Chapter 272: Because of My Brother

Chapter 272: Because of My Brother

Upstairs, Hu Xilin, who knew the house well, went straight for the study and pushed the door open.

“Old Lei, you—”

He stopped halfway through.

Lei Cheng had a guest.

Hu Xilin did not know Wu Chen.

He had heard the name, but he had never met the man, so of course he did not recognize him.

“You’ve got company.” Hu Xilin paused in the doorway and gestured back down the corridor. “How about I go sit downstairs a while?”

His manner with Lei Cheng was extremely familiar, entirely casual.

“No need, no need. Old Hu, come in, come in—no outsiders here.” Lei Cheng stood and waved him in.

Hu Xilin came into the study.

Wu Chen and Lei Cheng both rose.

“Come on, Brother Wu, let me introduce you. This is Boss Hu…” Lei Cheng laid one hand on Wu Chen’s shoulder and gestured with the other.

“And this is my brother, Brother Wu,” he said, turning the introduction around.

He did not give Wu Chen’s full name. Only “my brother,” and the surname.

Hu Xilin had no idea when Lei Cheng had acquired another young brother surnamed Wu, but anyone Lei Cheng called his brother could hardly be a man of ordinary standing.

Hu Xilin would not look down on him.

“Boss Hu. A pleasure.”

“The pleasure’s mine, the pleasure’s mine.”

They shook hands, Hu Xilin all warmth and sincerity. A man who could build a business that large naturally understood how people worked. Familiar or not, this was Lei Cheng’s friend; appearances had to be kept.

“Sit, sit, sit. Nobody needs to be standing.” Lei Cheng gestured again.

They all sat.

Hu Xilin took the far end of the long sofa. The moment he was down he tossed the bag in his hand onto the coffee table, entirely at ease.

“Brother Hu, what is this? Two calls weren’t enough, so now you’ve chased me home?” Lei Cheng glanced sideways at him.

“You’re about to walk into trouble. You expect me to stand and watch?” Hu Xilin’s tone came out aggressive from the start, as though he held all the right of it.

“Listen to you. What trouble? You’ve known me all these years. Don’t you know what I’m like?” Lei Cheng said.

“That’s exactly my point. I do know. Haven’t things been going well enough for you these past years? So why wade into this again? That business between you and your elder brother—how many years ago was that? I know you’ve always suspected him, but you don’t even have proof… After all this time, why set yourself against him again…?”

One point was worth noting.

Regarding Lei Cheng’s car accident all those years ago, everything remained suspicion.

Lei Cheng himself had concluded that Lei You was behind it.

Outsiders could not be nearly so certain.

Among those who knew Lei You, some actually believed it could not have been him—that Lei You was not that sort of man.

Hu Xilin talked with Lei Cheng a while, keeping his words somewhat oblique.

Wu Chen was present, after all, and there were things he could not state too plainly. He did not know what sort of relationship this “Brother Wu” had with Lei Cheng, or whether Wu Chen knew about what had happened to him years ago.

“Old Hu, stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you,” Lei Cheng said.

“What do you mean it has nothing to do with me? Is this something you should be mixed up in? Do you think either the Ding family or the Li family is easy to cross? You get pulled into this and you’re dragging trouble down on your own family. As your brother—am I supposed to watch you jump into a fire pit?”

There was real loyalty in the way he said it.

“What fire pit? What did Lei You tell you?” Lei Cheng’s brows drew slightly together.

He was fishing. During their two earlier calls he had not pressed Hu Xilin for details. There had been no need; pushing back and telling him to stay out of it had been enough.

Now it was different.

He needed to know exactly what Lei You had said.

“He just said…” Hu Xilin was an honest man. He began to answer, then paused and glanced at Wu Chen.

Could this be said in front of “Brother Wu”?

It could.

Lei Cheng had asked him outright with Wu Chen sitting right there. He plainly did not mind Wu Chen hearing.

As far as Hu Xilin was concerned, that settled it. There was nothing that could not be said.

Lei Cheng himself was not guarding against this younger friend of his. As the outsider, Hu Xilin had even less cause for caution.

“Well? What did he say? Why are you hemming and hawing? There are no outsiders here. Just say it,” Lei Cheng pressed, frowning.

