Chapter 116: Wrong from the Start

Chapter 116: Wrong from the Start

It seemed Lu Guangnian truly had no other way.

Mainly because he could be soft, he could beg, he could humble himself—but he couldn’t be hard. He couldn’t force his first love and his son to acknowledge him. He couldn’t use threatening methods; that would only make the situation worse. And besides, he knew he was in the wrong, and he couldn’t bring himself to it.

Nor did they want for money. Their life was very comfortable. The anger in their hearts wasn’t something any sum could smooth away. However rich Lu Guangnian was, it was useless.

In truth there was only one way to handle it under normal circumstances: thicken his skin, wear them down gently, do more for them, move them by degrees, and after a long enough time things would improve. But Lu Guangnian was an impatient man.

“Boss Lu, don’t be anxious yet. We haven’t even eaten. No rush, no rush…” Wu Chen smiled and offered a word or two of advice.

“Ah… right, right, right. Brother is right!” Lu Guangnian realized he was too anxious, laughed it off awkwardly, and fell in with Wu Chen completely.

He was asking Wu Chen for help now, so naturally he had to fall in.

Though he didn’t even know exactly what Wu Chen did. He had called Li Ruobing privately to ask about that, and Li Ruobing hadn’t said either—only that Wu Chen had just graduated from university, had come to work at her place, and that the two of them had met at a campus recruitment fair…

Lu Guangnian could hear an excuse when he was told one.

Wu Chen could not possibly be an ordinary university graduate. Of that he was certain.

Because that vile pair around him who had wanted his fortune and his life, and the business of his first love and his son, had all been told to him by Wu Chen. So he felt Wu Chen must have some unknown great backing or some extraordinary ability, and believed Wu Chen knew a great deal more still. Which was why he had come to beg him.

“Boss Lu, first you—”

“Brother, don’t keep calling me Boss Lu. We’re brothers, aren’t we? I’m a few years older than you. Calling me big brother isn’t too much to ask, is it?”

Lu Guangnian truly was setting his face aside. He hadn’t done this sort of frantic relationship-building in many years.

“All right, Brother Lu.” Wu Chen smiled, then said, “So tell me, Brother Lu—how have you been handling it these past few days? What did you do? How did it come to her smashing things to drive you out?”

He didn’t believe Lu Guangnian lacked all understanding of the ways of the world. For a result like this, it could only be that he had been too impatient.

Even as Wu Chen asked, Lu Guangnian had already stood.

He fetched the teapot, poured tea, and only then sat back down.

“These past few days I just went to find her. The first time I went I even brought quite a few gifts,” Lu Guangnian said.

“Did you buy flowers?” Wu Chen asked.

“I did. Of course I had to. Diamond rings, necklaces, that sort of thing too. And I bought my son a Ferrari, for him to drive…”

Through Lu Guangnian’s account, and with Wu Chen asking after details here and there, Wu Chen came to understand the general shape of the past few days.

Lu Guangnian had been wrong from the start.

He had known Ma Huifang would find it very hard to forgive him, and so he hadn’t dared go to her door rashly. He had made a great many preparations, and what he had prepared… was money. Having money was his advantage. He was worth eight billion. He hadn’t meant to smash them with money, but he had prepared too much, gone too far.

Which would leave anyone with the feeling that he was smashing them with money.

And that would only trigger resistance instead.

In matters of feeling, Ma Huifang was an extremely staunch woman.

Back then she and Lu Guangnian had broken up because Lu Guangnian had another woman. He had already made something of himself by then and already had his own small car. This was the late 1980s. He may not have been vastly rich, but he was absolutely a man with money.

And Ma Huifang had broken it off cleanly.

Afterward, when she discovered she was pregnant, she hadn’t told Lu Guangnian either, and she had never gone looking for him again.

Back then Ma Huifang would not choose to put up with him just because he had money. Now more than thirty years had passed and the hardest stretch was long endured. Ma Huifang had raised their son alone and raised him into an outstanding man. She was the kind of good mother anyone would put a thumb up for on sight.

