Chapter 059: Life Is Truly Wonderful
by cnwebnovelsChapter 059: Life Is Truly Wonderful
“You’re giving me the house?” Wu Chen smiled—not surprised, not overwhelmed, just calm. “I helped you because of your sister. Not for a house. Not as repayment.”
“Come on, Brother-in-law.” Li Ruotai said. “We’re family, sure, but even real brothers keep their accounts straight. You know that.”
“If you hadn’t been there yesterday, I’d have lost hundreds of millions. And honestly, that’s not even the main thing—if not for your guidance, I’d still be walking around blind, and who knows, one day I might’ve just gotten dragged away.”
“Let’s set that aside for now. Just the casino alone—you didn’t only win back my principal, you took a hundred and thirty million off Shen Guangjun. This house is only worth a hundred million. If anything, I’m still shortchanging you.”
“And.” Li Ruotai’s tone shifted. “Honestly, I’m thinking about your future too, Brother-in-law.”
“My future?” Wu Chen asked.
“That’s right.” Li Ruotai nodded. “Think about it—you two aren’t married yet, but my sister’s already pregnant. Marriage is only a matter of time. And you’re still living in that old family house of yours, aren’t you?”
“I know you, Brother-in-law. Always low-key. Plenty of ability, none of the flash.”
He flattered Wu Chen a bit more before continuing. “But once my sister marries you, she can’t exactly move into that old house, can she? Imagine what people would say. It’d make you look bad, Brother-in-law—and if you moved into her place instead, people would talk even worse. I know you don’t care what outsiders think, but… it still wouldn’t sit right.”
Li Ruotai, when he got worked up, truly didn’t think about consequences.
But most of the time, he was sharp, and he knew exactly how to talk. He made people feel good.
“So you need a proper house of your own, Brother-in-law. At least one.” Li Ruotai went on. “This isn’t just for you—it’s for my sister too. Call it… an early wedding gift from this younger brother-in-law of yours.”
Li Ruotai knew perfectly well that Li Ruobing had sworn never to marry.
Even if she settled on a man, marriage might never happen—she’d probably stay in the relationship without ever making it official.
Which meant everything he’d just said was simply him building a solid enough excuse to hand the house over.
He’d thought this through carefully.
He’d already mentioned it to Li Ruobing yesterday—Wu Chen had helped him, had practically saved him, and that deserved something in return.
He knew there was something off about Wu Chen, sure, but that was a separate matter entirely. The man had saved his life.
Afterward he’d gone back and forth on whether to just hand over cash.
Cash felt crude. And for an amount that large, Li Ruotai knew his own situation well enough—Wu Chen was his sister’s man, and if he himself ran into trouble down the road and investigators found a massive transfer between the two of them, it would cause real problems.
Drag Wu Chen in, and his sister might get dragged in too.
Cash would also feel wrong in another way—as if Wu Chen had only helped him for his sister’s sake, and he, the younger brother-in-law, hadn’t treated him as one of his own in return.
After turning it over from every angle, Li Ruotai settled on giving Wu Chen this villa sitting idle in Donghai.
The reasoning practically wrote itself.
The best thing about a house was that it was a fixed asset. Give Wu Chen cash, and if some of that cash later found its way to his sister, a paper trail would form.
A house left no such trail.
Just Li Ruotai, giving something away of his own accord.
And this villa happened to be the finest property he owned in the city—courtyards front and back, over ten million sunk into the renovation alone. He could afford to be this generous precisely because he no longer planned to move in.
The original plan had been to settle here by the end of the year.
But Wu Chen’s arrival in his life had made him fully aware of the danger closing in around him.
Once he burned down Crown Entertainment, he intended to keep his head low, maybe even leave Donghai for a while to ride out the storm. No point moving into this house under those circumstances.
“Fine, then. You really have thought this through for your sister,” Wu Chen said, accepting the house.
Wu Chen didn’t take things from people lightly. Accepting a gift meant owing a debt.
But some debts were worth taking on.
He could guess most of what was running through Li Ruotai’s head.
And he understood that refusing the house would only leave the kid uneasy.
A man couldn’t have no desires at all.
Someone who wanted nothing made others nervous—made them suspect something bigger lurking underneath. That was exactly why Wu Chen had let Li Ruobing see how much he loved money. Which meant this house had to be accepted.
For the next ten-odd minutes, Li Ruotai walked him through the place, floor by floor. Since it was Wu Chen’s now, it seemed only right to look it over.
Afterward, the two of them left Donghai Huafu.
Off to the real estate registry to transfer ownership.
With no loan involved, the transfer went quickly. Every tax and fee was covered on Li Ruotai’s card.
The villa passed into Wu Chen’s name without costing him a single yuan.
They parted outside the registry.
Already past four in the afternoon.
Li Ruotai headed back to the club.
Wu Chen went home—to the old house. The workout would have to wait. He had a move to make.
Move in immediately.
Enjoy what was worth enjoying.
Furniture didn’t need touching—the villa came fully furnished, genuinely move-in ready. Just his daily necessities and clothes to bring over, and there wasn’t much of that. No real trouble at all.
Night.
Ten o’clock.
Zunrong · Donghai Huafu, Villa No. 36.
Basement level, the gym.
Drenched in sweat, Wu Chen sat on the weight bench, set the dumbbells down, and leaned back, breathing hard. Even after moving in, he’d used the last few hours before sleep to get in a proper workout.
It felt good.
Head tipped back, chest heaving, a smile crept slowly across his face.
His mind drifted back over everything that had happened in these two days since his new life began.
Two short days.
He hadn’t run a single business deal, hadn’t lifted a finger to make money. He’d simply met a few people, said a few things, helped out where he could. And for that alone, someone had handed him an eight-million-yuan sports car. Someone else had handed him a hundred-million-yuan house.
Life… was truly wonderful.
—
A new day. July 10, 2020.
Around seven-thirty in the morning, Li Ruobing arrived at the office early and called an executive meeting.
Before working hours even began.
She’d made it clear at yesterday’s meeting—mobilize every resource the company had to find a spokesperson, and every senior executive was to arrive early the next morning for a status report.
She was being driven half-mad by this whole mess.
Yesterday she’d been furious enough to call Ding Ruilong at noon and curse out his entire family.
He’d taken every insult with that same smug, “you can’t pull this off, give it up” attitude, never once talking back—which only made it more infuriating.
Whenever Li Ruobing thought about possibly marrying a man like that someday, she felt sick to her stomach.
The meeting ran past eight without an end in sight.
CBD Seven, thirty-first floor, the elevator lobby.
The doors slid open, and the building’s property manager personally escorted a mysteriously dressed woman out.
She was dressed with expensive, understated elegance—an oversized sunhat, sunglasses covering half her face, a black mask, every inch of her arranged to avoid recognition.
Two men trailed behind her, one who looked like an assistant, the other like a bodyguard.
“This way, Miss Tao.” The property manager was unusually courteous, gesturing toward Huancai’s reception desk to the left of the elevator and leading the way.