Chapter 253: Darling, Where Are You Staying Tonight?

Chapter 253: Darling, Where Are You Staying Tonight?

Inside the Prosperous Bloom private room, it had gone very quiet.

Everyone was watching Wu Chen take the call. Mu Qianqian was still sitting in his lap. Earlier she had called him a big bad man, been flicked on the forehead for it, and then heard him threaten to send her abroad.

Having made the rounds asking everyone for help and gotten nowhere, Mu Qianqian had been left with no choice but to “rely on herself.”

And her way of relying on herself had been to plant herself directly in Wu Chen’s lap, loop her arms around his neck, and wheedle at him, begging pitifully to be forgiven and calling him “good big brother.”

Pure clowning.

They had been laughing and carrying on when Wu Chen’s phone rang.

None of the others knew who was calling. They could only faintly hear a girl’s voice. Only Li Ruobing knew, because Wu Chen had answered by saying “Student Song.” So Li Ruobing knew it was Wu Yurong’s daughter, Song Xuan.

Her expression shifted slightly.

“I’m having dinner with some friends… Is it urgent?” Wu Chen asked after a moment, smiling.

“Nothing urgent. If it’s inconvenient, that’s fine. It’s just… Senior, do you know you’re famous now? Hehe. I came here to eat with some friends too. We really should talk. We still haven’t signed the contract…”

Excitement rang plainly in Song Xuan’s voice, along with the buoyant delight of a young girl.

Whenever the subject of going viral came up, she could barely contain herself. She was simply too happy.

Even so, she was still being modest. She talked only about how popular Wu Chen had become, and never mentioned her own success directly.

“The contract… tomorrow,” Wu Chen said.

Song Xuan could tell her senior really was busy and that this was probably a bad moment. His reaction was so flat, without a trace of excitement. She even guessed that Senior was likely having dinner with that rich woman, which was why he did not dare show anything and was deliberately keeping his feelings down.

“All right, Senior. Let’s meet tomorrow. I won’t bother you anymore,” Song Xuan said sweetly.

“Okay. Tomorrow,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

He ended the call.

Before anyone else could speak, Mu Qianqian, still sitting in his lap, was already giving him a look. Arms around his neck, she huffed, “Big bad man. Which one of your women was that this time?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Wu Chen glanced at her, then flicked her forehead again.

“You’re awful,” Mu Qianqian pouted.

Sitting in his lap with her arms around his neck while saying things like that—still wheedling.

Then, suddenly, movement outside the door.

They all heard it. Mu Qianqian climbed out of his lap at once, turned, and dropped back into her own seat. She had barely settled when the door opened and several servers came in carrying trays of dishes, along with the drinks.

With outsiders in the room while the food was being laid out, there were things they could no longer say.

The conversation paused.

Li Ruobing glanced sideways at Wu Chen. Something in her face was still off.

Not long afterward—

In the first-floor lobby.

Wu Yurong had arranged a private room for her daughter and her friends and was walking back toward the main entrance. As she drew closer, she could faintly hear the group discussing someone.

“…So that’s Morning Mist?”

“That’s Wu Chen. He’s from Donghai University too. He just graduated this year.”

“Senior Wu Chen is amazing!”

Song Xuan’s musician friends had all heard from her who Wu Chen was.

Over the past few days, whenever the group gathered, Wu Chen had become one of their chief topics of conversation—because of Antidote for the Soul, and because A Song for Me had been written by him as well.

There was naturally no reason for Song Xuan to hide Wu Chen’s identity from her friends. Nor could she have. Wu Chen was a Donghai University graduate, and plenty of people at the university knew him.

She had called him only moments ago, and the friends around her had heard it, so they had started talking about him again.

“Let’s go find him. I really want to meet him.”

“It’s not convenient. He’s eating upstairs…” Song Xuan was saying when Wu Yurong came over.

“What are you all talking about? You look so happy,” Wu Yurong asked naturally, smiling in her usual gentle way.

