Chapter 586: You’ll Be So Embarrassed! The Wine Spill!

Chapter 586: You’ll Be So Embarrassed! The Wine Spill!

“Yes!” Wu Chen smiled and nodded.

That concluding observation of Xia Jinyu’s was entirely correct!

“Then what is it you wish to refute? Where did my deduction fail? You may speak plainly,” Xia Jinyu said. “I shall judge whether you are merely refusing to back down, or whether I truly erred.” Xia Jinyu’s stance was simple: even if she had made a mistake, it was of little consequence.

After all, she had conducted no background intelligence on Wu Chen.

Under normal circumstances, when she agreed to assess a patient, the family would approach her and supply exhaustive dossiers. She possessed no such materials regarding Wu Chen; thus, even if errors were present, they were hardly an indictment of her craft. Where specific mistakes occurred, Xia Jinyu was genuinely prepared to concede them.

“There is nothing worth refuting,” Wu Chen smiled. “Professor Xia’s analysis was brilliant…” He drew out the final word.

“However? You intend to offer a ‘however,’ do you not?” Xia Jinyu interjected.

“Mm-hmm,” Wu Chen nodded, continuing smoothly, “However, every shred of Professor Xia’s analysis is founded upon a completely erroneous comprehension of who I am. As a result, I am merely listening to a self-important woman tell jokes. Why should I bother refuting her? Would you, Professor Xia?”

The sheer aggression was utterly abrupt and overwhelming.

Branding Xia Jinyu “a self-important woman” was an insult of the highest order.

Xia Jinyu’s eyelid twitched. Then she maintained her smile, looking at Wu Chen. “Mr. Wu, you truly are quite ill. Very seriously ill. Truly! Exceedingly so!”

She revealed no anger.

Only pity.

She gazed upon Wu Chen with eyes brimming with sympathy.

“Professor Xia, have you ever considered… that when you realize you were entirely mistaken, you will be… immensely embarrassed? Truly, exceedingly embarrassed!” Wu Chen smiled.

Xia Jinyu continued to hold her composure in check.

She had treated plenty of patients whose minds were far less sound than Wu Chen appeared to be; his display was nothing extraordinary. Yet when it came to the craft of infuriating others, Wu Chen was singular. He could sustain that supremely confident, brazen posture no matter what was said to him.

Could he not manage even a flicker of humiliation turning to rage?!

He was truly impervious to all reason!

Xia Jinyu felt as though her professional pride had been challenged as never before. Her resolve to see this meal through solidified. She simply refused to believe that over the course of a single lunch, she could fail to crack this man open!

“Miss Bingbing, how do you usually endure him? Is he always like this?” Xia Jinyu turned toward Li Ruobing.

Li Ruobing fell silent for a beat.

She longed to help Wu Chen fire back, yet she could not gauge whether speaking out of turn would disrupt his plans, leading to the premature exposure of something he wished to keep veiled. Furthermore, reacting with excessive fervor would clash with her current disguise as a meek little assistant.

Ultimately, Li Ruobing chose silence, merely casting a subtly awkward glance toward Wu Chen.

The awkwardness was a calculated performance.

She was executing the conduct appropriate to her assumed role. How could a young, striking little assistant dare to inform a psychologist, directly before her “boss,” whether he was normal or unhinged?

Even speaking up in his defense would be entirely out of place.

Xia Jinyu was no ordinary therapist; she was an internationally renowned professor of psychology. In her “diagnostic” state, the presence she commanded was suffocatingly immense.

An “ordinary woman” in her presence ought to lose the courage to even argue.

“It appears Mr. Wu keeps you on a remarkably tight leash, Miss Bingbing,” Xia Jinyu remarked before shifting her gaze back to Wu Chen.

Li Ruobing felt a quiet surge of satisfaction in her chest.

Xia Jinyu had misjudged her completely!

Her dynamic with Wu Chen was never a matter of one controlling the other. Nor had her silence been born of fear.

Knock, knock.

A polite rap sounded at the door, which swung open to reveal a server bearing wine and the cold appetizers. Li Ruobing instinctively darted another glance at the teapot on the table.

She had wanted to spill tea over Xia Jinyu from the outset, which would compel Xia to retreat to the restroom to tidy her clothes, granting Li Ruobing an excuse to follow and assist while offering apologies—and a chance to see what color she was wearing underneath.

