Chapter 306: Tang Jingbin

Chapter 306: Tang Jingbin

He was here.

Someone from the Tang family had arrived.

Tang Xinbao’s second uncle was named Tang Jingbin, though his given name was seldom used. In Modu he was generally known as Second Master Tang, and some called him Boss Tang. Within the Tang family he handled business affairs, and could in fact be considered the man in overall charge of the family’s commercial activities. He held the Tang family’s purse strings.

The Tang family was unlike ordinary families of power. It had its own peculiarities.

As a military family, many of its principal members were active-duty military personnel. They spent long periods in the military and had relatively little contact with the outside world. Military families also possessed their own distinctive networks, different from houses like the Lis and the Dings.

The result was that the Tang family, taken as a whole, kept a very low profile.

Tang Xinbao’s father, Tang Jingjun, was the leading figure of the Tang family’s second generation. He was the eldest brother and the future family head.

But precisely because he was a soldier, he genuinely had no time for a great many of the family’s external affairs.

Tang Jingbin had not followed his father’s generation into the military. He had gone into business instead.

And his standing and authority within the Tang family were enormous.

A great many matters had to be handled by him. A great many connections had to be cultivated by him. Even dealings with the second generation of other major families fell largely to him.

To the outside world, Tang Jingbin was the man who could speak for the Tang family.

Most of the time, in external affairs, he could represent it with full authority.

Within the family he was the number-three figure, behind only his father and his elder brother.

That ranking was not a matter of seniority or generational standing but of actual influence and decision-making power. Other Tangs in the military, even those who had risen very high, carried less weight inside the family than Tang Jingbin did.

The Tang family’s strength ran deep.

Tang Jingbin was unquestionably a major figure.

Not someone juniors like Tang Xinbao, Li Ruotai, or Gu Ruibo could be measured against.

It did not surprise Wu Chen that Tang Jingbin had come to Donghai himself over Tang Xinbao’s situation. Wu Chen knew Tang Xinbao got along badly with his father and always went to his second uncle when something happened, and he knew Tang Jingbin was particularly fond of this nephew.

Especially in recent years.

That had a great deal to do with Tang Xinbao rejecting the path his family had laid out and refusing to enlist.

Tang Xinbao had made the same choice Tang Jingbin had made all those years ago.

And Tang Xinbao’s beating involved Li Ruotai.

That was another factor.

“Has your second uncle arrived?” Wu Chen asked.

“He’s probably almost off the expressway. He drove over from Modu,” Tang Xinbao said quickly. “He just called and asked where I’m staying. I told him I’m at your place, Big Brother, and gave him the address…”

“All right. Understood. I should be home in… about an hour,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Okay, Big Brother.”

After hanging up, Wu Chen went back into the bathroom.

Before long the two of them came out one after the other. When Wu Yurong saw him about to get dressed, she spoke in her sweet, gentle voice.

“Don’t put that on. Not that one. I bought you clothes… come here.”

She walked toward the bedroom’s walk-in closet.

Wu Chen followed.

Wu Yurong opened the wardrobe on the right. It slid smoothly aside, revealing row upon row of brand-new suits and dress shirts, with many pairs of leather shoes below.

Then she pulled open a drawer, divided into small square compartments holding every kind of accessory: belts, cuff links, watches.

It had everything.

She had clearly prepared all of this in advance.

And although every item was new, none of it was still in its packaging.

It looked almost as though the man of the house had already worn these things, as though a man truly lived here and this was simply part of his daily life.

It was obvious she meant to make this place another “home.”

“When did you put all this together?” Wu Chen asked, smiling, a little surprised.

“A couple of days ago.”

She took a watch from the drawer and handed it to him.

“Look. Do you like it?”

Wu Chen turned it over in his hand. A men’s Patek Philippe Grand Complications piece, white gold set with diamonds. Not a limited edition, but this model still cost close to two million yuan.

