Chapter 347: Mr. Wu of Donghai

Chapter 347: Mr. Wu of Donghai

Wu Chen understood that if Crooked Zhao dared produce a bank card in front of Li Ruotai, the two of them had settled everything before he arrived.

Li Ruotai certainly knew how much was on it.

Wu Chen glanced at the card on the table, then at Crooked Zhao. Reading his reaction, Crooked Zhao smiled again at once. “The PIN is six nines. Take it and buy yourself some tea. You went to so much trouble over this, and I, Crooked Zhao, have no way to repay you. You really must accept it.”

Then he glanced at Li Ruotai.

“Brother-in-law, it’s Crooked Zhao’s way of showing his gratitude,” Li Ruotai said in support. He spread his hand, picked up the card, and slipped it into the outer pocket of Wu Chen’s suit.

“There you are, Crooked Zhao. My brother-in-law has accepted it,” Li Ruotai told him once it was safely in place.

“Good, good! Mr. Wu, let me offer you another toast!” Crooked Zhao said eagerly. A bottle of Hennessy champagne stood open on the table, glasses ready.

His legs might be troublesome, but his hands were quick. He poured a glass for Wu Chen, then one for Li Ruotai and one for himself.

He picked up his own at once, held its rim below Wu Chen’s, and touched it against the side of Wu Chen’s glass. Smiling broadly, he said, “To you, Mr. Wu!”

He gestured toward Li Ruotai for a toast as well.

Li Ruotai lifted his glass, clinked it against Crooked Zhao’s, and gestured to Wu Chen. “Come on, Brother-in-law. Let’s drink.”

From the moment Li Ruotai slipped the card into Wu Chen’s pocket, the whole performance had run without a hitch.

The two of them really did make a fine team.

Wu Chen, however, did not immediately clink glasses. Still smiling, he looked sideways at Li Ruotai. The air in the room chilled, leaving a trace of awkwardness.

“Brother-in-law…” Li Ruotai gestured with his glass again, his voice considerably smaller.

Wu Chen watched him without a word. At last he picked up his glass.

“There we go! Bottoms up!” Li Ruotai broke into a grin.

“I’ll finish mine, Mr. Wu. Drink as much as you like!” Crooked Zhao said.

The warmth came back at once.

The three clinked glasses and drank.

Then came a round of idle talk. Crooked Zhao thanked Wu Chen over and over. He even called it discourteous of him not to have paid a visit these past few days and punished himself with three glasses.

More than ten minutes later.

“…Crooked Zhao, don’t you have other things to see to? Go on, then,” Li Ruotai said, glancing up at him.

“Right, right. I do have something. I’ll leave you two to talk…” Crooked Zhao agreed and stood.

He plainly had nothing pressing. It was simply time for him to go.

His part was done.

Glass in hand, Wu Chen took a sip and watched Crooked Zhao’s back. Only once the man had gone out did he set the glass down and turn to Li Ruotai.

“A-Tai, do you really think this was necessary?” Wu Chen asked, looking at him sideways.

“What? What’s necessary?” Li Ruotai played dumb first, then hurried to explain. “No, Brother-in-law—it was Crooked Zhao. He insisted on thanking you. He even begged me to help because he was afraid you wouldn’t take the money, so I played along a little…”

“Trying to play games with me?” Wu Chen smiled at him.

The smile raised the hair on Li Ruotai’s arms.

“No, Brother-in-law, I really didn’t mean anything by it…” he forced out.

“How much is on the card?” Wu Chen asked outright.

“It’s just… there’s… a hundred million.” Li Ruotai could barely bring himself to say it. He could tell he had upset his brother-in-law yet again.

Wu Chen had saved Tang Xinbao’s life, and even after preparing a generous gift Tang Jingbin had put only fifty million yuan on a card. That was already an enormous sum. Compensation for an offense and a gift of gratitude were not the same thing and could not be measured against each other.

Yet Crooked Zhao, nowhere near as wealthy as the Tang family, had offered a hundred million outright.

That was plainly abnormal.

A hundred million yuan in cash. Even taken generously, Crooked Zhao’s whole net worth might come to eight or nine hundred million, but net worth was not cash on hand. There was no way he could produce a hundred million in cash at once.

He had probably borrowed to cover it. He had businesses to put up as collateral, so a loan would have been no trouble.

There was an art to accepting money.

It was a matter of obligation and personal ties. Wu Chen had taken the Tang family’s fifty million because the amount was reasonable. Had the Tang family offered five hundred million, he would never have touched it.

