Chapter 456: Who Did Xiaochen Hit?

Chapter 456: Who Did Xiaochen Hit?

Who could it be?

From what Wu Chen knew of Mao Rusong, if anyone had been plotting to kill him before July 7, he would certainly have known.

After all, a man with Mao Rusong’s reach in Dongpu, Modu could only be targeted by someone out of the ordinary, someone who would dare, not some insignificant nobody.

And anyone like that, Wu Chen would certainly have looked into during the thousand-year loop.

Strictly speaking, the vast majority of what he’d learned over those thousand years, he had learned “passively.”

He hadn’t actively set out to learn most of it.

Say he was investigating one powerful figure’s scheme against another during the loop. With nothing to hold him back, his favorite method was kidnapping.

He only had to pin down the target’s movements, abduct them, interrogate them until he had the answer, and never worry about the consequences.

Done in a day!

And while torturing those powerful men for information, he often came away with plenty of “unexpected bonuses”! Cut off one finger, and a man might be so desperate to talk he’d spill everything he’d done in his past life!

Every name they mentioned had to come with a pile of information about that name.

What was the relationship?

How had they become friends, or enemies?

What had happened between them? Who had helped whom? Who had wronged whom?

Then there were the powerful men’s trusted aides, drivers, bodyguards… each of them could feed Wu Chen intelligence from their own vantage point.

Picking up the same detail about the same person, unintentionally and repeatedly, from different angles let the accounts verify one another and sift truth from falsehood!

All of it wove together into an extraordinarily dense web of interlinked intelligence.

So in fact, there were people Wu Chen hadn’t even begun to investigate in the loop, people he’d never met.

And he already knew most of their dirty secrets.

All from what others had told him, cross-checked against one another.

As for Mao Rusong.

Wu Chen had never looked into how many enemies Mao Rusong had. He’d never cared enough to. But… he simply knew how many enemies Mao Rusong had!

Before July 7, no one had been planning to kill him.

Wu Chen was sure of that!

So…

“Whether it was the Qi brothers is hard to say yet. If it wasn’t, I’d guess it was one of Mao Rusong’s rivals using this chance to get rid of him and pin it on the Qi brothers…”

Wu Chen didn’t state it as fact.

It wasn’t impossible that Qi Min had simply turned ruthless and decided to go all the way. It was just extremely unlikely.

“Mm…” Tang Jingbin murmured, then sighed. “Ah! Let’s wait for word from the hospital. Whoever did it, if Mao Rusong dies, this is going to be huge!”

He was still thinking of Wu Chen.

He still believed it was most likely the Qi brothers.

“Let’s leave it there for now, Mr. Tang. I’ll wait for Gu Ruibo’s call. Thank you for going out of your way to let me know,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Ha, no need to be so formal, Little Wu.” Tang Jingbin laughed too, then lowered his voice. “All right, that’s it for now. We’ll be in touch.”

“Sure.”

The call ended.

Wu Chen pocketed his phone, turned, slid the glass door open, and came in from the balcony.

While he’d been on the phone, Zhang Xiujuan and Wu Jiao had sat down on either side of Li Ruobing and were chatting with her.

Wu Dahai had come out too and sat in an armchair off to one side. He didn’t say or ask much.

Never mind that Li Ruobing and Wu Chen weren’t married yet. Even if they were, it wouldn’t be quite proper for him, as “father-in-law,” to ask his “daughter-in-law” about her pregnancy.

He just listened.

When he saw his son come in from the balcony, his face was positively glowing.

He was thrilled, naturally!

Wu Chen came over to the sofa and was about to sit.

“Jiao, scoot over…” Zhang Xiujuan gave her daughter a look.

“Hmph.” Wu Jiao, who was peeling an apple, gave a little snort and shifted aside to make room.

Wu Chen sat down beside Li Ruobing.

“Xiaochen, I haven’t even gotten to you yet. Bingbing’s pregnant, something this big, and you didn’t say a word. I had to hear it from Bingbing. We haven’t prepared anything at home. How can you take it so lightly?” Zhang Xiujuan grumbled, giving her son a gentle dressing-down.

Earlier, at Wu Chen’s suggestion, Li Ruobing had made him look bad.

“My fault, my fault.” Wu Chen smiled.

Zhang Xiujuan rolled her eyes at him, then took Li Ruobing’s hand and spoke softly. “Bingbing, don’t work too hard. Rest when you need to…”

“I’ll be careful, Auntie,” Li Ruobing said with a smile, then gestured at the coffee table. “Oh, Auntie, I brought you a set of cosmetics. They’re from our company. One set for you and one for Jiaojiao…”

The gifts she’d brought for her first visit were still laid out on the coffee table.

The cosmetics were Huancai Fashion’s newly released high-end line.

