Chapter 430: Make It Even Bigger!

Chapter 430: Make It Even Bigger!

He really was about to lose his mind.

What sent Qi Jun’s fury boiling over wasn’t even what Wu Chen had said. It was the offhand attitude, the tone that treated Qi Jun as nothing at all. To Qi Jun, even that habitual smile looked like mockery and contempt.

He clenched both fists. He badly wanted to drive one into Wu Chen’s face.

But he held himself back.

Too many people were watching. Too many were taking photos and filming. However much clout Qi Jun had in Modu, he couldn’t strong-arm an entire high-end restaurant into deleting its videos. In a place like this, the quiet young man in the corner might well be the son of some great family.

“Fine. Very good!” Qi Jun said through his teeth.

He was a man of experience, after all. He might be an aging playboy, but he hadn’t gotten where he was by being useless.

When restraint was called for, he could restrain himself.

Besides, his nephew genuinely looked as if his life might be in danger.

He went over, hauled Qi Chenghong up, and hurried him toward the door.

From start to finish, he never made Wu Chen an open threat.

Probably because people were filming. But everyone understood what that “Very good” meant.

This wasn’t over.

Still smiling, Wu Chen looked over at Zhuang Xiaodie.

She was still on her feet, her eyes following Qi Jun as he helped Qi Chenghong away. She watched until they were out the door, then turned to the window.

She saw two burly men in black suits scramble out of a Land Rover parked at the curb. Qi Jun’s bodyguards, obviously.

“Xiaodie,” Wu Chen said softly.

She turned back to him. Her face was still a little blank. The fright hadn’t worn off.

“Sit.” He smiled and gestured.

She sat slowly, but couldn’t stop herself from glancing out the window again. She looked deeply uneasy. Not for Qi Chenghong’s sake, of course. She was worried about how much trouble Mr. Wu would be in if Qi Chenghong actually died.

“Stop looking. They’re a couple of rotten men. Nothing worth seeing,” Wu Chen said.

“Oh…” She turned back. If he told her not to look, she wouldn’t.

But the worry stayed on her face.

“Eat. Your steak’s getting cold.” He smiled as though nothing had happened, perfectly relaxed.

A few minutes later.

The restaurant had settled again. The diners who had stood to watch had all sat back down. They’d whispered about it for a while, and now even that had died away. Only now and then did someone glance toward Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie.

Before Qi Chenghong was helped out, a good deal of blood had pooled on the floor.

By now the staff had wiped it all up, leaving the floor spotless, as if that ugly, bloody scene had never happened.

“No appetite, Xiaodie?” Wu Chen asked, setting his glass down after a sip.

For six or seven minutes she had done nothing but cut her steak, slowly, without eating any. Her mind kept drifting.

“Oh… Mr. Wu.” She came back to herself and looked at him. “I’m… not very hungry.”

“Don’t dwell on it.” He smiled. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“But…” She couldn’t hold it in any longer. Lowering her voice, she said, “Mr. Wu, that Qi Chenghong… his family is very powerful. They’re worth over ten billion. At school he does whatever he likes, and nobody dares touch him…”

“And?” Wu Chen asked with a smile.

“I mean… could you… could you be in danger?” She was genuinely afraid something would happen to him.

She knew how much influence he had in Donghai, that there was nothing there he couldn’t settle.

But this wasn’t Donghai.

This was Modu.

Mr. Wu had connections here, but so did Qi Chenghong’s family. They were local power players.

“Mr. Wu, do you think… maybe we should call Boss Mao first?” She paused, then quickly added it.

“No need.” Wu Chen smiled, glanced at his watch, and looked back at her. “Boss Mao will hear about it. Besides… someone’s going to call me. Soon.”

She didn’t understand what he meant by “someone’s going to call me.” Her thoughts were in a tangle.

And she felt guilty.

She lowered her head for a moment to steady herself, then looked up and sniffed. “Mr. Wu, I’ve gotten you into trouble. I’m sorry.”

Her eyes had gone red. She was about to cry.

It was the first time she had ever brought him trouble, and to her mind, enormous trouble. At school she had heard hundreds of times just how powerful Qi Chenghong’s family was.

Even Mao Rusong, who could pull strings anywhere in Dongpu and had gone out of his way to look after her, hadn’t been able to stop Qi Chenghong from tormenting her.

