Chapter 548 - 547: The Effort Behind the Scenes (Part 1)

"Rumors?" Upon hearing the word, Su Li immediately thought of what Miao Zhi had told her during the day.

"Yes, those outrageous rumors..." Qian Shengli hesitated. "I don’t know how much you’ve heard."

"I’ve heard a little, but I didn’t pay it any mind. You all..." Su Li was uncharacteristically puzzled. "Is there something I don’t know?"

’He might be Wu Sheng’s friend, but she and Wu Sheng weren’t married yet. They hadn’t seen each other since their last meeting, and with the incident before that, they’d all been busy and hadn’t kept in touch. Logically, he had no reason to be calling her.’

On the other end of the line, Qian Shengli could hear the confusion in Su Li’s voice and sounded utterly exasperated.

"Er... it’s not that there’s something you don’t know. I just wanted to explain... The rumor about Wu Sheng finding someone new isn’t true. My little sister was just helping me run an errand, and she’s just a kid who talks nonsense. I just really hope you don’t misunderstand..."

Qian Shengli sounded incredibly conflicted and frustrated as he spoke.

Su Li blinked as she listened. ’Hmm... This doesn’t sound like the same rumor. I haven’t heard anything about this at all.’

’Wait a minute... A couple of days ago, both Wu Sheng and Wu Qihua had told me not to worry if I heard any rumors. I hear rumors all the time, so I didn’t think much of it back then.’

’It seems this is what they were talking about.’

’It even involves Qian Shengli’s little sister?’ Su Li paused. "The thing you’re talking about... I actually haven’t heard any rumors... Can you tell me more?"

Qian Shengli: "..."

He slapped his forehead, wishing he could turn back time and un-make this call.

Qian Shengli never in a million years would have guessed that Su Li hadn’t heard the rumor at all.

"Well... it’s..." Qian Shengli tried to speak twice before finally giving a wry, helpless smile. "You haven’t heard it? I just assumed..."

He had agonized for two days, and had even gathered the four of them—Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Li—to discuss it for a good while. After thinking it over and over, he decided it was best to explain, lest it affect Wu Sheng and Su Li’s relationship.

And as it turned out, Su Li knew nothing about it...

But he couldn’t just hang up now. He’d brought it up, piqued Su Li’s curiosity, and now he had to explain.

Qian Shengli sighed. He glanced at his three friends, who were standing in front of him and avoiding his gaze, and could only brace himself and explain.

"This is what happened..."

「The story starts several days ago.」

The human trafficking ring had been in the news for days, so a lot of people knew about it. The military base, with its TVs and newspapers, was no exception.

On top of that, Little Tang Mo had been involved, and Wu Sheng had even been dispatched to help. After the trial ended, those remarks from Qin Shanshan started to spread.

There had already been rumors that Su Li wasn’t good enough for Wu Sheng, so plenty of people were gossiping. And right at that critical moment, Qian Shengli’s younger sister came to deliver something for him and, in front of a whole crowd, latched onto Wu Sheng’s arm.

Although Wu Sheng struggled to pull away, as luck would have it, the incident was witnessed by the biggest gossips, and the rumors escalated once again.

People were saying that Wu Sheng was unhappy with Su Li and had found someone else who was a better match socially. The rumor was so detailed it sounded completely plausible.

Wu Sheng had already cleared the air, but people kept talking behind his back. When Qian Shengli heard about it, he asked Wu Sheng, who just told him not to worry. Wu Sheng was looking grim at the time due to other matters, but Qian Shengli assumed it was because of the rumors.

Qian Shengli was married, and he’d suffered from nasty rumors before—it had almost ended his marriage—so he couldn’t just ignore it.

As Wu Sheng’s good friend, Qian Shengli didn’t want his own naive younger sister to affect Wu Sheng and Su Li’s relationship. After mulling it over, he decided he should explain things on Wu Sheng’s behalf.

After listening to the whole story, Su Li said, "So that’s how it is..."

Qian Shengli sighed. "Yeah, that’s what happened. I hope you won’t let it bother you. Wu Sheng cares a lot about you. The time he wanted to take us all out to dinner with you, he spent a long time preparing for it. He even broke off friendships over it..."

Qian Shengli abruptly shut his mouth. As his three friends looked on helplessly, he slapped himself across the face with a loud SMACK.

He was being completely loose-lipped. The moment he finished explaining the main story, he relaxed and let everything else slip out.

While Qian Shengli was busy slapping his own face, on the other end of the line, Su Li was genuinely and completely stunned.

"Broke off friendships... What do you mean?"

Su Li asked softly after a long pause.

Qian Shengli rubbed his forehead. "Look... I’ve really put my foot in my mouth today... But, since I’ve already said this much, I might as well tell you the rest."

’In for a penny, in for a pound.’ Since he’d already said so much, he might as well say more. Adopting a "what’s done is done" attitude, Qian Shengli actually started to relax.

He sat down with the receiver and said casually, as if they were just chatting, "We suspected you might not know about this, but I never imagined you truly had no idea."

Su Li hummed softly in acknowledgment, letting him know she was listening.

"Among our group of friends, Wu Sheng was the only one who wasn’t married or even seeing anyone. We’re all around the same age and grew up together. As we got older, everyone started getting married or finding someone to date, but not Wu Sheng."

"By the time the rest of us were married with children old enough to run errands, Wu Sheng still showed no interest. We all figured he’d just stay single forever, but then we heard he’d found a girlfriend."

"We were so curious, constantly curious. We’d been pestering him for a while to bring you over so we could see this rare sight... er, I mean, so we could meet you."

"But at first, he kept making excuses, saying he hadn’t won you over yet. He kept putting it off until he finally gave in not long ago."

"He finally agreed, but by then, some nasty rumors were going around. Wu Sheng must have been concerned about them, because he met with all of us beforehand."

Listening to Qian Shengli’s calm, unhurried voice, Su Li’s mind drifted back to that time, to her own anxieties back then.

’She’d felt so much pressure back then, worried that his friends wouldn’t accept her...’

"He told you about my situation and gave you a heads-up, right?" Su Li asked Qian Shengli with a small smile.

"Yes and no." Qian Shengli took a sip of water. "It was more than just a heads-up. It came with a threat."

It had been a while, but Qian Shengli still remembered that day vividly.

Wu Sheng had invited them out for lamb hotpot. When they were about halfway through the meal, surrounded by steam, Wu Sheng started to explain Su Li’s situation. "...I don’t care if she’s divorced, and I don’t care if she has a child."

Wu Sheng looked up at them. "I am serious about being with her. She’s my choice for life, my future wife."

"I expect you to respect my wife. Respecting her is the same as respecting me. When I introduce you to her, you’d better not say anything unpleasant."

"And if we can’t accept it?" Qian Shengli had blurted out at the time.

"If you can’t accept her, then stay away from Su Li from now on, and definitely don’t say anything to her face," Wu Sheng replied without a moment’s hesitation. "I’m telling you all now, if any of you can’t accept her, just say so. Then you don’t have to meet her. Otherwise, things will get ugly, and we won’t be able to be friends anymore."

As soon as Wu Sheng said that, conflict erupted.

"What kind of talk is that? We’ve been friends for years! Are you really going to ditch us for some woman? Is she worth it?"

Wu Sheng immediately put down his chopsticks. "She’s worth it. She’s my wife, the woman I cherish. We’re a unit. And I’ve already told you—respecting me means respecting her."

With a deeply sentimental tone, Qian Shengli recounted the entire scene to Su Li, including the dialogue.

Su Li was left speechless.