Chapter 301: We Are Not Friends

Chapter 301: We Are Not Friends

While Wu Chen was on the phone with Wu Yurong, out in the corridor Lei Cheng was settling dinner plans with Tao Manying.

Two minutes later, inside the private room.

Wu Chen had just agreed on a place with Wu Yurong and hung up when Lei Cheng pushed the door open and came in.

“Brother, let’s go eat.” Lei Cheng gestured with the phone still in his hand. “Manying’s finished work too. Let’s find somewhere together—”

“Ronghu Street. Liuji Restaurant,” Wu Chen said, smiling as he stood.

“Sure. I’ll send Manying straight there.” Lei Cheng looked down at his phone, about to call her.

“While we’re at it, I’ll introduce you to a friend. She’s already on her way.”

Lei Cheng paused before dialing and looked up. After a moment he asked, “Then… is it all right for Manying to come? If not, I’ll have her—”

Wu Chen had said a friend.

Lei Cheng had no idea who, but whoever it was would hardly be an ordinary person, and business was obviously going to be discussed. He simply did not know whether Tao Manying’s presence would be appropriate.

“There’s nothing inappropriate about it,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“All right, then.” Reassured, Lei Cheng called her.

“Darling, go to Liuji Restaurant on Ronghu Street. Yeah, the driver knows it. Head straight over. All right, Brother Wu and I are leaving now…”

He hung up.

The two went downstairs and got into the cars. Wu Chen tossed the keys of the Audi A8 to one of Lei Cheng’s bodyguards and told him to drive it over, then climbed into Lei Cheng’s Bentley Mulsanne and sat beside him in the back. They still had things to discuss on the way.

They set off.

More than ten minutes later, as they talked in the car—

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen took out his phone. Li Ruobing.

“Hello, Ruobing.”

“I’m working late today. I’ve got documents to get through, so I won’t be coming to your place.”

She had taken yesterday off, and this morning as well. A day and a half of rest at a time this busy meant a great deal had piled up.

“Sleeping at the office?” Wu Chen asked, smiling.

“Looks like it. Probably busy until eleven or midnight.”

“That’s hard work.”

“It’s only these next few days. Once we hit the end of the month it won’t be like this.” Then, casually, “Are you home yet?”

“No. I’m not going back today.”

“Not… going back?” Her tone shifted, weighted with meaning. “Then do take care of your health. Don’t wear yourself out, my dear Mr. Wu.”

That tone.

Li Ruobing could not even be bothered to ask where Wu Chen meant to sleep tonight, or with whom. She was simply teasing him.

“Jealous?” Wu Chen laughed.

“Yes. I’m jealous. I’m practically drowning in vinegar,” she drawled theatrically, then changed direction. “All right, all right. Go do what you need to do. I have work of my own.”

A few more words, and they hung up.

Wu Chen immediately made another call, to Zhuang Xiaodie. There were still guests at the house. Neither he nor Li Ruobing would be going back today, so she needed to know, and he had a few simple instructions.

When he hung up again—

“Brother Wu, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask your advice about. I don’t know if you can…” Lei Cheng glanced over with a grin, his tone thoroughly suspect.

It did not sound like a serious question.

“What?” Wu Chen looked at him.

“You… I can see you and Miss Li are very close, and then there’s Miss Zhuang. With someone of Miss Li’s standing, I mean…” Lei Cheng talked and gestured without ever finishing the sentence, though his meaning was perfectly clear. “How do you do it?”

A topic between men.

He had asked because he had just watched Wu Chen take one call and make another. He could not hear the voices clearly, but he had heard “Ruobing” and “Xiaodie.”

So he knew who Wu Chen had been talking to.

All that about going home or not going home—and everything was that harmonious?

Lei Cheng had plenty of women himself, and he kept every one of them thoroughly in line. The difference was that whatever standing his women had, he had given it to them.

Tao Manying, for instance.

Wu Chen’s situation was another matter entirely.

This was Li Ruobing.

Her background was formidable. Her ability was extraordinary. And she was one of the most beautiful women anywhere. Ding Ruilong had nearly gone insane trying to have her.

No—he had already gone insane.

