Chapter 355: You Definitely Wouldn’t Agree, Right?

Chapter 355: You Definitely Wouldn’t Agree, Right?

North District. Zunrong Donghai Huafu, Villa No. 36. The second-floor master bedroom.

Ring, ring…

The phone on the bedside table suddenly rang, its screen lighting up.

Caller ID: An Menglan.

It was Wu Chen’s phone, but Wu Chen was not in the bedroom.

Neither was Li Ruobing.

The bedding was still a tangle, as though its owners had only just gotten up and had no time to straighten it.

The sound of running water came from the bathroom.

And running water was not the only sound coming from inside.

Ring, ring… The phone rang on for dozens of seconds before it finally cut off by itself.

No answer.

A minute later it rang again.

Still no answer.

An hour later. Around half past nine.

The bathroom door opened.

Li Ruobing came out wrapped in a bath towel, her cheeks flushed. Her expression was far more alluring than usual, and she looked positively radiant.

Wu Chen came out a little after her, a towel in hand, drying his hair as he walked.

“Darling, it’s Saturday. Qingying and I agreed to go shopping today. Want to come?” Li Ruobing asked, sitting down at the vanity and opening her foundation.

“You two go.” Wu Chen went to the wardrobe, opened it, removed his bath towel, and began choosing clothes.

“Then what are you doing today?” Li Ruobing glanced at him, her eyes traveling over his body without her meaning them to.

Women looked too.

It simply depended on the man.

“Got things to do,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“What things? With whom?” she asked.

“An Menglan,” Wu Chen answered directly.

“An Menglan?” Li Ruobing raised an eyebrow, her smile turning a little odd. “You’re that confident? You think she’ll still contact you? Wu Yurong frightened her half to death with that stunt last night.”

“She will.” Wu Chen smiled without explaining.

“You seem to know her very well.” Li Ruobing looked at him, still smiling.

“I’m an information broker,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

“Liar,” Li Ruobing chided him.

She had stopped believing the information broker story long ago. What Wu Chen did was not the sort of thing any so-called information broker could accomplish.

A few minutes later Wu Chen was dressed.

He went to the bedside table and picked up his phone.

Then he paused.

The screen lit, showing two missed-call notifications.

Both from An Menglan.

“I’m heading out,” Wu Chen said, turning back to Li Ruobing.

“Hm?” She was doing her brows and turned toward him, puzzled. “Already? Where are you going?”

“She called me. While we were in the shower.” Wu Chen waved the phone at her.

Li Ruobing narrowed her eyes, then pressed her lips into a smile and made a small gesture at him.

“Good luck.”

Wu Chen was almost impressed.

She could actually wish him luck.

He did not know whether to call her too rational or simply extraordinarily broad-minded.

A few minutes later.

Wu Chen drove the Lamborghini, which Li Ruobing’s bodyguard had returned to the complex the night before, out through the south gate. Once it reached the main road he took out his phone.

He called An Menglan back.

She answered almost at once.

“Hello, Mr. Wu?” An Menglan said.

“Miss An, my phone wasn’t with me earlier. You called?” Wu Chen said.

“Ah… yes. I wanted to talk through our collaboration in more detail. Do you have time, Mr. Wu? Whenever suits you, we could meet again…”

“I have time now. I’ve just left home. Whenever is convenient for you, Miss An. I’m flexible.”

“Mm… then… let’s pick a place,” An Menglan said, considering.

Half an hour later.

The second floor of the Jiazhong International Hotel. Jiazhong Western Restaurant.

The restaurant was part of the hotel but open to the public as well. Anyone could dine there.

Wu Chen had said he was already out, and An Menglan did not want to keep him waiting too long, so she simply arranged to meet downstairs. That way she lost no time traveling.

A little after ten, Wu Chen appeared in the Jiazhong Western Restaurant.

He took a seat at random, ordered a coffee, and told the waiter he was waiting for someone. The service here was excellent, and the waiter did not disturb him further.

Another twenty minutes passed before he noticed.

An Menglan appeared at the corridor entrance in a mask and sunglasses. At this hour there were hardly any customers, and the enormous dining room looked almost empty.

