Chapter 307: Not Playing by the Rules

Chapter 307: Not Playing by the Rules

Inside Villa No. 36, Donghai Huafu.

Everyone was in the living room. Guo Qiqi and Tang Xinbao sat on the long sofa, and beside Tang Xinbao sat a tall but somewhat heavyset middle-aged man of about forty-five.

He wore a dark red tangzhuang jacket with gray linen trousers and cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles. Around his wrist was a strand of collectible beads, long since polished smooth from handling.

It had to be said, the outfit had character.

Not everyone could carry it. On an ordinary man it would lack the right flavor and might even make him look like some old-fashioned relic.

This middle-aged man wore it perfectly.

The outfit could be called casual or formal as you pleased. It would work in almost any setting.

What mattered was the man inside it.

Tang Jingbin.

“Mr. Tang, please have some tea.”

Zhuang Xiaodie poured him a cup of steaming tea. Her manner was respectful without stiffness, poised and gracious.

“Miss Zhuang, don’t trouble yourself. He’s my second uncle. He’s family,” Tang Xinbao said once she had served it.

He did not regard Zhuang Xiaodie as an outsider. Not only because of Wu Chen, but because they had grown familiar and found they got along.

They had not known each other long.

But Zhuang Xiaodie had come from Modu as well, and they were of an age. Not only in years but in outlook.

They were all university students.

Wu Chen had gone out the day before, leaving Zhuang Xiaodie at home with Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi. The three had talked, watched shows, even played cards together.

They had plenty in common.

Young people carried fewer complicated calculations, so making friends came easily.

“He’s still a guest, and an elder,” Zhuang Xiaodie said with a reserved, sweet smile.

“Xiaobao, this young lady is…?”

Tang Jingbin looked at Tang Xinbao, then gestured toward Zhuang Xiaodie.

He had no idea who she was. He knew only that this was Wu Chen’s home.

Judging by her clothes, her face, her figure, her bearing, there was no possibility she was a servant.

And since Tang Xinbao called her “Miss Zhuang,” she plainly could not be one.

Nor would Tang Jingbin naturally guess she was Wu Chen’s woman. He knew the man who had saved his nephew was the boyfriend of Li Ruobing, the Li family’s eldest granddaughter. Tang Xinbao had told him the relevant details over the phone the day before.

“Uh… Miss Zhuang is Big Brother Wu Chen’s friend…” Tang Xinbao said after a brief hesitation, exchanging a glance with Guo Qiqi.

The two of them knew the truth.

It was simply hard to say.

Above all with Zhuang Xiaodie standing right there. They could hardly tell her to her face that she was Wu Chen’s lover.

“Ah…”

Tang Jingbin glanced at his nephew with a tone of understanding.

He could tell the boy was lying.

He had watched Tang Xinbao grow up and knew him far too well. Still, he had no interest in exposing it, because Zhuang Xiaodie’s identity did not matter.

It made no difference. He had only asked in passing.

“Mr. Tang, please sit. Make yourself comfortable.”

Zhuang Xiaodie said another polite word, then hurried off toward the kitchen.

Tang Xinbao talked with his second uncle a while. Tang Jingbin even reached out, took his chin, and turned his face side to side to look over his injuries.

“Where’s the medical report? Bring it over and let me have a look.”

“Right here, Second Uncle.”

Guo Qiqi produced the diagnostic report straight from her bag.

Tang Jingbin read through it.

Not long after, Zhuang Xiaodie came out of the kitchen.

She had gone to wash fruit and cut a platter.

Simple hospitality. Whether the guest ate any of it was beside the point.

What mattered was having it there.

A matter of attitude.

She had just set the platter down when—

Ding.

The elevator doors on the first floor opened.

Wu Chen was back, coming up from the basement level.

Zhuang Xiaodie turned to look, then went over to meet him.

“Big Brother Wu Chen is back.” Tang Xinbao stood as well and looked over.

“Mr. Wu,” Zhuang Xiaodie greeted him as she reached him.

“The guest’s here?” Wu Chen asked casually.

“Mhm.” She nodded.

He smiled and reached out to pinch her cheek, an idle gesture, then walked toward the living room with one hand in his suit pocket.

