Chapter 247: Giving Him Plenty of Face!
by cnwebnovelsChapter 247: Giving Him Plenty of Face!
“Your name is Zhuang Xiaodie?” Li Ruobing stopped in front of her and looked at her directly.
“Yes…”
Zhuang Xiaodie hardly dared meet her eyes.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-one…”
“Mm… You really are a little sister. Very pleased to meet you…”
Li Ruobing said it with a smile and put out her hand. Then, after the briefest pause, with something faintly peculiar in her expression, she gave her a form of address.
“Little sister!”
Zhuang Xiaodie’s mind went blank. It took her a moment before she hurriedly reached out and shook Li Ruobing’s hand.
“S-Sister Li… I’m very happy to… to meet you too.”
She could barely get the words out.
Inside she was still utterly bewildered.
After Li Ruobing let go and turned away, Zhuang Xiaodie shot Wu Chen a very strange sideways look.
She had heard that phone call perfectly clearly the night before. Li Ruobing had been furious.
So why was Li Ruobing suddenly calling her “little sister”?
Did this count as…
acceptance?
The senior wife acknowledging the junior woman?
Li Ruobing was the one whose manner had changed, and yet it was Wu Chen that Zhuang Xiaodie looked at, because there was one basic thing she could grasp: Li Ruobing’s change had to be because of Mr. Wu. For a woman to accommodate her man having other women, that man had to be… something out of the ordinary.
But…
what had just happened?
Nothing had happened at all. How could her attitude change that suddenly?
Zhuang Xiaodie had no idea who He Shiqin was, so of course she could not piece the logic together.
Li Ruobing could piece it together perfectly. With her intelligence she could even see that Wu Chen had been toying with her state of mind again, sending her from one extreme to the other.
And even having seen through it, Li Ruobing found herself…
perfectly willing.
What she loved most about Wu Chen was how formidable he was.
His grasp of the human mind was almost supernatural.
And now that she had seen He Shiqin, her mood had genuinely lifted. So she brought out her own magnanimity. She gave Wu Chen face and bolstered his standing.
Li Ruobing had never once contended with him in front of other people or denied him face. Not once.
Today she had only pretended to be enormously angry because she wanted to play a little psychological game with him.
She had lost the game.
And losing left her happy.
In front of “outsiders” she was still willing to give him plenty of face.
“Come, come, sit over here. Rest a while… All that time on the road, you must all be tired…”
Li Ruobing turned and beckoned them toward the sofas.
Four or five hours straight, driving or riding, would leave anyone somewhat worn.
They settled around the coffee table. He Xinxin naturally sat with her mother. Wu Chen sat where he pleased. Zhuang Xiaodie did not dare sit beside him in front of Li Ruobing.
Besides, on the drive to Donghai he had warned her not to let He Xinxin realize what their relationship was.
Wu Chen had many women. Apart from Li Ruobing, He Xinxin could not be allowed to know about any of them.
It would set a bad example for a child.
So Zhuang Xiaodie took an armchair off to the side.
“You all sit. I’ll wash some fruit for you…”
Li Ruobing said it and turned toward the kitchen.
“Miss Li, please don’t trouble yourself…” He Shiqin said, looking a little embarrassed.
They had only just arrived and Li Ruobing was already busying herself. And she hardly looked like a woman who did this sort of work.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Miss He, sit.”
Li Ruobing glanced back as she said it, then went on into the kitchen.
There was fruit in the refrigerator. Not only fruit—it was packed with all kinds of ingredients, all of it bought and brought over when she arrived more than an hour earlier.
By her original plan, she was going to give Wu Chen an initial show of force so that afterward he would rein himself in a little. And then…
that evening she was going to do the cooking herself. Her last attempt had gone badly only because she was inexperienced. This time she had come prepared.
She had not only planned to cook dinner.
She had planned to stay the night. Her period this month had ended yesterday.
But plans could not keep pace with events.
The three women Wu Chen brought back had turned out to include He Shiqin and He Xinxin. Li Ruobing’s whole state of mind had turned around. She even felt she could cook lunch today and host He Shiqin properly.
