Chapter 335: I’m All Ears

Chapter 335: I’m All Ears

Marriage alliances among great families were common.

Nine years earlier, Liu Hongmei, the second daughter of the Liu family’s third generation, had married Dou Rui, a direct-line descendant of the Dou family’s third generation, and with that the two houses formally became allies.

In fact they had already cooperated extensively in business before the wedding, and their ties ran deep. The marriage had simply been the natural next step.

The Dou family was that same Dou family whose direct-line descendants had proved somewhat unequal to the task, so that it had turned its full support to its son-in-law, Qu Qiangmin.

And Qu Qiangmin was the sworn enemy and rival of Dong Yaoguang, Dong Yuantao’s father.

So, through their alliance with the Dous, the Liu family was in essence an opponent of the Dong family.

An enemy, rather.

And what the Li family intended was to join with the Dong family, use the truth of Dong Yuantao’s death to detonate something large, and hand the Dongs damaging material on Qu Qiangmin in order to build trust and forge an alliance.

The Ding family had to be dealt with.

So did the Dou family.

An alliance meant mutual aid. The Li family would certainly help the Dongs strike the Dous, and the Lius would certainly help the Dous. When that day came, the Liu family would naturally be the Li family’s enemy.

The point of entry Wu Chen had chosen for bringing the Tang and Li families together was, admittedly, a little distant. A roundabout route.

Not that he would not have preferred something closer. There simply wasn’t one. Or rather, there were minor frictions, but nothing large enough to make the Tang family “certain to act.”

The Tang family had no grudge and little entanglement with the Ding family or its principal allies.

The same was true of the Wei family.

So Wu Chen had chosen the Liu family as his opening.

And choosing the Lius produced one particularly elegant effect: for the time being the Tang family could not imagine what quarrel or connection the Li family could possibly have with them.

So to the Tang family, this genuinely looked like a gift being pressed on them.

It was not a gift.

It was an alliance of mutual benefit. Once the Li family had lent its strength to the work of striking the Lius, the Tang family would naturally have to return the favor. If the Li family moved against the Ding family or the Wei family, the Tangs would naturally be expected to help.

“Reservations? Not really any reservations. Mr. Tang only wants to confirm things…” Wu Chen said toward the phone with a smile, then shifted. “How about this, Uncle. Have a word with Mr. Tang. It’ll make the rest easier for us.”

“Fine.” Li Maoren answered crisply.

Wu Chen picked the phone up from the coffee table and switched off the speaker, keeping the call live as he handed it to Tang Jingbin.

Tang Jingbin took it.

“Brother Li! Ah, it’s me… Hahaha, you see how it is—honestly, it isn’t that I had any reservation. It was only rather sudden. Don’t take it amiss, Brother Li.”

From his first words Tang Jingbin sounded anxious that Li Maoren not misunderstand, and there was a distinctly deferential note in it as well.

Deference was required.

Tang Jingbin could meet Sun Yongzhang as an equal. Against Li Maoren he could not. Li Maoren was the foremost man of the Li family’s second generation and its future patriarch. That had been settled within the family, and everyone outside it knew.

More than that, Li Maoren was only in his early fifties and already held high office. He could well go further; reaching the height the Li patriarch had once attained was entirely possible.

Meeting Li Maoren as an equal would take Tang Jingbin’s elder brother, Tang Jingjun. Tang Jingbin himself necessarily stood a rung lower when they spoke.

“Understandable. It’s a major matter for both families. A little caution on your part does neither house any harm, Boss Tang.” Li Maoren spoke with a smile in his voice, warm and familiar.

The two had not met or spoken in several years, so naturally they traded a few more pleasantries.

Meanwhile—

Sun Yongzhang still had not recovered. He watched Tang Jingbin on the phone and stole glances at Wu Chen. He could not understand it. If his brother-in-law had settled something this large with Wu Chen, why had he said nothing before sending Sun Yongzhang here?

Distrust?

Out of the question.

Then why did he know nothing about it?

Wu Chen watched Tang Jingbin talk, then turned toward Sun Yongzhang. Sun Yongzhang happened to be looking at him too. Their eyes met, and from his face Wu Chen could see that he still had not worked it out.

Understandable enough.

Not because Sun Yongzhang lacked brains, but because he stood in a different place from Li Maoren.