“It’s that Senior Wu I told you about, the one who wrote songs for me. Mom… he’s eating here today too,” Song Xuan said, looking at her mother.

“Hm? How do you know he’s… eating here too?” Wu Yurong asked at once.

“I saw his car. That one…” Song Xuan gestured toward the window.

Wu Yurong turned and glanced at the Lamborghini parked at the curb outside, then looked back at her daughter and asked softly and sweetly, “So, Xuanxuan, are you going to go find this Senior Wu of yours?”

“No, no. I called him. It doesn’t seem convenient for him…” Song Xuan said.

Inwardly, Wu Yurong let out her breath.

“Let’s go upstairs. I’ve arranged a private room for all of you,” she said, changing the subject, and motioned for her daughter and her friends to follow.

Soon afterward—

Wu Yurong went upstairs with them and into the private room, looked things over, and quietly gave a few instructions to the restaurant manager who had come up personally.

She would of course be paying for this meal.

A few minutes later.

Wu Yurong came out of the fourth-floor private room called Blossoming Fortune, and only then did the unease finally surface in her face. She had been nervous before that as well. She simply had not shown it in front of her daughter.

Naturally Wu Yurong knew her daughter’s new song had taken off. Song Xuan had come to her with the good news, and had mentioned “Senior Wu” too.

From the beginning, Wu Yurong had not wanted her daughter to know about her relationship with Wu Chen. So whenever Song Xuan brought him up, she pretended not to know him.

And precisely because of that—

she absolutely could not let Song Xuan discover their relationship now. She could not even let her know they were acquainted, or the whole thing would come apart.

Wu Yurong had thought before that she needed to sit down with Wu Chen and talk this through properly. She simply had not had the chance. He had only returned to Donghai today.

Not long afterward—

Wu Yurong returned to the Prosperous Bloom room.

Most of the dishes had arrived. Only a few of the more elaborate ones, which took longer to prepare, still had to come. They could begin; everyone had simply been waiting for her.

Dinner began.

They drank.

The conversation picked back up.

The atmosphere was harmonious. Apart from Li Ruobing and Wu Yurong hardly exchanging a word, everyone spoke freely with everyone else.

Wu Chen said little. He let the women talk.

They were all women, so their subjects naturally ran to cosmetics, the season’s fashions, skincare. Even Li Ruobing was no exception.

Where makeup and skincare were concerned, Li Ruobing’s knowledge was formidable.

Beyond those subjects, they talked a little business as well.

They asked one another casually how things were going. Wu Yurong even told Su Qingying that if the right opportunity came along, the two of them might work together on some kind of investment.

Li Ruobing, for her part, went further and actually agreed on a collaboration with Su Qingying—a co-branded cosmetics set, or a co-branded perfume.

Jinfu Group dealt in jewelry and accessories; Huancai Fashion in cosmetics and makeup.

There was direct room for cooperation between them.

In the cosmetics industry it was hardly unusual for a jewelry brand to supply luxury packaging while a cosmetics company supplied the product, creating a high-end limited-edition collaboration.

Before anyone noticed, it was past nine in the evening.

Mu Qianqian was already drunk.

The girl had no sense of restraint with alcohol. She was not even sitting anymore. She stood behind Wu Chen’s chair with both arms wrapped tight around him, bent over to murmur drunkenly into his ear, cheeks flushed, and every so often she would giggle and kiss his cheek.

The others were all right, only slightly tipsy. With this many people present, none of them wanted to lose composure.

“Shouldn’t we head back?” Li Ruobing tilted her head suddenly, leaned closer, and said it quietly.

Wu Chen glanced at her, checked his watch, then swept a smiling look around the table. “It’s getting late… Let’s call it a night. Everyone should get some rest.”

They had eaten and drunk enough. It was time to go.

“Darling, where are you staying tonight?” Wu Yurong asked suddenly, her face full of tenderness as she looked at him.

The private room went silent at once.

All five women looked at Wu Chen, waiting for his answer.

Wu Yurong might as well have asked outright which one of them he would be sleeping with tonight. That was precisely what she meant.