She glanced around and quickly spotted Wu Chen by a window.

Click, click, click.

Her heels approached.

Wu Chen turned, smiled, and raised a hand in greeting. An Menglan reached the table, removed her mask, and said, “Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Wu.”

“I only just got here,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Her being late was understandable. She had presumably changed and done her makeup.

Once she was seated Wu Chen signaled to a waiter nearby.

The waiter came over and was visibly startled when he recognized the superstar An Menglan.

But that was all.

The staff here were strictly trained and were not permitted to disturb guests. Even if a guest was a celebrity, asking for a photograph or an autograph was expressly forbidden.

An Menglan ordered a coffee as well.

Then the two went straight into their collaboration.

She wanted to keep strictly to business with him.

She did not want to mention last night.

“…Mr. Wu, I honestly think that if you signed directly with my company as a contracted songwriter and composer, it would make working together much easier,” An Menglan said with a smile, extending the invitation once again.

“It’s not impossible.” Wu Chen considered it, smiling, then changed direction. “But… Miss An, we still don’t know each other well. Suppose I quoted you an unbelievable price. You definitely wouldn’t accept, would you?”

Their conversation had taken on the feel of a business negotiation.

“Unbelievable… meaning what?” An Menglan thought a moment, clearly interested.

“For instance, suppose I set up a studio,” Wu Chen said, watching her. “And then I asked you to put up fifty percent of the equity in your company to acquire that studio. An equity swap. Would you agree?”

An Menglan froze.

Her eyes even widened slightly.

The scale of Wu Chen’s demand could only be called inconceivable.

Fifty percent of the equity outright.

That truly was an unbelievable price.

The independent music company in An Menglan’s name could not be compared with certain industry giants, still less with the entertainment empire her family controlled.

But it was valued at more than three billion yuan.

An Menglan herself was one of the artists signed to her own company, after all.

She alone supported a valuation above one billion yuan.

And that was only because she was semi-retired. Otherwise it would be higher.

Although she had moved behind the scenes in semi-retirement, focusing mainly on developing newcomers and discovering musical talent, her company still had several first-tier male and female singers.

All of them currently popular.

And more still on the rise.

Under circumstances like these, Wu Chen wanted to join as a songwriter and composer, yet dared to ask for fifty percent of its shares? Half of everything she had built over the years?

Again An Menglan had the feeling that the world had gone mad.

Song Xuan had already told her that Wu Chen charged a hundred thousand yuan to write a song and took fifty percent of the revenue on top of that.

Outrageously high.

But Wu Chen was a man capable of creating miracles.

If he could sustain that level of work, there might even be singers willing to hand him every cent a song earned, and pay an astronomical sum besides, simply to have him write for them.

One song from Wu Chen could send a singer straight to the top.

Instant fame.

So An Menglan could understand his fee for a song.

He was a genius.

What she could not understand was him asking for fifty percent of her company’s equity.

That was simply insane.

“…Mr. Wu…” An Menglan took a long moment before she spoke, keeping her smile. “If you want to turn me down, could you just say so? Please don’t make jokes like this.”

She was even a little angry. It felt as though Wu Chen were not taking the collaboration seriously at all, and joking instead.

“I’m not joking,” Wu Chen replied, still smiling. “I’m serious. Which is why I said you definitely wouldn’t accept.”

For a moment An Menglan had no idea what to say.

She even began to wonder whether there had been no deeper reason behind Wu Chen’s outrageous demands to Song Xuan, or now to her.

He was not short of money.

Perhaps he was simply greedy.

He loved money.

“So…” Wu Chen took the initiative again, smiling. “Why don’t we try it out first? I’ll work with you as an independent songwriter and composer. One song, one fee. Whatever kind of song you like, Miss An, I can write it for you right now.”

An Menglan raised her eyes to him.

In that moment she felt clearly that Wu Chen was running a routine on her.

“Mr. Wu, don’t tell me you’ve already prepared several songs and you’re waiting for me to pick one, so you can pretend you composed it on the spot…” An Menglan said, displeased, her words blunter now. The tone was light, as though she were joking, but only so things would not turn awkward.

She had put her suspicion on the table.