Chapter 572: Then Let Me Show You Something Interesting

Chapter 572: Then Let Me Show You Something Interesting

She wore a beige chiffon blouse with a subtle V-neck and lace-trimmed sleeves, scattered with delicate floral prints. Below, high-waisted retro flare jeans hugged her frame. On her feet were plain beige, pointed-toe pumps with five-centimeter block heels, and a small white shoulder bag with a metal chain hung at her side. Carrying a cup of cola in each hand, Li Ruobing stepped along the narrow aisle fronting the tiered seating, making her way toward Wu Chen.

This ensemble…

Compared with the business suits Li Ruobing wore at work and the long dresses or formal gowns she wore in private, this outfit was a little “tacky.”

Yet that perception existed solely by comparison to her usual standard.

Someone who didn’t know who Li Ruobing was would see a sweet, youthful goddess walking toward them, so dazzling that one more glance might be enough to give them dreams that night. Years later, they would still remember how stunning she’d looked the first time they saw her.

Picture a commercial street in midsummer.

What Li Ruobing was wearing was one of the most common outfits worn by fashionable young women out and about. In reality, though, this kind of outfit would look worse on an ordinary person. It was extremely demanding on the figure! An average body simply couldn’t pull off those high-waisted, fitted, retro flared jeans.

To wear them, a woman needed long, slender legs and a relatively pronounced waist-to-hip ratio. Only then could the jeans stay at her waist, held up by the central button alone without a belt, instead of sliding down.

The requirements for a figure like that were almost harsh.

Li Ruobing wore no belt; she had no need for one.

Her waist truly was no wider than a sheet of A4 paper.

In fact, Li Ruobing wasn’t fond of showing off her figure. Her wardrobe favored gravity, elegance, or severe detachment. She wasn’t like Wu Yurong, who knew how to use her advantages to keep people guessing, alternately inviting and withholding, and therefore often wore figure-hugging qipao dresses. Li Ruobing pursued the aura of an executive—the presence of someone in power.

That was why it was rare for her to dress like this in recent years.

She’d dressed this way only back in college. Even now, her appearance was almost unchanged from her university days! She had done her best to rein in the sharp presence she’d developed over years in the business world.

Li Ruobing had the kind of cool, pale skin everyone envied.

It was so fair that it seemed to glow under a light.

Even in the dim cinema, it was clear that her skin was much fairer than everyone else’s. But the few moviegoers were mostly seated in the best viewing area closer to the screen, and no one noticed Li Ruobing crossing the back of the theater.

“Boss, here’s your cola,” Li Ruobing murmured as she reached Wu Chen, handing him a cup.

Wu Chen turned, caught her eye, and took it.

Li Ruobing gave him a sweet smile. She’d practiced that smile repeatedly in the car mirror before entering the cinema, and it hadn’t been particularly difficult.

Xia Jinyu leaned forward slightly and turned to look at the newcomer. She’d noticed Li Ruobing as soon as she approached and had watched the entire exchange between Li Ruobing and Wu Chen.

A sweet girl?

Harmless, delicate, youthful, and beautiful!

That was the initial impression.

Li Ruobing’s natural voice was pleasant, but it wasn’t sweet. She had not forced her pitch into an artificial register; rather, utilizing her deeper, slightly husky tone, she deliberately slowed her cadence, pairing her words with a warm smile… which yielded an unexpectedly sweet cadence.

“Professor Xia, this is Bingbing… Bingbing, say hello,” Wu Chen said, gesturing casually before leaning back against his seat.

“Hello, Professor Xia.”

“Miss Bingbing.”

Reaching across Wu Chen, the two women shook hands.

At first, Xia Jinyu hadn’t noticed any flaw. The dim light in the cinema made it difficult to see details of someone’s clothes or read the microexpressions on their face. But when she and Li Ruobing came close, shook hands, and met each other’s eyes, something felt wrong.

Xia Jinyu keenly sensed that this girl called Bingbing was hostile toward her!

Her gaze seemed gentle, but it was more like a deliberately assumed expression. Though their eye contact lasted merely an instant, the flickering radiance of the silver screen illuminated Li Ruobing’s eyes just long enough for Xia Jinyu to read them clearly.

