Chapter 069: Revenge! Use the Most Satisfying Way!

Chapter 069: Revenge! Use the Most Satisfying Way!

Text sent, Wu Chen shot Li Ruobing a look.

She drew a deep breath and sat back down. She had no idea how exactly he meant to hit back, but ever since coming to Donghai she’d kept a deliberately low profile, and she truly had no appetite for a public brawl.

It was beneath her.

Faced with something like being bitten by a dog, Li Ruobing would never bite back. She’d either walk around it—or beat it to death.

If a real fight broke out, she certainly wouldn’t be the one to come off worse.

The moment she sat, the bodyguards hurrying over stopped in their tracks. Li Ruobing rested a hand on her juice glass and flicked it slightly outward. They read the signal at once, drifted a few steps as though merely passing through, and withdrew.

“Tch. And here I thought something was about to happen. Who’s she trying to scare?” The heavily made-up girl behind them had found her voice again.

In truth, she’d been frightened a moment ago.

The instant Li Ruobing rose to her feet, the girl had been scared. Presence was an invisible, intangible thing, but people genuinely felt it.

She’d thought Li Ruobing was coming over to hit her, and had ducked into the middle-aged man’s arms in fright. Then Li Ruobing had simply sat back down.

“Don’t be scared, baby. Nobody would dare touch you! I’d love to see her try.” The handsome middle-aged man patted the girl on the back, pitching his voice deliberately loud. He cared a great deal about face. In a moment like this, however beautiful Li Ruobing might be, she was nothing to him—the girl was the one he had to defend.

“Tch. Stands up to scare people, then doesn’t even dare come over. What a poser.” The girl was still muttering behind them.

Li Ruobing was genuinely furious.

She was already regretting the choice of table. When she ate alone she always took a private room, for the peace and quiet. She’d only sat out by the entrance today because Wu Chen was with her.

Inside, none of this nonsense would have happened.

Wu Chen still had his hand over hers, and hadn’t let go.

He truly didn’t want her marching over there to throw juice in someone’s face, followed by her bodyguards charging in and beating everyone half to death. After that Li Ruotai would get word, bring his own men over, and there was no telling what he’d do.

Come off worse? Li Ruobing would never come off worse.

Not that Wu Chen wanted her to swallow the insult. It was just that… doing it that way would be dull. No fun at all.

Revenge should be taken in the most satisfying way possible.

“Look at him. Boy looks like a student. His girlfriend gets talked about and he doesn’t even squeak… coward.” The heavily made-up woman’s voice drifted over again.

Wu Chen acted as though he hadn’t heard a word. He patted the back of Li Ruobing’s hand once more, finally lifted his own away, and said, “Let’s talk about something interesting. Tell me—why do you think that woman would be so hard to win over? Are a few days really not enough?”

He kept it vague. To anyone listening, they might have been discussing a stranger.

Li Ruobing understood him perfectly.

Su Qingying.

She had no idea why he’d raise the subject here of all places, but she also wanted something to pull her attention off the pair behind them, so she said, “The conditions the other side set are too harsh. No man would agree to them.”

“What’s so harsh about them? It’s only becoming a live-in son-in-law. There are plenty of men willing to do that these days,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Li Ruobing’s expression shifted at once.

He’d actually said that. Was he willing to marry into someone’s family?

Wu Chen raised an eyebrow at her.

Something seemed to click for Li Ruobing.

“A live-in son-in-law?” She let out a cold laugh. “Any man with even a scrap of ambition—no. Let me put it properly. Any man who’s still a man wouldn’t go and become somebody’s live-in son-in-law.”

“That doesn’t sound quite right, does it? A woman can marry into a man’s family, so why can’t a man marry into a woman’s? What happened to equality between the sexes?” Wu Chen said.

“That’s not the same thing at all.” She came back instantly. “When a woman marries into a man’s family, as long as the man isn’t rotten, his family still treasures her. Nobody stands lower than anybody else.”

Li Ruobing debated him on the subject of equality between men and women for several minutes.

Then the conversation circled back to live-in sons-in-law.

“What kind of man marries into his wife’s family? Only one with no ability, greedy for money, who couldn’t find a wife any other way. Do you imagine any woman actually wants a man who marries in? Who doesn’t want a real man? A man who marries in is lower than a dog.”

