Chapter 499: Wu Yurong Breaks Down

Chapter 499: Wu Yurong Breaks Down

How did he want to settle it?

Su Ruiwen had expected Wu Chen to propose some method or solution, but he didn’t.

“How we settle it is up to you, Boss Su.” Wu Chen smiled. “Perhaps you could go home and discuss it with your wife…”

Su Ruiwen’s pupils contracted.

He couldn’t even tell whether Wu Chen was implying something.

Su Ruiwen had yet to decide whether to tell his wife about this, much less when. In truth, the matter concerned Mrs. Su even more than it concerned him.

Because there was no telling whether Su Ruiwen would still be alive this time next year.

Once he died, naturally none of it would have anything to do with him anymore.

But Mrs. Su was in excellent health. She had been cherished and pampered for half her life, enjoying a comfortable existence with scarcely any burdens. So Su Qingying’s future with Wu Chen would surely have far more to do with her mother.

And that was precisely why Su Ruiwen had been so careful not to tell his wife yet.

He knew her temperament. She was highly controlling and demanded perfection. If she learned that her daughter had become another man’s lover, she might fall apart before she even understood what was going on.

Su Ruiwen couldn’t be sure exactly how his wife would react once she knew.

Most likely, her reaction would be extreme.

He had to think about what would happen after his death. It was precisely because he feared his wife would act too directly and too drastically that he had kept quiet and decided to investigate Wu Chen first.

Wu Chen knew what Su Ruiwen was thinking.

It was no exaggeration to say that after a thousand years in the time loop, Wu Chen had seen and learned so much that he understood the human heart exceptionally well.

And he felt that Su Ruiwen was too close to the situation to see it clearly. That was why he couldn’t predict how his own wife would react.

“Boss Su, after today… I think you should have some understanding of me by now.” Wu Chen smiled as he met Su Ruiwen’s gaze. “On a personal level, I don’t want to become your enemy. After all, you’re Qingying’s father…”

He stopped there.

But Su Ruiwen understood what Wu Chen had left unsaid.

Wu Chen certainly wasn’t afraid of making an enemy of Su Ruiwen. It all depended on Su Ruiwen’s choice. That audacious attitude suddenly gave Su Ruiwen a strange feeling that the world was an extraordinary place indeed.

To think that before yesterday afternoon, Su Ruiwen had never even met Wu Chen. Back then, as far as he was concerned, Wu Chen had simply been Li Ruobing’s boyfriend.

Now Su Ruiwen could feel the threat Wu Chen posed.

“Mr. Wu, I’m going to investigate you,” Su Ruiwen said, looking him in the eye. He was making sure Wu Chen felt threatened too.

“As you wish, Boss Su.” Wu Chen smiled, glanced at his watch again, and said, “Boss Su, it’s getting late.”

With that, Wu Chen rose to his feet.

That was enough for today.

Wu Chen had already pushed Su Ruiwen into a position where he would have no choice but to accept everything. At least, that was how Wu Chen saw it.

But this time was different from the past… When dealing with enemies, or trying to win someone over, Wu Chen ordinarily never found himself finishing a long conversation without having settled the matter.

The reason it had happened this time was that Wu Chen genuinely had the weaker moral position, while Su Ruiwen had done nothing wrong. So Wu Chen had taken a gentler approach.

In truth, the matter was more or less settled.

He just needed to give Su Ruiwen some time to learn more and adjust to it psychologically.

After exchanging a few more perfunctory words with Su Ruiwen, Wu Chen straightened his suit, slipped one hand into his trouser pocket, and left.

Su Ruiwen watched him with a calm expression, his gaze following Wu Chen until he was gone and the door had closed again. Only then did he turn his head and look away.

In the enormous private dining room, surrounded by a table full of dishes, Su Ruiwen was now alone.

He sat in silence for quite some time. He touched his wineglass, lost in thought, and his eyes grew increasingly profound… It had been a long time since he had felt pressure this intense. The fact that it was coming from a twenty-two-year-old young man made his feelings even harder to put into words.

What Li Ruobing had said, Wu Yurong’s attitude, the Li, Tang, and Gu families… Su Ruiwen knew his understanding of Wu Chen was probably still very incomplete.

Yet even that incomplete picture told him Wu Chen was someone he would be wise not to provoke.

Perhaps even Su Ruiwen himself couldn’t afford to cross him.

What should he do?

As he thought about it, Su Ruiwen suddenly picked up his wineglass, tipped back his head, and drained it. He set the glass down, rose, and left.

Half an hour later, it was nearly ten o’clock at night.

Villa No. 3, Emerald Bay, West District, Donghai.

In the brightly lit first-floor living room, Wu Yurong, dressed in a qipao, paced back and forth in front of the sofa with a glass of red wine in her hand, taking a sip now and then.

