despair had lent An Menglan the courage to defy him openly.

Still… this hardly derailed Wu Chen’s overarching design. Bringing the An family into the alliance and executing every phase of the plan would proceed exactly as intended. Eventually, An Menglan would realize she had exerted herself for nothing; then profound regret would set in, and she might even burst into tears.

Because while this gesture appeared to be a rebellion aimed squarely at her father, it would inevitably infuriate another person altogether.

Li Ruobing!

The general public had no inkling of who this confession was addressed to, but Li Ruobing would know at a glance. A transcendent superstar acting like the “other woman” in the full glare of the public eye? Li Ruobing would make sure she learned who truly held the upper hand!

Wu Chen’s face remained entirely impassive as he turned the matter over in his mind.

He would sort it out. He certainly couldn’t allow the two women to come to blows.

Bzz, bzz, bzz—

Gu Ruibo felt the phone in his pocket vibrating. It was on silent, and the pulses were too erratic to be an incoming call—an intermittent sequence of sudden pings arriving in quick succession.

Seeing Wu Chen engrossed in his screen, Gu Ruibo retrieved his own device. He swept an idle glance across the display, casually tapped an alert, and instantly froze.

Gu Ruibo had previously been unaware of the romantic entanglement between Wu Chen and An Menglan, but he was fully aware now.

He also knew about Wu Chen’s relationship with Wu Yurong.

He knew Li Ruobing turned a blind eye to Wu Chen keeping other women, but surely there were limits. Formidable patriarchs like Li Maoren and Gu Hongtu possessed more women than anyone could count—men who never needed to sneak around to take whatever woman took their fancy. Yet no one would ever claim that the primary wives in their households had completely surrendered their authority.

If this “other woman” held an extraordinary status of her own, and chose to broadcast a confession online only to delete it—deliberately whipping up a media firestorm—how was that any different from openly challenging the principal woman’s throne?

Wu Chen understood why An Menglan had done it. He was also privy to her wager with Li Ruobing: should she become the other woman, she would have to drop to her knees before her. This stunt was practically a public confession of that surrender.

Gu Ruibo, however, was blind to those nuances. In his eyes, it looked as though An Menglan was openly attempting to snatch Li Ruobing’s man!

Just…

Was Wu Chen truly that charismatic?

Gu Ruibo raised his eyes to steal a glance at him.

He had enjoyed his fair share of exceptional women. Yet compared to Wu Chen—who seemed to pursue exclusively the direct daughters of prestigious clans, corporate titans worth tens of billions, and music superstars born of financial dynasties—his own exploits weren’t even worth mentioning.

Even so, an overwhelming anticipation to watch the drama unfold flared within Gu Ruibo’s chest.

It wasn’t exactly malice.

He was profoundly indebted to Wu Chen; thanks to him, his standing within the Gu family had undergone a total metamorphosis. Furthermore, Gu Ruibo readily conceded that his ability to get things done fell far short of Wu Chen’s, yielding him nothing but heartfelt admiration. Yet from the perspective of sheer masculine pride, the crushing disparity in their appeal to women naturally tempted Gu Ruibo to think: So, you little bastard, your day has finally come!

It was devoid of ill intent—merely the gleeful eagerness of a spectator waiting for a spectacle.

Even a man like Wu Chen could find his home front catching fire!

Let’s see how you talk your way out of this one!

Given Li Ruobing’s vicious temperament! And An Menglan was hardly a pushover either! Once tonight’s grand affairs were settled and the two women went to war, there wouldn’t even be a risk of open conflict between their respective families. They could tear into each other purely on personal terms!

Gu Ruibo was convinced Li Ruobing would come out on top.

She was simply too terrifying a creature!

He wouldn’t even be surprised if she stormed straight into Modu to drag An Menglan around by the hair! Naturally, “dragging her by the hair” was merely a figure of speech; Gu Ruibo was well aware that Li Ruobing possessed vastly more savage methods!

“Dad…” Leaning sideways, Gu Ruibo tilted his phone toward Gu Hongtu.

Gu Hongtu’s expression shifted subtly. He drew his own phone from his pocket at once and began scrolling through the feeds.

Noticing their sudden shift in focus, Li Maoren realized a massive development had broken online, and pulled out his phone to inspect the news as well.

The expansive hall sank into sudden silence.

Gu Ruibo and Gu Hongtu both lifted their heads, stealing a covert glance at Li Maoren before trading a look laden with subtle intrigue.

Li Ruobing’s own father was seated right across the table!

And An Menglan had chosen this precise moment to ignite such an inferno! Was she openly provoking Li Maoren’s daughter?

Who knew how Li Maoren would treat this prospective son-in-law once he digested the headlines? Would he even allow Wu Chen to remain comfortably in his seat?

Li Maoren was certainly not one to tolerate a grain of sand in his eye.

The Gu father and son waited with quiet relish.

They were waiting for the exact moment Li Maoren looked up!