Chapter 086: Provocation and Counterattack

Chapter 086: Provocation and Counterattack

Li Ruobing regretted it.

One second after the shrimp landed in Wu Chen’s bowl, she regretted it. She could see exactly what would come of it. It didn’t even feel like something she would do.

Currying favor with a man? Flaunting herself at another woman?

She wasn’t afraid of Su Qingying, naturally.

But she also knew that after this Wu Chen would start having thoughts about her. He’d find another opening to ask whether she’d fallen for him, and he might well tease and mock her with it.

Li Ruobing would never be a woman who catered to a man or bent to one.

Su Qingying’s head snapped around, and—

Li Ruobing’s expression paused for a beat. Then she smiled at Wu Chen. “Eat. Have plenty.” As she said it, she picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of white-cut chicken, and set it in Su Qingying’s bowl.

“Miss Su, you eat too.” The smile she gave Su Qingying was perfectly natural. She gestured at the table and smiled again. “There’s still so much food. It’ll only go to waste. Both of you should have more. I’m full.”

She had made a mistake, so she moved fast to repair it.

Serving Wu Chen became serving Wu Chen and Su Qingying both.

The strange atmosphere eased at once.

Su Qingying blinked, then seemed to understand something.

“You’re full already, Miss Li? Not a little more?”

“I’m full. Thank you for the meal. You two eat.” Li Ruobing met her eyes as she spoke, then smiled again.

“Plain fare like this hardly counts as hospitality.” Su Qingying looked back at her, smiling. “My husband originally said we’d wait for you and go out to a restaurant. I thought, since you were coming to the home, I might as well cook. The highest form of hospitality is a family meal. You’re our guest, and this is the first time we’ve met in this capacity, so… as long as you’re satisfied, Miss Li.”

Anger flared up in Li Ruobing’s chest.

Because she could feel it. Su Qingying was provoking her.

Coming to the home. Hospitality. A family meal. Guest.

Su Qingying had installed herself squarely in the position of lady of the house. She said it all very naturally—her mind worked at speed—but Li Ruobing caught the deliberation underneath it all the same.

Su Qingying must already have noticed something off about her. She had simply chosen not to say so.

A woman’s intuition was usually a terrifying thing. And the people who understood women best would always be women.

Having said her piece, Su Qingying turned to Wu Chen again and glanced into his bowl. “Honey, why aren’t you eating?”

She picked up her chopsticks and lifted out the shrimp—the one Li Ruobing had just put there—and carried it straight toward Wu Chen’s mouth. Then her hand trembled.

Clack.

The shrimp dropped onto the table first, then bounced to the floor.

“Oh, how clumsy of me. It’s dirty now. Never mind, we won’t have that one.” She scolded herself, then took another shrimp from his bowl—one she had peeled herself, naturally. “Come on, honey, eat. Let me feed you…”

Watching Wu Chen eat the shrimp from her chopsticks, Su Qingying smiled sweetly.

She sucked briefly at the tips of the chopsticks before setting them down, then turned to Li Ruobing with a smile. “You’re really sure you won’t have a little more, Miss Li?”

She was provoking her.

A smiling declaration of ownership without a trace of temper in it. Aimed straight at Li Ruobing.

“I’m truly full. Thank you.” Li Ruobing’s breathing went a shade heavier, and she smiled as well.

The two women looked at each other, and neither of them spoke.

Each could feel the other’s hostility.

Li Ruobing was smiling, but her presence had the feel of a woman who might flip the table at any moment.

“I’m full too. Can’t manage another bite.” Wu Chen spoke up just then, standing and moving to clear the table.

Su Qingying was on her feet immediately, heading him off and taking over. “Honey, don’t clean up. I’ve got it, I’ve got it. I’ll clear the table, I’ll do the dishes. Go sit with Miss Li. Don’t neglect our guest…” And when she’d finished, she cast a glance at Li Ruobing—whether intentionally or not.

Wu Chen didn’t argue with her.

He knew she genuinely wanted to do these things.

He lifted his eyes to Li Ruobing and gave her a look.

She stood up abruptly and walked toward the sofa.

Su Qingying carried the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, and the rush of running water followed. This ten-billion-yuan heiress had actually gone to wash dishes.

Wu Chen shifted the rack with the bedsheet a little closer to the coffee table, picked up the remote, and turned on the television so there would be some noise. Only then did he sit down beside Li Ruobing.

“What the hell are you playing at?” Li Ruobing said, eyes on the screen, voice low, teeth clenched.

“You lost. Losing is losing. Why so many questions?” Wu Chen slanted a smiling look at her. His voice was just as low.

With the television covering them, Su Qingying couldn’t possibly hear a word from the kitchen.

“You offended the Su family just to beat me. There really is nothing you won’t do.” Another whisper. By now Li Ruobing had worked out exactly why the Su family was investigating Wu Chen. Because he had run off with Su Qingying, obviously.

But she still couldn’t make sense of it.

Even if Wu Chen had gotten around the Su family—Su Qingying, that woman… how had she ended up following him?

She hadn’t only fallen for him outright. She seemed afraid someone would steal him away.

“No, no, no. You’ve got it backwards,” Wu Chen said. “If you don’t believe me, ask her when I first made contact with her. It was earlier than the day we made our bet.”

“So… how did you do it?”

“Guess.”

Li Ruobing fell silent at once. When Wu Chen didn’t want to say something, she was never going to get it out of him.

“Ow.” Wu Chen suddenly clapped a hand to the back of his neck and twisted his head, looking thoroughly uncomfortable. He rolled his shoulders twice and muttered to himself, “I’m exhausted. Half a day of running around. My whole body aches.”

Then he stopped, turned his head to her, and said, “Give me a massage.”

It wasn’t a discussion. It wasn’t a request. It was a statement. A demand. He was telling Li Ruobing to massage him.

She had lost another bet to him, which meant he could.

They had wagered conditions against each other. Li Ruobing’s condition, if she won, was that Wu Chen kneel and apologize. Wu Chen’s condition had been… he’d said he had been training his body lately and needed regular massage, so if he won, Li Ruobing would massage him. One hundred times.

Not once and clear. A hundred.

As long as they weren’t in public, he could call it in.

Li Ruobing drew a deep breath, then said through her teeth, low, “You really do know how to pick your moment.”

“If you won’t, don’t. I’m not forcing you.” Wu Chen said it carelessly, one corner of his mouth curling.

But Li Ruobing turned her head toward the kitchen doorway. She thought for a moment, then stood up abruptly, unbuttoning her jacket as she said, “I’ll do it. Here? Or in your bedroom?”

Li Ruobing was going to counterattack.

Su Qingying might see them. There was no telling when she would finish the dishes.

But Li Ruobing wasn’t afraid of being seen. She hoped to be seen.

Earlier she hadn’t hit back, because she’d been afraid Wu Chen would misread her. But the massage was a debt from a lost bet. She was honoring an agreement. It had nothing to do with feelings between a man and a woman. And if Su Qingying saw it… Su Qingying would certainly misread it.

“The bedroom,” Wu Chen said, and stood.

Twenty-odd minutes later,

Su Qingying finished tidying the kitchen and came out, saying, “Honey, you two go ahead and—huh?”