Chapter 464: Poisoned by Wu Chen
by cnwebnovelsChapter 464: Poisoned by Wu Chen
The two women had made their bet only a week ago.
They had agreed that if An Menglan hadn’t fallen for Wu Chen within a month, Li Ruobing would kneel and apologize. If she had, An Menglan would kneel and apologize instead!
Li Ruobing knew Wu Chen’s methods. Not threats or coercion, but drawing women in through his own ability and talent. It could win over almost any woman!
So long as he wanted it to!
So she was certain An Menglan would lose. There was no escaping it!
But she was in no hurry to win. She had meant to let it drag on, then sit An Menglan down for a frank talk when the month was nearly up.
The longer it went on, the heavier An Menglan’s guilt would grow, and the easier it would be to make her bow her head.
She had simply never expected An Menglan to suddenly give herself away!
“Miss… Miss Li.” An Menglan had plainly been caught off guard. After those two words, she went silent.
She realized she’d said the wrong thing. She should never have discussed this with Wu Chen over the phone!
“Why so quiet?” Li Ruobing asked.
Her voice was still icy, but as she spoke she turned to look at Wu Chen, a victorious smile on her face!
She even winked at him.
Faintly, through the phone, came the sound of An Menglan taking a deep breath.
Wu Chen could hear it too. Li Ruobing was pressed right against him.
“Miss Li, you’re there too… Have you been listening the whole time?” An Menglan finally spoke. Her tone had become perfectly normal, a little formal.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Li Ruobing gave a cold laugh, then put on a certain tone. “My Mr. Wu and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet, and you call out of the blue. You’re calling my man. I’d hardly step out of the room for that, would I? What are you afraid I’ll hear?”
Her words had thorns, and meaning beneath them.
“You’ve misunderstood, Miss Li. That’s not what I meant.” An Menglan’s voice was rich and resonant. “I just thought it was odd. I assumed that at this hour, you’d already have gone to the office…”
That was why she had dared mention the matter between her and Wu Chen. She’d asked whether he was at home, and he’d said yes.
It wasn’t a weekend.
So she’d automatically assumed Li Ruobing would be at work.
“We’re at his parents’ place. It’s my first time meeting them. Leaving first thing in the morning wouldn’t look very good.” Li Ruobing’s words still carried an extra layer.
Wu Chen had taken her to meet his parents!
“Oh… then congratulations, Miss Li. You’ve already met Mr. Wu’s parents. It sounds like good news for you and Mr. Wu isn’t far off…” An Menglan sounded every bit the smooth talker.
“Heh!” Li Ruobing laughed. “Miss An! Don’t rush to congratulate me. Shouldn’t you first explain what’s going on between you and my Mr. Wu that has to be kept from me?”
The line went quiet again.
“It’s really nothing,” An Menglan said after a few seconds of silence, her tone normal, with a natural, faint smile in it. “I know you’re very hostile toward me, Miss Li, but it isn’t what you imagine.”
“What does ‘nothing’ mean?” Li Ruobing asked flatly.
“It’s just… Mr. Wu didn’t tell you?” An Menglan countered.
“As if I could keep him in line.” Li Ruobing shot Wu Chen a reproachful look as she said it, then went on into the phone, “Miss An, you’re so very capable. Act a little sweet with my Mr. Wu and of course he’ll keep it from me. Why would he tell me…”
There were knives in those words!
Seeing Li Ruobing carry on like this struck Wu Chen as enormously entertaining.
It was the contrast with her usual self.
She was normally an exceptionally straightforward woman.
Perhaps only for him would she let herself show so many different faces, and the more she cared, the more she did.
“Miss Li, I think you may have misunderstood,” An Menglan said, growing steadily calmer. However panicked she was inside, she couldn’t let it show.
“Misunderstood? Heh! An Menglan! What did you promise me back then? Do I need to repeat it for you?” Li Ruobing said.
Another deep breath came through the phone.
“Stop scaring her,” Wu Chen said with a soft laugh.
Li Ruobing heard him, and so did An Menglan.
“Ooh, my Mr. Wu’s feeling sorry for you now,” Li Ruobing said into the phone, with a glance at him.
“Mr. Wu is a good man,” An Menglan replied.
“So… you really aren’t going to explain?” Li Ruobing asked once more. It would be the last time.