Full sets, too, with every category of product.

More than ten thousand yuan a set.

“Oh my, this lipstick… such a fresh color. At my age, isn’t it a bit much…?”

“Auntie, you look so young. This color suits you…”

It wasn’t empty flattery. Zhang Xiujuan really did look much younger than her age, mostly because she was pretty, had never had to work herself ragged, and had always lived comfortably.

“Uncle, these cigarettes are for you.”

“These cigarettes… Jiaojiao, hand them here. Oh, these aren’t cheap, are they? Yellow Crane Tower. Never seen this kind. A thousand a carton?”

“Um… I didn’t buy them. I got them from my younger brother. When he heard I was visiting, he told me to take them. I think… they’re about thirty thousand a carton.”

“Good grief! Thirty thousand? Five cartons, that’s a hundred and fifty thousand! Good grief!”

Wu Dahai was surprised, but not nearly as shocked as he would have been before. His tolerance for shock had shot up, naturally because he now knew his son could make serious money.

That partial reveal was also why Li Ruobing had brought up the cigarettes herself.

The atmosphere could hardly have been better.

Neither Wu Dahai nor Zhang Xiujuan felt that weight on their minds anymore. They were no longer anxious. They even felt their son was worthy of Li Ruobing now!

When it came to money, of course, he still couldn’t compare with her.

But Wu Chen was only twenty-two. He was just getting started, and he’d already made such a big name for himself and earned so much. Back in the bedroom, Wu Jiao had shown them on her phone what people online were saying about “Morning Mist.”

A perfect match!

Such a perfect match!

They talked on.

Wu Chen sprawled on the sofa again, looking at his phone. He was waiting for Gu Ruibo’s call too.

Solving the Mao Rusong problem would be easy for him, but he still hadn’t decided whether to reset today.

That depended entirely on whether Mao Rusong was alive or dead.

Or, more precisely, on how badly he was hurt.

If Mao Rusong was dead or seriously injured, then no matter who had done it, Wu Chen would reset today without question. Mao Rusong’s network was extremely complex, running not just through all sorts of families and financial groups but into the entertainment industry as well.

Having Mao Rusong as a connection was like indirectly having many, many more, all of which would come in handy someday.

And on a personal level, Wu Chen wouldn’t let him die anyway. Boss Mao was a friend worth knowing well.

Ding—

A notification chimed, but not from Wu Chen’s phone. It came from Wu Dahai.

He pulled an older-model smartphone from his trouser pocket. He’d put on some weight, so digging it out while sitting took some effort.

A text message had come in.

He opened it, looked, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Ones, tens, hundreds…” He counted.

Eight digits!

Someone had transferred exactly thirty million yuan into his account!

It was the family’s savings account. Zhang Xiujuan kept the card itself, but the account had originally been linked to Wu Dahai’s phone number, and they’d never changed it.

“Son! You sent this!” Wu Dahai’s head snapped up toward Wu Chen, who was fiddling with his phone. No one but his son could possibly have sent him that much money at once.

He said it so loudly that everyone jumped.

They all looked at him.

“Who did Xiaochen hit?” Zhang Xiujuan asked.

“Money! I said he sent money! Honey, look…” Wu Dahai handed her the phone.

“Let me see, let me see.” Wu Jiao got up and leaned in.

Three heads crowded over the phone.

“This is three million… thirty million?”

“Of course it’s thirty million.”

All three looked up at Wu Chen. Wu Jiao’s eyes were practically full of stars, but Zhang Xiujuan said, “Son, don’t. Your dad and I aren’t short of money. You’ve only just managed to earn some, and now you… won’t you need money to get married?”

“I’ll definitely have enough for the wedding,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Then… won’t you have to give Bingbing betrothal gifts and such… right?”

“Your mom’s right! Bingbing’s such an outstanding girl. You can’t skimp on the bride-price.”

Really, those were just excuses.

Parents were usually more inclined to think of their children and give them more. Children giving their parents money at holidays and festivals as a show of filial respect was normal. But a huge lump sum all at once, an almost astronomical figure…

When parents weren’t short of money themselves, their instinct was to refuse it. Or rather, they didn’t quite dare accept it.

It could only be said that although Wu Dahai and Zhang Xiujuan now knew their son was rich, they hadn’t yet adjusted to what his wealth would mean for the family.

“Dad, Mom, your son’s only just started making money. It’s not like this hundred-odd million is all there is and I’ll never earn another cent. I’ll keep making more… From now on, you two don’t have to work so hard.”

The moment he finished, Zhang Xiujuan and Wu Dahai both opened their mouths to say something.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen’s phone rang.

He glanced at it. Caller ID: Gu Ruibo!

“I need to take this. You guys keep talking…” Wu Chen got up and headed for the balcony again.