The eyes were the hardest thing to change.

The sweeter a smile looked, the more conspicuous it became if the eyes didn’t match it. That made it easier to see through.

“Miss Bingbing, you have lovely skin, and your hands are so soft,” Xia Jinyu offered with polite, quiet praise as she released her grip and sat upright.

“You’re quite lovely yourself, Professor Xia. Your hands feel like a young girl’s,” Li Ruobing replied with a practiced, sweet smile, gesturing toward the other woman’s neck. “I love your scarf.”

“Thank you,” Xia Jinyu smiled.

Another person who knew who she was yet remained calm and self-possessed. She wasn’t stiff or nervous, her smile hadn’t wavered, and she handled an unexpected exchange of polite compliments with remarkable ease…

Fascinating!

Xia Jinyu could not yet determine what archetype Bingbing belonged to or what social tier she occupied, but she was certain of one thing: this was no ordinary girl, and certainly no empty-headed beauty.

She was wearing a mask.

Was she a beautiful woman with a lot of schemes?

Or…

The three of them watched the movie.

Evil Incidents in the Girls’ Dormitory 2 was irredeemably awful, devoid of even an entertaining gimmick. Barely ten minutes in, it was glaringly obvious that the protagonist’s best friend was orchestrating the supernatural occurrences.

Apart from Xia Jinyu, Wu Chen, and Li Ruobing in the rear-left corner, the prime viewing area had originally seated six patrons, divided into three couples. Ten minutes into the screening, only one couple remained.

The movie was simply too awful.

The remaining man and woman weren’t watching it at all. They kept whispering to each other, leaning close, hugging, and kissing. Xia Jinyu wasn’t paying much attention to the movie, either.

She’d found something more interesting than the film: the man and woman beside her! She kept observing them.

Mr. Wu ate popcorn with the bucket on his lap, helping himself without offering any to Bingbing. After a few handfuls, he seemed to lose interest, casually reaching back to deposit the tub into Bingbing’s lap.

Bingbing took a tissue from her bag and handed it to Mr. Wu so he could wipe his hands. Only after he returned the used tissue to her did she turn her attention away from him. She didn’t eat any popcorn herself; she merely held the bucket for him.

Mr. Wu seemed to love cola. Once he’d finished his own, Bingbing handed him hers. She had already sipped from it, yet neither showed the slightest hesitation…

Bingbing seemed hyper-attuned to Mr. Wu’s every movement.

Every gesture he made—taking out his phone to check the time, glancing toward the couple when their voices caught his attention, crossing his legs and changing position—caught Bingbing’s notice. She seemed to be ready for him at every moment.

Xia Jinyu couldn’t smell any perfume.

She wasn’t completely certain, but her keen sense of smell led her to conclude that Miss Bingbing, seated one chair removed, carried the same scent as Mr. Wu: the fragrance of expensive bath products.

Xia Jinyu recalled the stray hair clinging to Wu Chen’s shoulder earlier.

Thus… Miss Bingbing was likely no standard secretary or corporate assistant. She addressed him as “Boss,” pointing toward the role of… a personal assistant?

An exceptionally beautiful personal assistant was often also someone who shared her boss’s bed.

The two had probably spent the previous night together!

Thirty minutes into the movie, the last couple finally couldn’t take it anymore and left. Now, only Xia Jinyu, Wu Chen, and Li Ruobing occupied the entire auditorium.

“This movie is so boring,” Xia Jinyu spoke first. She deliberately initiated conversation, because she wanted to study Mr. Wu and Miss Bingbing further. That was far more entertaining than watching a terrible movie!

“Then let me show you something interesting, Professor Xia,” Wu Chen replied with an easy smile, turning toward her and extending his phone.

“Mm?” Xia Jinyu paused, taken aback.

Wu Chen’s gesture was exceptionally abrupt.

Still, she took the handset. Waking the display, she held it toward him. “It’s locked.”

“You can try opening it,” Wu Chen smiled. “Enter whatever number first crosses your mind.”

Xia Jinyu froze once more.

What on earth did Wu Chen mean by that?!

Was he saying… that he could know what number she would think of in advance?