Chapter 448: Are You Good Enough for Her?

Chapter 448: Are You Good Enough for Her?

Knock, knock, knock!

Knock, knock!

Li Ruobing knocked neither too hard nor too softly, then glanced at Wu Chen again. The hand looped through his left arm tightened without her meaning it to.

She really was a little nervous.

It wasn’t a lack of confidence, nor fear that she couldn’t “win them over.” It was neither of those. It was simply that… the more she cared about Wu Chen, the more she cared about his parents.

In private, Li Ruobing genuinely disliked socializing.

In that respect, she was nowhere near her younger brother, Li Ruotai.

Besides.

“Meeting your boyfriend’s parents for the first time” was the kind of thing that made anyone nervous inside, however natural they managed to look on the outside.

“Was that a knock?”

“Is that Xiaochen?”

“Quick, go see.”

“I’ll get it, I’ll get it.”

The old building was solidly built, but the soundproofing was only so-so. Wu Chen and Li Ruobing could both hear the voices inside.

Then came the slap of slippers running toward the door.

Creak. The door opened.

It was Wu Jiao, in her pajamas.

“Bro, Sister-in-law, you’re back!” she said, then quickly turned and called into the apartment, “Dad… Mom…”

In the living room, a slightly plump middle-aged man of average height got up and came toward the door. At the other end, by the kitchen doorway, a slight, slender middle-aged woman who had just taken off her apron came over too.

“Our son’s home.”

“Oh my, you’ve gotten thinner again.”

They both came to the door and both spoke to Wu Chen, but their attention was entirely on Li Ruobing.

They couldn’t very well greet her directly yet.

They had to wait for Wu Chen to introduce her.

And while Li Ruobing felt only the tiniest flutter of nerves, his parents wore their awkwardness plainly on their faces… because Wu Jiao had come home and told them Li Ruobing was worth over a hundred million yuan! That she owned a great big company!

“This is my dad…”

“My mom…”

“Dad, Mom, this is Ruobing…”

Wu Chen gestured as he made the introductions.

“Uncle.” Li Ruobing greeted him with a smile and started to raise her hand out of habit, then paused.

Some habits were hard to break overnight.

She was used to shaking hands on a first meeting. It was very formal etiquette, and in this setting it felt out of place. But her hand was already up, and pulling it back would have been even stranger.

So after only the briefest pause, she held out her hand naturally.

Wu Dahai was certainly not used to it, but not shaking would have been out of the question. It would only have embarrassed her.

“Auntie.”

Li Ruobing shook hands with Wu Dahai, then with Zhang Xiujuan.

At the same time, she took in Wu Chen’s parents.

Wu Dahai was ordinary-looking but very fair-skinned. At first glance, he struck you as an amiable man who liked to meet people with a smile.

Zhang Xiujuan, on the other hand… was beautiful!

Wu Chen and Wu Jiao were both good-looking, so at least one of their parents had to be.

The siblings had gotten their looks almost entirely from their mother.

Though Zhang Xiujuan was forty-five, she was still far prettier than most women her age. Perhaps she was simply one of those people who didn’t show their years. Had someone said she was thirty-seven or thirty-eight, people would have believed it.

Wu Dahai had put on some weight. Zhang Xiujuan hadn’t. She was very slim, which made her look lively and full of energy.

Li Ruobing had long since read the background file on Wu Chen’s family.

She knew Wu Dahai was only a year older than his wife. Seeing them in person, though, he looked a good ten years older.

Clearly, he was a husband who doted on his wife.

Who looked after whom, and who worked harder, was plain at a glance.

Wu Dahai and Zhang Xiujuan were sizing up Li Ruobing as well.

Their first impression was that she really was… stunningly beautiful!

The couple even exchanged a look. There was nothing complicated in it. Just a shared sense of: She really is that pretty. Even prettier than their daughter had described!

Wu Chen set all the bags down on the cabinet to the right of the door.

“Oh my, coming home is enough. Why buy so many things?” Zhang Xiujuan’s tone was hard to read, somewhere between delight and reproach.

“Ruobing bought all of it,” Wu Chen said.

“Oh my…” Zhang Xiujuan said again.

“What’d you get? Anything for me?” Wu Jiao was far more relaxed than her parents. She asked straight out with a grin and reached for the bags to see what was inside.

“For you? Dream on, big head.” Wu Chen reached up and flicked her on the forehead.

“Come, come. Here… young lady, slippers.”

Zhang Xiujuan took two pairs of slippers from the cabinet, tossed one to Wu Chen, and set the other in front of Li Ruobing.

“Thank you, Auntie.” As she spoke, Li Ruobing noticed a small detail.

The slippers Zhang Xiujuan had given her son were old. They’d been scrubbed clean, but they were badly worn. Probably the pair he used to wear at home.

The ones she’d given Li Ruobing were brand new.

Prettier, too, not the plain bathhouse kind. It felt as though… Zhang Xiujuan had known she was coming and bought them especially for her.

They talked as they changed shoes.

