Chapter 23: Flattery

The call was quickly picked up.

As soon as Ma Lan spoke, she said, “Hello, is that Yun Kai? Yes, I’m Xiao Churan’s mother…”

Ever since seeing Xiao Churan at the banquet, Wang Yunkai had been quite taken with her, thinking about her constantly. He was fretting that he had no chance to get close to Xiao Churan, and it just so happened that her mother called him.

He guessed that Ma Lan must have run into some trouble, so of course he wouldn’t miss the opportunity to show his helpfulness. Thus, he immediately asked politely, “Aunt Ma, did you run into some problem?”

“Well, there’s something I need your help with,” Ma Lan said anxiously. “Yun Kai, a few of my friends and I invested everything we had in some financial products at a company called Huaxin Insurance, but now they won’t let us withdraw the money. Can you find a way to help me get it back?”

Upon hearing this, Wang Yunkai was delighted, feeling that this was his moment to shine. He confidently said, “Aunt Ma, don’t worry. I’ll come find you right now and make sure this gets resolved!”

Ma Lan was overjoyed and blurted, “Thank you so much!”

After hanging up, she turned her gaze to Ye Chen again and huffed, “Some people are completely useless, you can’t count on them at all. They can do nothing except shout a few slogans. What good is that?”

When Ye Chen heard this, he sneered inwardly. His mother-in-law was just so superficial and blind.

Calling on Wang Yunkai to help? The company in question defrauded tens of millions or more. Whoever dares to swindle that much is bound to have powerful connections, maybe even an underworld boss behind the scenes. There’s no way Wang Yunkai can force them to cough up the money.

The Wang family itself was never that strong to begin with, and after the termination of their collaboration with the Emgrand Group, their business contracted even further. Given their background, meddling in such a major financial scam was basically impossible.

Actually, this would be a small matter for him—one call to Chen Zekai at Buckingham Palace would settle it right away. After all, Chen represented the Ye family in Jinling. Every business owner in the city, whether from legitimate circles or the underworld, had to give him respect.

But his mother-in-law was just too unpleasant, so if she believed in Wang Yunkai, let him deal with it.

Someone noticed Ma Lan had made a quick call and was now all smiles, so they surrounded her, asking if she had managed to get some important figure to help. With a smug expression, Ma Lan looked at the elderly people around her and said, “Don’t worry, I’ve asked Young Master Wang from the Wang family to come handle this. He’s very capable—he’ll probably get our money back in no time!”

Someone exclaimed, “Young Master Wang? Wow, you’re really something, Sister Lan, finding such a powerful person!”

“Yes, that young master from the Wang family must have all sorts of connections. All he needs to do for our situation is say a few words, right?”

“By the way, Sister Lan, since you know such a fine young man, why don’t you marry your daughter to him? Instead, she ended up with this good-for-nothing!”

Ma Lan scornfully glanced at Ye Chen, snorted, and said, “A useless person like him will be kicked out by the Xiao family sooner or later!”

Ye Chen kept quiet, waiting to see how things would unfold once Wang Yunkai arrived.

Before long, a black Porsche pulled up slowly in front of the crowd. A well-dressed, handsome young man got out of the car. It was indeed Wang Yunkai.

All the older folks looked him over and sighed, “Wow, now that’s a talented young man! Whoever gets him as a son-in-law is in for a good life!”

“Exactly! If my daughter could marry someone like him, I could die happy!”

“Pah! Keep dreaming! Even if you died, he wouldn’t give your daughter a second glance!”

At this moment, Ma Lan immediately rushed over and spoke eagerly, “Oh, Yun Kai, thank goodness you’re here! I was so worried!”

It was indeed Wang Yunkai. He smiled and said, “Aunt Ma, I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”

Ma Lan hurriedly replied, “No need to apologize. I’ve only waited about ten minutes. You got here so quickly!”

Wang Yunkai grinned. “When I heard you were in trouble, I drove straight over and ran several red lights on the way.”

Ma Lan looked pleased, but still asked, “Running that many red lights could be troublesome, right?”

“Not at all,” Wang Yunkai said nonchalantly. “I know people in the traffic department. One phone call can clear any violations.”

Then he continued, “But let’s talk about your issue. How much money did they scam from you?”

Ma Lan sighed. “I invested a little over a million. They said the monthly dividend would be two hundred thousand, but now I can’t even withdraw my principal.”

Nodding, Wang Yunkai took it all in and said, “Don’t worry, leave it to me. As long as I’m the one handling it, I’ll make sure you get your money back.”

He suddenly noticed Ye Chen standing behind Ma Lan, and his expression changed slightly. He hadn’t expected this eyesore of a deadbeat to be here as well.

Ever since setting eyes on Xiao Churan, Wang Yunkai had harbored thoughts of getting close to her. After hearing from his younger brother Wang Yunfei that Xiao Churan was still most likely single in that respect, this desire only intensified. So when he saw her useless husband, he naturally held him in contempt.

Deliberately, he joked, “Oh, Brother Ye is here too? Do you have a way to help Aunt Ma recover her investment? Why don’t you give it a shot first? That way, you won’t complain later that I stole your thunder.”

Ma Lan cut in right away. “That’s pointless! What can he do to help? He can run his mouth and that’s about it! Yun Kai, just ignore him.”

Wang Yunkai nodded and mocked, “Well, if Brother Ye can’t do anything, I’ll give it a go.”

Ye Chen smiled faintly and offered five words: “I wish you luck, Young Master.”

With a dismissive laugh, Wang Yunkai turned his attention to the elderly folks around Ma Lan, who now came forward in a chorus of appeals, “Ma Lan, we’re all friends here. Ask this young man to help us too! We’ve all lost our life savings.”

Strutting about, Ma Lan said, “Hey, I have no say in this. Yun Kai is doing this as a favor to me. He doesn’t know any of you.”

They all turned to plead with Wang Yunkai. “Young Master Wang, please do us a favor too!”

He looked down on the others, but noticing Ma Lan’s fondness for small gains, he smiled and said, “Since you’re all Aunt Ma’s friends, I’ll help. But I’m only doing it for her sake.”

Everyone was overjoyed until he added proudly, “However, I’m looking out for Aunt Ma. If I manage to recover your money, you’ll each need to give her a 10% commission. Is that acceptable?”

They hurried to agree, “No problem! Even if we only get back 90%, that’s far better than losing everything!”

Hearing that, Ma Lan was over the moon. These friends had lost over ten million in total. If Wang Yunkai really could get their money back, she stood to make over a hundred thousand herself!