Chapter 255: The Great Harmony of Life

Chapter 255: The Great Harmony of Life

As he crossed the room, Wu Chen tugged at his tie and unfastened his jacket. He took his time, draping the jacket over the back of a chair and tossing the tie aside.

Soon he opened the bathroom door and went in.

“What are you doing?” Li Ruobing’s voice came from inside.

“Taking a shower,” Wu Chen replied, amusement in his voice.

The wind that night was rather noisy.

—

July 20, 2020.

At seven in the morning exactly, Wu Chen did not get up.

He did not even wake. Even his body clock failed to wake him.

Because he had only truly fallen asleep two hours earlier. Before that he had not managed to sleep at all. Li Ruobing would not let him.

Wu Chen was thoroughly spent. The last time he had been this tired was the night he stayed at Wu Yurong’s home.

This was worse.

Li Ruobing was strong-willed and domineering down to the bone. She had always wanted to beat Wu Chen at something. Especially after they officially became a couple, she had come to see romance as a war between a man and a woman.

She wanted to take the initiative.

She had never once won it.

Last night, though, she had launched an all-out counterattack.

Another five hours passed.

Around noon, Wu Chen finally came back to life.

He stared at the ceiling and blinked. Slowly, the corners of his mouth curled into a subtle smile.

A new day had come.

And not only that. Last night, Wu Chen had experienced something entirely new.

During the loop he had slept with Li Ruobing hundreds of times. But back then it had only been a matter of obtaining her body. Simply sex.

Last night was different.

Compared with the loop, it could not have been more different.

First he had won Li Ruobing’s heart.

Then he had her body.

That was the great harmony of life.

Thinking it over, Wu Chen turned his head.

Li Ruobing lay in the crook of his arm, hair tousled, curled slightly on her side against him, still deep asleep.

There were faint traces of tears at the corners of her eyes.

Even the strongest woman had times when she cried.

Wu Chen shifted and turned over very gently until he was facing her. He studied her face a while, then raised a hand and stroked her cheek softly.

Her skin truly was beautiful, fair with a rosy tint, so fine it seemed it might break at a touch.

And today, somehow, Li Ruobing looked a little different from before.

More feminine.

At least, that was how she seemed while she slept.

After watching her a while, Wu Chen got up. He withdrew his arm carefully. Li Ruobing seemed to sense something in her sleep and rolled over on instinct, but she did not wake.

He had not disturbed her.

She was simply too tired.

Wu Chen went to the bathroom, washed up, came back out, and dressed. Even by the time he stood fully dressed beside the chair in the bedroom, she had not stirred. She lay curled on her side beneath the blanket, sleeping soundly.

It was not that he had made no noise. There had inevitably been some.

Li Ruobing was simply that exhausted.

He did not disturb her.

He left the bedroom.

Then went downstairs.

The smell of cooking reached him.

In the living room he looked around, then toward the dining room. Two freshly cooked dishes already sat on the table, and he could hear movement from the kitchen.

Wu Chen walked over, stopped at the kitchen doorway, and looked in with a smile.

Zhuang Xiaodie, in an apron, was cooking. He had tasted her cooking before. She was very good. During her year of intensive training she had studied it deliberately, specifically so she could win over a man through his stomach.

“Mr. Wu, you’re up… I was going to call you both once everything was ready.” Hearing him, she glanced toward the doorway and smiled, her voice sweet and clear.

“Thanks for the trouble.” Wu Chen stood with his hands in his pockets, looking her over, smiling.

“Mr. Wu, listen to you…” There was a faintly spoiled note in her voice. “It’s only cooking. What trouble is there in that? It’s what I should be doing.”

“Did you go out for groceries?” he asked with another smile.

“Yes. This morning,” she said, turning back to the wok and going on with her cooking.

Still smiling, Wu Chen came into the kitchen and stopped beside her to look.

On the long counter opposite the stove sat all sorts of ingredients that had not yet gone into the wok: chives, oysters, wood ear mushrooms, sea cucumber, Chinese yam, pork ribs.

Something about it felt off, though he could not immediately place why.

