Chapter 486: An Extraordinary Man

Chapter 486: An Extraordinary Man

“Miss Li, about Mr. Wu…” Su Ruiwen began, looking at her, then stopped. He thought for three seconds before going on. “I had a long talk with Mr. Wu yesterday. I have to say, he’s remarkably accomplished for his age. You have a wickedly sharp eye, Miss Li.”

“Wicked” was usually an insult, but the way Su Ruiwen meant it, it was unmistakably praise!

Lavish praise, even.

Li Ruobing smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Boss Su, you didn’t come to talk about Wu Chen just to compliment him, did you?”

“Of course not.” Su Ruiwen gave a faint, cultured smile. “It’s only that certain things have left me puzzled, and I’m not sure whether I ought to tell you about them.”

He was clearly treading with care.

“What things?” Li Ruobing raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Concerning Mr. Wu… I’m very grateful to you and Mr. Wu for helping our Qingying, Miss Li. But Mr. Wu… don’t you find him strange? I’ve looked into his background, and I’m sure you have too…” He stopped there.

Still smiling, Li Ruobing held his gaze, lifted her coffee, and took a sip. Only after setting the cup down did she speak.

“Boss Su, let’s both be direct.” She looked straight at him. “You don’t need to drop hints. I certainly know Wu Chen better than you do. Whatever you want to say, just say it…”

Su Ruiwen was silent for a moment.

The truth was, he still hadn’t decided whether to tell her.

By rights, he should! Between Wu Chen and Li Ruobing, he was certainly closer to her. They’d known each other four years. Their relationship had been unremarkable before, but lately his daughter had become her close friend.

What’s more, Su Ruiwen had been making arrangement after arrangement for after his death, and he believed his daughter would need to rely on Li Ruobing in the years ahead.

Seen that way, he had all the more reason to tell her.

But!

If it were only a matter of Wu Chen having an affair with Wu Yurong, he could have just said it. It would have cost him nothing.

The trouble was, he suspected Wu Chen was involved with his own daughter as well.

His fear was this: what if he told her, Li Ruobing went after Wu Chen in a rage, and Wu Chen came clean about everything, including his relationship with Qingying? What then?

Su Ruiwen had never been one to meddle in other people’s business.

Another family’s affairs were nothing to him.

The problem, always, was his daughter. It made speaking up difficult, and keeping quiet just as difficult!

“Miss Li, I’m not sure how things stand between you and Ms. Wu at the moment… I’ve known Yurong for more than thirty years. I once heard her speak of you. She called you a heroine among women, and said it was a pity you’d been born a daughter; otherwise you’d be the one to inherit the Li family…” He still didn’t come out with it.

He felt they needed to talk a little longer before he could decide.

“Ms. Wu and I…” Li Ruobing murmured, watching him, and once again a subtle light came into her eyes.

Because!

Wu Chen had told her about this before he left, too!

He’d predicted that Su Ruiwen would come to talk with her, and predicted that Su Ruiwen would bring up Wu Yurong. Beyond that… he’d given her no other instructions.

How to handle it, what Su Ruiwen might say, how she should answer, all of that was hers to improvise!

As she mused, Su Ruiwen went on with a genial smile. “I hear you’ve always looked up to Wu Yurong, Miss Li. That you saw her as someone to learn from, and held her in great respect…”

He kept it light, like idle chatter, steering clear of the point.

“That was before,” Li Ruobing said.

“Before?” Su Ruiwen repeated. “And now?”

“Now…” Li Ruobing went on smiling. “Now I think Ms. Wu… Wu Yurong! She’s a bitch!”

Her smile didn’t waver, but her words made Su Ruiwen’s face change.

Why such a harsh verdict?

He’d only meant to nudge the conversation along, guide it toward Wu Chen and Wu Yurong, and feel out whether Li Ruobing had noticed or suspected anything.

He hadn’t thought there was any bad blood between the two women, not at the moment, at any rate. After the ceremony, as the guests mingled, there had been times when both of them were in the same group, and they’d seemed perfectly normal.

Su Ruiwen’s expression shifted uneasily.

He couldn’t think why the two of them would have fallen out.

It couldn’t be that Li Ruobing knew about Wu Chen and Wu Yurong. If it were, a woman of her temper would have torn into Wu Yurong long ago. She wasn’t the type to swallow it and put on a show.

“Since you’ve come to me today of your own accord, Boss Su… I take it you know about my Mr. Wu and that bitch,” Li Ruobing said, as bluntly as before.

“You know?” Su Ruiwen blurted out. He was goddamn stunned!

“Of course.” Li Ruobing smiled, a little wistfully. “The world really is a strange place. If you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes, who would ever imagine a woman like Wu Yurong playing the other woman? Falling in love with a man twenty years younger?”

She lifted her cup again, took a gentle sip, and gave him a long, unreadable look.

Su Ruiwen couldn’t respond.

He stared at her, mouth slightly open, eyes considerably wider.

His mind was in complete disarray.

He couldn’t believe it, couldn’t make sense of it. Li Ruobing was famous for being forceful and domineering. How could she talk about her boyfriend and another woman so lightly, with a smile on her face?

She’d known all along!

And she… accepted it?!

“Miss Li… I… you…” Su Ruiwen’s hand gestured vaguely of its own accord. He quickly sorted out his thoughts and asked, “You can accept that? I mean… you can accept Mr. Wu and Wu Yurong…”

He had to be certain!

He could sense her ill will toward Wu Yurong. Yet strangely, there was none toward Wu Chen. She even called him “my Mr. Wu.”

“Wu Chen and I are going to get married someday,” Li Ruobing said slowly, smiling. “As for him having other women outside the marriage, that’s his business. He likes to play. It isn’t really a problem.”

“We’ve agreed I won’t interfere in any of that. Actually, I have a fairly good impression of his other women… except Wu Yurong!”

“I promised my Mr. Wu I wouldn’t go looking for trouble with Wu Yurong, and I trust him to keep her in line. It’s just… you know what she’s like, Boss Su. Let’s hope she doesn’t overstep. She should stick to being his lover and leave me alone!”

There was no heat at all in anything she said.

Su Ruiwen could now be quite sure of it: Li Ruobing truly seemed to have no objection to Wu Chen having other women. Her only objection was to Wu Yurong. Because Wu Yurong might threaten her place at his side?

This was…

Terrifying!

Beyond belief!

How could Li Ruobing bend this far for a man? This was a woman capable of defying her own family! A third-generation heir of Ding Ruilong’s standing was so much trash in her eyes!

And yet with Wu Chen, she…

Clearly the anomaly wasn’t Li Ruobing! It was Wu Chen himself!

“Miss Li, since you know… I really don’t understand why you’d accept it… I mean…” It was some time before Su Ruiwen could speak again.

“Because my Mr. Wu is one of a kind.” Li Ruobing smiled. “You don’t really know him, Boss Su. That’s why it seems so incredible to you. How should I put it… Wu Chen is probably more powerful than anyone realizes! He’s an extraordinary man.”

More powerful than anyone realized?

An extraordinary man?

“For example?” Su Ruiwen asked.

“For example…” Li Ruobing paused, then smiled again. “That thing everyone was talking about today. Shuangqi Real Estate.”