My Queen, My Rules - 14
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The night lay hushed beneath a gentle moon, its silver light spilling across the lake in soft ripples.
Mingshui Manor stood on an island at its center, surrounded in lush greenery that whispered whenever the wind stirred the leaves.
Ji Mingshu was having a terrible dream.
It clung to her no matter how hard she struggled to escape. She was aware she was dreaming, yet her eyelids felt as though someone had stitched them shut. No matter how desperately she tried, she couldn't open them.
At six in the morning, the first pale light of dawn crept across the sky.
Ji Mingshu finally jolted awake.
Her silk nightdress was soaked through with cold sweat. The dusty-rose fabric across her back had darkened several shades, and a faint sheen of moisture clung to her neck and jaw.
She lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling. A few seconds later, she flexed her fingers and pressed a hand against her chest.
Thump. Thump.
Her heart was pounding furiously.
Still there. It's still there. Thank goodness it's still there.
As her mind gradually cleared, Ji Mingshu grabbed half her pillow, folded it over, and buried her face beneath it.
She never should have read that kidney-and-heart-stealing novel last night. Somehow her sleeping brain had stitched together an outrageous plot where Cen Sen carved out her heart and kidney to save his ex-girlfriend.
Thinking back on it now, dreams really had no logic. If he'd taken her heart first, she'd have died immediately. How could she still be alive for him to steal her kidney afterward? Besides, if Cen Sen ever dared harvest her organs for that little green-tea bitch, she'd dig up the entire Cen family graveyard before he got the chance.
That said, Dream Cen Sen had been absolutely terrifying. The man had even put on a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses to perform the operation himself. Was he some kind of psychopath?
Ji Mingshu turned to glance at Cen Sen and instinctively edged farther away.
But seeing him asleep with his breathing slow and even somehow gave her courage. She quietly leaned closer, stretched out one small hand, and suddenly smacked him across the face.
Smack.
It was barely a slap, more of a light pat. It couldn't even begin to compare with the one she'd landed at the birthday party the night before.
After delivering her strike, Ji Mingshu prepared to retreat.
But Cen Sen, eyes still closed, accurately caught her by the wrist.
"What are you doing?" His voice was low and rough with sleep.
"Y... you're awake... There was... something dirty."
Ji Mingshu froze. She couldn't understand how this Dog Man had suddenly woken up. Startled, her heartbeat shot through the roof, and even her words came out stumbling.
Cen Sen slowly opened his eyes and turned toward her. "Something dirty?" His gaze was calm, almost knowingly so.
"..."
Ji Mingshu tugged hard, trying to free her wrist, but couldn't.
Finally she lifted her chin and declared with complete confidence, "I dreamed you stole my kidney. I slept terribly all night because of you. What's wrong with hitting you once?"
"..."
His grip loosened slightly. Ji Mingshu immediately pulled her hand back, then dramatically covered one side of her waist as though proving she wasn't making the whole thing up.
Cen Sen glanced at where she was holding. "That's your stomach."
Ji Mingshu froze, hurriedly switching to the other side. But then it hit her, didn’t people have two kidneys? What did it matter which side?
Now completely confused, she patted first one side, then the other, forgotten where kidneys actually were.
In the end she simply clutched her chest instead and argued righteously, "You didn't just steal my kidney. You stole my heart too. Why were you such a psycho in my dream?"
"You sure I didn't take your corneas too?"
Cen Sen's voice carried a faint note of mockery.
...?
Ji Mingshu's head buzzed.
She shot upright and immediately began searching frantically for her phone.
It wasn't on the bedside cabinet. It wasn't under her pillow either. Looking up, she found it sitting on Cen Sen's nightstand.
"You pervert! You went through my phone! That's an invasion of privacy, you know that?!"
Furious, Ji Mingshu snatched up her pillow and started hitting him with it.
"Oh, I've invaded far more than your privacy."
Cen Sen shifted slightly, his gaze lingering over her chest for a brief moment.
Ji Mingshu saw black.
If their prenuptial property agreement hadn't been so crystal clear, she'd have happily smothered Cen Sen with this pillow and inherited his enormous fortune. :)
After starting the morning with a fight in bed, Ji Mingshu had no desire to go back to sleep. She got up, washed, dressed, and deliberately made as much noise as possible, making sure Cen Sen couldn't sleep peacefully either.
Once she'd successfully forced him out of bed as well, she flicked back her hair with satisfaction and strode out the door.
The whole operation had put her in an excellent mood, but when she opened WeChat to find someone to hang out, she suddenly remembered she still hadn't used the leverage she had over Cen Sen. Her irritation immediately returned.
Unwilling to let it go, she searched online, found exactly what she wanted, and sent him a screenshot.
By the time Cen Sen received it, he was already sitting in the back seat of his car.
The screenshot showed an online explanation: "Yam. When used as a sentence-ending particle, it replaces 'ya' to create an intentionally cute tone... It conveys an emotion similar to acting spoiled or acting adorable, with the hope of leaving the other person with an impression of youthful cuteness..."
