Chapter 370: It’s Already Taken Care Of

Chapter 370: It’s Already Taken Care Of

“Boss Peng, you can eat whatever you like, but you can’t say whatever you like,” Wu Chen said evenly. “Who? Who exactly am I supposed to have kidnapped? If you’re going to accuse me of a crime, you’d better have proof.”

“This is outright lawlessness!” Peng Wei snapped.

He could no longer keep his temper in check.

He had no proof at all, but he was certain his people had been seized, either by this young man named Wu Chen or by people An Menglan had sent.

It was the only reasonable explanation.

Only a short while ago, after hanging up with Wu Chen, Peng Wei had turned it over and over in his mind and concluded the young man was bluffing. Then he had called Yang Pinghe, meaning to ask when the three of them would be back in Donghai and whether everything had gone smoothly.

The call didn’t go through.

And it wasn’t just Yang Pinghe. Neither of the other two could be reached either.

He had tried again and again. At first, no one picked up. Then his calls were rejected outright. And finally…

all three phones were switched off.

That was anything but normal.

Put it together with the fact that Wu Chen had somehow known his number and called him directly, and Peng Wei could think of only one explanation. The three of them had been grabbed. They were being illegally detained.

The sheer gall of it!

“Boss Peng, I really have no idea what you’re talking about. Heh.” Wu Chen said it with a faint smile.

The words were a denial. But to Peng Wei, that last little laugh was as good as a confession.

That’s right. I took them.

“I’m telling you, this is a crime! I’m calling the police!” Peng Wei snarled through gritted teeth.

“Go ahead,” Wu Chen said calmly.

Then he hung up.

He had hung up on Peng Wei again. He couldn’t be bothered to say anything more.

Everyone had been watching him during the call. The moment he lowered the phone, An Menglan asked, “Mr. Wu, was that… Peng Wei? What kidnapping? Does he already know…?”

“Peng Wei figured out that I had his people taken. He also threatened to call the police.” Wu Chen looked at her and smiled.

“Then… won’t that…” Panic rose in her at once.

If Peng Wei were an ordinary person, this wouldn’t even be a problem. One phone call and An Menglan could make it go away.

But Peng Wei was no ordinary person. The man had real influence, real connections of his own.

And An Menglan was a public figure.

If Peng Wei went to the police, this would blow up. It wouldn’t just cause a nationwide sensation. It might well make international news. Her family background and her own fame would make it far too big for anyone to bury.

Kidnapping. Unlawful detention. Someone would certainly be taken into custody. Even if strings could be pulled to get them out later, they would still have to be taken in first.

And An Menglan’s reputation would be destroyed.

Next to that, a juicy dating scandal was nothing.

She had heard every word Wu Chen said. She truly couldn’t understand why he was taking such a hard line. His handling of the matter was nothing short of baffling. It felt as though he were deliberately steering things toward disaster.

“Don’t worry, Miss An.” Wu Chen smiled. “I said I’d handle it, so leave it all to me. There won’t be any problem.”

“But what if he calls the police? Won’t that… Maybe we should just let them go first…” she said at once. She couldn’t put her mind at ease.

She knew Peng Wei wouldn’t hold back just because she was An Menglan.

Wave Studio had dared to go digging for dirt on her in the first place, so they obviously weren’t afraid of offending her. And now that Peng Wei was convinced this was kidnapping, the story was even bigger, even more explosive. He would have even less reason to hold back.

Given his current online clout, a single casual Weibo post saying his people had been kidnapped would set the entire internet ablaze.

It would cause a massive uproar.

Instant headlines.

The story would be so hot that even Li Ruotai might not be able to contain it. Burying it would be next to impossible, because netizens would keep it alive on their own. Peng Wei might not have it in him to touch a single hair on Li Ruotai’s head, but someone would have to take the fall, and the fallout would be ugly. It might even send ripples through the great families.

“He won’t call the police,” Wu Chen said, still smiling, his tone certain.

An Menglan was momentarily stunned.

She had no idea where his confidence came from. Nor could she imagine how he meant to resolve this in the end.

Two days ago, she would never have believed him. A young unknown singer with no background, pulling a stunt like this? Wasn’t that practically begging for a prison sentence?

