Chapter 341: One Man Worth an Entire Great Family!

Chapter 341: One Man Worth an Entire Great Family!

“Ah, young Wu.” From his very first words to Wu Chen, Old Master Li sounded every inch the kindly elder.

“Yes, it’s me. Go ahead, Old Master,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Wu Chen had a good deal of respect for the Li family patriarch. The man was in his late seventies, nearing eighty. No one could say how many years he had left, and he was forever thinking about what would come after his death. He had forced his granddaughter Li Ruobing to marry Ding Ruilong out of concern for the family’s interests. Wu Chen could understand the motive. He simply could not accept the method.

Even so, a conflict that could be resolved was no conflict at all. The dangerous kind was the sort that could not be resolved, the sort that turned men into enemies. Old Master Li’s case was plainly the former.

Wu Chen understood perfectly that from the moment Li Ruobing took her grandfather’s call, there would never again be any quarrel between himself and this old man who had once held a deputy position at the very highest level and had given a great deal to his country.

“Young Wu, this is our first time speaking. Maoren has been telling me about you lately. He never stops saying how outstanding you are. As the ancients said, heroes emerge in their youth. You’re far more capable than those grandsons of mine. Ha ha ha…”

The old man’s voice never lost its unhurried cadence, yet he opened by heaping praise on Wu Chen.

Wu Chen knew how deep this old man’s thoughts ran. He might well have meant every word, but there was a reason he had said it so plainly.

Li Maoren had presumably just finished making another report.

Everything Wu Chen had discussed with Li Maoren, Old Master Li naturally already knew. But those conversations had been nothing more than a steady raising of the stakes, not enough to make the patriarch want to speak with Wu Chen himself.

Until today.

Wu Chen was no longer merely handing Li Maoren intelligence or offering him strategy. He had personally negotiated and secured cooperation between the Li and Tang families.

That, presumably, was why Old Master Li had suddenly called his granddaughter seeking a “reconciliation.”

The root of it was Wu Chen. It was Wu Chen the old man wanted to talk to, and Li Ruobing was the one crucial person he could not go around. Wu Chen had no direct tie to the Li family, even after conspiring with Li Maoren over so much.

And both Li Maoren and Old Master Li clearly understood that a man who could use damaging secrets against other families could just as easily use them against the Lis.

On top of which, Wu Chen had no family background of his own.

Under those conditions, the Li family’s best option was not to make Wu Chen vanish. It was to make him unmistakably one of their own. That meant not only marrying Li Ruobing to him, but reconciling with her as well.

Otherwise, if Li Ruobing stayed at odds with her family, Wu Chen might well help her fight the Lis. He was, after all, a man prepared to bring down the Ding family for her sake.

“You’re too kind, Old Master.” Wu Chen smiled. He began to walk without thinking and came to the railing on the third floor. One hand in his pocket, he watched the crowds moving on the floors above and below.

“So modest, too, young Wu.” There was a smile in the old man’s aged voice.

Li Ruobing had followed Wu Chen to the railing, her arm still linked through his. She tilted her head slightly to catch what her grandfather was saying to him.

In truth they were discussing nothing at all. It was their first call, and they were trading the sort of talk Wu Chen habitually called “nonsense.”

But the nonsense was not useless.

Two people who wanted to grow closer had to pass through it. Such talk let both sides show their attitudes and gradually lower each other’s guard.

“…How long have you and our Bingbing been together, young Wu?”

“A little over four months,” Wu Chen said with a smile. It was a lie.

When they had met hardly mattered, and Wu Chen had no wish to waste breath explaining. Saying they had been together only a little over two weeks would invite all sorts of unnecessary speculation.

“More than four months. That can’t have been easy. With Bingbing’s temper, you’ll have to make allowances for her, young Wu. She’s been that way since she was a girl…” A wistful note crept into the old man’s voice.

Listening at Wu Chen’s side, Li Ruobing could not help rolling her eyes.

“Ruobing and I get along very well. Don’t worry,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

For the next few minutes they went on with the pleasantries. Besides Li Ruobing they talked about Wu Chen’s family. It might almost have been a first meeting with the parents. Old Master Li asked whether Wu Chen’s parents were in good health, whether there were any elderly relatives still at home.

Wu Chen answered those questions truthfully. He could feel the old man testing him, watching to see whether he would tell the truth. Given Wu Chen’s abilities, an ordinary family background was deeply suspicious.

But what Wu Chen told him really was the truth.

“Dad, it’s time for your medicine.” Li Maoren’s voice sounded suddenly in the background of the call.

“Mm. You go on ahead…” The old man’s voice drew away, then came close again. “Let’s leave it there for now, young Wu. Come by the house when you have time. We’ll have a proper talk.”

“Of course. I’ll be sure to visit when I get the chance,” Wu Chen said.

And that was the end of it. Six or seven minutes, all told.

Old Master Li plainly had no intention of discussing anything serious over the phone. Far too much could never be made clear that way.

And he had not mentioned Ding Ruilong once.

He had not needed to. His position was clear enough. The invitation to the family home amounted to an acknowledgment that he had changed his plans for Li Ruobing’s future and accepted her relationship with Wu Chen.

With one caveat.

Wu Chen would not be visiting the Li family lightly.

Invitation or not, the old man presumably understood that Wu Chen could not simply turn up. If word leaked and the Ding family heard of it, they would begin speculating and digging. That would be a disaster.

Which was why the patriarch had said to come when he had time, rather than naming a day.

The visit would still require a very particular opportunity.

Wu Chen hung up and handed the phone back to Li Ruobing.

By rights she should have been happy. Years of pressure from her own family had crumbled with that single call from her grandfather.

Yet Li Ruobing took the phone expressionlessly and gave Wu Chen a sidelong look.

“Why the sour face? Aren’t you pleased?” he asked, smiling.

“Exactly how much have you been keeping from me?” She narrowed her eyes. “That old man is so stubborn, and suddenly he calls me, admits he was wrong, tells me I have good judgment…”

“You do have good judgment. What’s suspicious about that?” Wu Chen laughed.

“Don’t play dumb! Are you going to explain or not?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

She was genuinely shaken. To her the whole thing had come out of nowhere. She knew only a sliver of what Wu Chen had done, specifically the part about Dong Yuantao.

And she understood that the Dong Yuantao business could at most change her family’s attitude and strategy toward the Dings. Even if the Li family abandoned the Dings, that did not mean it would accept Wu Chen. Still less did it mean her grandfather would call to reconcile, or invite Wu Chen to the family home.

Li Ruobing knew how heavily authoritarian her grandfather was. He wanted to control everything. It was the mindset of his whole generation, and of men who had held high office in particular. It was in his bones. He could not change it.

Even if he stopped forcing her toward Ding Ruilong, he might force her toward the son of some other great family. Marriage alliances were a way of forging allies, extending the family’s reach, securing its position, and he had pursued them ever since stepping down.

At bottom he wanted the family to remain strong after his death, stronger still if possible, and not be displaced by the newly powerful.

So in Li Ruobing’s eyes, her grandfather accepting Wu Chen was as good as admitting he believed Wu Chen’s value, the benefit Wu Chen could bring the Li family, exceeded an alliance with another great family.

A man with no background whatsoever, worth an entire great family?

What on earth had Wu Chen done to turn the old man around so completely?

“We—” Wu Chen began.

“Sister Ruobing!” A girl’s excited shout rang out from down the corridor.