Chapter 402: Half Right

Chapter 402: Half Right

“Oh… your sister’s here, brother-in-law. I thought it was something serious. Hahaha.” Li Ruotai relaxed at once and laughed. “Don’t worry, brother-in-law. I get it, I get it…”

He agreed without a second thought.

Of course he knew Wu Chen had a younger sister. He knew her age, her name, where she went to school, what her grades were like, and so on. The Li family had used its resources to run a full investigation into Wu Chen’s background.

The file Li Ruotai had on the Wu family was even more complete than Li Ruobing’s.

“Then it’s settled, brother-in-law. Dinner tonight. I’ll set up a restaurant…” Li Ruotai said, laughing.

“Sure.” Wu Chen paused. “Actually, skip the restaurant. We’ll eat at home. Your sister’s place… Just come over when it’s time.”

“Sure, sure.”

“All right. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up.”

When the call ended, Wu Chen glanced over at the lounge. He didn’t go in. He went back to the sofa, sat down, and started looking through his phone.

He traded a few messages with An Menglan.

She was already at the airport, her private jet waiting for clearance to take off.

Wu Chen hadn’t seen her off, it should be said. Song Xuan had.

After lunch, Wu Chen and An Menglan had gone to Song Xuan’s place together.

Song Xuan was going to sign with An Menglan’s company too, so they had gone over that, along with plans for Song Xuan to release a new single once she’d signed, and other related matters.

Wu Chen had meant to take An Menglan to the airport himself, but she wouldn’t let him. She said she knew he had things to do and told him to go see to them. In truth, he knew she wanted to avoid arousing suspicion in front of Song Xuan, so he hadn’t insisted.

And he really did have something to do.

He had come here to see his sister.

A few minutes later.

Knock, knock.

Someone at the office door.

Wu Chen looked up. “Come in.”

A woman in business attire, about a seven in looks, walked in, heels clicking, a thick folder clutched to her chest.

One of Li Ruobing’s assistants.

A company president usually didn’t need many assistants. One or two was plenty.

Li Ruobing had more than one or two.

When it came to work, she could be fiercely serious and had a tremendous capacity for hard work. Huancai Fashion had been founded to beat Ding Ruilong, and Li Ruobing didn’t want to lose, so she drove herself especially hard.

Huancai was no small outfit. Besides headquarters, there were even more employees at its two factories. Yet there was none of the bloat or idleness that came with overstaffing.

That was because Li Ruobing had always kept a firm grip on the whole operation. She had more assistants, and she worked far harder than the average company president.

The assistant stopped a few steps inside the door.

“Mr. Wu.” She nodded to him first, then glanced at the empty president’s desk.

She had obviously come to report to Li Ruobing.

“Hold on a moment,” Wu Chen said.

He got up and headed for the lounge.

As he drew near, he could faintly hear a hair dryer inside.

He pushed the door open.

Wu Jiao sat in a chair. Li Ruobing stood beside her, lifting and separating her hair with one hand and working the dryer with the other.

Chen Xue stood on Wu Jiao’s other side, a wooden comb in hand.

Wu Jiao had a wooden comb too.

The three of them chatted as they worked on her hair.

When Wu Chen came in, the dryer stopped. Li Ruobing looked back at him. He walked over, raised a hand, and tilted his head toward the door.

“Your assistant’s waiting for you.”

Li Ruobing handed him the dryer, turned, and hurried out.

Back to work.

The door closed again.

The dryer started up once more.

Wu Chen was drying his sister’s hair.

Wu Jiao had started shooting him sidelong looks, and she kept at it. He paid no attention, until finally she couldn’t hold back. Without thinking, she lowered her voice.

“Bro! You still haven’t come clean! What’s the deal with you and Sis-in-law? How did you two get together?”

“You’re already calling her Sis-in-law like it’s nothing. Why are you still asking? Does it matter?” Wu Chen laughed, sweeping the dryer back and forth.

“Don’t play dumb, Bro. I know you way too well. Don’t lie to me. If you lie, I’ll go home and tell Mom…”

“Go ahead and tell her. But let me remind you, Jiaojiao, if you go home and start running your mouth, then next time your sis-in-law gets fierce with you, I’m not helping…” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Everything has its natural match.

Wu Chen had no intention of using his tricks on his own little sister. But using Li Ruobing to keep her in line struck him as an excellent choice.

It saved him effort and worry both.