Then he looked into the wok.

What Zhuang Xiaodie was stir-frying was pork kidney—literally pig kidneys.

Now he knew what was off.

Chives, pork kidney, oysters, sea cucumber. All of them were foods popularly believed to nourish the kidneys.

She had plainly not bought them at random.

She was giving Wu Chen a tonic boost.

Smack!

Wu Chen’s hand came out without warning and swatted her on the rear.

“Ah!” Zhuang Xiaodie yelped in fright, the slap having come out of nowhere. Only then did she turn her head, looking at him with watery eyes, biting lightly at the corner of her lip as she said in a soft, spoiled little voice, “Mr. Wu…”

She thought he meant to do something to her right there in the kitchen, and her face reddened slightly.

“Trying to give me a tonic boost?” Wu Chen asked, smiling.

“Yes, you—” she began, and then realized what was wrong.

Setting out to nourish Wu Chen without saying a word about it, when he was only twenty-two, made it sound rather too much as though she thought he was not up to it.

Zhuang Xiaodie understood why he had swatted her.

“Mr. Wu, I didn’t mean it like that. I only thought you’ve been so tired these past few days without resting properly, and last night you didn’t fall asleep until dawn, so I…” She explained in a small flutter of nerves.

“How do you know I didn’t sleep until dawn?” Wu Chen asked.

“I… I just… heard it. After dawn there wasn’t any more noise…” she stammered, flushing again.

She lived on the second floor too. Of course she had heard something from next door last night.

Seeing her so flustered and pink-faced, Wu Chen’s smile deepened.

He had only been teasing her.

Of course he was not angry.

“Good girl.” He smiled and pinched her cheek.

That simple gesture settled her nerves at once.

“It’s about to burn,” Wu Chen said suddenly, tipping his head toward the wok.

She whipped back around and gave it several quick turns.

“Carry on.” He said it and left the kitchen.

Back in the living room, Wu Chen sat down on the sofa and switched on the television.

After watching the news a while, he turned the volume down, took out his phone, scrolled through it, and dialed.

It connected quickly.

“Hello, Senior!” Song Xuan’s bright, sweet voice came through.

“Let’s set a time for this afternoon…” Wu Chen said.

He talked with her a while, and they settled on when and where to meet that afternoon.

A few minutes later he ended the call and immediately made another.

This one to Old Dao.

Old Dao was still in the hospital. His injuries were serious, and a few days of recovery were nowhere near enough for discharge. He would need at least half a month.

The call connected quickly.

Wu Chen asked him about Jiang Chuan.

Jiang Chuan had been caught by Old Dao’s men. He had already been brought to Donghai and was being held in a secret location.

Naturally Wu Chen meant to meet Jiang Chuan and have a talk with him.

He was one of Ding Ruilong’s trusted confidants, and the number-one man responsible for handling Ding Ruilong’s dirty work.

And not only Ding Ruilong’s.

Jiang Chuan had worked for the Ding family for twenty years. The most recent ten had been with Ding Ruilong; the ten before that he had been Ding Ruilong’s father’s driver and bodyguard.

In certain areas his knowledge of the Ding family’s affairs was more comprehensive than Ding Ruilong’s own.

Wu Chen spoke with Old Dao for several minutes.

After ending that call too, he went back to the television.

He was only waiting for Zhuang Xiaodie to finish cooking, after which he would call Li Ruobing down to eat with them.

Whether Li Ruobing could even get up was another question.

A little over ten minutes later.

Ring-ring-ring…

His phone rang.

He picked it up, glanced at the screen, and raised an eyebrow in mild surprise.

The caller was Lei Cheng.

The backer behind superstar Tao Manying.

Since Wu Chen had reached him through an online game and met him once to talk, the two of them had barely spoken again.

Lei Cheng had his own matter to deal with. Wu Chen had given him crucial information, and Lei Cheng meant to take down his own elder brother and seize control of the family’s holdings.

“Hello, Brother Lei,” Wu Chen said as he answered.

“Brother Wu, Ding Ruilong got in touch with me. He called me,” Lei Cheng said directly.