Chapter 273: You Don’t Understand the Situation

Chapter 273: You Don’t Understand the Situation

Because of this “Brother Wu”?

Hu Xilin looked Wu Chen over again, up and down. He still had no idea what Lei Cheng meant, because he did not know who Wu Chen was. A surname alone told him nothing.

There were far too many people surnamed Wu. It was hardly an uncommon name.

His thoughts had not caught up yet. Given how young Wu Chen was, his instinct was to guess at family background—which house did this young master belong to?

“Old Lei, you and this Brother Wu of yours are…” Hu Xilin lifted a hand in a vague gesture.

“Li Ruobing… is my sister-in-law,” Lei Cheng said after a moment, smiling.

Hu Xilin froze. It took another beat before he understood what Lei Cheng meant by calling Li Ruobing his sister-in-law. Lei Cheng had been saying “brother” and “Brother Wu” all along.

Which meant Li Ruobing was this “Brother Wu’s” woman.

“Ah… you… you’re Wu… Wu Chen?” Hu Xilin looked as though the realization had only just landed.

It genuinely had.

This “Brother Wu” was the very man all of Donghai’s business circles had been talking about—Li Ruobing’s boyfriend.

“That’s me.” Wu Chen smiled at him, a subtle emotion written plainly on his face.

The study went abruptly silent.

Hu Xilin looked at Lei Cheng, then at Wu Chen. He felt as though Lei Cheng had set him up, and the awkwardness was so thick he could hardly sit still.

Wu Chen was the person directly involved.

And Hu Xilin had just sat there in front of him urging Lei Cheng to make Tao Manying break her contract, offering ideas by the handful, even telling Lei Cheng how to deceive Li Ruobing.

With Wu Chen sitting right there.

It was fucking awkward.

Hu Xilin now felt caught between both sides. He had failed to talk Lei Cheng around and offended Li Ruobing’s camp in the same breath. All Wu Chen had to do was mention it when he got back…

At the same time he was trying to work out who Wu Chen really was.

Lei Cheng treated him as a brother. He had even called Li Ruobing his sister-in-law from Wu Chen’s side of things.

Bang!

“Old Lei! You did this to screw with me on purpose, didn’t you?” Hu Xilin slapped the table, shot to his feet, and shouted at him.

He honestly felt Lei Cheng had been disloyal. Why not simply say who Wu Chen was? Wasn’t that setting a man up?

“What are you yelling for?” Lei Cheng sprang up too, his voice even louder. “Did I ask you to come? How many times did I tell you this has nothing to do with you? You’re the one who insisted on being Lei You’s lobbyist. Did I beg you to come?!”

They were arguing in an instant.

Not for the first time. They had fought before, and more than once over Lei You.

“Old Lei, you fucking ingrate. All these years I—”

“You’re bringing up all these years now? What benefits has Lei You ever given you?”

Lei Cheng cut straight across him, still roaring. “You speak for him every damn day. He almost fucking killed me! My wife is dead! Are you blind? Why do you keep doing his errands?”

“Old Lei, what you’re saying—do you have proof? What happened back then was an accident! I know you’re bitter that your father handed the company to your brother, but you can’t just suspect him out of nothing. I’ve known Lei You more than ten years. I know what kind of man he is!”

“You don’t know shit!” Lei Cheng swore back, blunt and coarse.

“You—you fucking… Lei Cheng, I’m telling you…” Hu Xilin was so angry he could barely get a sentence out.

“All right, all right, Brother Lei… that’s enough. All these years of friendship. It isn’t worth it.” Wu Chen finally spoke, tugging lightly at Lei Cheng’s arm to break it up.

Lei Cheng turned and glanced at him, then sat back with a dark face, as though forcing the anger down. He gestured at Hu Xilin. “Old Hu, I’m telling you, my brother’s here today and I don’t want to fight with you. How many times have we already gone at it over Lei You? Does it ever end?”

“What kind of thing is that to say? Forget the past for a minute. Is this your brother’s fault this time? Didn’t you bring it on yourself?”

Hu Xilin was still unwilling to drop it.