With Li Ruobing and Wu Chen together, she should have been the stronger party and he the weaker one. Everyone in Donghai’s business world knew her temperament and her style.

So how could she possibly allow it—accept it—that Wu Chen had other women?

How had he managed it?

Lei Cheng could not imagine it. He had never been able to work it out.

“That…” Wu Chen looked at him, considered a moment, then smiled. “Brother Lei, it isn’t that I don’t want to tell you. It’s just that this is complicated. Very complicated.”

Wu Chen was particularly fond of saying things were complicated.

Sometimes it was a way of brushing someone off.

Sometimes it was not. Sometimes things truly were too complicated to explain simply.

“Hahahaha! All right, then. I won’t ask. I doubt I could learn it anyway.” Lei Cheng laughed, then sighed in admiration. “The way your mind works, what you’re capable of—that’s not something a man can learn. I’m impressed. Brother, I’m impressed.”

And he genuinely was.

Not only about women.

About everything.

Twenty minutes later.

No. 79 Ronghu Street, South District. Liuji Restaurant.

The name sounded utterly ordinary. In fact it was an extremely high-end private dining restaurant.

Several cars pulled up along Ronghu Street.

Wu Chen and Lei Cheng got out. At the same moment the door of a Toyota Alphard parked farther ahead opened, and Tao Manying stepped out in a mask and sunglasses.

She had arrived first and waited outside a while.

They met up.

Then went in.

About five minutes before they arrived, Wu Chen had received a message from Wu Yurong with the name of the private room. She was already upstairs waiting.

Wu Chen gave the hostess the room name. She asked whether he was Mr. Wu, and once he confirmed it she led them upstairs.

Soon.

Second floor. The Prosperity and Auspiciousness room.

Wu Chen pushed the door open.

Inside, Wu Yurong sat at the table in a qipao, one hand resting on a teacup, staring into space, lost in thought.

She came back to herself at once.

Looking up, she broke into a smile, rose, and said in her soft, sweet voice, “You’re here.”

She saw Wu Chen. She also saw Lei Cheng and Tao Manying coming in behind him.

“Ordered yet?” Wu Chen asked as he entered.

“Not yet. I was waiting for you.” As she spoke she looked toward Lei Cheng.

The hostess slid the door shut from outside.

“Let me introduce you. Boss Lei Cheng, Miss Tao Manying…” Wu Chen gestured, then turned to present her. “Ms. Wu Yurong.”

“Hahahaha! Ms. Wu, hello, hello!” Lei Cheng laughed as he stepped forward to shake her hand. “Before we came, Brother Wu said he was introducing me to a friend. I thought it’d be someone I didn’t know. And it’s you, Ms. Wu. Who in Donghai hasn’t heard of you? I’ve heard so much about you. Haha! A pleasure, truly a pleasure.”

“Boss Lei, a pleasure.” Wu Yurong smiled as she shook his hand, then shook Tao Manying’s as well.

Tao Manying had taken off her mask and sunglasses while Lei Cheng was speaking.

“A pleasure, Miss Tao. You really are beautiful. A superstar indeed,” Wu Yurong said.

“You’re too kind, Ms. Wu. You’re the truly beautiful one,” Tao Manying replied at once.

After the usual round of pleasantries, they sat.

Wu Chen took the seat beside Wu Yurong, and for ease of conversation Lei Cheng naturally brought Tao Manying to the seats across from him.

Which left two men and two women seated opposite each other in pairs.

It made quite a picture.

From the tone Wu Chen had used with Wu Yurong the moment he walked in, Lei Cheng could tell the two were close—close enough to have a very good personal relationship.

What he could not understand was how Wu Chen and Wu Yurong had ever come to know each other at all.

It was baffling. By any logic the two should have had nothing to do with each other. Their circles did not overlap.

“I really didn’t expect the friend to be you, Ms. Wu,” Lei Cheng remarked once they were seated.

“Is it that surprising?” Wu Yurong asked with a smile.

“Of course it is.” Lei Cheng grinned. “I’d never heard that you and Brother Wu were friends. I—”

“We’re not friends,” Wu Yurong cut in.

“Huh?” Lei Cheng froze and glanced instinctively at Wu Chen, his expression changing.

Because what she had just said could be taken as a serious slight to Wu Chen.