Chapter 482: A Huge “Problem”!
by cnwebnovelsChapter 482: A Huge “Problem”!
For all Su Ruiwen’s composure, his mind was in turmoil!
In the instant he first saw the two figures in the pavilion, he’d almost thought he was seeing things. Not because he truly believed he’d mistaken them, but because some instinct refused to believe what he had stumbled upon!
From dozens of meters away, Su Ruiwen couldn’t make out what they were saying.
But he could see exactly how they were together.
Wu Yurong sat on Wu Chen’s lap, one hand draped behind his neck, the other holding a champagne glass, smiling and murmuring to him. The way she gazed into his eyes, one moment as if chiding him, the next as if coaxing him…
All of it shook Su Ruiwen to the core!
He knew Wu Yurong!
He knew her better, even, than the men who pursued her did! The two of them were close friends.
Their personal friendship ran deep.
He knew that this woman, whom Donghai called the “Black Widow,” could turn any man with designs on her into a tool, toying with him in the palm of her hand. The harder a man tried to get close to her, the faster he would “meet his end”!
Wu Yurong was far too skilled with men!
So skilled that the men who truly understood her didn’t entertain such thoughts about her at all. They kept a respectful distance!
In fact, many of her suitors were well aware of her tricks. Those big shots, those men worth tens of billions, were no fools. Not one of them was simple!
But Wu Yurong’s greatest skill wasn’t her tricks. It was that she could make a man go along with her willingly, even when he knew exactly what she wanted, even when he knew full well he was being used!
That was terrifying!
Su Ruiwen himself didn’t fear her tricks. His marriage was happy, and he loved his wife deeply. That was precisely why he and Wu Yurong could be close friends.
He also knew that, because of certain things in her past, Wu Yurong’s heart had long since closed itself to any man!
It was part of how she kept her balance.
The moment she truly fell in love, or married, some of the people in her vast network would inevitably drift away from her, and some of those relationships might even sour!
Never letting any man get too close had always been Wu Yurong’s bottom line!
And so…
Su Ruiwen was genuinely shaken!
Not only had Wu Yurong crossed the line she’d held all these years, but she’d crossed it with… Wu Chen?!
Wu Yurong might look like a woman in her twenties, with a beauty that could topple kingdoms, but she was in fact forty-two! Her daughter was already twenty!
And Wu Chen was only twenty-two!
She… had fallen for a man twenty years her junior?!
A man who was already the boyfriend of another domineering young woman from a powerful family?!
What on earth was going on?!!
Su Ruiwen could imagine the storm it would cause if this ever got out, among the wealthy elite in Donghai and even across the country! For Wu Yurong, the damage wouldn’t stop at her reputation!
Li Ruobing’s fury alone might be more than Wu Yurong’s family could bear!
There was no way Wu Yurong hadn’t considered all that!
And yet she had taken this step anyway!
Su Ruiwen recalled the joke she’d made days earlier, that if she were twenty years younger she’d want to marry Wu Chen. He had always taken it as just that, a joke.
Even earlier today, when he’d raised it with her again, he’d still believed she was joking. He’d thought she genuinely admired Wu Chen as a young man and that was why she’d said it. He’d also suspected she might know something remarkable about Wu Chen, which was why he’d brought it up and asked questions!
Mostly, he’d wanted to learn more about Wu Chen!
But Wu Yurong hadn’t let slip anything unusual. Everything she’d told him was already common knowledge in Donghai’s upper circles. Nothing anyone else didn’t know.
At the time, he’d simply concluded she knew nothing more, and that her remark days earlier had been an offhand joke.
But now…
Now Su Ruiwen was certain! There was definitely some huge “problem” with Wu Chen! And Wu Yurong definitely knew about it! She was helping him hide it. Or rather, just like Li Ruobing, she was covering for him…
It had to be!
Otherwise… judging solely by everything rumored about Wu Chen in Donghai right now, Su Ruiwen didn’t believe that was enough to make Wu Yurong risk so much for him!