Yet now the wine and dishes were arriving.

If they were no longer drinking tea, how could she justify a spill?

Should she spill the wine instead?

The conversation paused while the server arranged the dishes and departed, pulling the private room door shut behind him. Only then did Xia Jinyu direct her focus back to Wu Chen.

“Mr. Wu, may I ask if you have any nicknames? Ones you devised yourself, or names bestowed by others that you find agreeable? Are there any?”

Xia Jinyu was entirely serious about conducting this checkup.

“Hmm… Does ‘my dear Mr. Wu’ count?” Wu Chen smiled. “My future wife often addresses me that way these days.”

“You are engaged?” Xia Jinyu asked.

“Not yet.”

“Then does this future wife of yours know you came to see me today?” Xia Jinyu probed once more. Naturally, she did not believe Miss Bingbing beside them was Wu Chen’s future bride.

“She knows,” Wu Chen smiled.

“Well, that certainly is…” Xia Jinyu trailed off, leaving the thought unfinished. She had observed far too many marital permutations: dynastic alliances where each party pursued their own pleasures, open arrangements between those who spat upon conventional propriety, or even dynamics resembling master and servant…

There was nothing worthy of astonishment.

What she had nearly remarked upon was that Wu Chen’s life appeared to have unfolded with exceptional smoothness.

“A harmonious family, young and fabulously wealthy… ‘My dear Mr. Wu’? That form of address… tsk!” Xia Jinyu murmured softly. “Mr. Wu, your current circumstances are precisely the major factor feeding your conceit and arrogance, preventing you from seeing yourself clearly…”

“Do you believe you can conquer everything? Including me?” she added.

“Yes, indeed I do,” Wu Chen answered abruptly with a smile.

Xia Jinyu nearly lost her composure on the spot!

Good heavens! This man’s skin was truly thicker than a fortress wall!

“Professor Xia, let me remind you once more: the moment you realize you are mistaken, you will be truly, deeply embarrassed!” Wu Chen offered with another easy smile.

Xia Jinyu paid the remark no heed.

Wu Chen had run out of opportunities to prove a single thing!

Before long, the server returned bearing the hot entrées.

The three poured wine, dined, and engaged in “idle chatter.”

Xia Jinyu carried the bulk of the conversation, continuously recalibrating her diagnostic strategy throughout their exchange. She shifted from sweeping dissections of Wu Chen’s psyche to probing minute details and drilling into their underlying roots, her sole objective being to induce a flicker of emotional fluctuation in him.

It was hardly a standard clinical approach.

A psychotherapist was meant to avoid provoking the patient into defensive hostility.

Yet Xia Jinyu was practically driving verbal daggers into Wu Chen.

She needed him to crack.

Yet even as the meal passed its midpoint, Wu Chen remained entirely unchanged. He persisted in his arrogant, conceited, and stubborn posture, as though to say: Say whatever you wish. I won’t lose my temper; I’ll simply sit here and listen. At one point, Xia Jinyu even began to suspect that Wu Chen’s affliction was not psychological at all… but psychiatric.

“Professor Xia…” Li Ruobing, still playing the dutiful little assistant, rose once more to pour the wine.

She filled Wu Chen’s glass first, then turned to Xia Jinyu’s.

Because Xia Jinyu had resolved to assess Wu Chen, she had merely sipped at her glass throughout; halfway through the meal, she had consumed barely half a portion. Even so, she made no move to decline Li Ruobing’s pour.

Suddenly, wine splashed across Xia Jinyu’s skirt.

It appeared as though Li Ruobing had momentarily lost her grip on the bottle.

“Oh! I am so sorry, Professor Xia…” Assistant Bingbing apologized in a flurry of panic, pulling tissues from the holder to help dab at the mess.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll handle it myself…” Xia Jinyu rose, took the tissues, and patted the stain. An incident of this scale was hardly enough to ignite her fury.

“There should be a hair dryer in the restroom. Perhaps you could rinse it lightly… otherwise it might leave a permanent mark,” Miss Bingbing urged hastily.

“Miss Bingbing, isn’t that carrying hostility a bit too far?” Xia Jinyu cast a glance at Li Ruobing.

She had seen straight through the deliberate act.

She had noticed long before that Li Ruobing’s gaze was off; that hostility had simmered from the very beginning.

Hence, splashing red wine across her person to make her lose face!