“Bro, I’m your real sister!” Wu Jiao was, sure enough, a little scared.

The truth was, she had never actually seen Li Ruobing’s “fierce” side. But with an aura and manner like Li Ruobing’s, the faintest glimpse of it was more than enough to keep Wu Jiao in line.

“Oh, so you remember you’re my real sister. Then why are you threatening me?” Wu Chen laughed.

“I-I’m not threatening you! That’s not what I meant, Bro… dearest big brother… Just tell me, okay? What exactly happened between you two…”

Wu Jiao switched faces in an instant and turned on the charm again.

“We got together in March. Love at first sight,” Wu Chen said.

“And then?” she pressed.

“What do you mean, and then? That’s it.” He smiled.

“You…”

Wu Jiao puffed up again and narrowed her eyes at him.

The poor boy and the lady CEO, falling in love, and it had happened to her own brother. Wu Jiao had already dreamed up all sorts of dramatic possibilities: her brother rescuing a damsel in distress, a misunderstanding between sworn enemies that turned into romance, and so on.

She was dying to know what had really happened between them. Curiosity was eating her alive.

And he’d brushed the whole thing off with three words: love at first sight.

It was infuriating!

Wu Jiao stopped talking. She looked away from him and sulked.

She didn’t stop him from drying her hair, though.

Chen Xue stood off to one side with her lips pressed tight, looking as if she were dying to laugh and didn’t dare. She’d seen the Wu siblings bicker more times than she could count, and it never stopped being funny.

Barely two minutes later, Wu Jiao couldn’t keep it up.

She glanced at her brother again, apparently over it. Tilting her head slightly, she looked him over from top to bottom. Suddenly her gaze caught on something, and she looked up at his face.

“Bro, who bought you that watch?”

“Your sis-in-law,” Wu Chen said.

“It must be pretty expensive, right? How much?” she asked, her voice sugary sweet.

“Guess.” He smiled.

“Hmm…”

She thought about it, then gritted her teeth and guessed what she considered an enormous number.

“A hundred thousand?”

“Half right,” Wu Chen said.

“Two hundred thousand?” Her eyes went huge.

She knew Li Ruobing carried a four-hundred-thousand-yuan handbag. But a woman willing to buy her boyfriend a two-hundred-thousand-yuan watch… that had to be true love, right?

Only true love made someone willing to spend like that!

Wu Chen said nothing.

He didn’t tell her that the half she’d gotten right was the “ten-thousand” in her guess. The price really did end in “ten thousand.”

So when he said she was half right, he hadn’t lied.

Because Wu Jiao had brought it up, Chen Xue noticed the watch too.

Wu Chen’s hand was raised, so she could see it plainly.

She made out the brand.

And the model.

“How are Mom and Dad these days? How’s business at the shop this month?” Wu Chen asked, mostly to distract his sister.

“Business is okay, I guess…” Wu Jiao said.

They talked about home.

A few minutes later.

“Darling!” Li Ruobing called from outside, sounding as though something urgent had come up.

“Coming,” Wu Chen called back.

He let go of Wu Jiao’s hair and set down the dryer.

“It’s pretty much smoothed out. You can finish it yourself.”

With that, he turned and left.

Once he’d shut the door behind him, Wu Jiao switched to the other wooden comb, meaning to go over her whole head again.

Chen Xue suddenly nudged her.

While Wu Chen and Wu Jiao had been talking, Chen Xue had been busy on her phone.

“Hm? What is it, Xiaoxue?” Wu Jiao turned to her.

“Jiaojiao, look.” Chen Xue seemed nervous and excited, as though she were about to drop some huge piece of gossip.

She held her phone up in front of Wu Jiao.

On the screen was a sales page for a watch.

The exact model Wu Chen was wearing.

“Two hundred thousand. My brother already said. What about it?” Wu Jiao glanced at the screen, then at Chen Xue, puzzled.

“Jiaojiao, count the zeros,” Chen Xue said.

Still puzzled, Wu Jiao looked again.

It seemed to be a whole string of zeros.

She counted them one by one under her breath.

“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands… millions?!”

“Over two million?!” She nearly leapt out of her chair, her eyes huge all over again.

Her brother’s watch cost over two million yuan?!

Once the shock wore off, she narrowed her eyes and huffed, “He lied to me!”

And with that, she got up, spun around, and stormed out to settle accounts with her brother!