Wu Chen had spoken up, and she couldn’t be bothered to listen to An Menglan lie any longer.
There’d be plenty of ways to nail it down later.
“Actually…” An Menglan paused, then went on, “Actually, I was planning to tell you about this myself later, Miss Li. It’s just that Mr. Wu and I haven’t finished working it out, so…”
“Hm?” For an instant Li Ruobing was puzzled.
From An Menglan’s tone, it didn’t sound as if she meant anything private between her and Wu Chen. It sounded like something big. Something serious?
The confusion lasted only a moment before Li Ruobing caught on.
An Menglan was making an excuse!
She meant to use some other matter to paper over what she’d just let slip.
“What is it? What could possibly need hiding from me?” Li Ruobing was suddenly interested. She very much wanted to know what big matter An Menglan could come up with that would cover it perfectly.
“It’s like this, Miss Li… Mr. Wu is currently your assistant, right?” An Menglan asked.
“Yes,” Li Ruobing said.
Everyone knew Wu Chen was Li Ruobing’s assistant, and everyone also knew it was purely a title. He didn’t actually work at Huancai Fashion.
“The thing is… Mr. Wu talked with me before about taking a stake in Menghua Music. It would affect a lot of things, and Mr. Wu might need to come to Modu often from now on… So until we had it settled, we agreed not to tell you yet,” An Menglan said.
Li Ruobing’s face changed slightly. She turned to look at Wu Chen.
Her expression was entirely different now.
Wu Chen wanted to buy into Menghua Music? Had that woman captivated him that much already?
When she looked over, though, the smile on Wu Chen’s face turned subtle. It felt as though… Li Ruobing had just set him up for another assist today!
That subtle smile was beyond her understanding.
“How much is my Mr. Wu putting into you?” Li Ruobing asked into the phone.
“Mm… no money,” An Menglan said after a brief pause.
“Then what do you mean, a stake? What kind of stake?” Li Ruobing pressed.
“It’s… something like contributing expertise in exchange for equity. We just hadn’t agreed on the shares before.”
“Shares? How much did he ask you for?”
“Fifty percent!”
“Hm?!”
Li Ruobing was floored!
Wu Chen had actually asked An Menglan for fifty percent! Not a single yuan invested, and he wanted half of Menghua Music!
Even during An Menglan’s semi-retirement, Menghua Music had been conservatively valued at three billion yuan! And now, with her new album out and its numbers far beyond expectations, An Menglan alone was enough to push the company’s valuation up by more than a billion!
Call it a conservative four billion!
Fifty percent was two billion!
Without leaning on her family’s resources, Li Ruobing had spent four years building Huancai Fashion, and it was only valued at two billion!
Wu Chen meant to get two billion yuan of equity out of thin air?!
And it wasn’t just the value of the shares. It would cost An Menglan absolute control of her company!
She had never seen a stake deal so outrageous!
“You… agreed?” Li Ruobing asked again.
“We discussed it once before. Mr. Wu and I didn’t know each other that well then, so naturally I didn’t agree. But now I think…
“With Mr. Wu’s talents, it might actually be worth it! When I asked just now when Mr. Wu would be back in Modu, it was because I wanted to sit down and go over it with him properly, in person,” An Menglan said.
Li Ruobing was floored all over again!
An Menglan was actually about to agree to Wu Chen’s absurd demand for something for nothing!!
That was just…
Li Ruobing turned to look at Wu Chen, and the corners of her mouth quickly lifted. She smiled, radiant as spring sunshine.
Mr. Wu! He was still the Mr. Wu she knew!
For one brief instant just now, she really had wondered whether An Menglan had bewitched him. Now she understood. An Menglan hadn’t bewitched Wu Chen. An Menglan had been poisoned by Wu Chen!
Everything was under his control. Li Ruobing included!
She knew perfectly well that she had been poisoned by Wu Chen too. But with everything else equal, it was obvious which of them he loved most. Her!
“All right… let’s leave it there for now.” Li Ruobing abruptly dropped the subject and asked, “Want a few more words with my Mr. Wu?”
“Mm… no need. Just pass the message on to Mr. Wu for me,” An Menglan said.
“Fine,” Li Ruobing said.
The call ended!
Li Ruobing set the phone down, turned to Wu Chen, and began to speak.