Chapter 138: Make the Act Real? Then Let’s Do It

Chapter 138: Make the Act Real? Then Let’s Do It

Wu Chen’s eyebrow lifted, but he was not surprised.

“Oh, I know,” he said mildly.

“Get here quickly.” She was pressing him, because she could hear that he was not in the least concerned. He was completely unhurried, as though he did not take the matter seriously at all.

“What’s the rush? I haven’t had breakfast yet. Relax…” Wu Chen said with a soft laugh.

“I’m begging you! Do you have any idea what my father—” She broke off before finishing what her father was like. “Just hurry up! If we botch the act this time, everything we’ve done up to now goes to waste!”

“Just don’t make any mistakes yourself,” Wu Chen said, still laughing.

“You—” She choked on it, but she did not say anything cutting. “Hurry up! You infuriate me every single day!”

She hung up.

Wu Chen looked at the dead call, quirked his lips into a smile, tossed the phone aside, and got up to dress.

“Big Bad Guy, who was that?” Mu Qianqian asked, sitting up.

She had been woken too and had caught a little of it—not clearly. She could tell the voice was a woman’s, but the fragments she had heard told her nothing about what the woman was saying to him.

“A friend,” Wu Chen said offhandedly. He looked at her. “Still sleepy? Want to go back to sleep?”

“I’m awake now, so I suppose not.” As she said it she rose from under the covers. The blanket slid down. Naturally, she had nothing on. “Are you going out on business? Leaving right away?”

“Yes. Something urgent’s come up,” Wu Chen said.

He dressed quickly.

Out in the living room he found the note Su Qingying had left on the table. She had gone early because she needed to stop at home before the office. It was all in the note, and she had not disturbed either of them while they slept.

She had bought breakfast for the two of them as well—steamed buns, youtiao, that sort of thing—all laid out on the table. It had gone a little cool, though in the middle of summer that hardly mattered.

Wu Chen read the note, picked up a bun, and bit into it.

Something quick.

Mu Qianqian came out to the living room to dress; her clothes had been out here the whole time. Since her shower the night before, she had been wearing nothing but Wu Chen’s robe.

“Big Bad Guy, where are you going? Can’t you take me with you? I don’t want to go home…” she asked from the sofa, pulling on her socks.

“No,” Wu Chen said flatly. He took another bite, then looked up with a smile. “But if you really don’t want to go home, go find Qingying. Go keep her company at her office…”

“But won’t Sister Qingying be busy?” Mu Qianqian did have a considerate side. She knew better than to make a nuisance of herself and be resented for it.

Yesterday it had still been Miss Su. Today it was already Sister Qingying.

That, of course, was the work of the night before. A thing like that drew two people very close very fast—each of them had seen the other’s most “special” side, and along the way there had been no shortage of particular interaction between the two of them.

“She’ll be busy, but…” Wu Chen paused, then smiled again. “You can tell her about your father wanting to send you abroad for school. She’ll take care of it for you. Then you won’t have to go.”

“Really?” Mu Qianqian’s head snapped up, her eyes blinking at him.

“It’s hardly a big matter. Tell her and she’ll certainly find a way,” Wu Chen said.

He did not want her going abroad either, but to him this truly was a small problem. He would not even need to lift a finger. Su Qingying could handle it easily.

“Okay, okay, okay! I’ll go find her!” Mu Qianqian said excitedly.

Wu Chen ate a little more, then went to the bathroom to wash his face and hands and see to his hair.

When he came out, Mu Qianqian was dressed and eating at the table.

“Qianqian, I’m off. Lock up when you go. Oh—take the spare key. When you have time, have another copy cut for Qingying…” He walked to the door and changed his shoes.

“Okay!” she said, and then turned to call after him, “Big Bad Guy, when will you be finished?”

“Not sure.” He glanced over at her and smiled. “Could you stop calling me Big Bad Guy? It sounds strange.”

“Well, aren’t you bad?” she shot back—and at the thought of it, wild as she was, she blushed.

Last night had truly been… If she had not seen it with her own eyes and felt it herself, she could never have imagined things could be done that way. And she would never have known Su Qingying had such a “crazy” side to her.

“I’m bad? Then how about I be worse and tell Qingying not to help you?” Wu Chen teased.

“Uncle, I was wrong! Have a safe trip!” Mu Qianqian bowed to him at once, apology earnest, clowning a little.

Last night she had heard Su Qingying call Wu Chen “Master,” and even “Daddy.” Mu Qianqian could not get either out of her mouth—but she had called him Uncle before.

“Good girl,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Shoes changed, he left.

More than half an hour later he pulled the Lamborghini up to Tower Seven in Donghai’s CBD.

He understood Li Ruobing’s haste and her anxiety, and he was not in the least anxious himself.

He had in fact expected her father to arrive around now.

His sudden appearance in Donghai was not chiefly about Li Ruobing, nor about hearing his daughter had a boyfriend and wanting a look at him.

All of that was incidental.

The real reason was his son.

Li Ruotai was in trouble.

That was the matter grave enough to bring him to Donghai.

Wu Chen had told Li Ruotai that his crisis had to be reported to the Old Master. Li Ruotai had of course already telephoned home. But there was no possibility of the Li family’s Old Master coming to Donghai in person.

The one who could come could only be Li Ruotai’s father.

At half past nine in the morning, Wu Chen finally appeared in the president’s office at Huancai Fashion.

The moment he came in, Li Ruobing turned from the window. Her face was cold, and so was her voice.

“You really aren’t in any hurry, are you, my dear Mr. Wu?”

“You’re not afraid of your father. You even dare point at your family’s Old Master and curse him to his face. What are you panicking about?” Wu Chen said, walking toward her.

“What do you think I’m panicking about?”

She came at him fast, seized his tie, and yanked him down. Face close to his, looking up, her tone hard: “Do you have any idea how much trouble I’ll be in if my father sees you’re fake? Or how much trouble you’ll be in? And if my brother finds out you’re fake—think about everything you’ve done in Donghai these past few days. If all of them know, do you honestly think you’ll be fine?”

“Worried about me?” Wu Chen asked softly, still smiling.

She stared at him coldly, silent, for several seconds. Then, still in that combative tone: “Yes! I’m worried about you! Is that a problem?”

She admitted it.

The smile left Wu Chen’s face.

He turned serious.

“Make the act real?” he asked.

“Then let’s do it!” she fired back, sounding for all the world as though she were quarrelling with him.

But she was not the kind of person to decide a thing like this out of spite.

“Li Ruobing, be sure you’ve thought this through.” He looked straight into her eyes, entirely in earnest. “I have a great many women. If you make this real with me, there’s no going back.”

“You think I’m afraid of you?” she said at once, as though throwing down a challenge.

Wu Chen fell silent.

So did she.

They looked at each other and said nothing. The office was still.

A long time passed.

Wu Chen could see that behind the unyielding front, something moved in her eyes—a flicker of feeling.

An indescribably subtle atmosphere heated up rapidly in their silent stare.

Ring, ring…

The sudden ringing of a phone broke it apart.

Still holding his gaze, Li Ruobing drew out her phone, swiped, put it to her ear, and said at once, “Speak.”

“Sis! Why aren’t you and Brother-in-law here yet? Dad’s asked again…” came Li Ruotai’s voice, deliberately hushed.