Chapter 313: Doesn’t It Hurt?

Chapter 313: Doesn’t It Hurt?

When Li Ruotai learned Ding Ruilong had arrived, his first instinct was to tell Wu Chen rather than his own sister or his third uncle, Sun Yongzhang. To say the least, the impulse was a little strange.

“Ding Ruilong?” Tang Jingbin froze at the name and blurted out, “That Ding family boy came to Donghai?”

He was naturally astonished. The business between the Ding and Li families had nothing to do with him, yet the news still landed abruptly.

Ding Ruilong’s name carried a long way.

Li Ruotai might be flamboyant, but he had stayed rooted in Donghai and built his position there through painstaking work. He was generous by nature, skilled at making connections, and had far more friends than enemies. Ding Ruilong was another matter. Several years older, he had made his name earlier. He had plenty of friends, and plenty of enemies.

As the acknowledged foremost figure of the major families’ third generation, Ding Ruilong also tended to draw more attention wherever he went.

“He had a small misunderstanding with our Bingbing a while back, so he made a special trip to Donghai. He arrived around noon today, I believe?” Sun Yongzhang said, glancing at Li Ruobing as he spoke.

The way he put it conveyed that he knew Ding Ruilong was arriving today.

In fact he knew Ding Ruilong had arrived yesterday.

“The damn lunatic. He actually came looking for me.” Li Ruobing made no effort to hide her displeasure.

Her expression turned cold on the spot.

At the same moment, having spoken to Wu Chen, Li Ruotai hurried out to the balcony. He reached Wu Chen and exchanged a few quiet words with him. Gu Ruibo stood nearby and could faintly catch some of it.

Not that there was anything they particularly needed to keep from him.

After those two murmured sentences, Li Ruotai turned and hurried out again, into the corridor, to give his bodyguards quiet instructions.

On the balcony.

“Mr. Wu, this Ding Ruilong…” Gu Ruibo tilted his head toward Wu Chen and murmured, watching his expression out of the corner of his eye.

Ding Ruilong was about to come face to face with Wu Chen.

Something enormous could happen.

“He came to apologize to Ruobing,” Wu Chen said with a smile, glancing at him.

“Then do you want me to…” Gu Ruibo lowered his voice and made a small gesture.

He was firmly on Wu Chen’s side. If Ding Ruilong clashed with Wu Chen, he would certainly help. He simply did not know how, chiefly because he was afraid Ding Ruilong might notice something was wrong.

“Relax. Just behave normally,” Wu Chen said quietly, gesturing with one hand.

Time to go back in.

Wu Chen returned to the living room and sat down beside Li Ruobing again. Leaning toward her, he whispered a few words in her ear.

“In a little while, you…”

The atmosphere in the living room had already turned strange.

Tang Jingbin was watching all of it. He felt that something was slightly off about every single person there, and yet he could not immediately put his finger on what.

Li Ruotai soon returned to the suite.

Meanwhile, out in the corridor near the elevators, the floor indicator was climbing.

Before long the elevator reached the top floor and its doors slid open. Ding Ruilong stepped into the corridor in a suit and tie, gold-rimmed glasses on his face, six bodyguards flanking and following him.

The corridor held a good many people.

All of them bodyguard types. Tang Jingbin’s men had not come upstairs, but Li Ruobing’s, Li Ruotai’s, and Sun Yongzhang’s were all there, along with two of Gu Ruibo’s.

Ding Ruilong had barely left the elevator behind when Li Ruotai’s bodyguards stopped him.

Eight men, blocking the corridor completely.

“Young Master Ding.” The bald bodyguard in front raised a hand. He was holding a handheld metal detector.

A security scanner.

“You’re stopping me?” Ding Ruilong halted and fixed the bald man with an unfriendly stare.

He knew this bodyguard. One of Li Ruotai’s trusted men, named Ma Yuan.

“Boss’s orders. No offense intended.” Ma Yuan met Ding Ruilong’s eyes without expression, neither servile nor arrogant.

Ding Ruilong held his gaze for two seconds. Then his lips pressed tight and the corner of his mouth jerked into a smile that was not a smile at all.

“Fine.”

Still smiling, Ding Ruilong raised both arms.

He knew exactly what this was.

Li Ruotai was putting him in his place.