If Li Ruobing ever found out, it would be an absolute disaster for Wu Yurong!
So… what exactly was the problem with Wu Chen?
What abilities did he have that no one knew about? He had mentioned having secrets. What were they?
Standing at the corner of the rockery by the fishpond, Su Ruiwen watched and thought. Possibility after possibility came to him, until his thoughts were nearly in a tangle!
In the pavilion.
Wu Yurong, who had been laughing softly with Wu Chen, suddenly raised her head. She glanced to the right, then started to look to the left. Su Ruiwen, who had been watching all along, reacted fast and stepped back. At that angle, the pavilion and the two people in it vanished from his view, and they couldn’t see him either.
He had sensed Wu Yurong’s instinctive caution.
That made it plain: she and Wu Chen had come here for a secret tryst!
Li Ruobing had arrived at the wedding with Wu Chen. They’d been apart only a short while, and already Wu Yurong dared to do this. Her nerve was astonishing!
What methods did this Wu Chen have? What was he capable of, to have bewitched Wu Yurong to such a degree?
Su Ruiwen’s expression kept changing as he thought. He didn’t step forward for another look. Instead, glass in hand, he turned and left!
Before long, he was back at the main wedding grounds.
The crowd kept growing. The ceremony was set for eleven thirty, less than an hour away, and most of the guests who planned to attend had already arrived.
“Boss Su!”
“Chairman Su.”
Su Ruiwen had barely stepped off the path when he ran into two acquaintances, both heads of Donghai business groups. They came up with particular warmth to chat and toast him.
Su Ruiwen traded a few pleasantries with them.
They soon noticed he seemed distracted. Thinking they might have displeased him, they tactfully found an excuse to leave and didn’t bother him further.
A few more minutes passed.
By the fountain in the southwest corner of the grounds, Su Ruiwen found his daughter, Su Qingying, along with Li Ruobing, Mu Qianqian, Qianqian’s father Mu Sihai, and a few others, seven or eight people in all, gathered in conversation.
Everyone there had ties to either Jinfu or Huancai.
“Dad!”
“Boss Su’s here.”
“Boss Su.”
“Brother Su.”
Everyone greeted him as he walked up. Mu Sihai even raised his glass to him with a smile.
Mu Sihai and Su Ruiwen had once been no more than acquaintances, and not close ones. Mu Sihai was in biopharmaceuticals, a business with no connection whatsoever to Jinfu Group. Lately, though, thanks to his daughter Mu Qianqian, the two families had grown much closer.
Su Ruiwen raised his glass in return and took a sip.
“Boss Su, did you find our Mr. Wu?” Li Ruobing asked with a smile.
Su Ruiwen looked at her and shook his head, smiling genially. “I took a look around over there, but didn’t see him…”
“Shall I give him a call?”
“No need. We’re bound to run into him soon.”
They made a little more idle conversation. Su Ruiwen did his best to seem natural, but Li Ruobing still sensed something odd in his mood.
“Hahaha! Sister-in-law!” A hearty laugh rang out behind them.
Everyone turned.
It was Lu Guangnian. He looked especially vigorous today. At fifty-six, his hair was jet black and his face glowing. He had clearly dressed up for the occasion and looked a good deal younger than usual!
Good news truly did put a spring in a man’s step!
Today Lu Guangnian carried himself with an energy all his own.
Yet as he came over, everyone was momentarily thrown.
Sister-in-law?
Who did he mean?
“Brother Lu.” Li Ruobing smiled and raised her glass to him. “You’re looking so lively today, Brother Lu… Congratulations on your wedding!”
“Hahaha, too kind, Sister-in-law.” Lu Guangnian laughed as he came over and clinked glasses with her, though he didn’t drink. “Hey, where’s my brother? How come I don’t see him?”
“He’s off discussing something with Ms. Wu. He’ll be over shortly,” Li Ruobing replied, still smiling.
