Chapter 474: Was This Really a Mistake?

Chapter 474: Was This Really a Mistake?

Su Ruiwen felt as though his mind couldn’t keep up.

He hadn’t felt this way in many years. Not because he could normally make sense of everything, but because whenever he ran into something difficult or baffling, he could at least make bold assumptions and boldly explore the possibilities.

But after hearing Wu Chen lay out Xu Zhenyuan’s past, Su Ruiwen couldn’t come up with a single theory that was even remotely plausible.

The sheer volume and detail of the information was one reason.

The age of some of the incidents was another.

Most important of all, though, Su Ruiwen knew Xu Zhenyuan. The man had worked under him for more than a decade. Su Ruiwen knew exactly what kind of person he was.

Capable, bold, and ruthless enough when it counted, but at heart still a businessman. Not some out-and-out villain.

How could anyone have uncovered so much about him?

If Xu Zhenyuan were really so sloppy that crimes from over ten years ago could be traced back to him in such detail, he wouldn’t have survived this long.

No billionaire could be that stupid.

True, the twenty-first century was an age of opportunity, forever producing legends of overnight wealth. With the rise of the internet, such stories had only multiplied. There were always a few “lucky ones” who picked the right direction and amassed fortunes of billions, even tens of billions, in just a few short years.

But Xu Zhenyuan was clearly not one of them.

He had made his way up one step at a time.

He’d started out in the 1990s and weathered one rise and fall after another. He had co-founded Meiyuan Jewelry with Yao Honglin, only to lose to Jinfu in the competition that followed. He’d been cheated on investments, and he’d had his successes, too, all the way up to the present.

Su Ruiwen had been through the scheming, the betrayals, even the bloodshed of the business world. So had Xu Zhenyuan.

How could anyone have dug up so much dirt on him? With evidence, no less?

How had Li Ruobing pulled it off?

Su Ruiwen knew nothing about the wager. But he did know that in the four years since Li Ruobing had come to Donghai, apart from the team and startup capital she’d brought at the beginning, she had never leaned on the Li family in business. Not once.

She was fiercely independent and fiercely driven. Su Ruiwen couldn’t help but admire her for it.

She rarely asked her younger brother, Li Ruotai, for help, even in private matters. If anything, it was Li Ruotai who took it upon himself to do things for his sister.

But at most, he smoothed away a few nuisances for her. He never went further than that, because she wouldn’t have liked it.

Li Ruobing wouldn’t even seek her family’s help for her own sake.

Would she really go asking on Su Qingying’s behalf?!

Would she?

Su Ruiwen didn’t think so.

But suppose she had. Suppose she’d done exactly that!

Even if the Li family threw everything it had into investigating Xu Zhenyuan, and did it without Xu ever noticing he was under investigation, Su Ruiwen still didn’t believe they could have uncovered this much. Not even the Li family!

He was utterly at a loss.

It was a long while before Su Ruiwen fixed his eyes on Wu Chen and spoke slowly. “Mr. Wu… is everything you’ve told me true?”

He was beginning to doubt Wu Chen.

He didn’t think Wu would tell lies so easily exposed. But Wu Chen lying was still more believable than someone digging up so many of Xu Zhenyuan’s secrets. The first was at least remotely possible. The second was all but impossible.

“Easy enough to verify, isn’t it?” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“Where is Xu Zhenyuan’s mistress buried? The exact location?” Su Ruiwen asked at once. He wanted to test whether Wu was telling the truth.

Though that wasn’t his only reason for wanting to check.

In truth, after hearing about everything Xu Zhenyuan had done, Su Ruiwen’s mind was already turning.

Xu had swindled extra shares out of Jinfu in the acquisition and later embezzled company money.

If Su Ruiwen could get proof of those things, of course he would go after Xu.

Now he wanted to send Xu Zhenyuan to prison, too! Even if Xu went before a firing squad, Su Ruiwen wouldn’t feel the slightest pity.

It wasn’t that a few words from Wu Chen had changed his outlook.

It was simply that Su Ruiwen wouldn’t frame and destroy Xu Zhenyuan just because Xu posed a potential threat to his daughter and might someday cause trouble. Things hadn’t come to that.

But this wasn’t framing anyone. This was digging up dirt Xu had actually earned.

The outcome might be the same, but the two were completely different things. Different in every way!

Su Ruiwen would have loved to hold leverage over every one of the company’s old guard. The lesser threats, his daughter could keep in line with that leverage. The serious ones, the ones who might get out of hand, could be “sent away.”

“The body is in the northern industrial park, behind Warehouse No. 5 in the new section of Tianhe Machinery Factory. Second parking shelter from the left. Between the second and third parking spaces counting from the right, two meters down,” Wu Chen said with a smile, as if reciting it required no thought at all.

“What?” Su Ruiwen stared, thrown all over again.

What had Wu Chen just said?

The location was so intricate and precise that Su Ruiwen even suspected Wu Chen was talking nonsense.

“Mr. Wu… could you say that again?” he asked, pulling open a drawer and taking out paper and a pen.

He wanted to write it down.

“Boss Su, I think you’d be better off recording it on your phone. It’s easier,” Wu Chen said.

Su Ruiwen paused, then set the paper and pen aside, took out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and started recording.

