Chapter 309: What Kind of Man Was Wu Chen, Really?

Chapter 309: What Kind of Man Was Wu Chen, Really?

Tang Jingbin, Tang Xinbao, Guo Qiqi, and Zhuang Xiaodie all froze.

He had just handed over fifty million as casually as that?

Granted, fifty million yuan was no great sum to the Tang family or the
Guo family of Jiuhe. But Wu Chen had not given the money to a close
relative, nor had he given it to Li Ruobing.

He had given it to Zhuang Xiaodie.

That was…

Tang Jingbin could not work out what Zhuang Xiaodie was to Wu Chen.
Friends? What friend handed another friend fifty million on a whim? Even
with a lover, few men would be so lavish.

That was simply not how money was given. Even Tang Jingbin had never
handed a woman fifty million yuan in one stroke.

He was baffled.

“Um, Mr. Wu, I… I can’t take this.” The figure had frightened Zhuang
Xiaodie. She did not dare accept it.

Wu Chen had given her shares before and had her sign for them, but
shares were not something she could simply use.

Fifty million in cash landed far harder. This was money she could
actually use.

“Take it. It’ll come in handy for investments later,” Wu Chen said,
giving her a look.

Only then did she take the card.

The others did not understand what he meant by investments. Zhuang
Xiaodie did. It was the same as when he had given her shares in the
entertainment company: the money was for building a business.

She understood one thing very clearly. Wu Chen had given her shares and
now money, and everything stood in her name, but in truth those things
were hers and Wu Chen’s both.

Everything she had came from Wu Chen. Which, to her mind, included
herself. She belonged to Wu Chen too.

“Go on,” Wu Chen said, smiling again.

“Mhm.” She nodded and headed into the kitchen.

Wu Chen resumed his idle conversation with Tang Jingbin. Tang Jingbin
had all manner of guesses running through his head, yet he did not ask
outright what Zhuang Xiaodie was to Wu Chen.

Their talk still centered on Tang Xinbao.

They went over what had happened the night before last.

Tang Jingbin also asked for the details: how Wu Chen had noticed
something was wrong, and how he had stepped in to help.

Wu Chen told him. Tang Xinbao cut in now and then to add details,
embellishing as he went and praising Wu Chen to the skies.

They drank tea and talked, and every so often Tang Jingbin’s booming
laughter filled the living room.

Before they knew it, more than twenty minutes had gone by.

“Boss Tang, sit a while. I’ll go take a look…” Wu Chen glanced at his
watch, made a small gesture with one hand, and smiled.

Then he rose and went to the kitchen.

Only Tang Jingbin, Tang Xinbao, and Guo Qiqi remained in the living
room.

Tang Jingbin took another sip of tea. When he set the cup down he shot
Tang Xinbao a look and made a small motion with his hand.

Tang Xinbao understood at once. His uncle wanted a private word. He
leaned sideways, bent slightly at the waist, and moved closer.

“What is it, Second Uncle?” he asked quietly.

“That Zhuang Xiaodie—what exactly is she to Wu Chen?” Tang Jingbin asked
in a low voice, glancing toward the kitchen.

“His lover. A woman he keeps,” Tang Xinbao said. There was not much
point hiding it. Wu Chen himself had never concealed it from anyone; it
was only awkward to say to her face.

“Isn’t he Li Ruobing’s boyfriend?”

“He is.” Tang Xinbao nodded.

“Then… has Li Ruobing been here?”

“Sure. She came back with us the night before last.”

“What were the sleeping arrangements?”

“Qiqi and I took a guest room on the third floor. Wu Chen and Miss Li
had the master bedroom. Zhuang Xiaodie had the second-floor secondary
bedroom…”

Tang Xinbao answered whatever his uncle asked and offered nothing more.
He still had not worked out what Tang Jingbin was actually trying to
learn.

Guo Qiqi, listening beside them, had.

“Second Uncle.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice too. “Miss Li
doesn’t seem to mind Brother Wu having other women. And yesterday at
noon, while Miss Zhuang was cooking, Miss Li even helped her.”

“It feels like Miss Zhuang is a little afraid of Miss Li, but Miss Li
doesn’t seem interested in making things hard for her. They actually get
along quite well.”

She paused, then seemed to remember something else.

“Oh, and I heard Miss Zhuang call Miss Li ‘Sister.’”

