Chapter 248: You’re in the Right Room, Miss Su!

Chapter 248: You’re in the Right Room, Miss Su!

He Shiqin had never imagined Li Ruobing would ask such a question.

And so directly.

How had she figured it out?

Earlier, seeking a sense of security and for a tangle of other reasons, He Shiqin had taken the initiative and slept with Wu Chen.

She had thought of it as leverage. Something he would never dare let Li Ruobing learn.

One point was worth noting.

He Shiqin did not know about Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie.

Entirely because Wu Chen had warned Zhuang Xiaodie in advance not to let He Xinxin realize what their relationship was. So Zhuang Xiaodie had kept her distance from him throughout. And He Shiqin naturally had no way of understanding why Li Ruobing had called her “little sister”—Li Ruobing was the older of the two, so the address was perfectly ordinary.

He Xinxin would not have been able to tell.

He Shiqin had not been able to tell either.

So her original judgment had never altered. There had been no reason for it to.

And Li Ruobing had asked her, in the most relaxed, offhand tone imaginable, whether she had slept with Wu Chen.

And having asked, her expression had not changed at all. She was perfectly calm. Perfectly unbothered.

Under her gaze, He Shiqin was both stunned and bewildered. She could not get a word out. Her expression grew awkward without her meaning it to, and nervousness rose in her.

To say she was not afraid would have been a lie.

Li Ruobing was a core third-generation member of the Li family, whose status matched the Ding family’s. If she chose to retaliate, He Shiqin had no idea how she would defend herself.

“Looks like you have,” Li Ruobing said.

She reached the conclusion outright. Before it had been suspicion. Now it was certainty.

Her suspicion had not come from nowhere. He Shiqin’s looks could hold their own against almost anyone’s, and she had an incredible figure.

And Wu Chen himself quite liked fooling around with women.

Now, from He Shiqin’s awkward expression and hesitation, Li Ruobing had confirmed it.

“M-Miss Li, it isn’t what you think. Mr. Wu and I, actually… we…”

He Shiqin began, stumbling, with no idea how to explain.

“You’ve slept together. There isn’t much left to explain, is there?”

Li Ruobing looked at her.

He Shiqin fell silent at once.

“It’s fine,” Li Ruobing said.

And then she even smiled.

He Shiqin’s eyes went wide. She was dumbfounded all over again.

She had already sensed something off in Li Ruobing’s manner. But for her to say it was fine, plainly and directly, and to smile on top of it—

was she really that open-minded, that magnanimous?

“Wu Chen has plenty of women. I’m his girlfriend and even I can’t control him… I can’t be bothered anymore.”

There was a touch of helplessness in the way Li Ruobing said it.

They were not words that sounded like her.

They were words she would say only to He Shiqin.

Deliberately.

Because she did not want He Shiqin worrying about retaliation. Of course Li Ruobing had no intention of retaliating. But if He Shiqin believed otherwise, things could go badly wrong. She was, after all, the only witness who could substantiate this damaging information about Ding Ruilong.

She mattered a great deal.

So Li Ruobing deliberately acted as though there was nothing she could do about Wu Chen—as though she could not control him and no longer cared.

All so that He Shiqin could relax.

“I’m— I’m sorry, Miss Li. Really, Mr. Wu and I only— that one morning— it happened once… It was me. I was in the wrong. I was the one who started it, I…”

He Shiqin was still nervous.

She did not say a word against Wu Chen. She took the whole of the blame on herself.

“I told you, it’s fine.”

Li Ruobing looked at her again, her tone touched with helplessness once more.

“And there’s no need to apologize. There isn’t a woman Wu Chen can’t sleep with if he sets his mind to it. It isn’t your fault.”

“Really… it really doesn’t matter?”

He Shiqin still could not believe it.

Li Ruobing gave her a smile, then said, “It’s fine. Let’s cook… By the way, Miss He, when did you and Wu Chen reach an agreement? How did the two of you talk it through?”

Changing the subject on purpose.

“Yesterday morning…”

He Shiqin answered. She gave her not only a rough account of yesterday morning, but also of how she and Wu Chen had first come into contact and the whole business of the private tutoring.

She did not dare hold anything back. Burdened by a guilty conscience, she told Li Ruobing everything honestly.

