Chapter 137: In a Group of Three, There Is Always a Teacher

Chapter 137: In a Group of Three, There Is Always a Teacher

Mu Qianqian was stunned. She had never imagined Wu Chen would dare say something that shameless with Su Qingying sitting right there.

What came next stunned her more.

Su Qingying heard him, gave him a single sidelong glance—and that was all. She did not object!

“Uh…” Mu Qianqian found she had nothing to say. The words were stuck in her throat.

She really had been threatening him. If he would not tell her nicely, she meant to make trouble; and even if he had chosen Su Qingying, she had no intention of letting it go. She would have made things as awkward and uncomfortable as possible for both of them. She refused to believe Su Qingying wouldn’t care at all!

But Wu Chen’s answer had turned her own weapon against her.

“Any other questions?” Wu Chen asked, smiling at her again. “If not, sit down and eat. Standing must be tiring.”

There was a distinctly teasing edge to it now.

And Mu Qianqian genuinely did not know what to say.

She had said it. She had picked the fight. Daring to ask, “Who are you going to sleep with?” meant she had already thrown a girl’s usual reserve out the window. What she had not expected was that Wu Chen and Su Qingying would be even less “reserved” than she was.

So what was she supposed to do?

Back down and say she was going home after all?

Strictly speaking that would not be backing down, but Mu Qianqian had a child’s temper, and she had already said what she said…

She stood there thinking for a good while before something seemed to spark.

“No! Not together. You can only pick one!”

“You’re the one who said no. So I can only pick Qingying,” Wu Chen answered at once.

“Then don’t blame me if I—” The threat began hot and then stalled. She had noticed the flaw in it.

What could she actually do? Burst into Wu Chen and Su Qingying’s room and cause a scene? Wu Chen would simply pull her in, and Su Qingying wouldn’t mind—and then they would be right back to all three of them.

“Don’t blame you for what?” Wu Chen asked.

Mu Qianqian said nothing more. She sat down, still furious, and not one word came out of her.

She put her head down and ate.

“Honey, I don’t think that’s such a good idea…” Su Qingying leaned toward Wu Chen and murmured.

Mu Qianqian’s head came up instantly, her face bright with here’s my chance. She knew it! How could Su Qingying possibly not care?

“Hm?” Wu Chen tilted his head closer to her.

“It doesn’t feel right,” Su Qingying went on quietly. “She’s too young. She still has a child’s temper, and her thinking isn’t mature yet. If she gets drawn into this with us, aren’t the two of us leading her astray? Later on she might—”

Su Qingying was kindhearted, in the end.

She knew perfectly well what her own situation was.

Besides, she and Wu Chen were both in their twenties. Whatever they did was their own business. Mu Qianqian was still a student.

It was simply the fear of setting a bad example for a child.

But in Mu Qianqian’s ears the words grated badly. It felt as though Su Qingying saw her not as a woman but as a little girl—and nothing infuriated a girl in the throes of adolescent rebellion more than being taken for an ignorant child.

Wu Chen heard her out and knew at once there was a problem. Good intentions were about to do harm. It was not as if Mu Qianqian could not hear her.

“You shouldn’t have said that,” he murmured near Su Qingying’s ear.

“Hm?” Su Qingying did not follow.

“Who are you calling young?” Mu Qianqian’s angry voice came from across the table.

“Hm?” Su Qingying made a small questioning sound and looked at her.

Mu Qianqian’s momentum collapsed on the spot; she no longer dared keep her voice up. The truth was that she did not much dare provoke Su Qingying, let alone quarrel with her.

Among the younger generation of Donghai’s ultra-wealthy families, Su Qingying stood entirely apart.

She was so outstanding that her own peers dared not measure themselves against her. She was only twenty-seven this year, and already she could represent the Su family and Jinfu Group at the negotiating table across from the heads of other major corporations.

And that was merely her present standing in Donghai’s business world, where she could already meet billionaire magnates as an equal. Mu Qianqian also knew that Su Ruiwen’s health was not good. Su Qingying would very likely take over as chairman of Jinfu within the next few years—certainly before thirty.

And then she would be Donghai’s richest person.

And then…

“How am I young? I’m all grown up… I could have a baby…” Deflated but unwilling to concede, Mu Qianqian muttered it to herself.