Ma Yuan stepped forward and ran the scanner over him, even fishing out the pen Ding Ruilong carried, checking it, and handing it back. Meanwhile Li Ruotai’s other bodyguards searched Ding Ruilong’s men.

Two of the six were carrying guns. Both weapons were found.

Ding Ruilong himself was unarmed.

Once the search was done the two guns were confiscated for the time being. They would be returned when Ding Ruilong and his men left.

“This way, Young Master Ding.” Ma Yuan stepped aside and gestured him through.

Ding Ruilong tugged his tie straight, shot Ma Yuan another look, and led his men farther in.

Soon they reached the suite.

The bodyguards at the door parted, and one of them opened it for him.

“Wait outside,” Ding Ruilong told his men, and walked in alone.

He had barely passed the entryway, two steps inside, when he froze.

He genuinely had not expected a room full of people.

He had assumed Li Ruobing would be there, and Wu Chen possibly as well. But Gu Ruibo, Tang Jingbin, Sun Yongzhang?

He had expected none of them.

“Ruilong, you’re here.” Sun Yongzhang was the first to greet him, smiling like an elder welcoming a younger man, even beckoning him over. “Come, come.”

“Uncle Sun.” Ding Ruilong greeted him in surprise, then smiled. “Second Master Tang is here too? When did you arrive in Donghai?”

“Only today. Did you just get in as well, Young Master Ding? Hahaha! Running into each other here—now that’s fate!” Tang Jingbin laughed.

Sun Yongzhang appeared to think a great deal of Ding Ruilong, so much that he even stood. Tang Jingbin rose with him.

Ding Ruilong crossed the room and shook hands with Sun Yongzhang first, then Tang Jingbin.

“Ruilong, you and Little Gu know each other, don’t you?” Sun Yongzhang said, in the manner of an introduction.

Ding Ruilong and Gu Ruibo did far more than merely know each other. They were long-standing rivals in business. Still, this was the first time Ding Ruilong, Gu Ruibo, and Sun Yongzhang had ever been in one room, so there was nothing wrong with the introduction.

“Boss Gu, what brings you to Donghai too?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. What are you doing in Donghai?”

They shook hands.

Both were smiling.

It was only the words that carried a whiff of gunpowder.

They had always been this way: surface courtesy, frequent verbal jabs, and behind the scenes each attacking the other’s business interests. The competition between them was fierce.

Li Ruotai stayed in his armchair without the least intention of rising. He leaned back and stared sideways at Ding Ruilong with an expression of pure distaste.

Naturally neither Li Ruobing nor Wu Chen stood either.

In fact they did not so much as look at him.

“When did you buy this watch?” Li Ruobing asked softly, holding Wu Chen’s hand and examining the new watch.

“I didn’t buy it.” Wu Chen smiled.

“And the one I bought you?” Her tone shifted slightly.

“Put away safely.”

“And you’re still smiling…” Her eyes narrowed.

She already knew Wu Yurong had bought him this watch, and she really was a little annoyed. To everyone else, though, the two of them were simply being affectionate on the sofa again, Li Ruobing holding one of his hands while the other rested naturally on his shoulder.

They treated Ding Ruilong as air.

Ding Ruilong noticed.

The corner of his mouth twitched without his willing it, and for an instant his pupils contracted unnaturally. He recovered at once.

“Bingbing, Ruilong is here. Aren’t you even going to say hello?” Sun Yongzhang’s voice came across the room.

Li Ruobing looked up at her uncle, then turned her eyes to Ding Ruilong.

“Ruobing, it’s been a long time.” Ding Ruilong extended a hand toward her.

It truly had been a long time since they had met in person, though they had spoken on the phone often enough.

Li Ruobing looked at the outstretched hand. Then at him. Then she raised her own hand…

and inspected her fingernails.

She plainly had no intention of shaking his hand and no interest whatsoever in acknowledging him.

The atmosphere turned awkward.

Ding Ruilong’s expression did not change. He knew what Li Ruobing was like and had come prepared for it.

Then, suddenly—

“Why did you even come to Donghai?” Wu Chen spoke, smiling straight at him. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

Every expression in the room changed.

No one had expected Wu Chen to be the one who openly provoked Ding Ruilong first.