Chapter 497: I Know Everything!

Chapter 497: I Know Everything!

Wu Yurong’s heart lurched when she heard Su Ruiwen’s final question.

Though she had absolute confidence in Wu Chen’s abilities, Su Ruiwen wasn’t asking whether Wu Chen knew some secret of his involving a crime. He was asking whether Wu Chen knew something that could send Su Ruiwen himself to prison.

Such a thing might not even exist!

It wasn’t that Su Ruiwen had never done anything dirty. It was that, given the power and influence he wielded today, using any single incident to send him straight to prison would be nearly impossible.

Though Su Ruiwen was only a businessman, he was Donghai’s richest man. He also held various high-level positions in official circles; otherwise he wouldn’t be attending meetings in the capital every year.

Anyone who had taken an industry to the very top inevitably had dealings with the highest levels of the government departments overseeing that industry. His network of connections couldn’t even be measured by his net worth.

Su Ruiwen controlled Jinfu Group, whose market capitalization exceeded forty billion yuan. He also had an excellent reputation and considerable personal charisma. His friends included core second-generation figures from major families and some of the country’s top tycoons worth hundreds of billions of yuan…

In fact, Su Ruiwen’s net worth fluctuated with the stock price.

At the peak of Jinfu Group’s share price, during a bull market, the company’s market capitalization had approached ninety billion yuan. At the time, Su Ruiwen had not yet transferred part of his stake to Su Qingying, and his personal fortune had exceeded thirty billion yuan…

In terms of standing, Su Ruiwen belonged to the country’s top circle of entrepreneurs. He could even be called the only person in Donghai to have reached that level.

Wu Yurong didn’t measure up to it either. She hadn’t founded Senlan Group; she’d only returned to the company after her divorce more than ten years ago. In terms of seniority, she was far behind Su Ruiwen.

There was simply no comparison.

In business, Wu Yurong hadn’t lived through the turbulent 1990s, so she had none of those old connections. Outside Donghai, all her solid relationships had been built over the past decade or so.

Su Ruiwen, on the other hand, had been building his network since the 1990s. There had been opportunistic maneuvering, backroom dealings, exchanges of favors… all of which made the relationships close.

Some of the people Su Ruiwen had befriended back then now held high positions. Su himself had kept pace and become the richest man in his region. That was how those close ties had endured to the present day.

It was truly difficult to bring Su Ruiwen down over a single incident.

Even if someone produced evidence that Su Ruiwen had killed someone yesterday, it still might not be enough to send him to prison. Some force might make the matter go away; even if it spiraled badly out of control, someone else would take the fall.

And even if Jinfu Group suffered a massive crisis and was driven into bankruptcy, that would still be entirely different from Su Ruiwen going to prison.

This was true even aside from a top businessman like Su Ruiwen.

Take Qi Min and Qi Jun, men notorious for their wrongdoing and ruthlessness. When Wu Chen took them down, he’d handed the matter over to Tang Jingbin, a core second-generation figure from a major family.

Evidence alone wasn’t enough to deal with Qi Min and Qi Jun. The person handling the matter also had to be someone important.

The same applied to Su Ruiwen. Though he wasn’t attached to any major family, he himself was far more powerful than Qi Min and Qi Jun.

The Qi brothers had to act like lackeys to maintain close ties with the second-generation core figures of the Xiang family.

Su Ruiwen didn’t need to abase himself to have connections of that kind.

At his level, what could bring him down was often not some wrongdoing he’d committed, but a powerful figure from an influential family who wanted him brought down.

And that person would have to be fully determined to do it, with no fear of the forces backing Su Ruiwen.

Wu Yurong was certain that, with Wu Chen’s abilities, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to bring Su Ruiwen down if he arranged alliances and made his moves. But simply exposing something Su had done in the past and using it to send him to prison would be very difficult.

Wu Yurong understood Su Ruiwen’s way of doing things and knew his character.

She’d never heard that Su Ruiwen had offended any powerful figure he couldn’t afford to cross. Aside from normal business competition, he rarely made enemies.

In truth, Wu Yurong wasn’t worried about what would happen if Wu Chen really revealed something.

She was conflicted.

Whether Wu Chen could reveal such information or not seemed likely to have negative consequences either way.

If he revealed it, Su Ruiwen might become deeply hostile toward Wu Chen. After all, no one wanted someone else to hold a fatal secret over them.