Lu Guangnian had walked straight up and spoken to Li Ruobing first, called her sister-in-law, and asked after his brother?
Everyone understood that by “brother” he meant Wu Chen.
But that he called Li Ruobing sister-in-law, and that she answered to it, put a strange look on every face present, Su Ruiwen’s included.
They all knew Lu Guangnian was, strictly speaking, Li Ruobing’s elder. He was older even than Li Maoren. It was only because he and Li Ruotai were such close friends that they treated each other as equals.
Given that, it would have been perfectly normal for him to call her “little sister.”
But “sister-in-law”… He was obviously reckoning it through Wu Chen! Which meant that, to him, Wu Chen carried more weight!
“Old Lu, where’s my sister-in-law? I haven’t seen her,” Su Ruiwen said, casting Li Ruobing an odd look before turning to Lu Guangnian.
“The ceremony hasn’t started yet. There’s a whole procedure to it, isn’t there? She can’t come out just yet, hahaha…” Lu Guangnian beamed, the picture of festive cheer. He glanced around, then asked, “Old Su, your wife didn’t come? Where’s my sister-in-law?”
“She’ll be a bit later. She’ll definitely be here before the ceremony,” Su Ruiwen said with a smile.
As the two of them talked, the people around them wore strange expressions again.
Everyone knew Lu Guangnian was older than Su Ruiwen, and that the two got along well. So it was perfectly natural for Su Ruiwen to call Lu’s wife his sister-in-law, and for Lu to call Madam Su his.
Lu Guangnian had an air of jianghu about him, and his forms of address were often down-to-earth and informal.
But… he had just called Li Ruobing “sister-in-law.”
And he’d called Madam Su “sister-in-law” as well.
Yet Li Ruobing and Madam Su’s daughter, Su Qingying, were like sisters.
It was very strange!
From the moment Lu Guangnian arrived, he became the center of the conversation, and the crowd around them kept growing. It was his wedding, after all. He was the man of the hour, the groom! Whoever the guests were, they had come out of respect for him!
More than ten minutes later.
“Boss Lu, congratulations!” Another guest came over to offer his good wishes.
“Old Liu! Likewise, likewise… I hear you picked up another parcel of land in Hang City. I ought to be congratulating you, hahaha… Come, come, Old Liu, let me introduce you. This is Boss Su, Su Ruiwen of Jinfu Group… Old Su, this is Boss Liu Daohe of Tiannenghe Group, here from Zhe Province…”
He was a businessman from another province who had come for the wedding, in real estate like Lu Guangnian. The moment Lu introduced Su Ruiwen, Liu Daohe hurried forward a few steps and shook his hand with a broad smile.
Outside Donghai, Su Ruiwen’s name as the city’s richest man carried further than Lu Guangnian’s!
Liu Daohe exchanged pleasantries with him and handed over a business card.
As the two were trading courtesies…
Ring, ring…
Lu Guangnian’s phone rang. He pulled it from inside his jacket, glanced at the screen, and answered with a smile. “Hello, Old Hu. You here yet? Ah… fine… hahaha, hurry up, then… What? No, I hadn’t heard… The news? What did you say?!”
A few words in, Lu Guangnian’s expression changed and his voice rose in surprise.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“All right, all right, got it. This… hiss, let me take a look.” He said a few more words, hung up, and began scrolling through his phone as if looking something up.
“Boss Lu, what’s happened?” Liu Daohe couldn’t help asking, turning toward him.
“Old Liu, you know Shuangqi Real Estate, over in Modu?” Lu Guangnian asked, looking up.
“How could I not? The Qi brothers. What about them?” Liu Daohe asked.
“Qi Min and Qi Jun have been arrested,” Lu Guangnian said.
“Arrested?” Liu Daohe was stunned. “When did this happen?” He knew perfectly well that the Qi brothers were backed by the Xiang family, one of Modu’s powerful elite families!