The Billionaire's New Wife in Chief
Chapter 299 - 189 Song Qiao Saw the News on Weibo

Chapter 299: Chapter 189 Song Qiao Saw the News on Weibo

Lu Jingchen was no stranger to him; before coming to An City, he had deliberately investigated this man and reached only one conclusion.

Better to make friends than enemies.

Even knowing that Zhao was already somewhat angry at this moment, Lu Jingchen’s expression remained indifferent as he spoke calmly, "Zhao, you should also be aware that I, Lu Jingchen, am not someone to be trifled with."

His words were so forthright, the message crystal clear: you have no choice but to take this money, whether you want to or not.

By seniority, Zhao was actually a generation older than Lu Jingchen, and by all rights, Lu Jingchen should have been calling him uncle. But, by the looks of it now, Lu Jingchen didn’t seem to give him any consideration at all.

It’s not so much that Lu Jingchen had called him out today for a chat. That would be too generous of a description. In reality, it was more like ’I’m just notifying you, that’s all’ attitude on Lu Jingchen’s part.

Arrogant, overwhelmingly so.

This was the shared opinion of those present regarding Lu Jingchen.

Zhao’s face turned ugly, and for a moment, he couldn’t find the words to retort. His face darkened as he faced Lu Jingchen without uttering a word.

Right now, he had no way to agree to Lu Jingchen’s demand, but if he didn’t, as Lu Jingchen had just mentioned, he was not someone easy to provoke, and that was certainly true.

Just thinking about the old guys from the Lu Family who had fought their way through countless struggles made Zhao’s back break out in cold sweat.

Lu Jingchen’s gaze landed nonchalantly on Zhao. Seeing that his face didn’t look good, likely already giving in, he didn’t bother to say much more. He no longer liked places like this; ever since he married Song Qiao, he rarely frequented bars, especially not this one.

Compared to that other bar, this place really had a worse environment. It was more appropriate for business discussions—and that meant a different kind of negotiation.

Standing up, Lu Jingchen addressed Zhao with a detached tone, "Zhao, I’ve said all I needed to say. I hope you will consider it. Another thing, I hope you can remind the person behind you to know when to stop."

Without waiting for Zhao to react, he flung a signed check on the coffee table and strode towards the door.

When Zhao initially heard the beginning of Lu Jingchen’s words, he was ready to argue back, but upon hearing the latter reminder, his eyes widened in shock as he watched the man’s retreating figure, and the cold sweat on his back grew even more profuse.

This man... he knows who’s backing me?

A chill crept from the soles of his feet to the top of his head and then spread into his limbs, making him feel like he was in the midst of thousand-year-old ice and snow in the midst of summer, so cold he wanted to shiver.

...

Inside the villa, after washing up, Song Qiao didn’t immediately go to bed but curled up on the tatami near the floor-to-ceiling window with her laptop on her knees, starting to check her emails.

The phone placed aside suddenly rang. Song Qiao was slightly startled, clearly not expecting a call so late at night. Without hesitation, she picked up the phone to see that it was Shen Yi and frowned slightly. Although uncertain why Shen Yi would call so late, she still swiped to answer and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello, Senior Shen, why are you calling so late? Is something the matter?" Song Qiao’s eyes were still fixed on the laptop, just having reviewed an email which was work-related.

It was from Huayi Media concerning news about the impending conclusion of a new film’s shooting. Below, there were some shooting schedules for the production crew.

An Ke is set to finish her scenes tomorrow, and afterwards, she wouldn’t need to continue filming for "Life Reversal". Song Qiao thought for a moment, considering whether to have An Ke take on some more TV dramas or commercials, as she’s been receiving quite a few scripts lately.

Since An Ke’s role in "Life Reversal" was quite significant, and Huayi Media Group had emphasized promoting her, she was now quite a famous actress within An City’s entertainment circle. Many companies had sent her invitations.

At this moment, Shen Yi was sitting in his office, forced to work overtime due to some issues, and this was already the third consecutive night. His complexion wasn’t great, not due to the tiredness of overtime work, but rather, he looked somewhat grim as he began to speak to Song Qiao over the phone, "Xiao Qiao, what’s been happening between you and Lu Jingchen lately? Aren’t you two married?"

Shen Yi assumed Song Qiao knew about the online situation and asked directly about their recent state of affairs.

