Chapter 095: How Did Things Somehow Turn Into This?

Chapter 095: How Did Things Somehow Turn Into This?

Done.

The instant Madam Su rose to defend her daughter and rounded on Wu Chen in anger, Wu Chen had it done.

Because the moment she took that stance, it placed Su Qingying on the opposite side from him. She was defending a daughter who had been bullied and insulted. Which meant she would never again suspect that anything had passed between Wu Chen and Su Qingying.

He had mocked and insulted Su Qingying to her face, after all, without the slightest regard for how Su Qingying felt. Even if Su Qingying had genuinely harbored some special feeling for him before, she surely wouldn’t now.

That was the key.

Everything else was secondary. In all of today’s events, everything else was secondary. So what if Wu Chen had struck Su Qingying’s backside? So what if Madam Su still believed he’d taken advantage of the chance?

Su Qingying herself had never said she was unwilling.

There wasn’t even a victim in it. On what grounds could Madam Su press the matter further?

But precisely because Su Qingying hadn’t been unwilling, precisely because she hadn’t resisted and had cooperated so thoroughly with Wu Chen at the time—that was the greatest problem of all.

Madam Su could not be allowed to suspect that something existed between Su Qingying and Wu Chen, that Su Qingying had been taken in by him. That was the Su family’s gravest taboo at present.

Because the Su family was recruiting a live-in son-in-law. Su Ruiwen’s health was failing, and nobody knew how many years he could hold on. Su Qingying had to take over, which meant she had to marry. She needed a stable family, an outstanding man who could assist her, and that man had to marry into the Su family.

That was the crucial issue.

The truth was that Wu Chen didn’t care in the least about offending Madam Su over small matters, over a few sharp words.

She was only Madam Su, after all. Not Su Ruiwen.

Madam Su was Su Ruiwen’s capable wife. Over small matters she wouldn’t blow things up. She wouldn’t create a disturbance that damaged the major interests of the Su family and Jinfu Group. She had a sense of proportion.

Only over the great matters would she act without regard for consequence.

Su Qingying was the future of the Su family, the future of Jinfu Group.

Which made her romantic affairs the greatest matter of all.

That was what Su Ruiwen cared about too. Among all the Su family’s conditions for taking on a son-in-law, reasonable and unreasonable alike, the rest had been set by Madam Su. Only the requirement that he marry into the family had been set personally by Su Ruiwen.

Su Ruiwen had no intention of letting the fortune he had spent half a lifetime building benefit an outsider.

So although Su Ruiwen had never entirely approved of some of his wife’s methods with their daughter, on this present question of Su Qingying’s romance and marriage, husband and wife were of one mind.

Neither Madam Su nor Su Ruiwen would permit any bad boy to seduce their daughter and carry on a private affair with her.

And as long as that issue could be settled, every other problem was a small problem.

A problem nowhere near worth the Su family going to war with Li Ruobing over.

Li Ruobing’s personal power was far below the Su family’s, granted. But behind her stood her younger brother Li Ruotai, fiercely protective of his older sister, and behind the siblings stood the whole Li family—in the end far more powerful than the Su family.

Absent some problem that made peace impossible, both sides would certainly make peace if they could.

This could be called a bitter-flesh stratagem.

The one eating the bitterness was Su Qingying.

But stretch the point however far you liked, Wu Chen had merely mocked her in her presence with a few words, and the benefit to Su Qingying was enormous.

Because of it, Madam Su would drop that suspicion. She might even ache for her daughter, and conclude that the girl had endured Wu Chen’s advantage-taking style of instruction only because she had been raised too well.

There was no question that Madam Su loved her daughter. Loved her very much. It was only that her love had turned somewhat diseased.

After Madam Su rose and rounded on him—

“I meant no disrespect to Miss Su. I’m only telling the truth. She really is stupid.” Wu Chen fired back. At the same moment, from an angle Madam Su couldn’t see, behind the table, he stepped lightly on the top of Li Ruobing’s foot.

For whatever reason, Li Ruobing hadn’t come in on cue. Perhaps because she had never seen him angry before, her reaction lagged.

“You—” Madam Su had more to say.

Li Ruobing finally moved.

“Madam Su!” She shot to her feet, her voice loud enough to cut off Madam Su’s momentum in an instant. Then she turned back and tugged at Wu Chen. “Darling, what are you doing? Qingying and I are friends. Don’t talk about her like that.”

“She’s your friend, not mine.”

