Chapter 030: What Did Wu Chen Say to Lu Guangnian?

Chapter 030: What Did Wu Chen Say to Lu Guangnian?

“You—you’re the one who worked at a bathhouse! Your whole family worked at a bathhouse! Have you no shame, you mangy dog!” Liu Caixiu’s face flushed scarlet, shrieking and cursing at Wu Chen in a fit.

She had, in fact, worked at a bathhouse once—ten years ago now, and only briefly. After her surgery succeeded, she’d latched onto men with money, and marrying Lu Guangnian had come later still.

This was one of the secrets Liu Caixiu guarded most fiercely. Not the worst of them, but damning enough on its own.

“A little decorum, please. Everyone here is a civilized person,” Wu Chen said mildly. “You’re a woman of some standing now. Those habits from the years you spent working as a prostitute—might be time to leave them behind.”

“How dare you slander me! Defame me! I’ll—” Liu Caixiu lunged forward, swinging her handbag at him.

She’d been married to Lu Guangnian for years now—by any reasonable measure, she shouldn’t be losing her composure like this in public. Even if it were an act, she ought to have managed something with more polish.

But—

Wu Chen had spoken nothing but the truth.

Panic churned inside her, and the only way to smother it was with a bigger show of fury.

Smack-thud!

The bag connected—but not with Wu Chen. Someone had stepped in front of him just in time: one of Li Ruobing’s bodyguards.

Li Ruobing had brought a smaller security detail out tonight, fewer than during the day, seated discreetly in a corner of the restaurant—close enough to intervene if trouble arose, far enough not to overhear her conversation with Wu Chen.

The moment Liu Caixiu had started shouting, several bodyguards had already begun closing in.

They’d glanced toward Li Ruobing for direction.

But she’d given none—because Wu Chen had taken the trouble onto himself, and she wanted to see how he’d handle it. Liu Caixiu was nothing worth worrying over, a woman whose thinking barely held together. Lu Guangnian was another matter entirely—a man who held real power in Donghai.

The Li siblings were outsiders making their way in this city.

Lu Guangnian was the local power who could meet the Li family head-on, on equal footing.

That parity was part of why the Li siblings had bothered cultivating him at all—shared temperament mattered, but so did standing. Only equals could build a friendship with real substance.

Li Ruobing hadn’t known Wu Chen long, but she already sensed he wasn’t the type to chase some fleeting satisfaction without weighing the cost.

And yet here he was, in front of everyone, calling Lu Guangnian’s wife a former prostitute.

How could Lu Guangnian possibly let that pass without losing face?

“Mrs. Lu, please, calm down, calm down…” The bodyguard held Liu Caixiu back as she thrashed like something possessed, dead set on landing that bag on Wu Chen. He wasn’t about to let her succeed.

Crack!

A sharp, ringing slap.

Liu Caixiu had turned and struck the bodyguard across the face, shrieking, “Get out of my way!”

The bodyguard—nearly six foot three, forearms thicker than Liu Caixiu’s thighs—didn’t so much as flinch, his expression utterly unchanged. He simply repeated, calm as before, “Mrs. Lu, please calm down.”

Li Ruobing’s eyes narrowed faintly.

These men were her own trusted people, with her for years.

She rose to her feet.

Just then—

“Caixiu! What’s all this noise about?” A voice called out near the restaurant’s entrance—a man in his fifties, dark-skinned, dressed in a sharply tailored suit.

Lu Guangnian. Fifty-five years old, chairman of Donghai Juli Group, vice president of the Donghai Chamber of Commerce, a delegate to the Donghai Municipal People’s Congress, one of the central figures of Donghai’s business world, one of the city’s ten wealthiest men.

He’d come to Lao Pinxuan tonight to host guests.

The old-city renewal project on Dongcheng Old Street was something he had his sights firmly set on. But though his company was the largest local real estate…