“He told me you’d had Miss Tao take an endorsement with Li Ruobing’s company. The Ding family—Ding Ruilong doesn’t want Li Ruobing’s business getting off the ground. Didn’t Ding Ruilong call you, and you shut him down? So he went to your elder brother…”

Hu Xilin picked his words at first, then began to speed up.

“Why bother with any of it? What if the Ding family comes after Hongfa over this? Did Li Ruobing and Li Ruotai put a knife to your throat? Why wade into muddy water?”

“We’re businessmen. The affairs of those great families are best left alone. What’s wrong with keeping our heads down and doing business in peace? You’re asking for trouble that isn’t there.”

Hu Xilin was deliberately making it sound more dire than it was.

The Ding family would never move against Hongfa Group over something so trivial.

He exaggerated on purpose, because he wanted Lei Cheng to change his mind.

He genuinely could not understand what Lei Cheng was thinking. Why take part at all when the whole thing could be avoided?

Business valued harmony.

An unnecessary quarrel was one to stay out of. If it could be avoided, avoid it.

“What do you mean, asking for trouble?” Lei Cheng shot back. “Manying signed a contract with Huancai. She’s acting according to that contract. It hasn’t been easy for her to get where she is. Does her reputation count for nothing? How does breaking a contract look? Is there any need for her to break it?”

“Are you playing dumb with me?” Hu Xilin grew agitated and rapped his fingers on the coffee table. “You think your elder brother here would do you harm? Getting out of a contract is easy. Put Miss Tao in the hospital, get a fake medical record—force majeure. Contract terminated.”

“Isn’t that lying? And if people find out, doesn’t that give more offense, not less?” Lei Cheng fired back.

“Lying… lie… Fine! Then we don’t lie!” Hu Xilin thought a moment and changed tack. “Then tell Li Ruobing what’s going on. Let her know. Would Li Ruobing really make things hard for you? Aren’t the two of you friends?”

“If she knows your family is squeezing you… or just tell her straight out that Ding Ruilong threatened you. Say exactly that. She’ll understand. I guarantee it.”

Watching Lei Cheng’s face, Hu Xilin paused, then simply said, “And if you’re too embarrassed to do it, I’ll go to Li Ruobing myself. I’ll explain it for you. We compensate her privately, we lay it all out plainly—we’ve got difficulties, we’ve got reasons. Just let her know. She isn’t unreasonable. She’ll agree to terminate.”

Hu Xilin genuinely did love sticking his nose into other people’s business.

And he was genuinely loyal.

He knew how to talk, he could come up with solutions, and he was willing to step out in front for a friend.

He also knew that although Li Ruobing could be domineering, she was very reasonable and never made things hard for friends.

If she learned she had brought trouble down on a friend, then with her nature she would take it on herself to put it right.

“Who told you Li Ruobing and I are friends?” Lei Cheng asked suddenly, something odd in his voice.

“You… then you… aren’t?” Hu Xilin faltered, thrown flat by the question.

“I don’t know Miss Li. We’ve never even met,” Lei Cheng said.

Hu Xilin stayed baffled.

That was not right.

If Lei Cheng did not know Li Ruobing, then why would Tao Manying endorse Huancai? It could hardly be because Tao Manying and Li Ruobing were friends.

Impossible.

Tao Manying would never decide on her own to endorse products for Li Ruobing’s company. That could bring trouble down on Lei Cheng.

Besides, a superstar at Tao Manying’s level would not normally endorse anything for a small company like Huancai Fashion in the first place.

Her endorsement of Huancai Fashion was itself out of the ordinary.

Lei Cheng had to have made the call.

So… because of Li Ruotai? Was Lei Cheng friends with Li Ruotai?

No. Even less likely.

Everyone in Donghai’s business circles knew Li Ruobing did not lean on her family’s connections in business. She was exceptionally strong-willed and exceptionally independent.

She never used her younger brother’s connections.

No one quite knew why she held to that independence so stubbornly that it verged on the peculiar.

So it could not have come through Li Ruotai either.

Hu Xilin could make no sense of it at all.

“You’ve never even met? Then—then it was because…” he asked, still lost.

“Because of my brother,” Lei Cheng said.

And as he said it he raised a hand and laid it on the shoulder of Wu Chen, seated in the armchair beside him.

Hu Xilin stared at Wu Chen, stunned.