Chapter 057: Networks Built by Relying on Others Are Never Reliable in the End

Chapter 057: Networks Built by Relying on Others Are Never Reliable in the End

As Wu Chen drove home, his phone chimed. He glanced at it and smiled.

Had he done this to Li Ruobing before the two of them knew each other, she would never have replied. She’d have had her people track down the owner of the number and pull every last piece of information on him.

Su Qingying, though, had replied right away.

The two of them were simply different kinds of women. Aside from both being beautiful and both capable of running a business, they had nothing else in common.

Li Ruobing was the sort of woman who, if you truly dared provoke her, was capable of anything. Threaten her? Dream on.

Su Qingying was different.

The halo she carried was too heavy.

Wu Chen could easily picture the fear and unease she must have felt after reading his text. That she’d reply was exactly what he’d expected.

Still, he had no intention of threatening her.

Wu Chen never used threats or coercion to make a woman submit to him. He still held a line he wouldn’t cross, and it was precisely because of that line that he hadn’t slipped into something monstrous, hadn’t gone mad and destroyed himself somewhere inside the loop.

If he’d been willing to use force, winning over any woman would have been far too easy.

There’d be no consequences to bear, after all. The loop reset everything.

And what would be the point of that?

Across the thousand-year loop, Wu Chen had killed himself hundreds of times, worn down by boredom and the sheer meaninglessness of it all. What he hated most, above everything else, was boredom.

He liked a challenge. The harder a woman was to win over, the more he relished it, because digging into a person’s life was a genuinely wonderful way to pass the time.

Wu Chen smiled down at his phone, one hand on the wheel. He glanced up to check the road, then typed rapidly with his free hand.

Blind typing. He could even do that on a phone.

And fast, too.

Sent.

The message read: “Miss Su, I mean you no harm. I won’t reveal anything about you. Rest easy. Do not reply.”

The message was meant to put her at ease, though how she chose to read it was her own business. Wu Chen had no plans to keep talking with her today.

The timing was wrong. So was the opportunity.

He could tell she surely had important matters to handle today, so there was no chance she’d meet him privately for a real conversation. And exchanging nothing but texts wouldn’t accomplish much anyway.

He didn’t have much time left today either. Less than half a day remained.

There’d be no result today regardless.

No point wasting what was left of it, then.

The text he’d sent was only the opening move. Wu Chen knew Su Qingying would investigate him afterward, dig up everything she could find, and then… she’d be the one to reach out and ask for a meeting.

Ding.

Another text came in. Still from Su Qingying. He’d told her not to reply, but she wasn’t listening.

Wu Chen glanced at it.

“Who exactly are you?!!”

He didn’t answer.

Ding.

Another one, still from Su Qingying.

“How do you know my number? Who told you? What does ‘When Will the Bright Moon Appear’ mean?”

This time she wasn’t only demanding answers. She was also trying to claw back some ground.

Asking what “When Will the Bright Moon Appear” meant, feigning ignorance and lobbing the question right back at him.

He still didn’t answer.

The fourth text came quickly. This one was simple: ???

Three question marks.

He let her sit with it, let her keep panicking.

Su Qingying finally stopped.

But Wu Chen could guess exactly what she was feeling now, and exactly what she’d do next.

He was content to wait for her to reach out first.

When she did, the real show would begin. Probably within a few days.

A dozen or so minutes later, Wu Chen still had some distance left before home. He picked up his phone again and dialed a number.

The call connected quickly.

“Brother-in-law.” The voice came before he could even say hello. Li Ruotai. “What put you in the mood to call me out of nowhere? Hahahaha…”

“You looking into me?” Wu Chen asked, casual.

“Huh? No—Brother-in-law, what are you talking about, how could I look into you, am I that kind of person? You helped me out so much yesterday. Whether I make it through this in one piece depends entirely on you…”

“Is that so? Then how did you know this was my number? You picked up and called me brother-in-law without missing a beat. Have I ever called you before? When did you even save this number?” Wu Chen asked.

“Uh… asked my sister for it, obviously.” Li Ruotai’s reflexes were quick.

“Is that so.” Wu Chen let the words hang, then added, “Then how did you know I was gaming today? Have people following me? Running straight to your sister to tattle?”

That was the real point of the call.

Wu Chen was building the impression that Li Ruobing told him everything—leaving the kid scrambling to explain himself.

On one hand, he wanted Li Ruotai to understand just how close he and his sister really were. Nothing went unspoken between them.

On the other, Wu Chen knew Li Ruotai would investigate him no matter what. So he needed Li Ruotai to know that he already knew he was being investigated.

Whatever you do, I already know.

Li Ruotai wasn’t going to uncover anything real, but that was exactly the point—the less he found, the more mysterious and untouchable Wu Chen would seem, as if his reach went all the way to the top.

Different people called for different approaches.

With Li Ruobing, Wu Chen’s thinking was simple: he’d eventually make her his, and the bond between them would become unbreakable.

But Li Ruotai was a different matter.

Li Ruotai was a special case, because the starting point of every connection Wu Chen had built in this new life was Li Ruobing.

Which meant the standing he currently held with Li Ruotai came almost entirely from being his brother-in-law, the man his sister had chosen—not from anything he himself had proven.

That was a problem.

A shaky foundation to build on.

Never mind some major falling-out down the line—even a simple argument, if it left Li Ruobing genuinely in tears, would be enough to turn Li Ruotai against him. The kid protected his sister fiercely; he’d cut Wu Chen off without a second thought.

Wu Chen wasn’t going to let that happen.

He needed to separate himself from Li Ruobing in Li Ruotai’s mind. He needed Li Ruotai to respect him not as a brother-in-law, but as Wu Chen—because Wu Chen himself was someone worth respecting.

He hoped that one day, if he and Li Ruobing did quarrel, Li Ruotai would step in to mediate, maybe even talk his sister into backing down and apologizing first, rather than turning on Wu Chen.

Networks built by relying on someone else were never reliable in the end. They had to become his own.

That was why he’d suddenly decided to make this call.

There was another benefit too: a chance to see whether Wang Zhuangyuan had lied. Under these circumstances, Li Ruotai would be scrambling to distance himself from any blame—which meant if the truth happened to work in his favor, he’d say so without hesitation.

“No—Brother-in-law, Brother-in-law, I wasn’t tattling, I didn’t investigate you either. It was Crooked Zhao—he called me out of nowhere saying Zhuangyuan had pulled a ton of people together, so I called Zhuangyuan and asked. He said it was because you wanted…”

Li Ruotai told him everything.

It matched what Wang Zhuangyuan had said.

“Mm. Fine. Nothing else—hanging up,” Wu Chen said.

“Hey, wait, hold on, Brother-in-law.” Li Ruotai’s voice jumped several notches.

“Hm? What is it?” Wu Chen asked.

“You got time, Brother-in-law? Why don’t you swing by my place?” Li Ruotai sounded as if something had just occurred to him.

“Something urgent?” Wu Chen frowned. What kind of trouble could Li Ruotai possibly cook up right now?