Chapter 244: I Can’t Guarantee He’ll Leave Donghai in One Piece

Chapter 244: I Can’t Guarantee He’ll Leave Donghai in One Piece

Wu Chen carried the ringing phone out of the office and did not answer until he reached the stairwell at the end of the corridor.

“Hello, Uncle,” he said.

“Xiao Wu…”

Li Maoren greeted him, then paused and lowered his voice.

“Ding Ruilong may be going to Donghai. Has Bingbing told you?”

Clearly Li Ruobing had not told her father herself. Most likely she had told Li Ruotai, and Li Ruotai had passed it on.

Otherwise Li Maoren would not have needed to ask. He could simply have asked Li Ruobing.

“She told me. We spoke the night before last,” Wu Chen said.

“And what do you… intend to do?” Li Maoren asked slowly.

“What do you think, Uncle?”

Wu Chen laughed.

“What do you think I’ll do?”

“You…”

Li Maoren sighed and fell to thinking.

The relationship between the two of them had become oddly close. Its root lay in Li Ruobing, but in practice it had formed on its own, going around her entirely.

They were nearly in lockstep now.

After their first conversation, Li Maoren had gone straight to investigating. His preliminary checks had verified that everything Wu Chen told him was true.

And he had already begun laying his groundwork.

By then his estimate of Wu Chen had climbed another step.

From a starting point that was already extraordinarily high.

The two men had also spoken a second time. That conversation had been by phone.

During it, Wu Chen had told Li Maoren about another piece of dirt on Ding Ruilong, the fatal kind—

the death of Wang Ruida.

For the Li family, the Dong Yuantao matter alone had already convinced Li Maoren that the Li family had to cut itself away from the Ding family. If they were not friends, they could only be enemies.

Which meant moving against the Ding family.

The Sun family and the Li family were ironclad allies. If the Li family moved on the Ding family, they would certainly coordinate with the Sun family. The two would advance and retreat as one.

And if they could bring in the Wang family as well—

Li Maoren understood it perfectly.

For the Li family this was no longer merely not a problem. It was the reverse. It was a chance for the Li family to grow larger still.

The pie to be divided would not stop at the Ding family. There was also the Wei family.

A new alliance would take shape.

Everything would be threaded together by the Li family. The Li family would be the core, the indispensable piece.

And Wu Chen had brought that chance into being single-handed.

Terrifying.

To Li Maoren’s mind, a man like Wu Chen ordinarily did not live long. He knew too much. And his gift for weaving alliances and setting great powers against one another was too frightening by far.

But—

Li Maoren had not the faintest intention of moving against him.

Naturally, because Wu Chen’s motive in all of this was his daughter, Li Ruobing. Wu Chen was his daughter’s boyfriend.

If Wu Chen married Li Ruobing, he would count as one of the Li family.

A monstrously gifted man like this could plainly be one of their own. Where was the sense in pushing him away?

“…Whatever happens, Ding Ruilong cannot die in Donghai.”

Having thought it through, Li Maoren said it outright.

“I know he sent people after you a few days ago, and that Bingbing was nearly hurt. You’re angry. But—”

“it isn’t time yet.”

“I’ve been in contact with the Ding family. They’ll provide compensation. I can pass all of it on to you.”

The compensation was meant for Li Ruobing.

And Li Maoren was offering the whole of it to Wu Chen.

His tone was entirely one of negotiation. Set beside his manner the first time they met, the difference was heaven and earth.

“Why does Uncle think I’d do something so impulsive, without any thought for the consequences?”

Wu Chen asked, then smiled.

“I’ve prepared quite a show for the Ding family. Why would I wreck my own plan ahead of time?”

“You may not want to now,” Li Maoren said.

“But Ding Ruilong won’t have a single pleasant thing to say to you.”

He was worried that once Ding Ruilong reached Donghai, he would provoke Wu Chen. Wu Chen might have had no intention of killing him outright, but if Ding Ruilong insisted on courting death, that could change.

A warning delivered in advance.

“It won’t happen. What you’re worried about won’t happen.”

Wu Chen smiled. Then his voice slowed.

“Though Ding Ruilong won’t die in Donghai, if he dares come, I can’t guarantee he’ll leave Donghai in one piece.”

“And ‘not in one piece’ means what, exactly?” Li Maoren asked.

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

Wu Chen laughed.

“What are you planning to do?” Li Maoren asked at once.

“It’s complicated.”

