Chapter 408: Way, Way, Way, Way Too Expensive!

Chapter 408: Way, Way, Way, Way Too Expensive!

The girls thought he looked familiar because he resembled Li Ruobing. They were siblings, after all.

Li Ruotai paused at the sight of the two girls on the sofa, then broke into a grin. “You must be Jiaojiao, right? And Xiaoxue…”

He got both names exactly right.

Li Ruotai had the most complete file on Wu Chen of anyone. He had photos not only of Wu Jiao but of her best friend, Chen Xue, too.

“And you are…?” Wu Jiao was a little lost. He obviously knew her, but she had no idea who he was.

“Atai’s here.” Wu Chen came out of the kitchen, untying his apron as he walked.

“Brother-in-law,” Li Ruotai greeted him.

Both girls turned to look at Wu Chen.

“Introductions. This is Li Ruotai, Ruobing’s younger brother…” Wu Chen gestured. “My sister, Wu Jiao. Her best friend, Chen Xue… Say hi.”

That last bit was for Wu Jiao.

She caught on and said to Li Ruotai, “Hi, Brother Atai.”

“Hi, Brother Atai,” Chen Xue echoed.

“Hey!” Li Ruotai grinned. Wu Chen had told him to keep a low profile, so he was being especially plain and unassuming. He didn’t come over to shake hands or anything of the kind. He just nodded, then complimented Wu Jiao. “Jiaojiao really is pretty. Brother-in-law’s handsome, Jiaojiao’s pretty. You two really do look alike.”

Flattering Wu Chen in plain sight, too.

“Not really…” Wu Jiao was a little embarrassed. She still wasn’t used to people she’d just met praising her so directly. The businessman and his wife at lunch had already made her squirm with their compliments.

They chatted idly for a moment.

Wu Chen tossed his apron to Wu Jiao. “Go help.”

She caught it against her chest and, without a word, headed for the kitchen.

If her brother had bossed her around like that at home, she would definitely have kicked up a fuss: talked back, played dirty, flopped onto the sofa and played dead. But at her “sis-in-law’s house,” she wouldn’t.

She couldn’t embarrass him.

She had to be on her best behavior.

Chen Xue went with her. If Wu Jiao went to help in the kitchen and she stayed in the living room with Wu Chen and the extremely unfamiliar Li Ruotai, it would be horribly awkward.

“Sis-in-law, let me help,” Wu Jiao said as soon as she walked in.

“You can cook, Jiaojiao?” Li Ruobing asked casually.

Of course she could.

Her family ran a noodle shop, and her dad was the cook.

And naturally the shop didn’t serve only noodles. There were all sorts of stir-fries and cold side dishes too.

In the living room.

Li Ruotai set the case and bag down by the sofa. Wu Chen gestured to him and sat. Li Ruotai took the seat diagonally across.

“What time’s your flight?” Wu Chen asked quietly.

“Eight tomorrow morning. Home first…” Li Ruotai leaned forward and dropped his voice well down.

With the girls here, there was a lot they couldn’t let them overhear.

They talked a while.

“…Lu Guangnian’s getting married on the second. Are you coming back?” Wu Chen asked.

“Depends. I’ll have to talk to the old man first. If it works out, I’ll fly back on the second. In and out the same day…” Li Ruotai said.

“Oh, right, Brother-in-law.” He reached back, picked up the case from beside the sofa, set it on the coffee table, and slid it over.

Wu Chen glanced at him, pressed both latches, and the case clicked open.

He lifted the lid just enough to look inside.

“It’s all here. Old Dao’s things, and…” Li Ruotai explained briefly.

Everything he had been holding for Wu Chen was inside, the gun and the phone included. There was also a great ring of keys, and a thick stack of more than a dozen magnetic keycards.

All of them labeled.

All of them for Crown Entertainment.

Li Ruotai was entrusting all of it to Wu Chen for the time being. He had also left some of his men at Crown, and Wu Chen could use them however he saw fit.

“I’ll be going to Modu in a while. When I do, you…” Wu Chen went on.

A good half hour later.

“Dinner’s ready! Dinner’s ready!” Wu Jiao came out carrying a plate, calling everyone as she headed for the dining room.