He waved a hand as he spoke, then turned toward Wu Chen, his tone softening considerably. “Mr. Wu, since you’re here, you heard what I said just now…”

He was not going to argue with Wu Chen.

He wanted to reason with him.

He and Lei Cheng had a brother’s friendship; they could shout at each other and it cost nothing. He had no such footing with Wu Chen.

“Mr. Wu, you tell me. Am I not doing this for Lei Cheng’s own good?” Hu Xilin said rapidly. “I don’t know exactly what you and Old Lei are to each other, Mr. Wu, but—Ding Ruilong! The Ding family! If this blows up and the Ding family goes after Old Lei, is it worth it?”

“If you and Old Lei are brothers, then shouldn’t a brother think about what’s best for his brother? Am I wrong? You’re his brother. You wouldn’t set him up, would you?”

Hu Xilin…

His sudden outburst at Lei Cheng had been somewhat impulsive.

But perhaps not entirely accidental.

He was still a very shrewd man.

Now that the conversation had gotten here, he had spoken openly to Wu Chen as well. It dissolved some of the earlier awkwardness and at the same time pressed Wu Chen to state a position.

He still wanted to help Lei Cheng and smooth over the contract-termination issue.

Not many people would go that far for a friend.

“Old Hu, what the hell are you saying? You mean I can’t be a proper brother? That I have to tuck my head in and play the coward?” Before Wu Chen could answer, Lei Cheng spoke first and shot him down.

He played the bad cop to perfection.

And only he could play it, because he was the one with a real friendship with Hu Xilin.

“What the hell, Old Lei, you—” Hu Xilin came at him again.

Just then the click of high heels sounded in the corridor. A moment later the door opened.

Tao Manying.

She pushed it half open and stood outside. “What… are you two arguing about again?”

She had heard the shouting from downstairs and come up to look.

It was not the first time she had heard Hu Xilin and Lei Cheng quarrel. And she was not merely Lei Cheng’s mistress in the ordinary sense. In this villa she was also the lady of the house.

Lei Cheng truly doted on Tao Manying. Over the years he had spent hundreds of millions of yuan building her career.

With her standing there, both men seemed to cool a little. Hu Xilin sat back down at once.

Lei Cheng called toward the doorway, “It’s nothing… hey, Darling, make some food. We’ll eat at home tonight.”

“Okay…” Tao Manying agreed. She said nothing more, only took in the state of the study once more before pulling the door shut. Her heels faded down the hall.

Inside the study.

“Boss Hu,” Wu Chen said directly. “I know you mean well, but you don’t understand the situation. First of all, let me tell you very plainly: the man behind that car crash ten years ago was Lei You.”

Hu Xilin’s expression changed, and he answered at once. “Mr. Wu, I’m not questioning you. We don’t know each other well. But I have to say it—that isn’t something you can throw around. Without evidence—”

“There is evidence!” Wu Chen cut him off.

“What? What evidence?” The shock showed openly on his face.

He had never believed the rumor that Lei You had staged the crash to kill Lei Cheng.

“The man who drove the car and caused that crash has been found,” Wu Chen said.

Hu Xilin’s face changed dramatically.

“He can prove Lei You ordered it.” Wu Chen smiled again. “Before long, Brother Lei and I are going to put Lei You in prison. It’s already underway. But it takes time. There are arrangements to make… quietly.”

Hu Xilin sat stunned and speechless.

There was an enormous amount of information in those few sentences, but the most important part was that Wu Chen had said “Brother Lei and I.”

Bring down Lei You. Take back the family holdings.

Lei Cheng was doing it.

And Wu Chen was helping him do it.

Hu Xilin could not speak. He stared blankly at Wu Chen, then at Lei Cheng, then back at Wu Chen.

Exactly as Wu Chen had said. He did not understand the situation.

And he was beginning to grasp how little he understood.

He did not think Wu Chen was lying. This was far too serious, and Lei Cheng could never have joined him in a lie like that.

So… had Lei You really done it?

“Also…” Wu Chen shifted the subject. He laid a hand on the phone sitting on the coffee table and flicked it across to Hu Xilin. “Boss Hu, take a look at the video I shot this afternoon.”