“I—I didn’t mean to…” Miss Bingbing stammered, looking as though she were desperate to explain herself.

Xia Jinyu ignored her, turning her eyes directly to Wu Chen. “Mr. Wu, I am going to the restroom.” With that, she pushed back her chair and strode toward the restroom attached to the private room.

The amount of wine that had splashed onto the skirt was minimal; rinsing the small patch and drying it with the hair dryer should suffice to resolve the matter.

Click.

Clack.

As the restroom door swung open and clicked shut, the repentant guise of “Miss Bingbing” dissolved in an instant. Her countenance shifted into something cool, striking, and radiating an immense aura of authority. Retrieving her phone, she dialed a number, keeping her voice pitched low. “Deliver a new skirt here. The size is roughly…”

Li Ruobing had arrived in Modu aboard her private jet, accompanied by an extensive entourage. Even as she performed alongside Wu Chen today, her security detail remained stationed close at hand.

Having outlined the general specifications, she ended the call.

Li Ruobing turned back to Wu Chen.

“So this is your grand strategy? My! Dear! Mr. Wu!” Li Ruobing hissed, her reaction intense as she leaned close, her voice dropped to a fierce whisper.

Her chest was brimming with grievances!

Wu Chen’s performance throughout this meal had not only cemented an irreversible impression in Xia Jinyu’s mind, but had left Li Ruobing herself in utter disbelief.

“What is the matter?” Wu Chen smiled, feigning absolute ignorance.

“What is the matter?! Aren’t you being… utterly absurd?! Don’t you feel it yourself? That isn’t you at all! How are you supposed to salvage the impression you’ve left her with? She has genuinely begun giving you a psychological diagnosis!”

Li Ruobing sounded far more agitated than Wu Chen himself.

Her heart remained caught in that identical contradiction!

She disliked Xia Jinyu, and part of her had even relished the prospect of Wu Chen tasting defeat for once. Yet at the very least, it should have been a magnificent defeat! What on earth had he turned this into?!

Li Ruobing could scarcely stomach seeing Wu Chen suffer such a wretched rout!

Even if Wu Chen did not care, she did! Her man could never be permitted to lose like that!

“There is nothing that cannot be salvaged,” Wu Chen smiled.

“How could you possibly salvage this?” Li Ruobing pressed.

“Guess,” Wu Chen smiled back.

Li Ruobing suddenly closed the distance, turned, and sat directly upon Wu Chen’s lap. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she narrowed her eyes slightly, leaning close to scrutinize his features.

“What manner of scheme are you hatching?” Li Ruobing asked, her suspicion blazing.

“Why call it a scheme? That sounds so dreadful…” Wu Chen smiled.

“No! Something is wrong with you! It’s growing more and more unhinged!” Li Ruobing insisted, her face etched with profound doubt. Her fingers came to rest at his waist, poised as though to deliver a pinch.

Few outsiders could ever fathom that an imperious, unyielding, and downright aloof woman like Li Ruobing would resort to a girlish gesture like pinching to interrogate the man she loved.

“Still pinching? You always target the exact same spot… You are my little assistant today; you cannot treat your boss like this,” Wu Chen joked.

“I used to be your boss, remember? Your name is still on my company’s payroll. Did that stop you from… hmm?” Li Ruobing cast him a sidelong glare.

“Aren’t you going in to check?” Wu Chen asked with an amused smile, flicking his gaze toward the restroom. “She might emerge at any second. Or she might simply decide to leave it unaddressed for now.”

Li Ruobing was profoundly displeased.

“Well, that’s that! A certain man is about to thoroughly botch his game!” she muttered in exaggerated, hushed mockery, needling Wu Chen twice more before sliding off his lap.

Then she exchanged a meaningful look with Wu Chen.

She nudged a chair aside.

Deliberately heavying her footsteps, she marched toward the restroom.

“Professor Xia, it’s me… May I…”

Reaching the restroom door, Li Ruobing gave the handle a tentative press. Xia Jinyu had not locked it from within.

At that moment, a pulse of excitement surged through Li Ruobing’s chest.

No way, no way!

Could Xia Jinyu truly be wearing burgundy underneath?! Wu Chen asked her to wear burgundy to the lunch; she refused to comply openly, yet wore it underneath instead? Could the dignified Professor Xia Jinyu truly commit such an absurd act?!