Time to eat.

Eight dishes and a soup went on the table. Everyone washed up and sat down.

It was a generous spread. Nothing rare, nothing elaborate (Li Ruobing couldn’t manage anything too complicated anyway), but what it had was the feel of a family dinner.

Li Ruotai took a bottle of red from the wine cabinet, opened it, and poured for Wu Chen and himself first.

They drank.

They talked.

It was a very pleasant meal.

At first the talk was still about Li Ruotai’s departure. Li Ruobing asked when he was leaving, where he planned to go, and so on.

After that they talked about anything at all.

Li Ruotai was extraordinarily sociable and a gifted talker. Though the girls had only just met him, he soon had them feeling at ease with him.

They actually found things in common to talk about.

He even brought up the young male stars high-school girls were most into right now. There was no way he should have known about that. That he could talk about it led Wu Chen to only one conclusion: Li Ruotai had done his homework before coming.

Li Ruobing was attentive to Wu Jiao because she wanted to leave her future sister-in-law with a good impression. That was all.

Li Ruotai, on the other hand, was almost too deliberate about it.

It was because of Wu Chen, no question.

It wouldn’t be going too far to say he was currying favor with him.

Halfway through dinner.

“Brother Atai, what do you do for work?” Wu Jiao asked as they chatted.

“I… do investments,” Li Ruotai said after a pause.

He didn’t dare say he ran an entertainment club. Anyone hearing that would start imagining things. And in his case… whatever they imagined would probably be right. The worst assumptions would be the right ones.

“Hm? Oh, right! I nearly forgot…” Li Ruotai seemed to remember something and stood.

He went to the living room and came back with the luxury shopping bag he had brought.

“Since it’s our first meeting, Jiaojiao, a little gift…” He sat down and handed it to her.

“Oh, I-I couldn’t, I…”

“Nothing to be shy about. Go on, have a look. It’s all in there.”

Wu Jiao glanced at Wu Chen. He said nothing, so she set the bag on her lap and began looking through it.

She was all smiles, with a little thrill of surprise.

Girls always felt that way opening presents.

First she took out a fairly large, flat box. Inside was a silk scarf.

Then a small square box. Inside, a nail bracelet.

The scarf was Chanel and the bracelet Cartier. The bag bore Chanel’s logo, which meant Li Ruotai had put all the gifts into one bag.

There was more.

Last, she took out a square box a little bigger than her palm. She opened it…

A rose-gold diamond watch.

Then she found the receipts in the bag.

The scarf was over ten thousand yuan. The bracelet, over forty thousand… Those were still acceptable.

She had already accepted a bag worth over fifty thousand yuan from Li Ruobing, so she could accept gifts in this price range.

But.

When she saw the receipt for the watch, she was stunned.

A Patek Philippe sports-series rose-gold women’s automatic mechanical watch with factory-set diamonds.

Price on the receipt: 1,269,500 yuan.

She couldn’t believe it. She counted the digits twice.

It really was seven figures.

A watch worth over 1.2 million yuan.

Seeing her “delighted surprise,” Li Ruotai smiled with satisfaction. He had chosen these gifts very carefully.

He had thought about giving her a ring or a necklace, but decided they wouldn’t be appropriate. Those were things couples gave each other. Coming from someone in his position, they would be strange, and his brother-in-law might well beat him to death.

So he had settled on these three. The scarf and bracelet were extras. The watch was the real gift. To choose it, he had even asked several of his women what kind of watch young girls liked.

Rustle!

Wu Jiao couldn’t bear to look any longer. She stuffed everything back into the bag and held it straight out to return it to him.

“It’s w-way, way, way too expensive! I can’t accept this!” she stammered.

“Hey! Don’t do that! I bought it for you!” Li Ruotai waved a hand grandly. “It’s nothing. Just keep it!”

“N-no, I can’t. It’s too expensive! The watch is way too expensive!” she said at once.

“What’s expensive about it? It’s only a little over a million. Your brother, my brother-in-law, has helped me so much…”

His voice cut off abruptly.

Because he could feel “killing intent” coming from across the table.