Chapter 453: 136 Million

Chapter 453: 136 Million

Faced with a nine-digit number, most people couldn’t tell its size at a glance. The only way was to count the digits one by one.

“Ones, tens, hundreds…” Wu Dahai half suspected he’d miscounted. He actually counted a second time before he was sure. It really did reach the hundred-millions.

The balance on this card of Wu Chen’s: 136,204,896 yuan.

“A hundred and thirty-six million!” Wu Dahai’s head jerked up, and he stared at his son with wide eyes. The hand holding the phone was trembling. His face flushed red, then went pale. The corners of his mouth… even the skin of his face was quivering.

It was exactly the reaction Wu Chen had expected.

He hadn’t shown his father his real current assets. A little over a hundred million would always be easier to accept than several hundred million, though only by comparison.

Some things his parents would have to be eased into slowly.

Wu Chen’s wealth was swelling far too fast!

He hadn’t even done anything yet to actively make serious money. Settling An Menglan’s album revenue was a complicated process: platform cuts, settlement cycles, money routed through various accounts, redistribution, and so on. It would be at least two or three months before any of it reached him.

And even leaving An Menglan aside, his money was snowballing.

The Ding family owed Li Ruotai a billion yuan in compensation. If Li Ruotai gave him half, that was five hundred million right there.

Then there was Shuangqi Real Estate.

Knowing Tang Jingbin, once he’d dealt with the Qi brothers, especially given how much dirt Wu Chen had handed him on other major Modu figures tied to them, he was certain to cut Wu Chen in on the spoils!

The Qi brothers were worth over ten billion! That would push Wu Chen’s personal fortune straight into the billions.

All of it was coming soon.

So… it might be a very long time before he let his parents know exactly how much he had. It was far, far, far too frightening.

He had decided to lay only some of his cards on the table.

Today, all he wanted his parents to understand was that the family wasn’t short of money anymore. They’d never have to worry about it again. They didn’t need to work so hard. They could retire early.

“Xiaochen, Xiaochen, tell your dad. Where did all this money come from? What on earth have you been doing?” Wu Dahai couldn’t keep his hands from shaking.

He clutched Wu Chen’s phone in one hand and grabbed his son’s hand with the other.

He squeezed hard without realizing it.

He was nervous.

Scared.

Terrified that his son had done something bad! If he had, the more money there was, the worse the consequences would be.

“I earned it.” Wu Chen smiled and squeezed back, hoping to calm the trembling.

“Earned it? How? How long have you even been working? How could you make this much in a month? Did you do something—”

Wu Dahai’s voice cut off.

He’d wanted to ask what his son had done. Robbed a bank? Extorted someone? Or… his mind even went to the Jinfu Jewelry robbery more than twenty days ago.

Only the serious crimes written into the criminal code could make an ordinary person rich overnight.

But on second thought, that didn’t add up either.

Even with crimes like those, a few million was possible. Over a hundred million? That was actually less likely. It was simply too much!

Wu Dahai watched the news every night and hadn’t seen any report of a major case involving that kind of money.

And the balance ran right down to the last yuan. It didn’t look like ransom from kidnapping some tycoon either.

Wu Chen had “handpicked” the figure.

Large enough that no crime could plausibly produce it in a month, yet not so absurd that it would frighten his father out of his wits.

Wu Dahai’s good friend Chen Jinye was worth tens of millions. Add up everything the Wu family owned, the apartment, the shopfront, the savings, and they had several million themselves.

A little over a hundred million was frightening.

But not that frightening.

“Son… you… what exactly… hurry up and tell your dad…” Wu Dahai’s hands were still shaking. Dazed, shocked, and afraid all at once, he couldn’t pull himself together.

“Dad, don’t panic. I really did earn it. Legally.”

“What could you possibly do to make this much?”

“Mm… music. I wrote songs for a celebrity and made some money.”

“Songs?! You can write songs? No, wait… what celebrity? Don’t lie to me. You think I don’t watch the news? Last year, on that Fu-something list, the top-earning singer only made two or three hundred million for the whole year, right?”

“Hang on a sec, Dad.” Wu Chen turned his head and shouted, “Sis!”

“Jiaojiao?”

“WU! JIAO!”

Her bedroom was right next door. Even from her room she should have been able to hear him, but he called several times without an answer.

Wu Chen let go of his father’s hand and went over to the wall.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three thumps of his fist.

