Chapter 437: More Than Thirty Pages of Dirt!

Chapter 437: More Than Thirty Pages of Dirt!

Only four people were left in the recording studio: Wu Chen, An Menglan, Zhuang Xiaodie, and Yu Xiaohu.

An Menglan’s assistant, Liu Jing, had been there at first, but there was nothing for her to do, so An Menglan had sent her off to handle other work.

Wu Chen stood up.

The studio’s outer room had plenty of chairs, along with a sofa and coffee table against the wall. Wu Chen went straight over and sat down on the sofa.

An Menglan and Yu Xiaohu stepped forward. An Menglan sat down at the computer, unable to wait a second longer, while Yu Xiaohu fetched a second pair of headphones. Both were high-end monitoring headphones.

The computer Wu Chen had been working on could only connect directly to one pair of headphones. But studio monitoring headphones were never plugged straight into the computer. If they were, they wouldn’t produce any sound at all.

The computer fed into the mixing console, and the console fed into a headphone distribution amplifier.

A single headphone distribution amplifier could usually drive four to twelve pairs of headphones without any loss in sound quality.

An Menglan and Yu Xiaohu put on their headphones. An Menglan took the controls, clicked a few times, and started playing the album master Wu Chen had just finished.

The first track: The Final Chapter!

Wu Chen had written seven songs for An Menglan’s new album: Single Blade, Fireworks Across Three Lives, Queen, Castle, Please Don’t Look Back, Galaxy, and The Final Chapter.

The Final Chapter had been the last of them he’d written.

On the finished album, though, it came first.

That was because An Menglan’s new album was itself titled The Final Chapter! As the title track and lead single, it naturally had to open the record. Track order was an art in its own right, and it mattered a great deal.

That, too, fell within a music producer’s responsibilities.

The studio went quiet.

An Menglan and Yu Xiaohu listened with total concentration.

On the sofa, Wu Chen reached up and kneaded the back of his neck. He was a little tired, after all.

Four and a half hours of continuous work wouldn’t wear him out on its own. But sitting motionless in front of a computer, barely moving his neck, holding the same posture the whole time, still left him somewhat stiff.

Wu Chen was in decent physical shape, but only slightly better than the average person. His new life hadn’t begun very long ago, and there hadn’t been time for training to strengthen his body much.

Zhuang Xiaodie noticed. She shifted closer, twisted around to kneel on the sofa, and reached out to rub the back of his neck.

“Mr. Wu, are you sore?” she asked softly.

Since the sofa was against the wall, she couldn’t get behind him. This was the only way.

Wu Chen turned slightly to make it easier for her and gestured behind him. “Here. And here…”

The angle was awkward.

After a moment, Wu Chen signaled to her again. He got up and moved to an armchair off to the side, and Zhuang Xiaodie stepped behind it to work on his shoulders and neck.

Her technique was surprisingly professional.

Because she had learned it!

It was one of the skills that came with “taking care of people”!

After a while under her hands, Wu Chen felt much better.

It also put him in mind of Li Ruobing.

Li Ruobing had once lost a bet to him and owed him a hundred massages, no conditions attached, anytime and anywhere. He had hardly used any of them.

“What did Ruobing ask you in her messages?” Wu Chen asked quietly, turning his head to glance at Zhuang Xiaodie.

“Huh?” Zhuang Xiaodie was instantly flustered.

How did Mr. Wu know Sister Li had been messaging her?

Of course Wu Chen knew!

In the two days since he’d come to Modu, Li Ruobing hadn’t contacted him once. Even after the uproar he’d stirred up online yesterday, she hadn’t called to ask about it. Wu Chen knew that might simply be because she understood him well enough to accept whatever scale of trouble he caused.

But!

An Menglan was in Modu, and Wu Chen had come here to see An Menglan.

He had watched every bit of Li Ruobing’s recent “alliance-building.” She was worried An Menglan might become a second Wu Yurong and threaten her position. So… how could she possibly not ask?

Wu Chen knew he had a “little spy” at his side.

One he allowed to exist.

“Sister Li… she…” Zhuang Xiaodie looked as though she didn’t know how to put it. Visibly torn, she glanced instinctively toward An Menglan at the mixing console.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Wu Chen.

There were outsiders in the room.

“They can’t hear us,” Wu Chen said softly, smiling.

The monitoring headphones blocked sound extremely well. Unless someone suddenly opened a door or deliberately raised their voice, the people wearing them wouldn’t hear a thing.

Even so, Zhuang Xiaodie stayed cautious. She bent down and put her lips close to his ear.

