Chapter 339: Old Bastard!

Chapter 339: Old Bastard!

“We just need to pay them,” Wu Chen said, glancing at her with a smile.

“Just pay them?” Li Ruobing frowned slightly. This had never been a problem money alone could solve. Someone had to be punished. Put plainly, Crooked Zhao and his people had to be protected without undermining Li Ruotai’s foundations in Donghai.

And now money alone would settle it?

And Tang Jingbin was that happy?

How much would they have to pay?

Surely it would take an astronomical sum for Tang Jingbin to agree not to pursue anyone.

“How much? More than a billion?” The words had barely left her mouth when something seemed to strike her. Her eyes flashed, and she lowered her voice. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to make the Ding family compensate A-Tai, then have A-Tai hand that money to the Tangs. That way A-Tai loses nothing. The Ding family pays for it. Is that it?”

Wu Chen’s smile took on a distinctly surprised cast. Li Ruobing’s idea was actually rather interesting.

What an imagination.

And there was nothing wrong with the logic. They had burned the club themselves, as planned, so Li Ruotai had always intended to bear that loss. Framing Ding Ruilong and taking the Ding family’s money would bring in an additional sum. Using that money to settle Tang Xinbao’s affair…

Come to think of it, a scheme like that did sound very much like Wu Chen.

“No,” he said.

“No?” she echoed.

If that wasn’t the arrangement, then given Tang Jingbin’s mood, had Wu Chen slipped this time?

“Brother-in-law, just tell us. How much?” Li Ruotai spoke up. He had been “eavesdropping” on the two of them the whole time.

“Something reasonable will do.” Wu Chen glanced at him and smiled. “Less than a hundred million. That should be compensation enough.”

“That little?” Li Ruotai was taken aback.

“What else?” Wu Chen smiled. “How much do you want to give them?”

“And they won’t go after anyone?”

“Mm.” Wu Chen nodded.

Li Ruotai could scarcely believe it. He looked at Wu Chen with a peculiar expression, bewildered and excited at once. “So that’s it? It’s over?”

“It’s over.” Wu Chen smiled.

“Brother-in-law, you’re fucking incredible!” Li Ruotai blurted out, impressed all over again.

“What exactly did you discuss?” Li Ruobing asked suddenly from beside them, quiet and searching. She was already braced for him not to tell her.

“It’s complicated.” Wu Chen gave her a sidelong smile.

And sure enough, he did not tell her.

Just then footsteps sounded near the stairs. Sun Yongzhang was coming down. Li Ruotai glanced over and immediately went to meet him, naturally meaning to ask him instead.

Meanwhile.

Outside the villa, in a car parked at the roadside.

Tang Jingbin, Tang Xinbao, and Guo Qiqi all sat in the back. Tang Jingbin was giving the younger two his instructions.

“…Xiaobao, don’t pursue the matter of your injury any further. The Li family will pay compensation. I’ve settled it with them. As for the amount, follow Wu Chen’s lead. Whatever he says you should accept, accept. Don’t ask for more, and don’t refuse it either.”

“I know, Second Uncle. I never really wanted to make an issue of it anyway. Brother Wu saved my life.”

“Mm. And since you two aren’t leaving today, stay here for now. Build a good relationship with Wu Chen and Li Ruobing. Wu Chen is a very unusual man. Being on good terms with him will benefit our Tang family enormously, and the Guo family too.”

Tang Jingbin was being extraordinarily direct. The implications were almost startling.

A little over ten minutes later.

Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi got out and watched Tang Jingbin’s two SUVs drive away. Then they went back into the villa.

Everyone was talking in the living room, though Li Ruobing and Li Ruotai both wore slightly peculiar expressions.

That was because Sun Yongzhang had said nothing about the discussion upstairs when he came down. Neither he nor Wu Chen would speak about the private meeting in the study.

Tang Xinbao and Guo Qiqi had just come through the door.