Most of the bottle on the coffee table was already gone.

She had only been home a little over half an hour, and she had been uneasy and anxious the entire time. She hadn’t even had the inclination to change clothes or take a shower. Instead, she had begun drinking alone.

She couldn’t calm down.

The thought of what Su Ruiwen and Wu Chen might discuss after she left, and whether the talk had ended badly, was already enough to make her anxious. But what frightened her even more was that Wu Chen seemed to be angry with her.

She had absolutely no idea what consequences that might bring. Perhaps there would be none. She could apologize, and the matter would be over. What she feared was that an apology wouldn’t help.

Wu Yurong knew what she had going for her. With a woman like her, few men could resist a little coquettish charm. But Wu Chen clearly could.

She wasn’t his only woman.

Nor was she the most outstanding of his women. After all, she was twenty years older than he was. Her age alone counted heavily against her.

Ring, ring…

A phone suddenly rang on the coffee table.

Wu Yurong turned sharply and hurried over, her high heels clicking briskly against the floor. She set her wineglass down, picked up the phone from the coffee table, and looked at the screen… Her tension eased a little.

It wasn’t Wu Chen. It was her daughter, Song Xuan.

“Hello, Xuanxuan,” Wu Yurong answered.

“Mom, have you gone to bed?” Song Xuan’s soft, sweet voice came through the phone.

“Not yet. What’s up, Xuanxuan? Did something happen?” Wu Yurong asked.

“Oh, nothing really, hehe. I just came out of Miss An’s room. We’ve settled everything! The company will start recording my songs tomorrow, and Miss An said she’d personally help promote me. She might even sing a duet with me…”

Song Xuan had gone to Modu, of course, to see An Menglan.

Under the arrangement Wu Yurong and An Menglan had agreed on earlier, Song Xuan wasn’t really going to make her debut—or rather, not in the traditional sense.

She would just release songs online.

There was no particular reason for Song Xuan’s call. She was staying at An Menglan’s home, and after finishing their chat and returning to the guest room, she was too excited to sleep. So she called her mother to share the news.

Wu Yurong chatted with her daughter for a while.

“…Mom, have you been drinking? Another business engagement?” Song Xuan could hear a slight drunkenness in her mother’s voice.

“Mm… yes,” Wu Yurong replied. “I only got home a little while ago. I was just about to go to bed.”

Mother and daughter exchanged a few more words and wished each other good night.

After hanging up, Wu Yurong stared at her phone, at the number saved under the name “Wu Chen” in her call history. She thought for a moment, drew a deep breath, and tapped it.

The call went through.

She would ask how things were going, whether the conversation was over, and “remind” him that she was waiting for him. She was terribly afraid that Wu Chen wouldn’t come to her place tonight. They had agreed he would, and ordinarily he would come. If he didn’t, that would mean… he really was angry.

Beep… beep… beep… “Sorry, the person you are calling is temporarily unable to answer.”

Wu Yurong froze as she listened.

She could tell it wasn’t that he’d simply failed to answer after a long wait. Wu Chen had rejected her call outright.

He had declined her call.

The color drained from her face. Her terror surged to its peak, and suddenly she couldn’t hold herself together. Her eyes immediately reddened.

Tears began falling uncontrollably, one after another.

Wu Yurong was trembling all over.

Then she abruptly crouched on the floor, still clutching her phone, and wrapped both arms around her head… It was an unusually vulnerable gesture, almost girlish.

Nothing like her usual self.

Wu Yurong had never really experienced love, despite having been married and divorced. In every meaningful sense, Wu Chen was her first.

So her feelings for him weren’t simply about how frighteningly capable she found him. Wu Yurong had met countless exceptional men, and it was by comparison with them that the seemingly omnipotent Wu Chen was so captivating.

The more time she spent with Wu Chen, the deeper she fell for him.

And now… she was on the verge of falling apart.

The alcohol magnified everything she felt.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

The sharp sound of leather shoes on the floor grew steadily clearer as Wu Chen climbed the stairs from the basement level. Wu Yurong was so overwhelmed that she seemed not to hear anything around her.

Wu Chen entered the living room and stopped. He saw Wu Yurong crouching there, arms over her head, her body shaking. The faint sounds coming from her seemed to be… crying?

“Sister Rong, what’s wrong?” Wu Chen blinked in surprise. Then, as though something had occurred to him, he glanced at the phone he was still holding.

He had just rejected Wu Yurong’s call because he had parked in the underground garage and was about to come upstairs. There had been no need to say anything over the phone when they would be speaking face-to-face in a moment.

Wu Chen suddenly realized that his action might have given Wu Yurong the wrong idea.

Wu Yurong jerked her head up and looked at him.