And at this point Lu Guangnian had suddenly leapt out again, disturbing their peaceful, comfortable life—and smashing them with money.

Listening to a portion of Lu Guangnian’s account, Wu Chen felt Ma Huifang had probably already felt insulted. She might well find Lu Guangnian disgusting.

Back then she would not put up with him just because he had money.

Now it was even less possible that she would choose to return to his side just because he had even more money.

They hadn’t seen each other in over thirty years.

At a reunion like that, the first impression mattered enormously—and Lu Guangnian had left Ma Huifang with a bad one.

Over these past few days he had gone to her door repeatedly, displaying at every moment that he had money and power. Listening to him, Wu Chen could tell it hadn’t been deliberate. It was that a man like him had too much power. The feel of power surrounded him at every moment.

He brought bodyguards when he went out, for instance.

He didn’t go out in only one car, for instance, and his own was a Rolls-Royce.

His manner in speaking to other people, for instance.

According to Lu Guangnian, Ma Huifang had once been so harried by him that she called the property security over. But once the guards arrived, how would they dare lay a hand on Lu Guangnian? His bodyguards had only to walk over and every one of them shrank back, and a few words from Lu Guangnian sent them away.

Then there were his clothes, the watch on his wrist, his manner when he took a call—the moment he opened his mouth, it was contracts worth hundreds of millions, business worth several hundred million… He truly wasn’t boasting. All of it was real. It was simply his everyday life.

He was in real estate. What did buying a plot of land cost? What did putting up an entire development cost? What did the bank loans come to?

Projects with numbers too small never needed Lu Guangnian’s attention at all. The people below him handled those.

Lu Guangnian had been “hit” yesterday.

He had said every good word, made every kind of promise, and shamelessly tried to plant himself in their home and refuse to leave. The daughter-in-law and the child were both there, and it was the daughter-in-law who called his son, Ma Jiawei. When Ma Jiawei got back from work he had very nearly come to blows with Lu Guangnian.

Naturally Ma Jiawei defended the mother who had raised him through such bitter effort.

And then Ma Huifang lost her temper. However much she hated Lu Guangnian, she could not stand and watch her son strike his own father. That would bring down heaven’s wrath and lightning. So she smashed things, hurled things at Lu Guangnian, near enough gone mad—and only then drove him out.

Smashing away, she had even flung down her hard words: if Lu Guangnian dared come to their door again, they would move, they would go abroad. If they couldn’t afford to provoke him, they could at least hide from him.

“…I went home and didn’t sleep all night. Brother, I truly have no way left. I don’t even dare go to their door now. Brother, tell me… is there still a way? Huifang really is… I can feel it. She hates me to death. She’d sooner die than forgive me!” Lu Guangnian finished, his face full of worry.

Wu Chen thought it over seriously, then smiled. “Of course there’s a way.”

“Brother, tell me, tell me!” Lu Guangnian’s spirits lifted at once, and he even dragged his chair a little closer.

“Two ways.” Wu Chen raised two fingers in illustration. “The first is to start with your son. But that would take some time. In truth his hatred of you is mostly his mother’s influence, plus certain childhood experiences from growing up without a father… Win him over, and for the child’s sake Ma Huifang will slowly forgive you too.”

“The second way can be settled very quickly. It might even have your whole family reunited today. Pick one.”

“The second, the second!” Lu Guangnian said at once. “Brother, tell me what to do…”

“The second way, ah. It’s fast, but…” Wu Chen drew out the words and looked at him.

Lu Guangnian understood at once.

And in truth he had misunderstood.

“Brother! Don’t worry. Feelings are feelings, but even real brothers keep clear accounts!” Lu Guangnian said in a rush. “As long as you can help me win back Huifang and the child, I’ll—I’ll give you one hundred million. Cash. I can transfer it to you right now!”

And as he spoke he took out his phone.

Wu Chen pressed his hand down on Lu Guangnian’s at once and smiled. “Brother Lu, that isn’t what I meant…”