Wu Chen turned to her and slid straight into the state of a man aggrieved on her behalf. “Haven’t you had enough? Tell me, weren’t you acting out of kindness? You were trying to help Miss Su, weren’t you? You were afraid she might not be able to see her way through. You were afraid that one day, pressed down too far, she’d jump off a building and die. And then what? Look at how the Su family treats you.”

“What have the two of us been running around all day for? We were even blocked and told we couldn’t leave. They insisted on talking to you, and you’re still explaining yourself to her? When you explain, does she appreciate it? Does she think you’re doing it for Miss Su’s good?”

Everyone in the room could feel why Wu Chen had suddenly lost his temper.

He’d simply had enough of the whole day.

He was standing up for Li Ruobing, saying it wasn’t worth what she’d put in.

Only Su Qingying and Li Ruobing knew he was acting. And the acting was so real that even the two of them had nearly failed to keep up.

While he was saying all of it to Li Ruobing, Wu Chen also gave her a look.

“Darling, don’t say that either. Don’t be angry. Stop, all right? Let me—let me handle it. Calm down.” As she spoke, Li Ruobing even patted his chest, genuinely gentling her voice to soothe him.

Watching it, Madam Su’s expression changed again.

She could not have imagined that a woman like Li Ruobing, strong outwardly and inwardly as well, would behave that way toward a man.

It didn’t feel like a relationship where the woman was strong and the man weak. She seemed to care enormously about Wu Chen’s mood.

This…

One point especially deserves mention. Because of what Wu Chen had just done—first having the bodyguard give a detailed account, then hitting back at Madam Su head-on—it no longer mattered whether Madam Su believed he’d used the golf lesson as cover to take advantage of her daughter. If Su Qingying didn’t pursue it, Madam Su couldn’t pursue it either.

What mattered was that Li Ruobing had been given an out.

As Wu Chen’s girlfriend she naturally had to care whether he’d had any such intention at the time. And as for his explanation—she could choose to believe what he said. Whether Madam Su believed it was Madam Su’s business. Li Ruobing could believe it. She could choose to believe it.

She could simply hold that her boyfriend wasn’t that kind of man.

That way she didn’t have to lose her temper, and in fact had to soothe him.

“Let it go, darling. Do it for me, all right? Give me a little face. Qingying is my friend. Don’t argue anymore. Qingying is right here.” And as she said it, Li Ruobing suddenly took his cheek in her hand and kissed him.

Right in front of Madam Su, she kissed Wu Chen. To settle his temper.

Madam Su was fucking floored.

Was this still the Li Ruobing she knew?

Wu Chen went still for a beat after the kiss. He hadn’t expected her cooperation to run this far. She was truly throwing herself into it.

“Fine, fine, fine. All right. You talk. You talk.” He said it grudgingly, leaning back into the sofa and returning to calm indifference.

Seeing that he’d agreed to drop it, Li Ruobing looked like a woman letting out a held breath. Then she rose abruptly, turned to Su Qingying, and said with formal courtesy, “Miss Qingying, I’m very sorry. My boyfriend said those things about you. I apologize on his behalf. I’m sorry.”

That done, she looked toward Madam Su, and her face sank at once into something extremely serious.

“Madam Su, we have been busy on Miss Qingying’s behalf all day, and we’re tired. Do you have any other questions?” She looked entirely like a woman who believed what Wu Chen had said, and who, carried by his temper, now had a considerable temper of her own.

She also seemed to feel the day hadn’t been worth it. Good intentions repaid with blame.

Which gave Madam Su the sense that she might be about to offend Li Ruobing.

On the merits she had started with the stronger position. Her daughter had been carried off by Wu Chen without warning, so of course she had to get to the bottom of it. Only with reason on her side could she hold this conversation with Li Ruobing at all. And she couldn’t afford to be unreasonable with Li Ruobing—otherwise Li Ruobing could be unreasonable right back.

The reason Madam Su could be called a capable wife was that she was genuinely useful to Su Ruiwen in business. She understood when to press and when to give ground. She knew which people could be offended, and she knew which people must never be offended without necessity.

Just as Li Ruobing wouldn’t lightly offend Madam Su, Madam Su would absolutely not lightly offend Li Ruobing. If a thing could be explained and settled, settle it.

Who knew how it had somehow turned into this?

“Miss Li… sit, please. Sit, sit. If you’re tired, rest here. Don’t rush off. It’s better that we make some things clear. Our two families will be seeing a good deal of each other in future.” Madam Su’s manner softened all at once, and she raised a hand in invitation as she spoke.