Li Maoren was the man who held the whole board. He had to consider everything. He knew the most and thought the most. He had of course thought about the Liu family long ago; he simply had not yet made a plan for them.

Sun Yongzhang stood below Li Maoren as an executor, and was a Sun besides. He was responsible for one part of the larger plan, and most of his thought went to that part.

It was the difference between commanding the whole and managing a portion.

Which was why Sun Yongzhang’s thinking here was less clear. He might see it in an instant, or he might not.

“…Hahahaha, then about the Liu family…” After two minutes with Li Maoren, Tang Jingbin laughed again and raised it.

“Boss Tang can discuss that with Xiao Wu. He has full authority to represent us. His position is the Li family’s position. As for the particulars, the two of you can work them out. If you can settle it, then afterward we’ll talk about the next steps.”

Once again Li Maoren handed the whole thing to Wu Chen.

His trust in Wu Chen where the greater plan was concerned was genuine.

So was the fact that he had little choice but to speak this way.

He truly knew nothing. He did not know what Wu Chen had told Tang Jingbin. He would have to ask afterward. For now all he could do was let Wu Chen keep negotiating, and say little himself, for fear of saying the wrong thing.

“Very good, hahaha, then we’ll keep talking here… Brother Li, would you like another word with Xiao Wu?” Tang Jingbin asked.

“No, you two carry on. I’ve something to see to here.”

“Of course, of course. I won’t keep you, then.”

“Good.”

The call ended.

Tang Jingbin hung up, rose, and handed the phone back to Wu Chen. And as he did, the way he looked at Wu Chen had changed again.

Once more he was reassessing this twenty-two-year-old named Wu Chen.

However unthinkable it was, Tang Jingbin had to admit that Wu Chen could, at a minimum, stand as his equal. What heaven-piercing ability or talent did he have? What unknown quality in him could earn such reliance from Li Maoren?

Li Maoren had actually said that Wu Chen’s position was the Li family’s position.

However he turned it over, Tang Jingbin could not understand it. But understanding no longer mattered.

Wu Chen took back his phone.

“Hahahahaha! Ah, Xiao Wu! That wasn’t what I meant just now.” Tang Jingbin laughed heartily as he sat down again. “Look at us, dragging Brother Li into it. I never said I didn’t trust you, Xiao Wu…”

Words that would have sounded awkward from another man came out of Tang Jingbin perfectly naturally.

“I understand.” Wu Chen said only that, with a smile. He glanced at Sun Yongzhang, then back at Tang Jingbin. “Mr. Tang, may we talk about the Liu family now?”

“We may, we may. Please, go ahead.” Tang Jingbin was all warmth. “I’m all ears.”

“You’re too kind, Mr. Tang.” Wu Chen smiled, then let his manner grow a shade more serious while the smile remained. “As it happens, the Liu family’s problem, so far as I know…”

Now he began in earnest.

The dirt on the Liu family.

It was nothing rare or intricate. In essence it came down to certain matters of accepting money. No great family was entirely clean. The only questions were whether anyone would dig it out, whether anyone would seize the crucial evidence, and whether another great power would take hold of that weakness and put it to use.

Which was precisely the sort of thing that could bring Li Ruotai down.

While Wu Chen was explaining the Liu family’s dirty secrets to Tang Jingbin—

Downstairs, in the villa’s living room.

Li Ruotai was talking with Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi. Tang Xinbao had met Li Ruotai on the night he was hurt and had never laid the blame at Li Ruotai’s feet, so the two got along well enough.

Zhuang Xiaodie was there too, naturally, in an armchair on the other side of the room. She had barely spoken, and she looked unable to sit still.

She was a little afraid.

There was no other reason. Li Ruotai kept flicking his eyes toward her.

Many times now.

And the looks were not friendly ones.

Zhuang Xiaodie knew, of course, that Li Ruotai was Li Ruobing’s younger brother. So she could imagine why he kept glancing at her.

It left her deeply uneasy.

She even wanted to go upstairs for a while and keep out of the way, but she made herself stay.

Ding!

The elevator chimed. It had come up from the basement, and a moment later the doors opened.

Li Ruobing stepped out in heels, handbag in hand.

She was back.

Everyone in the living room turned to look. The instant Zhuang Xiaodie saw her it was as though she had caught sight of a rescuer. She rose hurriedly and went to meet her.

“Miss Li, you’re back.”