But things were different now.

An Menglan was convinced that Wu Chen’s abilities couldn’t possibly be limited to music.

Wu Yurong loved music, yes.

But Li Ruobing certainly didn’t.

Wu Chen had to have other remarkable talents. How else could he have made Li Ruobing fall in love with him, and even tolerate other women in his life?

She was still thinking it over, still speculating.

“Um…” Song Xuan finally couldn’t hold back. She’d been lost the whole time, but even she could tell something serious had happened. “What kidnapping? And the police? This Peng Wei… is he that paparazzo?”

Song Xuan followed the entertainment industry closely, so she knew exactly who Peng Wei was.

An Menglan looked at her. She didn’t particularly want to get into it, but Song Xuan had heard everything and asked outright. There was no point hiding it.

“Well… when Mr. Wu and I were having breakfast just now, someone knocked on the door, and then…”

She gave Song Xuan a rough rundown. She stuck to the key points, and carefully sidestepped the question of why Wu Chen had been here having breakfast so early in the morning.

Meanwhile.

Lüyuan Business Tower, Nanhui District.

Peng Wei paced back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The cityscape outside was beautiful, but he had no interest in it. He gripped his phone, his face livid, his whole body radiating fury.

He was genuinely about to lose his mind with rage.

He had never in his life encountered a young man so contemptuous of the law, so arrogant to the extreme. He’d threatened to call the police, and the guy had actually told him to go ahead?!

Peng Wei kept pacing. Several times he raised his phone and looked at it, only to lower it again.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that perhaps… he needed to calm down.

He wasn’t afraid of An Menglan. In the entertainment world, he was firmly in the Zhonghe Media Group camp. They were on the same side, while the An family’s Huaxing Entertainment stood squarely opposed to them.

But.

Peng Wei wasn’t thinking about An Menglan anymore. He was thinking about this young man named Wu Chen.

To be that brazen, that utterly unconcerned… surely he had to have something to back it up?

Any man who could turn up at An Menglan’s side couldn’t be a nobody.

The more arrogant Wu Chen acted, the more Peng Wei suspected there was more to him than met the eye. Peng Wei had never heard of anyone like him in Donghai, but that was no reason not to look into him first.

Peng Wei had spent more than ten years in the entertainment industry, in the reviled, enemy-making trade of paparazzi journalism. Not only had he come through all those years unscathed, he had thrived. That was down to his professional skill and his knack for building connections, of course, but also to his caution.

Offending someone he couldn’t afford to offend simply because he didn’t know who they were: that was something Peng Wei would never allow to happen.

Check him out first.

Decision made, Peng Wei lifted his phone again, scrolled quickly through his contacts, and stopped on a number saved as “President Zheng, Donghai Guangyue.”

Donghai Guangyue Entertainment was a talent and entertainment company based in Donghai. Nationally, it didn’t rank among the major players. But within Donghai, Guangyue Entertainment was among the top few, valued at several hundred million yuan.

Its owner, Zheng Shaoqing, was a man of some standing in Donghai. Because his company frequently worked with television stations, his local connections were particularly solid.

Peng Wei dialed Zheng Shaoqing’s number.

He was calling in a favor.

To dig into Wu Chen.

Donghai.

Jiazhong International Hotel, the presidential suite on the fifteenth floor.

An Menglan finished giving Song Xuan the rough outline.

Song Xuan frowned slightly. “Those paparazzi are horrible! Knocking on the door just to take pictures? How does this hotel protect its guests’ privacy? I’m going to have a word with them later!”

She sounded a little huffy. Then she turned to Wu Chen.

“Senior, so what are you going to… do?”

“Just this,” Wu Chen said with a smile. “It’s already taken care of.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Everyone else in the room voiced the same confusion at once. They all stared at him, not understanding what he meant.

Hadn’t this whole thing only just blown up? How could it already be taken care of?

There was a sudden commotion outside the door, as though a number of people had arrived.

Then came a knock.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Miss An! Is my Mr. Wu here with you?” A woman’s voice followed.

It was Li Ruobing.

An Menglan’s head whipped around. The color drained from her face, and panic surged through her.

It felt…

like being caught in an affair.