Chapter 561: The Strange Side of Her

Chapter 561: The Strange Side of Her

The more An Menglan thought about it, the worse she felt. She didn’t want to become someone Wu Chen considered a nuisance. Dating was always complicated when you were a superstar, of course, but there had to be limits. The trouble she was dealing with now… An Menglan felt that no one could put up with it!

She imagined Wu Chen eventually distancing himself from her, and she could understand why he might.

Putting herself in his shoes, if she were a man and the woman she loved were a celebrity being followed day after day by a pack of frenzied paparazzi, what would she do?

The answer was… see her less often.

There was no other way. Otherwise, she might ruin the woman’s career!

The more An Menglan thought about it, the more tangled her thoughts became, like a knot of thread in her mind that she couldn’t unravel. If he didn’t distance himself from her, they would both be in danger. If he did, their relationship would surely suffer. Could the problem be solved? She couldn’t see how.

There was another crucial reason this was so difficult to resolve.

The fact that An Menglan was Wu Chen’s mistress had to remain a secret even within the highest circles. Otherwise, it would become a huge scandal. If the An family’s rivals found out, they would certainly spread it around.

That meant that even if An Menglan brought her family’s influence to bear… her family was based in Xiangjiang and might not wield much power on the mainland, but Li Ruobing certainly did. And it didn’t matter who else was involved.

They could use their influence to have Weibo suppress the story across the platform, or even call in favors and issue directives to make the paparazzi back off. That was possible.

But the inevitable consequence would be that people with an interest in such things in the circle of powerful families would investigate.

They could hide it from the public, but not from the prying eyes of other powerful forces!

The more power they secretly brought to bear, and the more aggressively they suppressed the story, the more attention it would attract. After all, if you asked someone to do you a favor, you’d have to tell them what was really going on, wouldn’t you? The more connections they involved, the less secure the situation would become…

There was no such thing as a wall without cracks.

And there were overseas websites, too! An Menglan knew just how far her international influence reached. Calling her Asia’s top diva would hardly be an exaggeration.

She simply couldn’t think of the best way to handle it.

It was a dead end.

The only remotely workable option was to let the matter cool down, proceed cautiously, and see each other as little as possible. Wait a few years… eventually, the paparazzi would give up.

But how many years did a person get?

She wasn’t even Wu Chen’s only woman, and now she would have to see him less often. An Menglan didn’t know whether Wu Chen could bear that. She knew she couldn’t.

She picked up her phone again and scrolled through the various messages on Weibo…

After a while, she typed something, deleted it, then typed something else. She went back and forth several times, but in the end she posted nothing. At least she’d learned from experience. Any Weibo post that could have a major impact needed careful thought, and she should consult Wu Chen before posting it.

Though she wasn’t entirely sure Wu Chen could come up with a better solution to this problem.

A little after noon, in the second bedroom of the presidential suite.

Li Ruobing woke up and lifted her head from Wu Chen’s arms. Leaning back, she studied him for a moment, then let the corners of her mouth curl up slightly as she stretched. She leaned over, kissed the corner of his mouth, then briskly rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed.

“Morning,” Li Ruobing said as she stood.

“It’s hardly morning anymore. It’s noon,” Wu Chen replied with a smile.

“So what if it’s noon? Is that my fault?” As she walked toward the chair, Li Ruobing glanced back at him. “If someone hadn’t posted that Weibo message out of nowhere, would I have had to catch a plane to Modu before dawn? You smell like her. Didn’t you shower this morning?”

“You think you can pick a fight with me and cover up the fact that you broke your promise?” Wu Chen asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Li Ruobing’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes flickered noticeably.

“Impressive. You insisted on holding me while you slept and wouldn’t let me leave. Then you woke up and started picking a fight, even complaining that I smell. Your mind is certainly working clearly. That’s my dear Miss Li for you,” Wu Chen teased with a faint smile.

In fact, all he smelled of was the hotel’s body wash.

He’d showered the previous night. He and An Menglan had done nothing afterward, and An Menglan had washed up before bed, too. They’d both used the hotel’s luxury toiletries, so they smelled the same.

“Hmph!”

Li Ruobing gave a soft snort. “So what if I’m picking a fight? I only figured it out just before I fell asleep last night. You didn’t expose my plan and let it play out. I have to give you credit for that. But it was something that ended once it was done. If I go along with your act, though, I’ll have to play the little woman who obeys your every word in front of An Menglan from now on. Doesn’t that leave me at a disadvantage?”

Wu Chen immediately sensed that Li Ruobing was trying to maneuver him.

The Li Ruobing standing before him was behaving in a way that didn’t fit her character.

Li Ruobing wasn’t a woman who quibbled over every little thing.

On the contrary, she was the kind of person who would repay a favor tenfold if someone helped her once, yet she detested people who used a favor as leverage to demand too much.

When she chose to do something for someone, she never asked them to repay her.

So…

Wu Chen suspected Li Ruobing was putting on an act. She probably wanted him to say something like, “We don’t need to keep score with each other,” which would make it difficult for him to bring up her broken promise again.

Then she could make it up to him in a way she could accept.

Rather than being forced into something.

“If you think it’s a bad deal, don’t play along,” Wu Chen said with a smile. “It’s fine. Just be yourself.”

“Wouldn’t that make you lose face? I couldn’t bear to make you look bad in front of your superstar lover. I…” Li Ruobing stopped mid-sentence.

She suddenly realized that something was wrong with her own mindset!

She was a woman who kept her word. She never backed down just because she couldn’t stand losing. What was she doing now? Why was she trying to scheme against Wu Chen like this? It wasn’t even certain she’d outsmart him—and wasn’t this exactly what it meant to be unable to take a loss?

How could she behave so unreasonably?

Picking fights, arguing, acting coy, throwing tantrums? Li Ruobing didn’t think she’d gone that far, but she’d edged a little in that direction.

From her expression as she stood there, Wu Chen could tell she’d realized something.

He actually understood Li Ruobing’s current state of mind. He’d pushed past one of her psychological limits and prompted her to break her promise. That was bound to temporarily unsettle some of the principles she held herself to. But the state wouldn’t last long. Li Ruobing would find her way back to herself within a day or two at most.

“Actually, I rather like you like this,” Wu Chen said with a smile. “This slightly strange version of you. It’s like role-playing: the same person, a different experience. It feels fresh.”

Li Ruobing looked at him as she listened. She’d thought he was about to say something profound, but in the end, what came out of his mouth was completely unserious.

Role-playing…

She gave him a chilly, mocking smile and was about to tease him when she suddenly froze.

Damn it!

What was Wu Chen hinting at?

Was he asking for that kind of compensation?