Wu Chen offered nothing further.

“…Xiao Wu.”

Li Maoren fell silent. Then he began, stopped again, and after several seconds finally said,

“All right. As long as you handle it cleanly and he doesn’t die—”

“then do as you please.”

“Of course I’ll handle it…”

Wu Chen laughed.

“very cleanly.”

“All right… Oh, and A-Tai says you’ve gone to Modu?” Li Maoren changed the subject.

There was nothing more worth saying about Ding Ruilong.

They talked a while longer. Wu Chen did not explain what he had come to Modu to do, and Li Maoren did not press. A few idle words, and the call ended.

When Wu Chen returned to the office, Zhuang Xiaodie and Mao Rusong had already signed.

“Miss Zhuang. A pleasure doing business with you.”

Mao Rusong smiled and put out his hand.

“A— a pleasure doing business with you.”

She shook it, still looking as though she had not grown used to any of this.

Not used to shaking Mao Rusong’s hand as though the two of them stood on entirely equal ground.

Wu Chen came over to the desk.

They both looked at him. He looked at Zhuang Xiaodie and smiled.

“All signed?”

“Mm-hm.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. Her face was still slightly flushed from the emotional upheaval.

“Have you had lunch?” he asked.

“Not yet. I woke up around noon and never went out.”

She looked at him with bright, glistening eyes.

“Then let’s go. We’ll eat.”

Wu Chen tipped his head, then turned to Mao Rusong.

“Boss Mao, joining us?”

“No, no. You two go on. I still have something to see to.”

Mao Rusong waved a hand and smiled. He had no wish to be the third wheel.

Wu Chen left with Zhuang Xiaodie.

In the elevator on the way down there were only the two of them. She kept her arm through his and kept stealing glances at him, at his profile.

There was something openly tender in her eyes now.

“Mr. Wu,” she said suddenly.

“Hm?”

He turned toward her.

Zhuang Xiaodie simply looped both arms around his neck and kissed him.

She did not let go until the elevator reached the first floor, just before the doors opened. Even then she went on looking at him the same way, and said softly and sweetly, “Thank you.”

Wu Chen smiled.

He said nothing.

They went out.

They ate.

Then Wu Chen went with her to her home, the place she had lived for the past year or so. A high-end one-bedroom apartment. Mao Rusong had arranged it. Zhuang Xiaodie had always lived there alone.

At her apartment, Wu Chen called Su Qingying and Wu Yurong separately to tell them he would be back tomorrow. There was no need to call Mu Qianqian; she was with Su Qingying every day now, and when he spoke to Su Qingying, Mu Qianqian was right there beside her.

After that he spoke to He Shiqin once by phone as well.

Confirming the exact time they would set out the next day.

Without anyone noticing, night fell.

Zhuang Xiaodie could cook. She made Wu Chen a lavish dinner with her own hands, and her cooking was very good indeed.

As the saying goes, to capture a man’s heart you must first capture his stomach. Cooking was one of the things she had studied deliberately over the past year.

They ate.

They rested a while.

Then the two of them got a little more exercise.

The night deepened.

Nine-thirty in the evening.

In the bedroom.

Zhuang Xiaodie lay with her hair tousled, soft as if she had no bones in her, her head on Wu Chen’s arm and her body against his shoulder. A blanket covered them halfway.

His left arm was around her while his right hand scrolled through his phone. They were about to rest, and before sleeping Wu Chen decided to make one more call.

He dialed, and put the phone to his ear.

It connected quickly.

“Hello, darling.”

Li Ruobing.

“Working late again today?” Wu Chen asked with a smile.

“Not today. I’m home,” she said.

They talked idly at first, easy and unforced. Then the conversation came around to when he would be back.

“…How are things over there? Did you finish what you needed to do? When are you coming back to Donghai?” she asked.

“Tomorrow. I should be home around noon.”

Wu Chen laughed, then added, “And I’ll be bringing three people back with me.”

“Bringing people back? Who?”

Li Ruobing sounded slightly thrown.

“You’ll know when you see them.”

“You—”

Something struck her as wrong at once. Perhaps it was a woman’s intuition.

“Women?”

“Yes.”

“And who else?” she asked.

“Nobody else.”

Wu Chen laughed.

It took Li Ruobing a moment to work out what that meant. Then her tone transformed completely.

“Three women?! All three of them are women?! You— you’ve only been in Modu three days, haven’t you? And you’re bringing three women back?!”