Chapter 312: Borrowing Momentum! Borrowing Momentum! Borrowing Momentum!

Chapter 312: Borrowing Momentum! Borrowing Momentum! Borrowing Momentum!

However Sun Yongzhang turned Wu Chen’s proposal over, it seemed
impossible.

Given his experience and his understanding of the Tang family, he
believed it simply could not be done.

Never mind that the Tang and Li families had no basis whatsoever for
cooperation. Even if they had…

The Tang family’s circle was its own.

They were very different from ordinary major families, with far fewer
entanglements.

So once the Li family and the others began to move, forcing the major
families to choose sides and grapple with one another, the Tang family
could remain outside it all.

It simply would not touch them.

No force had the power to make the Tang family pick a side.

They could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, then step in
at the final moment and back whichever side held the advantage.

For the Tang family that was the optimal choice.

Lowest risk.

Potentially enormous profit.

So—

what Wu Chen had suggested sounded extraordinarily unreliable.

Vast risk, and the chance of success apparently minute.

“You… what exactly are you trying to…” Sun Yongzhang stared at him,
unable to hold his composure.

“It’s complicated.” Wu Chen smiled at him.

“Mr. Sun, I know what worries you, but the specifics really can’t be
explained in a few sentences. We still have a guest waiting outside. We
can talk about it later. Or when I discuss it with Tang Jingbin in
detail, you can be there.”

“Little Wu, you need to think this through. If it goes wrong, every plan
we have is finished!” Sun Yongzhang said.

He was genuinely anxious now.

“I know. It won’t,” Wu Chen replied, unruffled, still smiling.

Sun Yongzhang looked at him.

There was nothing he could do with him.

Too much had been discussed directly between Wu Chen and Li Maoren.

There was also Li Maoren’s extraordinary assessment of him, and the
specific instructions Sun Yongzhang had been given.

Sun Yongzhang understood that what Wu Chen did or chose not to do was
not something he could influence.

If anyone wanted to change Wu Chen’s decision, Li Maoren himself would
have to speak.

The study fell silent.

“…All right, then. We’ll leave it there for now,” Sun Yongzhang said
after a moment.

He did not press further.

He knew it would be useless.

All he could do was observe.

And keep an eye on things.

Back in the suite’s living room.

The four of them had started talking again, though it amounted to
nothing at all.

Li Ruotai had Wu Chen’s instructions in mind and chose to say little.

Which left Li Ruobing as Tang Jingbin’s chief conversational partner.

They talked of this and that: her company, among other things.

Tang Jingbin also praised her for being beautiful and capable.

He truly did love praising people.

Creak.

The study door opened suddenly, and Wu Chen and Sun Yongzhang came out
one after the other.

“Hahahahaha! Brother Tang, my apologies for keeping you waiting again.
Something came up that we had to discuss on the spot…” Sun Yongzhang
laughed as he returned to his seat, looking thoroughly pleased.

In truth he was not pleased at all.

It was an act.

An act for Tang Jingbin.

“Brother Sun, you’re positively glowing. Some happy news?” Tang Jingbin
asked with a smile, probing, with a glance at Wu Chen.

“No, no.” Sun Yongzhang waved a hand, then sighed. “Ah, A-Tai has caused
this kind of trouble. What happy news could there be?”

He pulled the subject back.

And the two of them returned to their courteous tug-of-war.

Wu Chen went back to where he had been sitting, beside Li Ruobing.

“What did you talk about?” she asked quietly, resting one hand on his
shoulder and leaning close to his ear.

Wu Chen glanced at her, smiled, tilted his head, and answered softly.

“Guess.”

“Are you enjoying yourself?” she asked, giving him a sidelong look.

“I am. Very much.” Wu Chen smiled.

Then the corner of his mouth twitched.

She had pinched him, where no one else could see.

“Pinching people like some little girl again,” Wu Chen needled her.

“Don’t you want me to be a little more feminine?” she shot back, with a
look that could hook a man.

The two of them sat close together on the sofa, whispering, thoroughly
wrapped up in each other.

It could not have suited the atmosphere of that living room less.

It caught Tang Jingbin’s attention.

Though he kept talking with Sun Yongzhang, his eyes kept going back to
Wu Chen.

And the attitudes of the Li and Sun families toward Wu Chen gave him
more and more to think about.

More than ten minutes later.