Once she had said it, her expression turned faintly strange without her
meaning it to.

She had sensed that Wu Chen’s women observed a kind of internal order.
Li Ruobing was the principal woman; Zhuang Xiaodie was the junior one.

In itself that was hardly strange. Plenty of powerful men had
arrangements like it around them.

But factor in who Li Ruobing was, and it became strange indeed.

Which was exactly what Tang Jingbin found strange.

Wu Chen…

Just what was he capable of?

Tang Jingbin fell silent.

For a long while.

“He’s no simple man,” he said suddenly, with a sigh.

His interest in Wu Chen had become intense.

Wu Chen had gone into the kitchen to help.

They genuinely had business at noon, so lunch had to be early. Besides,
for the moment he and Tang Jingbin had run out of anything worth
discussing.

By the time Wu Chen came in, Zhuang Xiaodie had already prepared every
ingredient. Everything had been waiting in the refrigerator, and she had
put the two slow dishes on to stew.

Wu Chen made the rest.

Stir-frying was simple to begin with, and with his skill, simpler still.

Another twenty minutes passed.

The dishes went onto the table.

Time to eat.

At lunch Wu Chen and Tang Jingbin went on talking about Tang Xinbao. Wu
Chen told him that once they had eaten, they would go see Li Ruotai.

Tang Jingbin naturally agreed.

He wanted an explanation from Li Ruotai.

Lunch ended a little over half an hour later.

And because of that meal, Tang Jingbin found himself baffled all over
again.

Wu Chen could cook.

Cook exceptionally well.

For a man who loved analyzing people, it only made his read on Wu Chen
more complicated still.

What kind of man was Wu Chen, really?

It was around eleven-thirty when they finished.

“Xiaobao, I’m going to see Li Ruotai. You stay here. You’re injured, so
no running around outside,” Tang Jingbin told his nephew.

The injury was not his only reason.

During their talk in the living room he had realized that the boy was
deeply grateful to Wu Chen and more than a little in awe of his fighting
ability. Every other sentence was “Brother Wu,” and Tang Xinbao was
plainly inclined to speak on his side.

That would not do.

Tang Jingbin was going to negotiate with Li Ruotai. Tang Xinbao might be
the injured party, but in this state, with Wu Chen present as well, he
might very well give Wu Chen face and say something like, “Forget it.”

So he was not going.

The Tang family’s face was at stake.

Someone had to be held accountable.

They set out.

Half an hour later, around noon.

Crown Entertainment Club, Donghai.

Wu Chen drove his own Lamborghini rather than riding with Tang Jingbin.
They got out separately at the entrance, then went upstairs together,
all the way to the top floor.

Li Ruotai’s bodyguards knew Wu Chen. With him leading, no one stopped
them.

The top floor.

Li Ruotai’s private suite.

“Mr. Wu.” The bodyguard at the door greeted him and opened it at once.

Tang Jingbin signaled his own bodyguard that there was no need to
follow, then went in with Wu Chen.

Several people were talking in the suite’s living room.

More of them than Tang Jingbin had expected.

Li Ruotai was there, naturally, and so was Li Ruobing. But besides the
siblings, two others stood there whom Tang Jingbin knew, and whose
presence surprised him greatly.

Gu Ruibo.

And the Li siblings’ maternal uncle, a core second-generation figure of
the Sun family—

Sun Yongzhang.

When Wu Chen and Tang Jingbin entered, everyone in the living room
stood.

“Darling,” Li Ruobing greeted Wu Chen.

Then something else happened that caught Tang Jingbin entirely off
guard.

Gu Ruibo came forward first.

He reached out and shook Wu Chen’s hand.

“Mr. Wu, you’re here!” Gu Ruibo said, broadly smiling, perfectly natural
about it.

Tang Jingbin’s eyes flicked to Wu Chen.

Gu Ruibo had shaken Wu Chen’s hand first?

Tang Jingbin was an elder and a guest, and he and Gu Ruibo were hardly
strangers. Under any normal circumstance Gu Ruibo would unquestionably
have greeted him first.

Extremely strange.

It was strange enough that Gu Ruibo had come forward more readily than
anyone else. This was not even his territory.

And yet he had shaken Wu Chen’s hand first.

Almost as though he valued Wu Chen more. As though Wu Chen mattered to
him more than Tang Jingbin did.