But if he couldn’t reveal anything, Wu Chen would seem… not quite so unfathomable.

That might make Su Ruiwen dare to consider falling out with Wu Chen.

Su Ruiwen was a man of deep calculation. Wu Yurong wasn’t Wu Chen, so she had no way of knowing what Su Ruiwen was thinking or what he might think afterward…

“Given your position today, Boss Su, sending you straight to prison probably wouldn’t be easy…” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“So… do you know or not?” Su Ruiwen asked again. His question was precise: he meant something that could send him to prison, not just some dirty secret. The latter didn’t necessarily amount to the former.

“I have to admit, Boss Su, you’re quite ‘clean,'” Wu Chen said with a smile, maintaining eye contact. “Leaving aside the things you did in your early years, you’re cleaner than most of the successful businessmen I’ve ever heard of…”

“But…” Wu Chen continued, changing his tone, “at your level, no one is absolutely safe. When it comes to choosing sides among people with powerful connections, sometimes you’re forced to make a choice…”

“Maintaining good relationships with those people often means you can’t always do as you please.” Wu Chen paused.

Su Ruiwen stared at Wu Chen. He had no idea what Wu Chen was getting at. Choosing sides involved far too many things…

“Do you remember He Meijuan, Boss Su?” Wu Chen asked with another smile.

Su Ruiwen was taken aback. Then his expression changed dramatically.

He lost his composure on the spot.

That name represented a whole tangle of extremely complicated matters.

“She’s risen. The He family really does have what it takes…” Wu Chen said with another smile.

Su Ruiwen stared at Wu Chen, unable to speak. He hardly dared to think it through. Was Wu Chen implying that he knew everything about that woman and Su Ruiwen? There were so many angles to it, so many matters involved!

“He Meijuan…” Wu Yurong repeated the name under her breath. She knew who that was.

A second-generation figure from the He family in the capital. She should be around fifty-five this year. Her current rank… though she didn’t wield as much power as Li Maoren of the Li family, her rank was the same.

He Meijuan’s husband was even more formidable. He now held the rank of general, and he was the kind who wielded real power.

Wu Yurong’s expression changed too.

She looked at Su Ruiwen differently. Had there once been something between Su Ruiwen and He Meijuan? Could his seemingly fairy-tale-perfect marriage… have had a flaw?

“Mr. Wu, what do you know about He Meijuan and me?” Su Ruiwen asked bluntly.

“I know everything!” Wu Chen answered at once, the corner of his mouth curving up. Then he asked, “Boss Su, are you sure you want me to tell you?”

It was a familiar question. Wu Chen had asked something similar before, when they were discussing why Tang Jingbin had stepped in.

Now, as their conversation continued, Su Ruiwen had once again found himself in a difficult position.

When talking with Wu Chen, it was hard to gain the upper hand through words.

Su Ruiwen, who had been so decisive just moments ago, fell silent.

He even glanced unconsciously at Wu Yurong.

Though he and Wu Yurong were friends, there were things he didn’t want her to know. Everyone had secrets. No matter how close two friends were, neither necessarily wanted the other to know everything about them.

What’s more, this matter involved a great deal and affected more than Su Ruiwen alone.

The private room fell silent.

“Well, we…” Wu Yurong suddenly began, raising her right hand to pick up her stemmed glass. She wanted to interrupt Wu Chen and Su Ruiwen at this critical moment once again. She truly didn’t want the two men to talk themselves into a rupture.

But as Wu Yurong raised her hand, Wu Chen raised his as well. With a casual movement of his right hand, he reached over and laid it on the back of Wu Yurong’s left hand, which rested on the table.

He merely gave her hand a light squeeze, a familiar gesture that wouldn’t look improper even if someone else were there to see it.

Yet Wu Yurong, who had just picked up her glass, froze completely.

Wu Chen wasn’t going to let her interrupt a second time.

She understood what he meant.

Had she… made Wu Chen angry? Her heart raced uncontrollably, and panic rose inside her.

“Should I tell you?” Wu Chen asked again with a smile, keeping his eyes on Su Ruiwen.

He was pressing him for an answer.

Wu Chen didn’t want to waste any more time. Saying a few more words would take no effort, but there had to be an end to it.

It was time to bring today’s dinner to a close.