Wu Chen repeated the location of the mistress’s body, then added, “Construction on the new section of Tianhe Machinery Factory started three years ago. Four years ago, when Xu Zhenyuan had the body buried, the site was still wasteland.”

Once again, it struck Su Ruiwen as absurd.

A body buried on wasteland, then a factory built over the top of it. The construction would have wiped out every feature of the original terrain. Even Xu Zhenyuan himself might not be able to find the body right away. He’d only be able to pin down the general area.

How could Wu Chen be so precise? Unless someone had already dug the body up, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to know for sure!

Su Ruiwen’s reasoning was sound. No one could be that precise without having dug it up.

And Wu Chen had dug it up.

During his thousand years in the loop!

“Hmm…” Su Ruiwen murmured. He didn’t question Wu Chen any further. There was no need. He could send someone to dig later, and then he’d know.

He glanced at the phone on the desk, thought for a moment, and looked back at Wu Chen. “Mr. Wu, earlier you said there were people in the company who knew about Xu Zhenyuan’s embezzlement. Who exactly…?”

For the next full hour, Su Ruiwen asked and Wu Chen answered.

Su Ruiwen’s thinking was this: if everything Wu Chen said was true, then this time, Xu Zhenyuan was finished! Here was a chance to clear an obstacle from his daughter’s path ahead of time. Naturally he would seize it. He could make his move!

So he wanted to get through as much as possible in one sitting.

He wanted every last piece of dirt on Xu Zhenyuan in his hands!

In the end, the payoff might go beyond putting Xu away. He might even offer Xu a way out: no execution, only a prison sentence, in exchange for surrendering his Jinfu Group shares and transferring them to Su Qingying!

Before either of them noticed, it was past three in the afternoon.

Over the course of that hour-plus conversation, Su Ruiwen found himself astonished not only by what Li Ruobing was doing, but more and more by Wu Chen himself.

The young man had remarkable composure and cunning, and an exceptional memory besides. Without consulting a single document, he could casually recite all the intelligence Li Ruobing had supposedly had people dig up.

At last, they’d covered more or less everything.

Wu Chen glanced at his watch, then stood with a smile. “Boss Su, now that you know what’s going on, I’ll head back, unless there’s anything else.”

Su Ruiwen rose as well and offered his hand.

They shook.

Nothing more needed saying. Wu Chen turned and left.

Su Ruiwen watched him go.

Then he slowly lowered himself back into his executive chair. After a moment’s thought, his gaze shifted to his phone. He picked it up and stopped the recording.

He set the phone down again, very slowly.

His mind drifted. He wasn’t thinking only about Xu Zhenyuan, but also about something else.

Was Li Ruobing really this formidable?!

He had always considered her impressive: a woman from a powerful family, with real business talent of her own.

But today, his sense of just how formidable she was had been completely overturned.

If everything Wu Chen said was true, then Li Ruobing was… nothing short of miraculous!

Hands clasped, Su Ruiwen sat in thought for a good ten minutes or more. Then he picked up his phone again, unlocked it, and scrolled through his contacts until he found the entry saved as “Boss Li, Huancai.”

He felt he ought to speak with Li Ruobing.

He dialed.

He held the phone to his ear. Six or seven seconds passed before the call connected.

“Hello? Boss Su.” Li Ruobing sounded surprised.

They rarely spoke. Even with Huancai and Jinfu working together, it was Su Qingying she dealt with regularly. Su Ruiwen had never once called her about the partnership, so a call from him out of the blue was the last thing she’d expected.

“Hahaha, Miss Li,” Su Ruiwen said cheerfully. “Mr. Wu came by. We’ve just finished talking. He only just left.”

“Ah…” Li Ruobing drew out the sound, though her heart gave a jolt.

Had Wu Chen gone to see Su Qingying and run straight into Su Ruiwen?

She immediately recalled what Wu Chen had told her before he left: if anyone asked, she should say he’d gone to deliver some documents.

“…I sent him over to deliver some documents to Miss Su,” she said smoothly.

“Oh, Miss Li, there’s no need to hide it from me. Mr. Wu has told me everything,” Su Ruiwen said amiably.

“Hm?” Li Ruobing was startled again.

What had Wu Chen told him?! About himself and Su Qingying?! That didn’t seem right either. If he had, Su Ruiwen wouldn’t be talking to her like this.

So… was Su Ruiwen suspicious, and calling to test her?

“What did Wu Chen tell you? I really did just send him to deliver documents… What are you referring to, Boss Su?” she asked.

“Hahahaha!” Su Ruiwen laughed heartily. “Miss Li, I know you meant well. You’re helping our Qingying. There’s no need to be so secretive. Let’s speak plainly. Mr. Wu told me everything. In fact, I’m about to send some people to dig up the body…”

Li Ruobing went completely silent, stunned.

Dig up a body?!

Whose body?!!

Holy shit, what had Wu Chen done?! What had he said to Su Ruiwen? Had he gone and played the man?!!

Playing for stakes this high again! He really didn’t do anything by halves!

And… wasn’t this a huge slip? Su Ruiwen was calling her for answers, and she knew absolutely nothing. What was she supposed to say? Wouldn’t that make him suspicious? How could Wu Chen, who always had everything calculated, make such a glaring mistake?!

Wait.

Hold on!

As she sat there in shaken silence, something suddenly struck her.

Was this… really a mistake?