Pressing the handle down, Li Ruobing nudged the door halfway open, slipped sideways into the chamber, and pulled the door firmly shut behind her!

She looked toward Xia Jinyu standing before the basin!

Yet what met Li Ruobing’s eyes was sheer disappointment! Xia Jinyu still wore that conservative black maxi dress that carried the distinct air of a schoolteacher, cut with a wide, flowing skirt. The wine had splashed only across the lower hem; there was zero need to remove the garment, as lifting the skirt slightly was more than enough to rinse the fabric.

And that was precisely what Xia Jinyu was doing.

…

A swift rinse of that small patch under running water, followed by a pass with the hair dryer, and the matter would be resolved.

As Miss Bingbing entered, Xia Jinyu merely looked up through the mirror, offering not a single word.

“Professor Xia, let me help you. I truly didn’t do it on purpose,” Li Ruobing offered, stepping swiftly to her side.

“There is no need to explain,” Xia Jinyu said.

Plainly, she had no interest in debating whether Li Ruobing had acted with deliberate malice. It was of no consequence.

“Um… my boss has already placed a call to have a replacement dress delivered; it should arrive very shortly. You can simply change into it then! This dress… it’s best sent for professional dry cleaning. With a garment so costly, hand-washing will likely fail to cleanse it thoroughly, and it might wrinkle afterward…” Li Ruobing added.

Her advance call for a replacement skirt had originally been meant to sell the performance to the hilt. If one soiled another’s attire, offering a fresh set was standard propriety.

Yet now, it had become the sole opening she had left.

“Unnecessary. It is merely a dress,” Xia Jinyu said, shooting Li Ruobing a cool glance.

Red wine stains were notoriously stubborn. While the dress itself was black, meaning the discoloration would not be obvious once dried, Xia Jinyu still turned the hot water tap further.

“Professor Xia, now that it’s just the two of us, do you have anything you’d like to say to me?” Li Ruobing asked, making idle conversation while projecting an air of: My boss isn’t here, Professor, so you can speak freely.

“I do not make a habit of speaking ill of others behind their backs.”

Xia Jinyu did not lift her head, her attention remaining fixed on rinsing the hem of her skirt. After a pause, she continued, “You are young. You have your own life choices to make. Whether it is for money or some other consideration, so long as you do not feel wronged, there is no need to seek anyone else’s counsel.”

“As for Mr. Wu… he is merely an arrogant, freewheeling little boy. For a young woman of your age, so long as he is not inherently wicked, it matters little…”

Though Xia Jinyu currently held a dreadful impression of Wu Chen, she lacked the habit of offering unsolicited counsel to anyone who was not her patient.

Having witnessed every conceivable variety of human circumstance, Xia Jinyu’s tolerance in many matters was remarkably vast.

Naturally, this was also because she detected no violent tendencies in Wu Chen; whatever pathology afflicted him, it did not lean in that direction.

“You have been jealous all this time, yet there is truly no need. Do you genuinely believe I would fall for a little boy in so short a span?” Xia Jinyu lifted her head once more, offering Li Ruobing a warm, disarming smile.

Li Ruobing’s heart felt thoroughly tangled.

Playing a meek little assistant whose temperament stood in absolute opposition to her true self was exhausting beyond measure!

“Then what sort of man do you favor, Professor Xia?” Li Ruobing asked.

“Why must I favor anyone at all?” Xia Jinyu countered.

Li Ruobing let the subject drop. She had no desire to debate the philosophies of love and passion with Xia Jinyu. It also dawned on her that Xia Jinyu was a woman who had virtually seen through worldly vanity; men or women, old or young, in her eyes they were likely all indistinguishable, inconsequential mortals drifting through the dust.

Perhaps Wu Chen had stirred a momentary tremor in Xia Jinyu’s heart at the very beginning.

Yet that had belonged strictly to the opening act.

In Xia Jinyu’s eyes, Wu Chen had already lost all his luster.

“Professor Xia, I believe…” Li Ruobing began, intending to say something more. Though Xia Jinyu kept her head bowed over the hem of her dress, she remained listening.

Neither woman noticed in that moment.

As the hot water poured continuously from the tap, the rising vapor began to billow, slowly condensing across the grand mirror on the far side of the vanity to reveal faint outlines and characters.

The first element to materialize in complete clarity was an isolated digit resting near the lower-right quadrant.

—It was a five!