Chapter 050: A Man Can’t Back Down—Screw Ding Ruilong!

Chapter 050: A Man Can’t Back Down—Screw Ding Ruilong!

It wasn’t that Lei Cheng thought Li Ruobing herself was some unstoppable force.

But no one existed in isolation. Her background mattered, and her temperament mattered even more. She’d once pointed straight at old Master Li’s nose and cursed him out to his face. The whole family had no idea how to handle her. Her own mother had practically gotten down on her knees begging before Li Ruobing finally agreed to stay in the country instead of leaving for good.

Lei Cheng had heard all of it.

So what kind of background—what kind of man—could hold that kind of woman down? Could talk to her like this and get away with it?

He’d already started guessing that Wu Chen wasn’t just sitting on some terrifying pedigree. He had to have real ability of his own, and some rare, magnetic pull besides. Missing either one wouldn’t cut it.

“What’s wrong, Boss Lei? I talk to my woman like that. Is that a problem?” Wu Chen asked, smiling as though genuinely confused.

“You—” Lei Cheng didn’t quite know how to phrase the question.

Ask about his background outright? Wu Chen had been dodging that all afternoon. He wasn’t about to answer now.

“Ah—you mean what I just said to her?” Wu Chen seemed to catch his meaning after a beat, and his tone eased into something more casual. “It’s nothing. We’re a couple. She’s throwing a bit of a tantrum, that’s all. We’ve got a bet going, and it got a little out of hand, but between two people together, it’s really not much.”

A woman like Li Ruobing, playing around like that?

Just how close were these two, exactly?

Lei Cheng turned the thought over, then broke back into that easy grin and raised his teacup in invitation. “Come on, little brother. Drink.”

“After you.” Wu Chen lifted his own cup.

They drank another round. Lei Cheng wiped his mouth and asked, casual as anything, “What’s the bet about, then? Can you tell me?”

He wasn’t usually the curious type.

But Wu Chen’s tone with Li Ruobing had genuinely rattled him.

So this time, he wanted to know.

“The bet—nothing secret about it. It’s about her company. You know her company’s been under attack lately. I offered to step in and handle it. She said no. You’ve probably heard what she’s like—stubborn as anything—so we ended up arguing over it. Truth is, I know she was only trying to protect me…”

He paused, then asked, “Boss Lei, you know Ding Ruilong?”

“I know him. That bastard from the Ding family,” Lei Cheng said, nodding without a flicker of surprise.

Because the moment he’d learned Wu Chen’s woman was Li Ruobing, he’d already known exactly who was behind her troubles.

The bet itself—that he didn’t know. Too private for word to have spread.

But he did know Ding Ruilong had spent years harassing her, blocking her career at every turn, warning people off from working with her. The man seemed determined to keep her from ever succeeding.

He’d even let it be known that Li Ruobing was his, and that any man who got too close to her would pay for it.

The intent couldn’t have been clearer.

He wanted to force her into marrying him.

“The car that hit the spokesperson—Ding Ruilong’s work, I’d guess,” Lei Cheng said.

“Right. It was him.” Wu Chen nodded. “Boss Lei’s probably got a read on him already—obsessive, lawless, stops at nothing when he wants something. Small-minded, vicious. A genuinely nasty piece of work.”

“I know, I know. That guy—” Lei Cheng went on, “wasn’t he the one who broke the youngest Wei boy’s leg? Third branch of the family. Years back now—seven, eight years, maybe. The Ding family nearly went to war with the Weis smoothing that one over.”

“That’s exactly why Ruobing won’t let me get too involved in her company’s business,” Wu Chen said, spreading his hands. “We’ve been together a while now. She’s always been terrified Ding Ruilong would find out about me—that he’d lose his head entirely and come after me without a thought for consequences, no matter who I turned out to be. I get it, really. She’s only thinking of me.”

“But—”

His voice hardened, and he sat up straighter.

“Boss Lei, tell me honestly. I’m a grown man. I know full well Ding Ruilong’s got his sights on Ruobing and wants my woman for himself. Am I supposed to just tuck my tail and hide? If I really stood by and did nothing, would that even make me a man anymore? I’d rather dig a hole and bury myself in it.”

Wu Chen rarely swore. But with certain kinds of men, a little vulgarity went a long way.

Bang!

Lei Cheng slammed his palm on the table, snatched up his teacup, and gestured with it. “That’s right, brother! Damn right! Drink with me—tea for wine, but we’re drinking today! You’re exactly my kind of man! A man can’t back down—screw Ding Ruilong!”

Wu Chen lifted his cup and clinked it against Lei Cheng’s.

Lei Cheng drained his in one go, the way he might have with liquor.

Wu Chen finished his just as fully.

“Here, let me pour. Keep going, brother—then what?” Seeing Wu Chen reach for the teapot, Lei Cheng got there first, filling both their cups.

He was thoroughly hooked on the story by now.

Wu Chen still hadn’t gotten to the actual bet.

“Then we fought.” Wu Chen kept his pace easy, unhurried. “Ruobing was so angry she was nearly in tears. I couldn’t just back off and let it drop. In the end, still furious, she said fine—she’d let me handle things, let me get involved—but if Ding Ruilong killed me over it, she didn’t want to hear a word of blame afterward.”

“I told her if Ding Ruilong actually managed to kill me, then I deserved to be called worthless.”

He mimicked his own tone for a beat, then slowed again. “Then she took it back, scared something would actually happen to me…”

“So we made a bet instead. Call it an experiment. She handed the whole product launch over to me completely—less than a month to pull it off.”

“She knows Ding Ruilong will do everything he can to wreck it, so my job is simple: clear the road, keep the launch on track.”

“If it goes off without a hitch, I win. If something goes wrong that I can’t fix, she wins. I told her—if that happens and I really can’t handle it, then I don’t have what it takes, and I was just talking big. After that, I’ll do whatever she says. If she tells me to sit down and shut up, I’ll sit down and shut up.”

“That’s the bet.”

“So that’s what I’ve been dealing with lately. Just yesterday I helped Ruobing catch a mole inside her own company—someone Ding Ruilong bought off years back, sitting there spying on her the whole time.”

“So that’s the shape of it…” Lei Cheng said, cup in hand, nodding as if everything had finally clicked into place. He set the cup down. “No wonder you were throwing money around like water today. All that frustration built up.”

“Yeah.” Wu Chen nodded. “The money doesn’t really bother me. What I actually worry about is Ruobing. Even losing the bet wouldn’t matter much—she respects me too much to really force me into line.”

“But if the launch really falls apart, I’m afraid of what it’ll do to her. She carried too much weight on her own before we met. She can’t afford another disaster.”

“Good man!” Lei Cheng gave him a thumbs up, then seemed to catch an idea. “Hey—hey, brother, I can actually help with this! The spokesperson’s the piece you have to nail down, right?”

“That’s right.” Wu Chen smiled—a tired smile, but not one short on confidence.

Lei Cheng went quiet a moment, eyes flickering as he thought it through, then said, “Here’s what we’ll do, brother. I already told you I’d find you a spokesperson, and I don’t go back on my word. This time I won’t just find you someone—I’ll find you the very best. Hold on, I’m calling right now.”

He grabbed his phone, flipped through his contacts, and dialed.

The call didn’t connect right away.

In the gap, Lei Cheng tilted the screen toward Wu Chen with a raised eyebrow and a grin. “I keep this one.”

The display read: Manying, My Little Baby.

He was calling Tao Manying.