Chapter 236: Suddenly Showing His Hand!

Chapter 236: Suddenly Showing His Hand!

Her name was Zhuang Xiaodie.

Twenty-one years old. A third-year student in the Acting Department of the School of Film and Television at Modu University.

One hundred sixty-eight centimeters tall, forty-seven kilograms. Fair-skinned and beautiful.

She looked slender—slender where she ought to be slender, while the places that were not supposed to be slender were… particularly striking.

Judged purely on figure, of all the women Wu Chen had been with since beginning his new life, Zhuang Xiaodie was not the tallest, nor did she look the thinnest.

But overall, hers was without question the highest-scoring figure.

Chiefly because of her bust.

Zhuang Xiaodie had originally been a girl Mao Rusong meant to find an opening to present to Ding Ruilong. Naturally he wanted someone beautiful, someone who suited Ding Ruilong’s taste. And Ding Ruilong—

Ding Ruilong could accept a great many types of women. It was genuinely hard to say which sort he preferred.

Ding Ruilong had had no shortage of women.

And he was always changing them.

Still, Mao Rusong had found himself a “reference.”

The woman he used as a reference was someone he had been quietly looking after.

He Shiqin.

Not as a reference for the face. That would have been far too hard to match, and unnecessary besides.

A reference for the figure.

So after working through multiple channels and reviewing a great deal of material, Mao Rusong settled on Zhuang Xiaodie as the target he would “cultivate.”

Zhuang Xiaodie sat there in a black off-the-shoulder bodycon minidress. Her hair fell to her shoulders in soft pear-blossom curls, thick and full. Her face read small, with a high nose bridge and large eyes. She wore almost no makeup at all.

Only a very striking lipstick.

By her features alone, Zhuang Xiaodie was the kind of girl who looked especially pure. But between the hair and that lipstick, she now looked pure and alluring at once.

Even at the School of Film and Television, where beauties were everywhere, Zhuang Xiaodie counted among the campus beauties. On face alone, Wu Chen would have given her a nine.

But her figure added a great deal.

A combined 9.5 would not have been unreasonable.

And she was absolutely untouched. No man had ever been with her.

She was a woman intended for Ding Ruilong. Mao Rusong would have had to be out of his mind to choose a girl with any prior experience. She had to be untouched, someone no man had ever had.

“M-Mr. Wu…”

When Zhuang Xiaodie saw Wu Chen stop just past the entryway and turn to look at her, she rose at once, her elegant handbag held in both hands in front of her. She greeted him, paused, and then even bowed.

Her voice was soft and delicate, with a slight brittleness to it.

She had meant to seem unruffled. But her nerves showed in those first words.

Wu Chen kept one hand in his suit pocket, head tilted slightly, and smiled at her as he looked her over from head to foot.

That made her nervous again for a moment. On the whole, though, she held together well enough. She could still manage a sweet smile.

In fact, Zhuang Xiaodie had no idea who Wu Chen was.

She did not even know who Mao Rusong ultimately intended to give her to. She had never known.

Her relationship with Mao Rusong was not that of employer and employee.

It was creditor and debtor.

Zhuang Xiaodie was from Hang City. She had come to Modu for university. Her family had once been comfortably well-off, in business.

Two years earlier, her parents’ business ran into trouble and collapsed outright into bankruptcy, leaving considerable debts. Even after selling their home to repay them, they still could not clear what they owed.

The pressure on Zhuang Xiaodie was immense. She had no choice but to work while she studied, earning her tuition through runway modeling and performances at store openings. She actually made a fair amount. Enough to send some home toward the family’s debts.

A little over a year earlier, Mao Rusong approached her out of nowhere.

He told her his intentions plainly. At first she was unwilling.

Mao Rusong did not threaten her. Instead he gave her ample time to think, and met her several times to talk.

After a period of inner struggle, in June of the previous year Zhuang Xiaodie took a call from her mother. Her father had been summoned to court again. The creditors had also put out word that if the money still did not come, they would expose the whole family publicly, make it impossible for her to stay in school, and so on.

The pressure hit its peak.

Zhuang Xiaodie made her decision. She called Mao Rusong herself, asked to meet, and struck a “deal.”

