Chapter 553: Even Wu Chen Can’t Save Me

Chapter 553: Even Wu Chen Can’t Save Me

For An Menglan, today had been a day of despair.

Ever since learning that morning of her father’s arrival in Modu, she had been extremely tense. Before noon, negotiations between Wu Chen and her father, An Huaiguo, had seemingly broken down. Though Wu Chen insisted nothing had broken down and promised to settle the matter, An Menglan had witnessed the entire exchange with her own eyes. She was no fool. How could that be called anything other than a breakdown? How could her father ever be brought to apologize?

She had cried more times today than she had in the previous ten years.

At her age, and given her status, she rarely had much to worry about.

She had despaired throughout the afternoon.

Then through half the night.

An Menglan had touched no dinner. A horde of reporters remained encamped outside the building, her injured leg hurt, and she was hungry, uncomfortable, and exhausted in body and mind. Never in her wildest dreams could she have foreseen her father appearing in the dead of night, dead drunk, escorted by his bodyguards—with Wu Chen at his side.

And then she had borne witness to an unprecedented spectacle: her father making a drunken spectacle of himself!

An Menglan could scarcely remember the last time her father had lost control to drink. Perhaps when she was a little girl, back when the An family was embroiled in disputes over succession. Her father had fought with ferocious desperation in those days, drinking recklessly at business engagements.

“Menglan! Lanlan! My daughter!”

“Sweetheart, you’ve gotten so thin!”

“Daddy has wronged you! Does your leg still hurt? Daddy owes you an apology!”

“My daughter, you must forgive Daddy! Daddy knows he was wrong!”

“You have the sharper eye! Daddy looked down on people and couldn’t see what was right in front of him! From now on, Daddy will keep his hands off your affairs! Say something, sweetheart! Why won’t you speak to me? Are you still angry with Daddy?”

An Menglan’s coat and hat hung from an upright coat rack.

Reeling, blind drunk, An Huaiguo had nearly dropped to his knees before it, clinging to it partly because he could barely stand. He hugged the rack, gripping its wrist-thick central post, repeatedly wailing, asking why his daughter had grown so thin!

“How did he drink this much?” An Menglan looked from her father to Wu Chen, her eyes wide as saucers. “Just how much did he have?”

“He was happy,” Wu Chen replied with an easy smile. “When a man is happy, he drinks a little more. Though I suspect he deliberately got himself drunk. For a man of his stature, apologizing to his own daughter is humiliating. It goes down easier when one is drunk.”

An Menglan’s lips parted slightly, still unable to process what she was seeing.

“What did you do?” she asked Wu Chen.

“Discussed a partnership. We reached an agreement.” Wu Chen smiled faintly. “You can ask him for the particulars once he sleeps it off tomorrow. If I tell you now, you might not believe me, right?”

An Menglan’s expression shifted subtly.

Was Wu Chen harboring resentment because she hadn’t trusted his word? He had never been that kind of man! Yet even knowing this, his remark made her uneasy. She hurriedly replayed her actions of the entire day in her head.

She hadn’t been that unreasonable… had she?

Suddenly—

Clarity struck An Menglan, and she understood why Wu Chen had adopted that tone.

“That Weibo post… I just…” She pressed her lips together, her large eyes fluttering as she looked at Wu Chen, attempting to offer an explanation in the faintest whisper.

“I don’t believe I need an explanation,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

He harbored neither grudge nor anger over such an impulse. He was merely giving her a quiet reminder.

An Menglan thought about it. Then her gaze sharpened, and she froze entirely.

A tremendous wave of panic swept over her! Terror crept into her eyes.

She remembered!

With everything going on between Wu Chen and An Huaiguo, An Menglan had had no thought to spare for anyone or anything else.

Before an absolute catastrophe, every other concern had to give way; nothing else was worthy of mention. It was like a person suddenly learning they had terminal cancer with no hope of a cure—would they spare a second thought for offending their boss, some powerful figure, or someone who held their fate in their hands? Not a chance!

My entire world is collapsing. Why the hell should I care about any of you?

Yet once that primary catastrophe was swept away—once the “terminal cancer” was miraculously cured—all the old terrors inevitably rushed back in. And she would have to pay the price for the recklessness she had done on impulse!

An Menglan abruptly realized the magnitude of the disaster she had invited upon herself by provoking Li Ruobing with that Weibo post!

To put it mildly, Li Ruobing could easily ruin her reputation and social standing. For a female celebrity to be exposed as someone’s mistress was a scandal potent enough to ruin anyone, regardless of who she was, what reputation she had built, or how many good deeds she had done. The brighter an entertainer shone, the more detractors she attracted. That was the inevitable result of taking opportunities away from other entertainers! And those entertainers had fans of their own…

An Menglan could already envision the fallout.

A single Weibo post from Li Ruobing exposing the truth would send her tumbling from her pedestal! People might even boycott her songs! Her career would be shattered!

And that was merely the mildest consequence.

Given the connections between the great families of high society, the scandal would deal a serious blow to the An family’s reputation. They would become a laughingstock, and people with ulterior motives would exploit it.

More terrifying still…

Li Ruobing was not someone to provoke! To say she came from a powerful family didn’t begin to describe her. She was forceful, even ruthless! Given her temperament, there was zero chance she would stop at a simple exposure online. Who knew what else she might do!

After all…

Li Ruobing had explicitly warned her!

The two of them had even struck a wager!

And now, An Menglan hadn’t merely lost that bet. She had effectively kicked over the table and thrown caution to the wind, adopting the defiant posture of: So what if I steal your man? What are you going to do about it?

The more An Menglan dwelled on it, the colder her blood ran.

Earlier, her anxieties had centered on Wu Chen, dreading for his physical safety!

Now, she was terrified for her own life!

“C-could you…” She looked toward Wu Chen as though beholding her savior, yet the plea died on her lips. It was already a borderline miracle that Wu Chen had brought Li Ruobing to tolerate his other women! She was also aware that he had promised to take Li Ruobing as his wife—that they were the true, “original couple.” Under those rules, another woman had broken the rules and thrown down an open challenge to the principal woman!

Judging by every palace-intrigue drama An Menglan had ever watched…

Unless Wu Chen had fallen out of love with Li Ruobing, he would never speak up on her behalf.

Otherwise… even he couldn’t save her!

Wu Chen would inevitably prioritize Li Ruobing’s feelings.

In other words, even Wu Chen was powerless to save her!

“I… you… sob!” Whether it was because her emotions had been in turmoil all day, or because a successful singer was simply more emotional by nature…

Whatever the cause, An Menglan frightened herself so thoroughly that she began to cry.