“Big Brother, this is my second uncle.”

“Second Uncle, this is Big Brother Wu Chen, the man who saved me.”

Tang Xinbao stepped forward twice and introduced them directly.

As he spoke, Tang Jingbin had already risen and was sizing Wu Chen up.

Wu Chen wore a fitted light-blue business suit that day, the whole outfit bought by Wu Yurong. Expensive, naturally—several hundred thousand yuan.

Next to the watch on his wrist, pocket change.

“Boss Tang. A pleasure.”

“Hahahaha! Little brother, thank you! I heard all about it from my nephew. If it hadn’t been for you, this nephew of mine might have died the night before last!”

They shook hands. Tang Jingbin spoke with a booming laugh and seemed genuinely, deeply grateful.

But the way he phrased it—

that was very interesting.

Wu Chen knew Tang Jingbin.

Within the Tang family Tang Jingbin was something of an oddity. The Tangs were a military house, and he did not carry the faintest trace of a soldier’s bearing. Not only that; he had gone in entirely the opposite direction.

He was a businessman through and through. Purely, wholly a merchant.

Merchants pursued profit.

Tang Jingbin was exactly that kind of man.

He could also be called deeply calculating—a smiling tiger, a man with an exceptionally devious mind who would never release the hawk until he saw the hare.

They had only just met.

And Tang Jingbin had immediately said Tang Xinbao had “almost died.”

On the surface, profound gratitude toward Wu Chen.

In truth, Tang Jingbin had most likely already realized Wu Chen meant to mediate this affair.

It was not hard to guess. Li Ruotai was Wu Chen’s “younger brother-in-law.”

“Boss Tang, sorry to keep you waiting,” Wu Chen said with a smile as they released hands.

“Not at all, not at all.” Tang Jingbin waved cheerfully. “I only just got here myself. We practically arrived together.”

They exchanged pleasantries and sat.

Tang Jingbin’s form of address for Wu Chen was somewhat unusual. He called him “little brother.”

Tang Xinbao called Wu Chen Big Brother. Tang Jingbin simply followed his own habit: with a relatively unfamiliar but friendly young man, no blood relation and no generational tie, he called him little brother.

And he and Wu Chen were on “friendly” terms.

Wu Chen had saved Tang Xinbao’s life.

That favor, that debt, the Tang family absolutely had to repay.

But one thing was one thing and another was another. Tang Jingbin knew Wu Chen might try to mediate, and he would not lightly change how he meant to handle the affair merely because Wu Chen spoke on Li Ruotai’s behalf.

“You really do look young, little brother. Xiaobao said you’re twenty-two?”

“That’s right. One year older than Young Master Tang.”

“Young and accomplished! Hahahaha.”

“You’re too kind, Boss Tang.”

“No, no, I’m not flattering you. Little brother, let me tell you something—I’ve always been a good judge of people. This may be our first meeting, but the moment I laid eyes on you, such an impressive young man, I knew your future would be… limitless! Hahahahaha!”

Nonsense.

Go on, keep it coming.

Tang Jingbin had a habit. He absolutely loved praising people.

He often praised them until they were floating on air, at which point they lowered their guard around him.

All part of the routine.

Habit had become second nature. This was how Tang Jingbin always talked.

With him leading, the two of them wasted a solid ten minutes and more on empty pleasantries before finally reaching the point.

“…Little brother, there’s nothing else to say. You saved our Xiaobao. A debt for a life is beyond repayment…”

As he spoke, Tang Jingbin took out a bank card, set it on the coffee table, and slid it across to Wu Chen.

“This is just a small token from the Tang family. The PIN is the last six digits of the card number. Little brother, you absolutely have to accept it.”

He finished with a cheerful smile and patted Wu Chen lightly on the leg.

“Then I’ll accept it,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

He picked up the card and put it straight into his pocket.

He took it.

Not one polite refusal. Not even a hypocritical show of declining.

He simply took it.

The smile on Tang Jingbin’s face froze on the spot.

Wu Chen had refused entirely to play by the rules, and the move landed so unexpectedly that even Tang Jingbin was left dazed for a moment.