Afterward, Mao Rusong not only used his connections in Hang City to resolve every remaining problem surrounding her family, he also cleared the rest of their debt in a single payment.

More than 5.7 million yuan.

In return, what Zhuang Xiaodie had to do was exactly what Mao Rusong had stated from the beginning. He would package her and cultivate her.

And then send her to become the mistress of a major figure.

But he never told her who that person would be.

Once it was done, the debt would be written off.

And so a year passed.

Until today.

At last she was to meet the “major figure.” Mao Rusong had notified her and arranged everything, and still he did not tell her who the man was. He told her only that his surname was Wu. Whoever walked into that room would be him.

And she was to take good care of him.

Wu Chen looked at Zhuang Xiaodie.

Zhuang Xiaodie held her nerves in check and looked back.

There was even a flicker of pleasant surprise in her now.

She had thought it all through long ago, and after a year of training she had long since made her peace with it. She had always assumed that any “major figure” Mao Rusong needed to court would have to be forty or fifty at least.

And she truly had no choice. Whatever he was like, she would have to accept him.

Mao Rusong had never threatened her. He had even helped her family. He was her creditor now, and yet there was something of a benefactor in him too.

Zhuang Xiaodie had already braced herself to take a fat, aging big shot as her man.

So she was pleasantly surprised. Wu Chen was plainly around her own age.

And he was rather handsome.

“Mr. Wu, would you like to shower first? It’s over there…”

Zhuang Xiaodie spoke first, gesturing toward the bathroom.

Wu Chen smiled. He thought for a moment, then walked straight toward it.

Zhuang Xiaodie moved as well.

She followed him in…

—

A new day.

July 18, 2020.

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

He looked up at the ceiling and smiled. Then he turned his head to the woman in his arms.

Zhuang Xiaodie was still asleep. There were faint traces of tears at the corners of her eyes, but at the corners of her mouth there seemed to be the vaguest hint of a smile.

Wu Chen studied her for a moment. Then he closed his eyes again.

Back to sleep.

Nothing was urgent.

And he had gone to sleep especially late. It had been three or four in the morning before he truly went under.

A little over an hour later. Past eight in the morning.

Wu Chen woke again, and not on his own. Zhuang Xiaodie had woken. He felt someone kiss his cheek and opened his eyes.

He turned his head. Zhuang Xiaodie was watching him, lips pressed together, her big eyes blinking.

“You’re awake,” Wu Chen said softly, smiling.

“Mm.”

She made a small, obedient sound in her nose. Then she wound both arms around his neck and kissed his cheek again…

Past nine.

Wu Chen finally got up. Zhuang Xiaodie went back to sleep. He told her to rest properly for now. It had been her first time, after all. She certainly needed to take it easy today.

Wu Chen had business outside.

Wash up. Dress. Downstairs.

Once he was in the car, he called He Shiqin.

Half an hour later.

Dongpu District, Modu. Shuiyuewan Café.

He Shiqin arrived first. When Wu Chen walked in, she was seated by the window, plainly having dressed with care, and she waved at him with a broad smile, looking exceptionally happy.

They sat down and talked idly for a while before turning formally to the matter of his becoming Xinxin’s private tutor.

Much of it they had covered the day before. Today some of it repeated, but in far more detail. Then they came to when Wu Chen would have time, and to the question of his fee.

He Shiqin raised her offer several times. She went as far as five thousand yuan an hour.

As long as her daughter improved, she truly did not begrudge the money.

“…Mr. Wu, if you really don’t have the time to come to Modu often, then… I could consider taking Xinxin to Donghai for the summer. It would be easier for you to teach her there. We could rent a place for a while and come back to Modu when school starts…”

He Shiqin had gone that far.

“Go to Donghai…”

A faintly subtle smile appeared on Wu Chen’s face. He glanced out the window. Then he paused, still smiling, and looked back at her.

“Aren’t you afraid Ding Ruilong will find out you took your daughter out of Modu without telling him?”

He had laid his cards on the table without warning.

He Shiqin visibly went blank. Then her eyes flew wide and she stared straight at him.

There was something close to horror in her face.