“You don’t need to apologize.” Wu Chen pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. “None of today was your fault. You don’t have to swallow that kind of humiliation, and I won’t let you. Next time something like this happens, use…”

He glanced at the table, then smiled at her again.

“Use the wine bottle and smash it over him. Go for the head. Whatever happens after that, it’s on me. Understand?”

Red-eyed, she nodded, then shook her head.

She wanted to listen to him, but she didn’t want to cause him trouble.

She was softhearted by nature.

That wasn’t something that could change overnight. She would need more of life behind her, more confidence, before she truly changed.

Wu Chen knew, of course, that teaching her this way wasn’t entirely right. Not everyone could be like him, able to deal with whatever consequences followed.

But he would not let his woman suffer that kind of humiliation.

That was why he had deliberately made Qi Chenghong nearly crack his skull open just now, pushing things past any hope of reconciliation.

Come to think of it, when Wu Chen ran into similar situations, he often handled them in very different ways.

He’d run into trouble once while dining with Li Ruobing too. That time, he had come down mercilessly on the man directly involved, while choosing to win over the power behind him and make friends of them.

Lu Guangnian now treated him like a real brother.

This time, he had no intention of making friends.

Because he didn’t like making friends with rotten people.

Even in building connections, Wu Chen had a line he wouldn’t cross.

His friends could be bad men. They could be utterly ruthless. Li Ruotai, for one, was as black-hearted as they came.

But Li Ruotai merely had a dark side. He wasn’t rotten.

Li Ruotai would never bully the weak for fun without cause, let alone think that whatever he couldn’t have, he had to destroy.

Qi Jun and Qi Chenghong, uncle and nephew…

Wu Chen knew them.

They weren’t merely rotten. They were rotten in a way that turned the stomach.

“Eat, eat. Stop thinking about it. It’s fine. I’ll handle it,” he reassured her.

Another ten-odd minutes passed.

They finished lunch and left the restaurant together.

Into the car, and away.

The Bentley Continental soon reached the main road. Driving, Wu Chen glanced at Zhuang Xiaodie in the passenger seat. The unease and guilt hadn’t left her face. She was clearly still telling herself she had gotten Mr. Wu into trouble.

It suddenly struck Wu Chen that perhaps he could make today’s little “incident” even bigger.

The Bentley Continental sped on.

Ring, ring…

His phone.

It was around noon.

Driving one-handed, he picked it up and looked at the screen.

Caller ID: Tang Jingbin.

When Wu Chen had said “someone’s going to call me,” he’d actually meant one of two people: An Menglan or Tang Jingbin.

An Menglan, because they’d agreed yesterday that he would come by her company around noon today. She would very likely call to confirm the time.

As for Tang Jingbin…

He had a habit. He was a calculating man, a smiling tiger who thought several moves ahead. When a friend came to Modu, he usually waited until the second day before calling to invite them to a meal.

He knew anyone coming to Modu had business to take care of. On the first day they might not have time. By the second, a meeting could usually be arranged.

Wu Chen had come to Modu with Tang Xinbao yesterday. Tang Xinbao had gone home, so Tang Jingbin certainly knew Wu Chen was in town.

Yet he hadn’t called yesterday.

Which meant he would definitely call around noon today.

Wu Chen was certain of it.

An Menglan or Tang Jingbin…

He had already decided that whichever of them called first would be the one he’d leave this matter to.

Tang Jingbin had called.

So Tang Jingbin it was.

“Hello, Mr. Tang,” Wu Chen answered with a smile.

“Hahaha, Little Wu! You come to Modu and don’t even drop by the house? I only heard because Xiaobao told me when he got back. Otherwise I’d never have known…” Tang Jingbin laughed.

“I’ve been busy…” Wu Chen laughed too.

“Still busy today? If you’ve got time, let’s have a meal. You’re in Modu, so I ought to play host.”

“A meal… sure. Tonight, then.” Wu Chen considered. “As it happens, I’m getting a major gift ready for you, Mr. Tang…”

“A major gift?” Tang Jingbin paused.

In truth, he was startled.

The last time Wu Chen had promised him a major gift, he’d handed over a mountain of dirt on the Tang family’s mortal enemies, the Liu family, and brought about a secret alliance between the Tangs and the Lis.

So this time…