“Every single person in that household looks at him with contempt. Back in his home village they’d be jabbing a finger into his spine for the rest of his life. Marrying in isn’t wrong in itself—it’s a personal choice. If he’s willing to let the children take his wife’s surname, that’s generosity on his part, and it’s nobody’s business but his. But marrying in to be somebody’s dog? The family’s pet dog ranks third in that house and he ranks fourth. Swallowing his temper, reading everybody’s face, living without a shred of dignity, all for money, all so he can have a woman—what’s the point of a man like that being alive at all?”

Li Ruobing was saying exactly what she thought.

She had no respect for women who endured domestic violence and still refused to divorce, and none for men who married into their wives’ families either.

As a woman, she wanted women to stand strong on their own. And she wanted men to live more like men.

“Put that way, it does make sense. You’re right. A man who marries in is lower than a dog, especially the sort who gives up even his most basic dignity for money. He’d honestly be better off dead.” Wu Chen sounded thoroughly persuaded.

Crash!

A sudden shattering noise erupted behind Li Ruobing. The handsome middle-aged man had smashed the large glass of juice that had just been set down in front of him.

From the look on his face, thunderous rage would have been putting it mildly. His whole face had gone red.

“Fuck—have I been too soft on you people? Who the hell do you think you’re taking shots at?” He shot to his feet, cursing, already past the point of containing himself.

He thought he’d been recognized, that all of this had been said deliberately, at him, to needle him.

He wasn’t wrong.

Wu Chen had done it on purpose. Wu Chen knew he was a live-in son-in-law—and one who genuinely ranked below the dog at home, at that.

Which meant the conversation the two of them had just had cut into him like a drill, straight through to the bone.

Wu Chen pressed Li Ruobing’s hand once more, then stood. “Who are you swearing at? What’s got you so worked up? We said men who marry into their wives’ families are dogs. What’s that got to do with you? Are you a live-in son-in-law? Are you?”

He wore a smile with a touch of genuine puzzlement in it, and he said it extremely loudly.

Every table nearby turned to look. They’d all heard.

Even the diners at the tables just inside the entrance heard, and craned their necks to see out.

The middle-aged man choked on it. His face swelled red as a balloon, and not one word came out.

Admit it? Say out loud, in public, that yes, he was a live-in son-in-law? Then he’d have no face left at all.

But Wu Chen was insulting him to his face.

Was he supposed to just take it?

“You’re a live-in son-in-law?” The heavily made-up girl whipped around, disbelief written all over her. She knew he had a wife—he’d said so himself, said the divorce was underway and only dragging because of the property. He’d promised to marry her once it went through. He had never once mentioned marrying into his wife’s family.

If you’d married in, what divorce could you possibly get? Would you even dare? Divide the property? Divide what, exactly?

“I—I’m not!” the man denied, face still flushed.

“Then why so agitated? If it has nothing to do with you, why claim we’re taking shots at you? You gave me a fright. I nearly thought you really were the sort of man who’d move into somebody else’s house and live as their dog. If you are, just say so, don’t deny it. If you’re not, then none of this concerns you…”

As he spoke, Wu Chen tapped the screen of the phone lying on the table and checked the time.

She should be arriving any moment.

That middle-aged businesswoman’s company wasn’t far from here. This man had slipped out on his lunch break to meet his lover, which meant he couldn’t have gone far from the office.

He’d done it often enough before, so Wu Chen could work out the rest.

“You—you fucking—” The man’s chest looked ready to burst, and the look in his eyes said he wanted to tear Wu Chen apart with his hands.

Just then—

Honk! Honk! Honk!

A burst of sharp car horns.

The restaurant sat at the edge of the plaza, where vehicles weren’t permitted. Yet several black business vans came rolling straight through, horns warning pedestrians out of the way.

They stopped at the edge of the plaza.

Every door opened at once, and more than a dozen bodyguards in black suits climbed out. From the middle car, last of all, emerged a woman in her forties, very heavy, a shawl draped over her shoulders.

Plain-featured and stout as she was, this woman carried an enormously powerful presence. Her aura was formidable.

Set against Li Ruobing’s, it lacked some of the edge and brilliance. What it had instead was weight, and solidity.

At the sight of her, the handsome middle-aged man’s face drained bloodless. He dropped back into his chair in fright.

Wu Chen sat down as well, smiling as he gave Li Ruobing a look.

The good show was about to begin.