Chapter 559: Still a Huge Problem!

Chapter 559: Still a Huge Problem!

Li Ruobing was sleeping very soundly.

She had finished her phone call with her father close to midnight the night before. After washing up, she hadn’t lain down in the small bedroom attached to her office until half past twelve.

She had gotten up a little after three to go to the airport, taken a private plane to Modu, and then traveled from the airport into the city. It had been after seven by the time she finally fell asleep again. In total, she had slept only a little over five hours.

So even though Li Ruobing was highly alert by nature, she didn’t notice anyone entering the room. Wu Chen silently reached the bedside, lifted the blanket, and slipped in beside her.

“Hmm?” The touch woke Li Ruobing. Her hand instinctively felt beneath the pillow. The instant her fingers touched the gun, she stopped, because she sensed a familiar “presence.” It wasn’t a smell, but a feeling—and the movement of the hand resting on her waist.

Li Ruobing had been lying on her side facing the window. She turned over.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll just stay for a while,” Wu Chen said with a smile. He put an arm around her and let her rest her head on it.

“Hmph…” Li Ruobing gave a soft, ambiguous hum. Her breathing was heavy with the reluctance of someone who’d been woken and didn’t want to move. She edged closer to Wu Chen’s shoulder, then frowned and drew back.

She tugged at his robe, then began pulling it off him.

Soon, Wu Chen’s robe had been tossed out from under the blanket.

Now that she could finally get comfortable, Li Ruobing cuddled closer.

She even wriggled down a little and buried her face against Wu Chen’s chest. Then she closed her eyes and went still. She intended to keep sleeping, and her attitude made it clear that Wu Chen wasn’t allowed to leave until she’d woken up and had enough rest. Wu Chen had no objection. He had nothing urgent to do anyway.

Gradually, the room fell silent.

Li Ruobing’s breathing grew steady and very quiet.

Wu Chen didn’t try anything. He simply held her and closed his eyes, too. He wasn’t the sort of man who insisted on having his way when his partner didn’t want to. That would only damage their relationship. Wu Chen would never allow “I’m tired today. Maybe tomorrow” to become something said between him and his women.

No one could say that to him!

After resting with his eyes closed for a while, Wu Chen confirmed that Li Ruobing had fallen deeply asleep again. Only then did he open his eyes and feel between their pillows until he found her phone. He switched it to silent.

Half an hour later…

Bzz…

Li Ruobing’s phone vibrated. The incoming call displayed no name, only the number 33.

Wu Chen answered and put the phone to his ear.

“Boss…” The caller had barely begun to speak when—

“It’s me,” Wu Chen reminded him softly.

“Ah… Mr. Wu?” The caller was one of Li Ruobing’s bodyguards. He knew Wu Chen well enough to recognize his voice, and of course he knew what was going on between Wu Chen and Li Ruobing.

“Yes, it’s me,” Wu Chen replied quietly.

“Mr. Wu! We’re outside the hotel… You… you know that, right?” The bodyguard stumbled over his words. They had followed Wu Chen’s car the previous night. Other people’s bodyguards might not know who Wu Chen was, but Li Ruobing’s did, and that made them somewhat wary of him.

“Mm. You followed my car last night, so I know. Get to the point!” Wu Chen said. “Have other people shown up outside?”

“Yes, Mr. Wu! Some people are acting suspiciously. We have men upstairs and downstairs, and there are some in the corridor outside the suite, too. But they outnumber us. A few have already come down the corridor, looked around, and left. Something’s off… What do you want us to do?” the bodyguard asked.

“They’re just paparazzi. They want to take pictures without letting the hotel know who they’re here for, because they’re afraid word will get out and bring in even more paparazzi. Don’t be nervous, and don’t bother them. Just send someone to keep an eye on the surveillance room. And…”

“As for the drones, don’t worry about them yet. Wait…”

“Also… have someone bring a person up to see me this afternoon…”

Wu Chen gave him a few simple instructions.

When he and An Menglan had arrived the previous night, he had even arranged for the hotel’s surveillance system to be shut off. There would be no footage of them entering the hotel or going into the suite. But obviously the hotel couldn’t keep its cameras turned off for long.

