Chapter 454: Completely Settled!

Chapter 454: Completely Settled!

Wu Jiao’s shriek was ear-splitting. She was just too excited!

“Over a hundred million! Over a hundred million! Bro actually made this much?” she kept babbling, hugging Wu Chen’s phone. “Bro can make this much writing songs? Writing… songs…”

Her voice stopped short.

Her expression changed too.

Unlike her father, her first reaction on learning her brother had made over a hundred million was happiness. For him, and for herself. He doted on her, so now that he had money, she’d never be short of pocket money again.

She didn’t feel the kind of worry a parent feels for a child.

But over a hundred million was still far too much.

It dawned on her too.

“Bro, how’d you make this much money?” She spun around to face him, blinking her big eyes. Now even she was a little worried about him.

Creak.

The bedroom door opened.

“What’s all the screaming? What happened?” Zhang Xiujuan came in first and asked straight out. Li Ruobing followed and traded a glance with Wu Chen.

“Mom, look, quick! Bro made this much money…” Wu Jiao hurried over and showed her the phone.

“How much could it be to make you—” Zhang Xiujuan’s voice cut off.

“Ones, tens…”

She counted too. Her face went through several changes, but she was far calmer than her husband, and calmer than Wu Jiao, of course.

As the one who ran the household, Zhang Xiujuan liked to nag but rarely raised her voice. She checked the number on the phone several times.

“Xiaochen, tell your mom. Where did this money come from?”

“I signed a fifty-percent revenue-sharing contract with An Menglan,” Wu Chen said plainly, smiling. “And she agreed that if first-day sales of the new album beat expectations, she’d pay me an advance up front.”

“What An Menglan? The celebrity? What kind of business are you doing? A contract?” Zhang Xiujuan was completely lost.

Wu Jiao’s eyes lit up. Her face said I know this one! and she looked desperate to talk.

Girls her age usually had plenty to say, especially about anything resembling gossip. They loved to tell, loved to show what they knew.

“Jiaojiao, you explain it to Mom and Dad.” Wu Chen got up as he said it.

“Mom, Bro writes songs for An Menglan…” She’d basically have to repeat to her mother everything she’d just told her father.

“Call me if you need me.” Wu Chen walked straight out.

Done!

His sudden ability to write songs might not be very scientific, but talent was never something science could explain in the first place. He was gifted. Nobody had noticed before, that was all.

The songs were right there online. Wu Jiao would make clear how big they were. No one could argue with that.

As for why the advance alone ran past a hundred million…

The internet had long since worked out exactly how much An Menglan’s new album could make. Wu Jiao would naturally explain that too.

His money was genuinely clean.

He was simply too talented—almost shockingly so.

That was complicated to explain.

So… leaving it to his chatterbox sister was perfect!

Wu Chen left the bedroom. Li Ruobing turned and followed him out, pulling the door shut behind her to give his parents and sister room to “tell the truth” behind his back.

That made what Wu Jiao said all the more believable.

The two of them went back to the sofa and sat down.

“I told your mom I’m pregnant…” Li Ruobing glanced sidelong at him, watching his face.

“Then we’d better get busy,” Wu Chen said with a soft laugh. “We don’t know yet whether you are, so we should do it more…” He left the last few words unsaid.

“Hmph.” Li Ruobing gave a little snort, putting on an affected tone. “Qingying wants a baby too. Can you keep up?”

“I’m in great shape.” Wu Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, yes. Great shape indeed. Hence Mu Qianqian, Wu Yurong, An Menglan, Zhuang Xiaodie…” Li Ruobing simply counted An Menglan among his women.

He couldn’t be bothered to argue.

There was no need to lie to her about this sort of thing.

They bickered a while, then leaned back together on the sofa to watch television. Li Ruobing even turned up the volume with the remote.

They watched and chatted.

Ten-odd minutes later.

“Your mom still has your phone…” Li Ruobing mentioned. She knew there was a lot of important information on it.

“My mom won’t snoop through my phone.” Wu Chen turned his head and smiled.

“Your family…”

“What?”

“They’re so warm. So much love.”

“Of course.” Wu Chen smiled.

The Wu family really was warmer, more harmonious, and more loving than most.

It was an ordinary family, but not the kind of wage-earning household that had to pinch pennies to get by. As the saying went, everything goes wrong for a poor couple. A lack of money caused far too many problems.

The Wus had never had that problem. They weren’t rich or powerful, but there had always been more than enough to live on.

A family of four. A loving couple. A son and a daughter.

They had never been through any great upheaval.

Wu Chen wouldn’t claim his family was the ideal of what an ordinary family could be, but he figured it wasn’t far off.

Judging from her face, Li Ruobing was deeply moved. Her own family might be a wealthy, powerful clan, and she had grown up wanting for nothing, in luxury, but every petty, sordid scheme that came with a great family existed in hers!

She had never liked the atmosphere of a great clan. She’d gone abroad to study early and hadn’t even wanted to come back, yet in the end she’d been tricked into returning and pushed toward an arranged marriage…

If she hadn’t met Wu Chen… she had imagined it. She felt that if she’d really married Ding Ruilong, she might one day have lost control and shot him dead!

“Mm.” Li Ruobing suddenly kissed him, several times.

Very lovey-dovey.

“What was that for?” Wu Chen asked.

“I think you’re handsome. Can’t I kiss you?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Bang!

The bedroom door flew open.

Wu Chen and Li Ruobing sat up.

“Bro… Sister-in-law, Sister-in-law, you’re pregnant?” Wu Jiao came running over, wildly excited all over again. “Am I going to be an auntie?”

Clearly she’d finished explaining Wu Chen’s situation to their parents, and their mother had then told her about Li Ruobing.

Only Wu Jiao came out.

Wu Dahai and Zhang Xiujuan didn’t follow. They were probably still talking something over.

“It’s early yet. It only just happened,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

“There really is a baby! Then last time I came to the city, were you already pregnant, Sister-in-law? Last time you cooked, there was so much smoke from the stove…”

“Last time… yes, but I didn’t know then. I only found out at a checkup a couple of days ago…”

“Boy or girl?”

“Too early to tell. Probably have to wait a few months.”

“Don’t you feel sick?”

“Morning sickness probably won’t start for another month or two.”

Wu Jiao was like a curious little kid, firing off one question after another. Yet when she spoke to Li Ruobing, her voice turned soft and careful without her realizing it.

A “pregnant woman” always seemed fragile somehow, as though even a loud voice might startle her and cause something irreparable.

Ring, ring…

A phone was ringing in the master bedroom, whose door had been left open.

“Xiaochen, someone’s calling you.” Zhang Xiujuan came out with her son’s phone and hurried toward the coffee table.

Wu Chen got up to take it.

“Who’s Tang Jingbin?” she asked. That was the name on the screen.

“A friend in Modu,” Wu Chen said.

She assumed it was someone her son had met through music and didn’t ask further.

Wu Chen took the phone, turned toward the balcony, and answered as he walked.

“Hello, Mr. Tang,” he began.

“Mao Rusong’s been in a car accident,” Tang Jingbin said, getting straight to it.

Wu Chen’s steps slowed for an instant. Then he carried on naturally toward the balcony, stepped out, and slid the glass door shut behind him.