Su Qingying did not know whether to laugh or sigh.

The girl really was childish.

Now she understood why Wu Chen had said she should not have spoken.

She had struck straight at Mu Qianqian’s rebellious streak.

The more you told her not to do a thing, the more determined she became to do it.

“Eat,” Wu Chen said.

“All right, honey.” Su Qingying turned to him at once with a sweet smile.

Harmony restored.

They ate.

A little while later—

“Honey, try this.”

A pair of chopsticks came over and laid a piece of stir-fried meat in Wu Chen’s bowl.

Not Su Qingying’s.

Mu Qianqian’s!

She had suddenly taken to imitating her—she had even borrowed the exact words Su Qingying had used earlier. Wu Chen looked up. Mu Qianqian blinked at him and did not so much as glance at Su Qingying.

She was doing it to needle her. She refused to believe Su Qingying wouldn’t mind at all.

Su Qingying only glanced at Mu Qianqian and smiled, a little helplessly.

She saw through the small scheme in an instant.

And she genuinely did not mind Wu Chen having other women. Her only fear was that he might be taken from her. Li Ruobing, for instance—if Li Ruobing ever conceived the notion of keeping Wu Chen to herself, that would be serious trouble for Su Qingying.

Anyone else was of no consequence.

After dinner, Su Qingying washed the dishes.

Wu Chen sat on the sofa watching television. While Su Qingying was in the kitchen, Mu Qianqian tried being difficult with him again; it got her nowhere. Once Su Qingying finished the dishes and came out, Mu Qianqian stopped making a fuss—and instead lay down with her head in Wu Chen’s lap to watch television with him, which was another deliberate provocation.

Su Qingying paid it no attention. She sat with Wu Chen for a while and talked with him, then went into the bedroom ahead of them.

Before anyone noticed, it was past eight in the evening.

“Honey, let’s turn in early. I have to be up early for work tomorrow…” Su Qingying said from the bedroom doorway.

“Hm?” Wu Chen looked back and smiled. “All right.”

Mu Qianqian, head in his lap and phone in her hands, sat up and looked toward the master bedroom door as well.

Wu Chen rose, walked over, went in with Su Qingying, and shut the door.

Nobody spared Mu Qianqian a thought.

Sitting sideways on the sofa, her face changed at once. First unhappiness. Then unease. Then, oddly, a flicker of excitement—and then unease again. There was no telling what complicated business was turning over inside that small head.

A long while later, Mu Qianqian stood up and switched off the television. Then she crossed the room and switched off the living-room light. Finally she walked to the master bedroom door.

Her steps halted there.

Her hand rested on the knob for several seconds. Then she yanked the door open, went in, and reached back to pull it shut behind her.

That night…

Mu Qianqian not only learned Su Qingying’s secret—her eyes were thoroughly opened.

You could do that?

And that as well?

Three people could even do that?

Through the events of that night, Mu Qianqian came to understand one saying very deeply indeed: among three people, there is always someone I can learn from. There really was something to it!

—

A new day. July 13, 2020.

At seven o’clock in the morning, exactly on time, Wu Chen opened his eyes.

He looked up at the ceiling and smiled. To his left he could hear the faintest little snuffling. He turned his head: Mu Qianqian, arms around his neck, nestled into his shoulder, sleeping soundly. Last night had worn the girl out completely.

He turned to look right.

Su Qingying was not there.

The bedroom door stood half open, and he could hear movement in the living room. Comparatively speaking, Su Qingying had gone to sleep earlier the night before, so she had risen at six-thirty as usual, half an hour before him.

Wu Chen did not get up.

He was tired too.

Waking at seven was his biological clock; the truth was that he still needed rest.

He rolled over, gathered Mu Qianqian into his arms, and closed his eyes again.

Back to sleep.

Before he knew it, it was past eight.

Ring, ring…

The ringing phone woke Wu Chen from his second sleep and Mu Qianqian from the deep sleep she had never once stirred from.

As his eyes opened his hand went out to the bedside table, found the phone, and brought it back. He glanced at the screen.

Li Ruobing.

“Morning,” he said.

“Get to the company. Now,” Li Ruobing said.

Something was off in her voice. Not urgency exactly—more a distinct anxiety.

“What’s happened?” Wu Chen asked.

“My father’s come to Donghai,” she said.