Chapter 287: I Want to Have His Children

Chapter 287: I Want to Have His Children

Li Ruobing glanced at her brother, expressionless, and said nothing.

“Sis, what… what is it?” Under that stare he began to squirm. Whenever she looked at him this way, a thread of fear rose in him by reflex.

In truth she still had not decided how to put it.

Everyone assumed Li Ruobing could never tolerate her man having other women.

That was true of ordinary women, and she was Li Ruobing. Yet she had allowed exactly that. Saying it out loud to her brother would shatter her image outright.

But perhaps precisely because she was Li Ruobing—

“She’s your brother-in-law’s woman,” Li Ruobing said. After that silence, she was utterly direct.

That was her nature. Had the one asking been anyone but her own younger brother, she would either have said nothing or said it plainly. She would never have hesitated.

“Sis… Brother-in-law’s… woman?” Li Ruotai was stunned. Not by the relationship itself—he had seen it for himself; he simply had not dared believe it.

What stunned him was her attitude.

She had just… said it?

He studied her face. Blank. Cold as ever.

Nothing unusual about that. She was normally like this.

“Sis… Sis, so you… you mean you allow Brother-in-law to have other women?” He stammered. He was so shocked his mind could barely keep pace. It overturned everything he thought he knew about her.

Li Ruotai understood his sister.

He knew how fiercely strong-willed she was, how independent, how much she insisted on her own judgment.

He knew, too, what she could do in business.

She had come to Donghai to build a company, and in four years she had taken it to a valuation of two billion yuan. Because of her wager she could not rely on the family, and she had not.

She had done it alone, building the business step by step, laying down her commercial network one connection at a time.

Two billion yuan was a height countless brilliant businesspeople would never reach in a lifetime. A number large enough to carry a person across whole social strata.

Li Ruobing had reached it.

And this was only the start. Huancai was meant to go public one day, to grow larger and stronger still.

On raw personal ability alone, Li Ruotai had understood long ago that he did not measure up to his sister.

He had always admired her, admired her from the bottom of his heart, and known he could not compare.

He also knew her views on love and marriage were unusual. She liked men whose personal ability was exceptional. She wanted a partner who was strong.

Ding Ruilong was, in fact, very capable. And still she looked down on him, treated him as trash. It was not only years of dislike. It was that she did not think he was strong enough.

Not worthy of her.

Put plainly, her standards were high. But not empty arrogance, because Li Ruobing herself was exceptional enough to justify them.

Li Ruotai knew exactly how uncompromising her eye was.

She would not lean on the family to make money, and she did not want to lean on a man. In her view, only a man strong enough—perhaps stronger than she was—could be worthy of her.

So how could a woman so singular, so outstanding, permit her man to have other women?

However hard he tried, Li Ruotai could not make it fit.

Had his sister changed?

Or had his brother-in-law Wu Chen become so unthinkably formidable that even she no longer cared whether he had other women?

The Maybach stayed silent.

Li Ruobing had turned toward the window, saying nothing, and no one could tell what she was thinking.

A long while passed.

“Sis.” Li Ruotai turned to her suddenly and asked with complete seriousness, “Have you been wronged?”

The question held every possibility he could imagine. He genuinely could not make sense of things, so his mind had gone to the worst of them. Did someone have something over her? Was she being threatened? Was it something else?

Li Ruobing turned to look at her brother, her gaze deep.

She knew he had already started inventing scenarios. He might even make trouble, and if he did, it would be nothing but a nuisance.

She understood perfectly well how complicated her relationship with Wu Chen was. It could not be explained in a few sentences, and she had no wish to explain it.

“I want to have his children,” Li Ruobing said after several seconds of silence.

The car went still.

Li Ruotai stared at her, eyes wide. He had never imagined an answer like that. There was nothing inherently strange in the sentence, but for a woman to say it so bluntly told him a great deal about her state of mind.

Li Ruobing had not wanted to be so blunt either. She simply did not want her brother spinning out and making trouble.

“Sis… then will you…” Li Ruotai spoke slowly, haltingly. “Will you… marry Brother-in-law?”

She was silent.

She held his eyes for several seconds, then turned back to the window without answering.

In another woman, hesitation or refusal to answer that question might mean she did not love the man.

Li Ruobing’s silence meant the opposite.

She had once declared she would never marry in her life. Love, children, and marriage were separate matters, and she had said she would not marry.

And now she hesitated.

She did not answer.

In that moment Li Ruotai understood one thing.

His sister had fallen. Completely.

Half an hour later.

Several cars pulled up at a private hospital. Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi were both examined. Guo Qiqi was essentially fine apart from some scrapes. Tang Xinbao was far worse off, with bruises all over his body, and was diagnosed with a mild concussion.

Medically it was not a serious problem. Rest would see him right. But given who Tang Xinbao was, the fact that he had come to Donghai and been beaten badly enough to give him a concussion—even a mild one—was a problem in itself.

It was past one in the morning when they left the hospital.

Another half hour or so passed.

North District. Zunrong Donghai Huafu.

Wu Chen, Li Ruobing, and Zhuang Xiaodie arrived home, and two others came with them into the villa: Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi.

At the hospital the doctor had recommended Tang Xinbao stay several days for observation.

But being admitted would raise the seriousness of the incident another notch. Tang Xinbao himself did not want to stay and preferred to go back to his hotel, so Wu Chen took the opening and invited him and Guo Qiqi to his home. If further examination was needed, a private doctor could come to the house.

Tang Xinbao accepted readily.

He very much wanted to grow closer to Wu Chen, and not merely because Wu Chen had saved him. Wu Chen understood exactly what he was thinking.

Wu Chen knew that all he had to do was extend the invitation and Tang Xinbao would come.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

They talked idly in the living room for a while. Once the people Li Ruotai had arranged brought Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi’s luggage over from the hotel, the pair went upstairs.

Wu Chen put them in guest rooms on the third floor.

It was very late. Everyone needed sleep. Whatever else there was to discuss would wait for tomorrow.

—

July 21, 2020, seven in the morning exactly.

Wu Chen woke briefly, turned his head to look at the sleeping Li Ruobing, wrapped an arm around her, rolled over, and closed his eyes again.

They had not gone to sleep until after two. He had not slept enough.

Back to sleep.

Before he knew it, it was past eight.

Ring-ring-ring…

A phone rang.

Wu Chen and Li Ruobing both woke with a start. The sound came from the nightstand on his side. She looked at him as he reached over and picked it up.

Caller ID: Uncle.

Li Maoren.

Li Ruobing saw it too. She knew it was her father, and she glanced at Wu Chen.

He answered.

“Hello, Uncle.” He put the phone to his ear.

Li Ruobing immediately pressed closer into his arms, leaning in so she could hear the voice on the line.

“Little Wu, I hear that besides my daughter you have other women?” Li Maoren asked gravely, straight to the point.