Li Ruobing went into the kitchen.
“Teacher, your girlfriend is so cool… and so beautiful…”
The first to speak at the coffee table was, unexpectedly, He Xinxin, praising Li Ruobing to Wu Chen.
She probably meant it. But volunteering it like that was also, naturally, a small attempt to please him.
He truly did have her under his thumb now.
Wu Chen looked at her and smiled.
“Um… I’ll go help.”
Zhuang Xiaodie spoke suddenly. She glanced at Wu Chen, stood, and headed for the kitchen.
Li Ruobing’s “goodwill” had made her a little braver.
And she felt the urge to get on the woman’s good side.
In the kitchen.
Li Ruobing had just taken the fruit out of the refrigerator when Zhuang Xiaodie came in. At the sight of her, the unease returned to her face at once, but she made herself walk over, forced out a smile, and tried to look natural.
“M-Miss Li… let me help you.”
Li Ruobing glanced at her, handed her the bag of grapes, and took apples from another bag herself.
The two of them stood side by side, washing fruit.
“Last night when I called Wu Chen… you were the one who slept with him?”
Li Ruobing asked it softly, without looking at her.
“Y-yes… it was…”
Zhuang Xiaodie did not dare deny it. She admitted it very carefully.
Li Ruobing said nothing further. She had only wanted to confirm one thing.
“Um… Sister, I did take medicine…”
Zhuang Xiaodie spoke up again, explaining nervously.
“Hm?”
Li Ruobing looked at her. It took her a moment to work out what she meant.
Pregnancy. Zhuang Xiaodie was assuring her outright that she took medicine for it.
She really did watch far too many palace-intrigue dramas. Her imagination filled in everything.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Li Ruobing said it with a slight frown, though she could not quite keep the smile off her face.
She simply found Zhuang Xiaodie’s excessive nervousness almost comical.
“Am I that frightening?” Li Ruobing asked.
“Yes— no, no, not at all…”
She nodded first, then immediately shook her head. She really was nervous.
Li Ruobing said no more.
The kitchen went quiet.
Soon the fruit was washed, arranged on plates, and carried out.
“You haven’t eaten lunch, have you? Let’s not bother going out. There’s food in the fridge. I’ll cook.”
Li Ruobing said it standing beside the coffee table. Her bearing as lady of the house could hardly have been more complete.
She was giving Wu Chen plenty of face.
Zhuang Xiaodie did not know Li Ruobing’s background. He Shiqin did.
Having spoken, Li Ruobing turned back toward the kitchen.
“Miss Li, really, you don’t—”
He Shiqin stood, meaning to be polite, but broke off partway and changed course.
“How about… I help you?”
“How could I make a guest work?” Li Ruobing said, turning with a smile.
“It’s nothing. I cook at home every day,” He Shiqin said, smiling too.
Li Ruobing did not press the courtesy any further.
The two women went into the kitchen one behind the other.
Zhuang Xiaodie, who had only just sat down again, saw this and rose as well, meaning to go and help. It was then that Wu Chen spoke, glancing at her with a smile.
“Xiaodie, have some fruit.”
And he gave her a look.
He was stopping her from going back into the kitchen. Because Wu Chen knew that Li Ruobing and He Shiqin were going to say certain things in there.
The conversation would be a very particular one.
Not long after.
In the kitchen.
All the ingredients were out of the refrigerator.
Li Ruobing washed the vegetables. He Shiqin cut them.
They chatted as they worked, and had covered a fair amount already.
“…How long are you planning to stay in Donghai, Miss He?” Li Ruobing asked.
“I’m not sure. It depends how Mr. Wu arranges things,” He Shiqin said.
“Have you slept with Wu Chen?”
Li Ruobing asked it in the middle of the small talk. Utterly without warning.
The kitchen went silent.
He Shiqin very nearly cut her hand. She jolted and whipped her head around.
Li Ruobing, having finished washing one of the vegetables, shut off the faucet and glanced sideways at her.
Calm. Entirely composed.
And that calm composure left He Shiqin dumbfounded.
Stunned.