“…You two chat for a bit. I’ll go check on the food. Two more dishes and we can eat…” Zhang Xiujuan headed back to the kitchen first.

“Want the tour?” Wu Chen tilted his head toward Li Ruobing.

“Sure, why not?” Li Ruobing smiled, her tone a little imitation of his.

So Wu Chen showed her around his home.

The apartment was large.

Three bedrooms and a living room, with windows facing both north and south. Over ninety square meters, with almost none of it lost to shared common space.

It was among the first batch of commercial housing built in the little county town back in the 1990s. Prices had been low then, but for a place this size, measured against incomes at the time, it still hadn’t been cheap.

The Wu family’s income, however, had always been much, much higher than an ordinary wage earner’s. Wu Dahai had opened his noodle shop early. In those years, anyone running a business, big or small, made money. They earned far more than ordinary people, sometimes several times as much.

Three bedrooms.

One for his parents, one for Wu Jiao, one for Wu Chen.

They looked at each.

But only from the doorway, just a casual glance.

While Wu Chen showed her around, Wu Dahai sat on the living-room sofa watching them. Wu Jiao sat beside him. She had carried all the bags over to the coffee table and was going through them.

Wu Dahai was a smoker.

In one bag, Wu Jiao found several cartons of cigarettes, but she knew nothing about cigarettes and had no idea what brand they were or what they cost.

Besides the cigarettes, there were two bottles of red wine, two bottles of baijiu, two boxes of sea cucumber, tea, and ham. Food and drink, nothing more. No fruit, and no health supplements.

Wu Jiao also found several gifts meant for women.

A silk scarf, a pendant, and two sets of cosmetics.

None of it was cheap.

But none of it was especially pricey or extravagant either.

Wu Jiao only looked. She didn’t go tearing open any packaging.

“Dad, look at these cigarettes. They’re expensive, right…?” She took a carton out of the bag and showed it to him, asking under her breath.

“Yellow Crane Tower.” Wu Dahai took it and looked it over, then let out a puzzled “Huh?”

He’d been smoking for thirty years. He had never smoked the truly expensive kinds, but he certainly recognized them…

Yellow Crane Tower was a very common brand with both mid-range and high-end lines. The three characters for Yellow Crane Tower were printed right on the packaging, which was how he “recognized” it.

But on a closer look, he didn’t.

He’d never seen this variety before.

Below the words Yellow Crane Tower were two more characters: “Celebration.”

“These must be a hundred yuan a pack. A thousand a carton,” Wu Dahai guessed. He looked up. “How many cartons?”

“Five in the bag.” Wu Jiao held up her hand to show him.

“Oh my, that’s five thousand yuan right there.” Wu Dahai sighed. He reached out and set the carton down beside the bag, then looked over all the bags spread across the coffee table. His expression turned strange.

It wasn’t that he was unhappy. He just felt a little wistful.

He knew perfectly well what his own family’s circumstances were.

His son had found himself a fabulously rich, beautiful heiress. A female CEO with more money than you could count.

He ought to be happy.

But… could something like this really last? Was his son good enough for her?

Wu Chen and Li Ruobing finished their circuit and came over to the sofa.

“Ah, come, come. Um… young lady, have a seat.” Wu Dahai hastily stood to welcome her.

“Uncle, you can just call me Bingbing,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

Bingbing was her childhood nickname. People of her own generation never used it. Even Wu Chen called her Ruobing. Only elders could call her Bingbing.

Wu Chen and Li Ruobing sat down side by side on the sofa.

Back home, Wu Chen was naturally completely at ease. Li Ruobing didn’t seem stiff either. She sat openly, smiling. Without her CEO styling she no longer seemed so sharp, though the air of wealth and refinement about her was impossible to hide.

Wu Dahai was the least comfortable person in the room.

He simply couldn’t relax.

He sat back down with his back ramrod straight, a little too formal.

“B-Bingbing, look at you. Coming is enough, and you went and bought all this. You really shouldn’t have spent so much…” Wu Dahai gestured at the coffee table, smiling genially.

“It’s my first visit. I could hardly come empty-handed. That would be rude,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

Wu Chen had already leaned back into the sofa, about to settle into his most comfortable at-home slouch and listen to the two of them talk, when he glanced at the coffee table.

His eyebrows shot up, and he sat straight back up.

He had spotted the carton of cigarettes Wu Jiao had taken out and set beside the bag.

“Did you buy the cigarettes?” He tilted his head and asked quietly, close to Li Ruobing’s ear.

“Hm?” She turned to look at him, not sure why he was asking. “No. I got them from Atai…”

“Atai?”

“Yes… I talked to him on the phone the day before yesterday and told him I was coming to your family’s place. I asked what I should bring. He suggested a few things, and said he had good cigarettes and liquor at his villa in the West District, so I should just take some…”

The two of them whispered back and forth.

They were a couple. Nothing unusual about that.

But as soon as she’d finished, Li Ruobing sensed something was off. Wu Chen asking out of nowhere like that meant something wasn’t right.

“What is it? Those cigarettes… are they very expensive?” she asked quietly.