Chapter 257: Disgust! Even Anger!

Chapter 257: Disgust! Even Anger!

It was obvious why Lei Cheng’s elder brother, Lei You, had suddenly called him and raised the endorsement.

Ding Ruilong must have gone to Lei You first.

As far as Wu Chen knew, Lei You and Ding Ruilong had never met, though each knew of the other. And as the man who actually ran Hongfa Group, Lei You would certainly be willing to make Ding Ruilong’s acquaintance and open a channel to the Ding family if the chance arose.

One more friend meant one more road open to you—all the more so when that friend came from a family like the Dings.

So even though Lei You did not know Ding Ruilong personally, if Ding Ruilong reached out to him, Lei You would gladly talk. And if Ding Ruilong asked a favor, Lei You would gladly grant it.

This was, after all, only a matter of the female celebrity his younger brother backed and an endorsement deal.

To Lei You, it was a very small thing.

If handling something so trifling could establish a connection with Ding Ruilong, of course Lei You would be happy to do it.

Ding Ruilong had imagined it beautifully.

He had gone straight over Lei Cheng’s head to the man who held power in the Lei family, meaning to have Lei You pressure Lei Cheng and force Tao Manying to break her contract.

Beautifully imagined indeed.

Ding Ruilong thought it might work. Lei You thought it certainly would.

The crux of it was that Lei Cheng had lain low for ten years. On the surface he had shown more than enough fear. He had conceded, backed down, and accepted his fate.

He avoided his elder brother, feared his elder brother, did not even dare go home.

Everyone believed Lei Cheng had long since lost utterly, that he no longer had the strength to make the smallest ripple and was simply hiding in Donghai, trembling.

He could not resist his elder brother, Lei You.

That was what the outside world knew.

That was what Lei You believed.

And it was wrong from beginning to end.

Lei Cheng had never resigned himself to it.

He had never conceded, never surrendered, never accepted his fate.

For ten years he had lain low, quietly cultivating relationships with all manner of people, waiting for an opening.

Then he met Wu Chen.

Wu Chen gave him that opening.

Lei Cheng had already begun laying his groundwork. He had only to finish the arrangement and deliver his elder brother a fatal blow.

Under circumstances like these, at a moment like this, for Ding Ruilong to go to Lei You and have him lean on Lei Cheng—

it would provoke Lei Cheng’s disgust instantly.

Ding Ruilong had reached his hand straight into Lei Cheng’s family.

He was trying to use the person Lei Cheng hated most in that family to force him to change his mind.

That would provoke disgust of the most extreme kind.

Even anger.

“What did he say?” Wu Chen asked with a smile.

“Ordered me to make Manying break the contract. Hah!” Lei Cheng gave a cold laugh, using the word “ordered” quite deliberately. “Then he fed me all that garbage about staying out of whatever’s between Ding Ruilong and Li Ruobing. Neither the Ding family nor the Li family is easy to cross, so I should stop causing trouble for the family.”

“And what did you say?”

“I told him to mind his own damn business,” Lei Cheng said.

He laughed coldly again, then went on. “Brother, don’t worry. I gave you my word on this already. Nobody’s wrecking it. I don’t care who they are. Like hell I’m giving them face…”

Lei Cheng was plainly still hot with it.

Ding Ruilong had gotten under his skin.

“Calm down.” Wu Chen smiled. “Mm… all right, let’s leave it there. I’m eating. We’ll go through it properly when we meet.”

There was no need to cover everything by phone.

“All right, brother.”

The call ended.

Wu Chen set down his phone and picked up his chopsticks.

Li Ruobing laid a piece of pork kidney in his bowl and asked in an offhand way, “Who was that?”

She had faintly caught a man’s voice through the phone, though nothing of what he said.

“Lei Cheng.” Wu Chen glanced at her.

“Lei Cheng?” Her chopsticks paused. “What’s happened?”

Her first thought was that it might concern the endorsement, which was why she asked.

At this stage nothing could be allowed to go wrong with Tao Manying’s endorsement.

“Something between him and his brother,” Wu Chen said instead.

He smiled, then added, “Eat.”

He made it plain that he did not want to say more.

So Li Ruobing did not press.

So long as the endorsement was safe, the Lei family’s internal affairs were no concern of hers.