“Sister asked about Miss An… and she asked where you spent the night yesterday, Mr. Wu…”

“And what did you tell her?” Wu Chen asked.

“I… told her the truth…” Zhuang Xiaodie’s eyes were a little timid, and her voice dropped even lower. “Sister also said that if you asked me, Mr. Wu, I should tell you the truth too…”

Li Ruobing really was an exceptionally clever woman!

She knew Wu Chen might work out that she was using Zhuang Xiaodie to keep an eye on things between him and An Menglan.

But she had no intention of putting poor little Zhuang Xiaodie in the middle.

Nor was she asking because she wanted to keep tabs on Wu Chen himself. Whatever happened between him and other women, she couldn’t be bothered to care.

Her target had always been An Menglan.

She wanted to track how things were developing between An Menglan and Wu Chen, so she’d know how to deal with An Menglan later.

“Mr. Wu, should I… not have told her?” Zhuang Xiaodie asked in a small voice, a little nervous.

Something had just occurred to her. Last night, she had been the one who spent the night with Wu Chen.

But what about tonight?

And after that?

If it were some other woman instead of her, and Sister Li asked again, could she really “sell out” Mr. Wu?

“Tell her whatever you like.” Wu Chen smiled, tipped his head back, and reached up to pinch her cheek. “It’s fine. Whatever she asks, you can tell her the truth. From now on, too.”

Zhuang Xiaodie relaxed all at once.

It struck her suddenly that Mr. Wu had always been good to her. And Sister Li had been too. Neither of them would ever put her in a hard spot.

Zhuang Xiaodie leaned down and kissed him.

An Menglan and Yu Xiaohu both had their backs turned, but for someone with Zhuang Xiaodie’s temperament, it was a remarkably bold move.

A little while later.

They parted.

“Not worried they’ll see?” Wu Chen asked with a soft laugh. He had nothing better to do, so he teased her.

Color rose faintly in Zhuang Xiaodie’s cheeks, but she shook her head and whispered, “No.”

Wu Chen smiled and crooked a finger at her.

She understood. She came around to the front of the armchair, turned, and settled into his lap, looping both arms around his neck.

“Tomorrow morning, we’ll…” Wu Chen murmured, telling her the plan for the next day.

He would be heading back to Donghai at noon tomorrow.

But there was still something extremely important he had to take care of in the morning!

A few minutes passed.

Ring, ring!

Wu Chen’s phone went off.

He gave Zhuang Xiaodie a light pat on the back, and she got up. He pulled out his phone, glanced at the screen, and answered.

“Hello, Mr. Tang…”

It was Tang Jingbin.

They had agreed to have dinner together that evening.

Wu Chen stood as he took the call and headed out of the studio.

Apart from Zhuang Xiaodie, neither An Menglan nor Yu Xiaohu paid him any attention. It wasn’t that they couldn’t hear the ringtone, his voice, or the door. They could faintly make some of it out.

They simply tuned it out without thinking.

The two of them had kept their backs to the sofa the entire time, facing the computer.

And the expressions on their faces could only be described as utter astonishment!

They were dumbstruck.

They were already on the third track, and they had exchanged countless glances along the way.

Neither had found a single flaw!

It was perfect!

An album Wu Chen had finished in just a few hours was actually perfect!

There was nothing to change!

At least, nothing either of them could find!

An Menglan coming up empty was one thing. She was only the singer.

But Yu Xiaohu was a gold-medal producer, and even he couldn’t find anything!

Wu Chen spent about a minute on the phone outside, then came back into the studio.

He had already settled the time and place for dinner with Tang Jingbin.

“Miss An, mind if I borrow your office?” he said as he walked in.

“Sure, sure, go ahead.” An Menglan agreed almost on reflex. She still couldn’t tear herself away from the music.

Wu Chen beckoned to Zhuang Xiaodie and left again.

The two of them went to An Menglan’s president’s office.

Wu Chen needed her computer to write something up. He knew the login password and everything else.

For the next twenty-odd minutes, he typed without stopping. He wrote several thousand characters across more than thirty pages, then sent all of it to the printer.

He sorted the pages.

Stapled them.

Found an unused document envelope in a drawer and slid them inside!

This was what Wu Chen meant to hand Tang Jingbin tonight.

Dirt on the Qi brothers!

Every piece of fatal dirt he knew about them!

Even the mildest page held enough to put the Qi brothers behind bars for more than ten years!

The worst of it was enough to get their whole family sentenced to death.

Immediate execution by firing squad!

What was more, those thirty-odd pages implicated a good many truly formidable figures!

If any of it got out, it would blow all of Modu apart!