His laptop screen displayed the Weibo webpage, which was filled with gossip about Lu Jingchen and Zuo Yuqing.

The rumors had started several days earlier, but Shen Yi didn’t see them at first. He only heard about it when employeesmentioned it casually, and it wasn’t until yesterday that he checked Weibo. However, by then, the original posts had been handled, and the netizen had deleted their Weibo posts. The rumors about the two were almost untraceable, so he didn’t ask Song Qiao directly.

But just now, when he checked Weibo, he found those scandals directly making headlines again. There were no pictures of Lu Jingchen, only of Zuo Yuqing. And even though Lu Jingchen’s name wasn’t mentioned outright, they used a "Lu XX" instead, which anyone with discernment could connect to the Weibo headline that had trended a few days prior—it caused a buzz all over again.

Shen Yi had always valued Song Qiao, not just for her work capacity, but more importantly, because she was his junior from elementary school and their relationship was quite good. They were like brother and sister, so naturally, he felt concerned for her.

Upon hearing Shen Yi’s words, Song Qiao’s fingers froze on the touchscreen, temporarily unable to grasp the meaning behind his words. She asked in a somewhat bewildered tone, "What’s wrong, Senior Shen? Lu Jingchen and I are indeed married, aren’t we? Didn’t you already know that?"

"You don’t know about the situation online?" Shen Yi suddenly understood.

It seemed that Song Qiao was unaware of the online situation, and couldn’t help frowning before he continued, "Haven’t you been online recently?"

"Yeah, I’ve been busy lately," Song Qiao admitted straightforwardly.

"You should go check Weibo. Little Qiao, I just hope you can be well and have your own happiness. I don’t want you to be unhappy, do you understand?"

Shen Yi’s words were very confusing.

That was Song Qiao’s first reaction.

However, she obediently responded, "I understand, Senior Shen. I’ll go online to check now. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up first."

"Okay." Shen Yi didn’t say anything more and hung up the phone directly.

As soon as she hung up the phone, Song Qiao closed her email and glanced at her computer desktop, thinking for a moment before deciding to open Sina Weibo and log into her account.

Even though Shen Yi had spoken that way, Song Qiao felt certain that something involving Lu Jingchen must have happened, otherwise Shen Yi wouldn’t have said those puzzling words out of the blue.

After a moment’s thought, she went straight to the Weibo trending searches.

...

By the time Lu Jingchen returned, it was past midnight. In the villa, aside from a dim wall lamp in the living room, only the streetlights outside were shining.

Entering directly, he replaced his shoes, and Lu Jingchen tugged at his tie. At this moment, his head was aching somewhat. After leaving the bar where he had been with Zhao and the others, he didn’t come straight back. Instead, he called a few close friends to have a few more drinks. He didn’t drive back himself; a designated driver was called.

The maids had long gone to bed at this hour, leaving the villa very quiet.

Heading straight to the second floor and carrying a slight scent of alcohol, Lu Jingchen couldn’t help but furrow his brows. Just as he was about to reach for the light switch upon opening the bedroom door, he paused and withdrew his hand. Narrowing his eyes, he could barely make out the little woman lying on the bed; her features were indistinct, only the blanket was slightly raised.

Knowing that Song Qiao was already asleep, Lu Jingchen continued to quietly move towards the wardrobe with the moonlight streaming in from outside, and soon he took out a robe and entered the bathroom.

The bathroom door closed, and Song Qiao, who had been lying in bed pretending to be asleep, suddenly opened her eyes, clear and alert, gripping the edge of the blanket tightly, yet she didn’t get up.

A dozen minutes later, the bathroom door opened, and Song Qiao promptly closed her eyes again.

Shortly after, the blanket on the other side of the bed was lifted, and then Lu Jingchen slowly lay down, stretching out his long arm to hold her in his embrace, his chin resting on the top of her head, warm breaths emanating from him.

Song Qiao dared not move. Even though she wasn’t asleep, the man’s embrace felt somewhat cool, giving her an uncomfortable sensation, but she still did not stir, letting him hold her.

Truthfully, she had many questions to ask him, for instance about his matters with Zuo Yuqing, about their marriage. Initially, she really had the impulse to call him.

But later, she suppressed that urge. And now she was even more uncertain about how to start the conversation.

Was she supposed to directly confront him about his relationship with Zuo Yuqing?

That was even less possible; she didn’t dare to confront him directly.