Next door, Wu Jiao was propped against her pillow, wrapped in her blanket, headphones on, watching her tablet. The drama she was following had just dropped a new episode, and she was in the middle of it.

Bang bang bang!

She felt the wall vibrate behind her, pulled off her headphones, and yelled, “What?”

“Come here!” His voice came through the wall.

“What for?”

She answered grudgingly but still paused the show, climbed out of bed, and shuffled out in her slippers.

In the living room, Zhang Xiujuan was holding Li Ruobing’s hand as they talked.

She found nothing odd about Wu Chen yelling for his sister. They’d always done it. The two of them would shout to each other from different rooms, and Wu Jiao had once even been too lazy to get out of bed to switch off her light and called Wu Chen to do it for her.

Wu Jiao came out of her room, turned into the bedroom next door, and pushed the door shut behind her.

“What is it?” she asked as she came in, her tone turning a little careful without her meaning it to.

She had noticed her father standing by the window. He looked seriously off, as though something had worked him up terribly. His eyes were even a little bloodshot.

“Tell Dad about me writing songs. He doesn’t believe me,” Wu Chen said, handing her the job.

“Oh, that? I’m allowed to talk about it now?” Wu Jiao perked right up.

She’d been holding it in ever since they got home. She was about to burst!

“Talk, talk. Tell him everything.”

Wu Chen waved a hand and left the little balcony nook to make room for her. A few steps took him to the vanity, where he sat down.

Time for a rest.

He could just let his sister talk.

He could have explained it himself.

But the same story sounded very different coming from the person involved than from a third party vouching for it!

Besides, if he did it himself, it would get complicated. Whatever he said, his father would question it, and he’d have to explain it over and over.

That wouldn’t happen with Wu Jiao.

“Dad, Dad, Dad! You know now? Bro told you?” Wu Jiao was raring to go, finally free to unload everything she’d been bottling up.

“Your brother just said something about writing songs, making big money…” Still reeling, Wu Dahai looked at his daughter with a wooden expression, eyes still wide, then glanced at Wu Chen again.

“Yeah, Bro’s been writing songs for An Menglan.”

“An Menglan? The hottest female singer?”

“Yep, her.”

“Didn’t she say she was retiring or something?”

“Not retiring. Stepping back, semi-retiring. She put out a new album last night…” The more Wu Jiao said, the more excited she got. Naturally she knew all about the online uproar of the past two days.

Her brother’s new songs had blown up across the internet.

The album he’d written for An Menglan had blown up across the internet.

He’d gone from doubted by everyone online to praised by everyone online.

And today there were even rumors about him and An Menglan…

Because she’d had to play along with his act, Wu Jiao had kept her feelings in check ever since he brought Li Ruobing home. She hadn’t had much chance to talk to him alone, either.

Now she could say all of it!

Over the next few minutes, amid Wu Jiao’s exaggerated tone and animated gestures, Wu Dahai quickly learned just what kind of star An Menglan was, and just how brilliantly talented his son was.

Why had he ever studied computer science?!

He should have studied music from the start! Then they wouldn’t have found out so late.

“Bro charges An Menglan a hundred thousand a song! I looked it up online after I got home. Lots of really famous songwriters can’t get that kind of price. And that day I even video-chatted with An Menglan…” At the mention of the video call, Wu Jiao gave a little girlish bounce.

“A hundred thousand a song?” Wu Dahai’s face changed again.

“Yeah! Bro wrote eight songs for An Menglan. Eight hundred thousand, just like that!” Wu Jiao gestured.

“Only eight hundred thousand?” Wu Dahai said doubtfully.

“Only? Dad, are you confused? Only? That’s eight hundred thousand! That’s four or five years of what our family makes.” Wu Jiao even reached up to feel his forehead.

“Only eight hundred thousand? But your brother…” Wu Dahai looked at his son again.

“What about Bro? What?”

“See for yourself.”

He shoved Wu Chen’s phone into her hands.

“What… ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten millions, hundred millions?! Over a hundred million? This is Bro’s phone? Over a hundred million? Bro made over a hundred million?! AAAAAH!” Wu Jiao let out an ecstatic shriek.

It was piercing.

“Jiaojiao, what’s wrong? What are you screaming about?” Out in the living room, Zhang Xiujuan and Li Ruobing were both startled. They got up and headed for the master bedroom.