“You’re back. Has Brother Tang left?” Sun Yongzhang turned and asked.

“He has, Uncle Sun,” Tang Xinbao replied.

“Then I’ll be going too.” Sun Yongzhang rose. “There’s nothing more for me to do here. I’ll head to the airport…”

He was going back to report the study’s private discussion to Li Maoren in person. He had not gone into much detail on the phone. The matter was too complicated for a few sentences on a call.

Strictly speaking, Sun Yongzhang should not have been leaving yet.

Ding Ruilong was the prime suspect in the club fire, after all.

But Sun Yongzhang now knew the whole thing was Wu Chen’s scheme. Li Maoren had told him so over the phone, and that had put his mind at ease. Li Maoren’s anger had all been performance. He certainly would not lose his head and actually kill Ding Ruilong.

“Well, if there’s nothing for me to do either, then I’ll—I’ll take Third Uncle to the airport,” Li Ruotai said, following his lead.

With everything settled, there was no reason for him to stay either.

Before long, Li Ruotai and Sun Yongzhang left together.

Only Wu Chen, Li Ruobing, Zhuang Xiaodie, Tang Xinbao, and Guo Qiqi remained. They talked in the living room a while longer, until Li Ruobing checked her watch and looked at Wu Chen. “Let’s go, my dear Mr. Wu.”

“What for?” he asked with a smile.

“There’s a company event tonight. You’re coming with me.”

“All right.” He nodded.

Li Ruobing went upstairs to change first.

A little over ten minutes later the two of them went out together.

More than an hour passed. It was nearly five in the afternoon.

Haman Shopping Center, Central District, Donghai. Standing in the heart of Central District’s shopping streets, the complex was one of Donghai’s largest commercial centers.

The third floor was crowded with people.

Li Ruobing, in a long dress and heels and diamonds, had her arm through Wu Chen’s. He was in a suit. They had just come out of a luxury boutique.

They were a strikingly handsome couple, and they looked extremely rich. Li Ruobing in particular drew an extraordinary number of second glances. Wherever she went, passersby turned to look.

Two bodyguards followed behind, laden with bags of every size.

They had been shopping for some time and had bought a great deal. Li Ruobing had paid for all of it, and every purchase had been for Wu Chen. She had not bought a single thing for herself.

The event they were attending was in fact a business dinner, set for seven-thirty that evening.

Li Ruobing had brought Wu Chen out early precisely to shop for him, to buy him a whole outfit for the dinner.

Wu Chen could tell that Wu Yurong had influenced her thinking. The watch Wu Yurong had bought him, worth two million yuan, was on his wrist at that very moment.

They were walking on with the bodyguards, about to head up to the fourth floor.

Ring, ring…

Li Ruobing’s phone rang. She took it out and glanced at the screen. She had been smiling, in excellent spirits as she shopped with him, and now her face fell abruptly. Her expression turned cold.

Very cold.

Ring, ring… The phone kept ringing, and she neither answered nor rejected the call.

She only stared at the screen.

Wu Chen glanced at it.

The caller ID read: Old Bastard!

The label had plainly been saved with a certain amount of hatred. Wu Chen knew who it was. Li Ruobing’s grandfather, Li Maoren’s father, the Li family patriarch: Li Huaigeng.

The Li family patriarch had actually called Li Ruobing out of the blue.

As far as Wu Chen knew, the two had had no direct contact since she cursed her grandfather to his face four years earlier.

The old man was extraordinarily stubborn. Under ordinary circumstances he would not speak to his granddaughter again unless she married Ding Ruilong.

And yet he was calling.

Wu Chen could guess why. The call appeared to be for Li Ruobing, but he reckoned there was an eighty percent chance the old man was really after him.

Ring, ring… The phone went on ringing.

More than ten seconds had passed.

At last she answered. She tapped the screen, brought the phone quickly to her ear, and said coldly, “Get to the point. I’m busy.”