“It’s beautiful,” he said.

“Here, try it on. Let me.”

She reached out, took it back, and fastened it around his wrist, saying gently as she worked, “I wanted to buy you a car too. None of the cars you drive are in your name. But… I don’t know when you’d have time to deal with the paperwork.”

“This feels strange,” Wu Chen said.

“What’s strange? Is the watch uncomfortable?” she asked quickly.

It was the first gift she had ever bought him, and his reaction mattered a great deal to her.

“Not the watch.” He looked at her. “It’s that you’re buying me things, buying me clothes, wanting to buy me a car. It feels a bit like… you’re keeping me.”

He laughed at his own words.

“What are you talking about?”

She gave him a coquettishly reproachful look, then wrapped both arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his.

“Compared to what you’ve done for me,” she murmured, soft and tender, “what do these things even count for?”

Her voice was unbearably sweet.

Then she kissed him.

More than ten minutes later.

In front of the mirror, Wu Chen had changed into the new suit and leather shoes. Wu Yurong, still in a nightgown, was tying his necktie.

“…Gu Ruibo arrives in Donghai today. He’ll probably contact you this afternoon. Once you’ve settled on a time to meet, notify Lei Cheng,” Wu Chen said as he adjusted his cuffs.

“Okay.”

Her hands paused.

Then she asked gently, “Speaking of Lei Cheng… I have a question.”

“What?”

“You seem to place a lot of importance on him. Why?”

She looked up at him.

She had sensed it at dinner the day before. Wu Chen valued Lei Cheng a great deal.

Which was strange.

Lei Cheng was nothing more than the loser in the Lei family’s internal struggle. He held personal assets worth several billion yuan, but most of that was the five-percent stake in Hongfa Group, and because of his family situation both his network and his influence had been severely suppressed.

The first partner Wu Chen had found for her had been Gu Ruibo.

With Lei Cheng’s present standing and reach, he could not stand as Wu Yurong’s equal, much less compare with Gu Ruibo, a core member of a major family.

The gap was enormous.

So—

“The Lei family’s power is greater than that of any family in Donghai. On assets alone they’re far, far wealthier than Su Ruiwen. Is it really strange that I value him?” Wu Chen asked with a smile.

“But the Lei family is the Lei family. Lei Cheng… isn’t the one who gives the orders there.” She frowned slightly.

“He can be,” Wu Chen said.

Wu Yurong froze.

He can be?

“In a little while—one or two months at most—Lei Cheng will replace his elder brother, Lei You. When that happens, the funds he can mobilize and the connections he can call on may even exceed yours,” Wu Chen added, smiling.

She remained stunned. She blinked at him, then asked in a sweet, gentle voice with an undertone beneath it, “What did you do?”

She had guessed it.

Wu Chen must have done something. He had helped Lei Cheng. Only that could account for the deference Lei Cheng showed him.

Helping Lei Cheng reclaim control of the family assets would be extraordinarily difficult. But Wu Yurong believed he could do it.

As long as he wanted to.

“What did I do…” Wu Chen smiled. “It’s complicated.”

“Hmph. Fine, don’t tell me.”

She gave a soft snort and smiled sweetly, and did not press him.

Once he was dressed and ready, Wu Chen left alone.

Wu Yurong did not go downstairs with him. She still had her makeup to do, and at that hour she was in no rush to reach the company. Arriving around noon would be fine.

Wu Chen went down and drove home in his own Lamborghini. He had left the car at Wu Yurong’s company the previous afternoon, and she had made a call the night before to have it delivered to the villa so he could use it today.

Half an hour later.

North District. Zunrong Donghai Huafu.

As he drove toward the entrance of the compound, Wu Chen noticed two cars with Modu plates parked at the curb outside.

A Range Rover.

And a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

Both SUVs.

Wu Chen knew those two cars were Tang Jingbin’s.

He was already at the house.

Waiting for him.