A gift that large would be too much. Accepting it would mean owing the giver in return.

The same principle applied here.

Crooked Zhao had opened with a hundred million, more lavish than Tang Jingbin. He called it a thank-you gift, but in truth, if Wu Chen accepted, the excess amounted to accepting an obligation to Crooked Zhao. If Crooked Zhao ran into trouble again, Wu Chen would have to shelter him.

Had Crooked Zhao gone around Li Ruotai and made this kind of offering in private, it would have meant his loyalties were shifting. But this time Li Ruotai had helped him do it.

Which meant…

Wu Chen ran through the possibilities quickly, then glanced at Li Ruotai and asked, “When are you leaving?”

“In the next few days…” Li Ruotai answered on instinct, nerves working in him. Then his eyes went wide. “Bro—Brother-in-law, how did you k-know? Brother-in-law, you really are a master of foresight. Nothing gets past you. You’re incredible!”

By the end he was giving Wu Chen a thumbs-up and shouting his praise. He understood that Wu Chen had seen straight through his little scheme.

In fact the matter was not complicated. Li Ruotai had to leave Donghai for a while. He had to lie low until the trouble hanging over his life was thoroughly settled, and only then could he come back.

But once he was gone, there was no telling what would happen in Donghai’s underworld. Would disorder break out again? Would people develop ambitions? Would some other powerful figure move in on the vacancy?

No telling at all.

So Li Ruotai needed someone to stand in for him and look after his underworld affairs in Donghai. That person had to be absolutely trustworthy, and strong enough to hold the local underworld down.

Wu Chen was plainly the only choice.

“Couldn’t you simply have told me?” Wu Chen asked, another sidelong look.

“Told you directly… well, I was afraid my sister might not agree…” Li Ruotai said, gesturing.

His main worry was his older sister, Li Ruobing. She had never liked how deeply he was tangled up with Donghai’s underworld. But by the time she came to Donghai his arrangements there were essentially complete. It was a settled situation, and meddling would only have made it messier, so she had been forced to leave him to it.

Back then Li Ruobing had been too late to interfere.

But now she could talk Wu Chen out of it. What she said to the man sharing her bed would certainly carry more weight than anything her “younger brother-in-law” could say.

That was the root of Li Ruotai’s maneuver. This way Wu Chen would become involved in certain underworld matters without having sought them out. He would keep an eye on those people, and Li Ruobing would have a harder time objecting.

There was another consideration. Li Ruotai could not explain to Donghai’s underworld why he was leaving. If word spread, the Wei family would understand that he had gone into hiding.

In other words, he could not plainly tell Crooked Zhao and the rest of Donghai’s four underworld giants that he was entrusting his “position” to Wu Chen.

Donghai’s man in charge would change from Young Master Li of Donghai to Mr. Wu of Donghai.

For both reasons Li Ruotai could not say it outright. He could only arrange things to push them along: let Wu Chen take money from the underworld, give Crooked Zhao a reason to come to him when something happened, and draw Wu Chen into managing those affairs without his volunteering for them.

“You…” Wu Chen looked at him and sighed.

“Brother-in-law, whatever you do, don’t tell my sister. If she finds out I got you to look after all this in Donghai, she’ll kill me…” Li Ruotai pleaded at once.

“It won’t come to that.” Wu Chen smiled.

Reading his face, Li Ruotai saw that he no longer seemed angry, and picked up his glass. “Brother-in-law, let’s drink. To you…”

Wu Chen raised his glass.

…

Around four-thirty in the afternoon.

Wu Chen had been talking with Li Ruotai for more than an hour. Everything that needed saying had been said, including Ding Ruilong and Tang Xinbao.

They were finished.

Wu Chen checked his watch.

“Something on, Brother-in-law? How about dinner together tonight?” Li Ruotai noticed and asked.

“I have plans. All right, that’s enough for today.”

“Sure, Brother-in-law. You go on. I’ll see you out.”

Wu Chen stood, and Li Ruotai rose with him.

Downstairs.

Into the car.

And away.

As he drove, Wu Chen called Li Ruobing.

She answered quickly.

“Hello, darling.”

“Ruobing, let’s have dinner out tonight.”

“Mm? Out somewhere?”

“Yes. With two friends. They’re treating.”

“Friends? Who? Women, I assume.”

“Song Xuan and An Menglan.”

“Song Xuan? Still playing that game? Does Wu Yurong know—wait. Hold on. Who was that second name?”