Sun Yongzhang stood abruptly, said he was going to the restroom, and
hurried out.

There was a restroom inside the suite.

He chose to go outside instead.

With Sun Yongzhang gone again for the moment, Tang Jingbin’s chief
conversational partner became Li Ruobing once more.

Tang Jingbin had actually wanted to talk to Wu Chen and see what he
could draw out of him.

But less than a minute after Sun Yongzhang left, Wu Chen called out to
“Boss Gu.”

Then he rose, and Gu Ruibo rose with him, and together they went out to
the living-room balcony.

They made it look as though they had something to discuss and had
stepped away so as not to disturb Tang Jingbin and Li Ruobing.

The suite’s living room was enormous.

Two men speaking quietly on the balcony could not be heard inside.

All that could be seen were their backs and their postures.

Wu Chen and Gu Ruibo discussed nothing especially remarkable.

They talked about his cooperation with Wu Yurong, mostly how far it had
come.

Idle conversation.

Wu Chen also mentioned Lei Cheng, saying he was a friend, so Gu Ruibo
would know where matters stood.

A few minutes later Sun Yongzhang came back and resumed his talk with
Tang Jingbin.

Wu Chen and Gu Ruibo merely glanced back once.

They did not return to the living room. They stayed on the balcony,
backs to the room, standing shoulder to shoulder, talking low.

Ten minutes later.

“Mr. Wu, about Tang Xinbao…” Gu Ruibo said. “Is there anything I can do?
I know you must have a solution, but if there’s any way I can be useful,
just say so. A-Tai and I are brothers. None of us are outsiders here.”

“You’ve already helped,” Wu Chen said, turning his head and smiling at
him.

“Hm?” Gu Ruibo froze.

He had helped?

When?

He had spoken up for Li Ruotai a few times earlier, and it had
accomplished nothing.

“Mr. Wu, you mean I…” Gu Ruibo was thoroughly at sea.

He plainly had not done anything.

Gu Ruibo would never understand.

His attitude toward Wu Chen was itself helping Wu Chen.

And not only his.

Everyone’s attitude toward Wu Chen was helping Wu Chen.

Wu Chen excelled at borrowing momentum.

At using another’s strength to strike.

At using one force to suppress another.

And today he was taking that skill to its absolute limit.

Wu Chen had other women.

What was Li Ruobing’s attitude toward him?

What was Li Ruotai’s?

The Li family had originally intended a marriage alliance with the Ding
family.

So what was Sun Yongzhang’s attitude toward Wu Chen?

Then there was Gu Ruibo, a direct third-generation descendant of the Gu
family of Modu.

He should have had no particular connection to Wu Chen at all.

So why did he treat him the way he did?

Why did it almost look as though he were currying favor with him?

Tang Jingbin had seen all of it.

He would speculate.

And with every inference he would raise his estimate of Wu Chen.

Eventually he might even arrive at a conclusion he would hardly dare
believe himself.

And it was not over yet.

There was still Ding Ruilong.

Later, he too would “help” Wu Chen.

Ring, ring…

A phone rang on the balcony.

Wu Chen’s.

He took it out and glanced at the caller ID.

Uncle.

Li Maoren.

Most likely, when Sun Yongzhang had stepped out to the restroom, he had
called Li Maoren and reported Wu Chen’s intention to bring the Tang
family in.

Otherwise Li Maoren would not be calling now.

Wu Chen answered.

“Uncle.”

“Can you talk?” Li Maoren asked at once.

“Not conveniently,” Wu Chen said.

“…Are you sure you can do it?” After a brief silence Li Maoren asked it
straight out.

He did not try to talk Wu Chen out of it.

“Of course,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Li Maoren was silent again.

Then he said, “Don’t botch it.”

“I won’t.” Wu Chen smiled.

“If you need anything, tell Yongzhang.”

“Understood.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The call ended.

An extremely simple exchange.

Gu Ruibo stood right beside him and could faintly catch some of the
voice on the line, and still he had no idea what the two men were
talking about.

Ring, ring…

Less than a minute after Wu Chen put his phone away, another rang in the
living room.

Li Ruotai’s.

He answered, listened a moment, then shot to his feet.

His brows drew together.

His face darkened.

“I know. Let him come up.”

He hung up and immediately lifted his head, calling toward Wu Chen on
the balcony.

“Brother-in-law! Ding Ruilong is here. He’s downstairs.”