Chapter 330: Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!

Chapter 330: Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!

There was nothing surprising about Li Maoren knowing about the fire. Even ordinary internet users knew Crown Entertainment Club in Donghai had burned the previous night. It had already made the news.

But Wu Chen understood that although Li Maoren had called to ask about “the fire at the club,” that was not what he was really asking.

He was asking about Ding Ruilong setting fire to the club.

And Wu Chen reckoned Li Maoren had only just learned that part. Someone had called him.

Li Ruotai had plainly already begun making a scene.

Wu Chen could even work out who had called Li Maoren. Sun Yongzhang, naturally.

It could not have been Li Ruotai. Had his son called, Li Maoren would not have needed to ask Wu Chen anything; Li Ruotai would have given him the inside story himself.

Li Maoren already knew his son had a plan to burn the club. They simply had not settled on when.

So when the club suddenly caught fire, the incident turned out to be arson, and the blame landed on Ding Ruilong, Li Maoren could naturally see a scheme behind it.

The fact that he had called Wu Chen also meant he had concluded Wu Chen was most likely the one behind it.

Setting the fire would certainly have required Li Ruotai’s cooperation, so the two must have worked together. Framing Ding Ruilong, however, was surely Wu Chen’s handiwork.

It was not that Li Maoren looked down on his son. He genuinely did not believe Li Ruotai capable of executing a plan that large and that intricate.

It would be far too easy to botch.

And the whole affair had so many extraordinary aspects that Li Maoren’s thoughts turned naturally to Wu Chen.

Wu Chen rose from the table and walked out of the dining room.

“Uncle, you’ve heard?” he said, turning toward the stairs as he spoke.

“How could I not have heard?” Li Maoren’s tone was not good. “Something this big… It was you, wasn’t it?”

A direct question.

“That’s right,” Wu Chen said, admitting it without hesitation. Li Ruotai would tell him whether Wu Chen did or not, so there was no reason to be coy.

“Xiao Wu… why didn’t you give me some warning? This was an enormous move.” There was reproach in Li Maoren’s voice.

That was the source of his displeasure. He genuinely had a grievance. With the blame pinned squarely on Ding Ruilong, the Li family would now have to keep the performance going: press the Ding family hard, demand an accounting, demand compensation.

If the Ding family uncovered the truth, every plan they had would collapse.

“Uncle.” Wu Chen had reached the study and was still walking as he spoke. “If I’d told you beforehand, you… wouldn’t have agreed, would you?”

Li Maoren fell silent a moment, which amounted to conceding the point.

Of course he would not have agreed to a plan that dangerous. He wanted stability. Before their major move, it was best not to provoke the Ding family at all. The steadier things stayed, the better.

Wu Chen wanted to strike back at Ding Ruilong. Li Maoren had no personal grudge against him.

“Nothing’s going to go wrong, is it?” Li Maoren asked after several seconds.

“Of course not.” Wu Chen smiled.

“Ah.” Li Maoren sighed. “Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu, I’m not trying to lecture you, but tell me—wasn’t this too risky? If the Ding family turns up anything that doesn’t sit right, won’t everything we agreed on be ruined?”

He did not speak as a man of power addressing a subordinate. He spoke as an elder to a younger man, very nearly pleading with him.

He could not control Wu Chen anyway. All he could do was grumble after the fact.

“Uncle, if I’m willing to do a thing, it’s because I won’t fail at it.” Wu Chen stood on the study balcony, looking out as he spoke.

“Yes, yes. You’re formidable. You can do anything…” Li Maoren sounded a little exasperated now. They had been in contact often enough, talked enough, that their manner had grown casual. Li Maoren no longer bothered holding himself at a dignified distance.

“So then…” Li Maoren changed direction. “Ding Ruilong’s gun blowing apart—was that also you…?”

“An accident, I suppose. Ha.” Wu Chen called it an accident, and laughed at the end.