The two women washed and cut and cooked and talked.

Gradually, He Shiqin relaxed again.

She could feel it now. Li Ruobing genuinely did not mind. It seemed she truly had no way of controlling Wu Chen and had simply stopped getting involved in his affairs with other women.

Even turning it over in her mind, He Shiqin still found it hard to credit.

But there were the facts.

While the two women cooked, Wu Chen was not idle either.

He watched television for a while. Then he took Zhuang Xiaodie down to the garage to bring up her luggage.

Only Zhuang Xiaodie’s luggage. He Shiqin and He Xinxin would not be staying here. Other arrangements had been made. Chiefly because of He Xinxin—living here would have been extremely inconvenient.

Second floor. A guest room.

Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie brought all the luggage up and sorted through it. He Xinxin, who had been watching television, wandered upstairs a while later, apparently bored and looking around.

Because Wu Chen had put Zhuang Xiaodie in a guest room, He Xinxin naturally saw nothing amiss. She simply assumed her teacher’s friend would be staying at his house for a while.

After all, she had already met his official girlfriend, Li Ruobing.

Her little head was not about to fill with wild suspicions.

More than an hour later. Nearly two in the afternoon.

Lunch was finally served.

The five of them ate together. Eight dishes and a soup. A generous spread.

The atmosphere over the meal was excellent. Just casual conversation. During it, in front of Wu Chen, Li Ruobing asked Zhuang Xiaodie about her studies and He Xinxin about learning to paint.

Later the matter of He Shiqin needing to rent a place came up.

Li Ruobing said immediately that she had a house. Also on the north side of the city. A vacant villa, not far from Donghai Huafu.

He Shiqin made a token attempt to decline, then said she would pay rent, and it was settled.

In truth the two of them had already worked it out in the kitchen. Before lunch Wu Chen had gone in as well and told them how the arrangement should be presented.

They were putting on a performance for He Xinxin. The real situation had to be kept from her.

The meal did not end until half past three in the afternoon. Zhuang Xiaodie volunteered to wash the dishes and stayed behind for the moment. Wu Chen, Li Ruobing, He Shiqin, and He Xinxin left together.

Straight to Li Ruobing’s vacant villa on the north side of the city.

More than three hours later.

Night had fallen.

Around seven in the evening.

Central Donghai. Mingzhenlou Cantonese Restaurant.

On the third floor, in the Prosperous Bloom private room, Wu Yurong sat alone scrolling through her phone. She wore a qipao-style dress, her makeup alluring.

Wu Chen had come back today. A little after four that afternoon she had called him, and he had told her he was with Li Ruobing and settled the time and place for dinner. So Wu Yurong had come.

She had begun getting ready two hours early, and spent a long while dressing with care.

Out in the corridor.

Su Qingying came up the stairs with Mu Qianqian, two bodyguards behind them.

Straight toward the Prosperous Bloom room.

At the door Su Qingying paused slightly and looked at the female bodyguard standing outside. She had a vague sense of having seen this one before, though she could not place which boss she belonged to.

Chu Yan, for her part, recognized Su Qingying.

She simply did not know whether Su Qingying had an arrangement with her own boss. Either way there was no need to stop her. Given Su Qingying’s position, she could hardly be any sort of threat.

Su Qingying only glanced at her once, then pushed the door open.

One step inside, she stopped dead.

She saw Wu Yurong.

Wu Yurong looked up at her too.

“Ms. Wu?”

Su Qingying paused, thrown, and took a step back to check the room name again.

She thought she had come to the wrong room.

She had arranged to have dinner with Wu Chen that night, and it was supposed to be very private. There could be no outsiders present.

“It’s Auntie Wu,” Mu Qianqian said quietly. She knew her as well.

Su Qingying checked the name once more. It was correct. Then she began to wonder whether she had misremembered it herself. She looked back into the room at once, smiled at Wu Yurong, and said, “I’m sorry, Ms. Wu. I think I may have the wrong room. Let me call and check. Sorry… for disturbing you.”

As she spoke she reached to draw the door closed from outside.

“You’re in the right room, Miss Su.”

Wu Yurong spoke then, looking at her, her voice as gentle and sweet as ever.