Wu Chen had not told her it was connected to the endorsement, because Ding Ruilong was coming to Donghai and would meet Lei Cheng in secret.

And after that—

Wu Chen was going to see that something happened to him.

Just as he had told Li Maoren, Ding Ruilong did not have to die in Donghai, but he would certainly not leave Donghai in one piece.

And with much of what that involved, the fewer people who knew, the better.

Afterward, Li Ruobing might guess that Wu Chen had done it.

But guessing and knowing were two different things.

They went on eating.

Before long, Li Ruobing noticed something about today’s dishes.

They were rather… restorative.

There was nothing wrong with a woman eating them, of course, but chives, oysters, sea cucumber—weren’t these all foods popularly said to be restorative for men?

“Did Miss Zhuang cook everything today?” Li Ruobing asked with a faint smile, glancing across at Zhuang Xiaodie.

“Y-yes.” Zhuang Xiaodie nodded, looking a little tense and unnatural.

“You’re a good cook. Far better than me,” Li Ruobing said.

“No, no. Yesterday at lunch—what you made was good too, Miss Li,” Zhuang Xiaodie said hurriedly.

“Why are you always so nervous?” Li Ruobing asked, smiling again. “Have I frightened you?”

“N-no… not really…”

Zhuang Xiaodie did not know what to say. She looked at Wu Chen as though asking for rescue.

“Why are you teasing her?” Wu Chen shot Li Ruobing a look.

“Feeling protective?” She gave him a sidelong glance.

“Yes. Is that a problem?” Wu Chen countered.

“Hmph. Fine, my lord. Whatever you do is fine.” Li Ruobing snorted.

Her mood was good today.

After what she and Wu Chen had done last night, she could not even summon the interest to bicker with him about other women.

She even “liked” Zhuang Xiaodie a little.

As long as the woman was not Wu Yurong, Li Ruobing found she could like Wu Chen’s other women well enough.

There was even a trace of an impulse to bring them over to her side.

She felt that if Wu Chen’s other women were all as sensible as Zhuang Xiaodie—and a little afraid of her—then her own position would truly be unshakable.

“Here, Xiaodie. Have this.” Li Ruobing reached out abruptly with her chopsticks, took a piece of sea cucumber, and set it in Zhuang Xiaodie’s bowl.

She had actually served her food.

And she had called her Xiaodie instead of Miss Zhuang.

Zhuang Xiaodie was almost startled by it.

“Th-thank you.” She thanked her, then picked up a piece of pork kidney and placed it in Li Ruobing’s bowl. “Sister Li, you have some too. Eat more.”

The atmosphere at the table turned extraordinarily harmonious.

So harmonious that it was just faintly uncanny.

The meal lasted more than half an hour.

Afterward—

Zhuang Xiaodie cleared away the bowls and chopsticks.

Wu Chen carried Li Ruobing back upstairs.

She was not going in to work today. She would take the day off.

Which did not mean she would do no work at all. There were matters she could handle by phone, and video conferences she could hold.

In truth it was not that Li Ruobing could not walk.

It was simply inconvenient.

Around two in the afternoon.

Wu Chen drove out in the Lamborghini.

A little over half an hour later he reached Shangzao Café in the Central District.

It was a national coffee-shop chain with more than two thousand outlets, and its positioning was rather distinctive: high-end business meetings.

This was where he had arranged to meet Song Xuan.

He had chosen it because they had a contract to sign, and this café had private rooms—the kind with a minimum spend.

They had agreed on three o’clock.

Wu Chen arrived early. He did not see Song Xuan’s car when he got out, so he went in first, took a private room, and waited there.

She would arrive soon enough. Song Xuan had a habit of coming early.

Around 2:45.

Wu Chen was sitting in the sofa booth scrolling through his phone when a message came in.

Song Xuan, asking whether he had arrived.

He replied and sent her the room number outright.

Two minutes later.

The door opened.

Song Xuan came in, her white dress flowing around her.

And behind her—

the radiant Wu Yurong walked in as well.

Wu Chen paused for a moment.

Wu Yurong had come with her daughter?

The thought flashed through his mind, and he understood at once.

Then he looked the two of them over.

He had to admit, they really did look alike.

And Wu Yurong looked no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

Standing beside her daughter, the two of them might have been sisters by blood.