That laugh told Li Maoren everything. Wu Chen had as good as admitted it. That was his work too.

There was no need to hide it from Li Maoren. He knew Ding Ruilong had come to Donghai in secret a day early, and Wu Chen had already handed him the data he had stolen. Li Maoren could work it out on his own. Denial would be pointless.

“You… set him up twice in one day. Feel good?” Li Maoren asked.

“Not bad,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Li Maoren did not press much about the gun. That matter was relatively simple. So long as no one discovered the weapon had been tampered with, there was little to be found in any other direction.

Framing Ding Ruilong was another thing. It was complicated, involved more people, and left investigators far more ground to cover. That made slips much easier.

They talked on a while longer, then came back to the fire.

Li Maoren asked several questions.

Wu Chen answered briefly.

A few minutes later Li Maoren was in excellent spirits and began praising him.

“Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Looks like I was worrying over nothing. Hahahaha! Xiao Wu, you really are something!” Li Maoren laughed heartily.

He reacted that way because Wu Chen had explained the crucial point: the investigation would lead to Jiang Chuan, and Jiang Chuan was in Donghai at this very moment, in Wu Chen’s hands.

Which meant that however thoroughly the Ding family investigated, the trail would end with one of their own men.

And Li Maoren naturally understood Jiang Chuan’s value.

The man had not only served Ding Ruilong. Before that, he had served Ding Ruilong’s father.

…

Meanwhile.

In a private ward on the third floor of Donghai University First Affiliated Hospital.

Nearly an hour and a half had passed since Ding Ruilong made the call ordering the investigation, and he had not spent it idly waiting.

He had summoned his bodyguards into the ward one at a time and questioned each of them about Jiang Hongguang.

Those closest to Jiang Hongguang he had questioned most closely of all.

By their accounts, Jiang Hongguang had shown nothing worth mentioning in the way of unusual behavior recently. Everything suspicious belonged to yesterday.

“…You heard what they said. Both times Jiang Hongguang left yesterday afternoon, he looked at a text message first. Someone must have been giving him instructions. The first time, I was playing cards with you. The second, I was eating with you. I didn’t send those messages,” Ding Ruilong said flatly, watching Li Ruotai.

“And that’s how you clear yourself? Jiang Hongguang is your man. All you had to do was arrange things in advance. As for who actually contacted him with the instructions… it could have been anyone.” Li Ruotai sat in a chair in the corner, looking at him with a sneer.

“Why are you so determined it was me? Would I use a method that stupid? Leave evidence that obvious?” Ding Ruilong narrowed his eyes at him.

“That’s the line you prepared in advance, isn’t it? Planning to leave no one to testify?” Li Ruotai shot straight back.

They were about to start again.

Just then—

Ring, ring…

Ding Ruilong’s phone.

He picked it up and answered at once. “Talk.”

“Young Master, I’ve had everything checked. There are… some problems with Jiang Hongguang’s recent finances, but the amount isn’t large. A few tens of thousands of yuan. We don’t know where the money came from. His call records don’t seem to show anything wrong. I’ll send the list to your phone shortly. It’s just…” A middle-aged man’s voice.

“Just what?” Ding Ruilong asked.

“Well… Jiang Hongguang had two calls yesterday afternoon, one a little after four and one a little after six. That number had been in contact with him only on those two occasions. There was no contact before that.”

The man went on, “So I had someone look into the number. There’s a problem with it. It’s an unregistered number; we can’t trace the real subscriber. And there have been only three calls on it since the SIM was activated. The last two were yesterday. The first was several days ago…”

There he hesitated.

“What is it?” Ding Ruilong asked, hearing something wrong in his tone.

“It’s just… the only call that number made before yesterday was to Master Chuan. No—I mean, Jiang Chuan. To a number Jiang Chuan used regularly before.”

Ding Ruilong froze. His eyes widened considerably. It took him a moment to recover before he asked, unable to believe it, “Jiang Chuan?!”