And there was no telling when Wu Chen and An Menglan would leave.

So he had Li Ruobing’s bodyguards watch the outside of the surveillance room, to keep the paparazzi from casually familiarizing themselves with the staff and using the hotel cameras to monitor the whole situation.

He ended the call.

Li Ruobing remained fast asleep under the blanket, nestled against Wu Chen.

After washing up, An Menglan emerged from the bedroom wearing an oversized white bathrobe. She looked around but couldn’t find Wu Chen. Then she noticed the other bedroom’s door was shut and realized where he must be.

She didn’t disturb them.

Instead, she took her phone to the sofa in the living room. First she opened WeChat and replied to various messages. Then she opened Weibo and began tapping and scrolling, her expression changing from moment to moment. Sometimes she pouted, sometimes she looked upset, and occasionally she even smiled.

The Weibo post she had published and then deleted the day before had brought her an enormous amount of trouble and fallout.

The paparazzi were still searching for her everywhere.

On Weibo, her devoted fans and her haters had begun fighting one another. Menghua Music and even Huaxing Group were mobilizing people to delete posts, but they couldn’t go too far with it at a time like this, or they would only make things worse. It wasn’t exactly negative news, either; An Menglan herself simply didn’t want the matter to keep being hyped online.

But she still hadn’t figured out how to respond.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized it remained a huge problem! She no longer needed to use the matter to challenge her father, and even the threat Li Ruobing posed had been neutralized by Wu Chen. It looked as though everything was fine. But in reality…the long-term consequences could last for years.

Because the entire internet was now saying that An Menglan was in love!

“I’ll love you forever! Forever!”

When An Menglan had posted and then deleted that message, she had deliberately chosen emphatic wording and used big exclamation marks. She wanted everyone to know she was declaring her love for a man. She had achieved her goal. The whole internet now believed exactly that.

Which meant that for years to come, the paparazzi would keep her under relentless surveillance.

Never underestimate how patient paparazzi can be when they’re following someone over the long term.

Some paparazzi would spend a whole year tailing a top-tier actress to catch a photo proving she was having an affair. They would do nothing else for that entire year, following her wherever she went—even overseas. They could be utterly obsessive.

Eventually, even the most careful person let their guard down.

An Menglan couldn’t stay on high alert forever. She couldn’t mobilize huge amounts of manpower and resources every time she met Wu Chen just to eliminate every possibility of being photographed.

But if she wasn’t that careful, she was afraid she might “drag Wu Chen into it.” If he were photographed and people dug up his real identity, then…

After looking at Weibo for more than an hour, An Menglan felt utterly miserable.

What was she supposed to do?!

She wasn’t worried about whether they could leave the hotel safely today, or even about the initial burst of attention lasting ten days or half a month. It was what came afterward that worried her. The long-term scrutiny was what would wear her down. It was terrifying. But she was An Menglan, and that meant there was no way to handle this quietly.

She was simply that famous!

She was already starting to regret being so famous.

An Menglan had never dated publicly before, and that alone was a huge selling point. Now that she had openly declared her love, the paparazzi would dig three feet into the ground if that was what it took to find the man.

No response she could make would persuade them to give up.

She had considered posting a denial, claiming the man she loved wasn’t a romantic partner but someone else. Yet she had a feeling nobody would believe her.

And people made mistakes. An Menglan trusted Wu Chen’s abilities, but when she imagined him having to be constantly on guard whenever they were together, she felt…

Bzzzzzz—

An Menglan suddenly heard a sound like a phone vibrating. Puzzled, she checked her own phone, then looked at the coffee table. She raised her head and scanned the room. A moment later, her expression changed dramatically.

The living room had enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.

The previous night, An Menglan and Wu Chen had eaten a candlelit dinner by the window. They had left the curtains partly open so they could enjoy the view of the city at night.

The plates on the table and the half-finished bottle of red wine were still there, untouched.

Outside the thick soundproof glass, a drone hovered. Its four rotors kept buzzing, and its camera was pointed straight at An Menglan on the sofa.

They’d got her!