Ji Mingshu: [President Cen, maybe spend a little more time on the internet. If you keep living in total isolation like this, I feel Junyi is heading for bankruptcy under your leadership :)]
Cen Sen scrolled up through their previous chat history and let out a quiet laugh.
Both the driver and Zhou Jiaheng instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror after hearing it. They looked only once, however. Neither dared ask what had amused him.
Anyone who spent enough time working for a boss as taciturn as Cen Sen eventually lost the urge to chat or pry into his business.
Not long ago one of the bodyguards assigned to the car had quit. It wasn't because the pay was bad or the work was exhausting. The poor young man simply couldn't stand sitting in a car full of people who all possessed functioning mouths yet could go an entire day without producing a single meaningful word.
Soon afterward, Ji Mingshu received Cen Sen's reply.
The first two messages were exactly what she'd expected: him finding a new angle to argue from.
Cen Sen: [So that's what you meant. You were trying to act cute and flirt. I'll be sure to cooperate next time.]
Cen Sen: [Though you're already twenty-five. You don't need to impress me as ‘youthful’ anymore. I have no interest in molesting children.]
The third message was a link to a celebratory article from Junyi Group's official account.
She tapped it open.
The entire article boasted about the group's remarkable achievements in the hotel industry before ending with the usual motivational speech for employees and generous praise for upper management.
Naturally, Ji Mingshu translated it into one sentence:
Relax. Even after your grandson gets married, Junyi still won't go bankrupt.
She replied with a smiling emoji, opened Cen Sen's profile, and smoothly completed the full combo: block, delete contact.
After blocking him, Ji Mingshu didn't see Cen Sen for an entire week.
He was in the middle of a two-week hotel inspection tour, flying nonstop between domestic and overseas locations, attending at least three meetings a day while keeping every project he had personally launched under close supervision.
Ji Mingshu, meanwhile, finally surrendered to Jiang Chun's relentless pleading and agreed to oversee Little Earth Goose's complete transformation.
She honestly wasn't sure why she'd accepted what was usually the male lead's job in romance novels, but since she'd agreed, she intended to fulfill her duty with absolute professionalism. No trace of Jiang Chun's country bumpkin image would be allowed to survive.
"How are you still fifty-eight kilograms?" the strict Teacher Ji demanded while glaring at the scale.
Jiang Chun looked utterly innocent. "I don't know. I haven't been drinking milk tea. I haven't eaten barbecue either."
Ji Mingshu took a lap around Jiang Chun's still-unrenovated disaster of an apartment and accurately spotting three boxes of instant noodles hidden in a corner.
"And what's this? Free gifts that came with the fruit?"
Without the slightest embarrassment, Jiang Chun took the noodles from her hands before calmly stepping back onto the scale.
"See? My weight didn't change. These don't make you fat."
Ji Mingshu looked at the unwavering “58” on the scale, and was rendered speechless for three whole seconds.
For one horrifying moment, that almost sounded reasonable.
Fortunately, Teacher Ji recovered quickly. "You eat them dry? Do they just pass right through you without digesting?”
Jiang Chun: “…”
So she failed to bluff her way through.
Teacher Ji continued mercilessly. "Every day you're posting on WeChat Moments and Weibo about losing weight. With this kind of attitude, what exactly are you losing? Why not save your energy, go back to Shenzhen to sell fish, and spend your free time watching Yan and that little green tea live happily ever after online?"
"I did say I was going to lose weight. I say it every day..." Jiang Chun muttered under her breath.
But seeing Ji Mingshu’s ‘Say one more word and you won’t live to see tomorrow’, she immediately surrendered. "Fine. I was wrong. No more instant noodles."
"Thirty minutes on the elliptical. Resistance level eight. Don't even think about slacking off."
Just hearing the words elliptical machine made Jiang Chun's thighs and calves ache in sympathy.
Ji Mingshu was already standing beside it, however, watching her with the gaze of death.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chun marched over with the solemn determination of someone walking toward her execution.
Truthfully, Jiang Chun’s iron determination to transform this time was fueled by a burning desire for vindication.
That night, quite a few people at the party had secretly recorded Ji Mingshu slapping the little white lotus.
Although Zhang Lin had followed protocol by checking everyone's devices upon exit and deleting every photo and video he could find, a few inevitably slipped through.
Within two days, news of the little white lotus getting slapped for being the other woman had exploded online.
She was a minor celebrity now, so naturally a small corner of the internet began discussing it.
No one knew what sob story she'd fed Yan, but he'd apparently fallen under her spell. In a grand display of righteous fury for his beloved, he released a public statement insisting they were in a legitimate relationship. He even went to the Jiang family personally to warn Jiang Chun not to play any more tricks.
Jiang Chun had nearly fainted from anger.
She'd wanted nothing more than to hire an army of internet trolls, buy trending topics, destroy both their reputations, and send them off to feast on garbage together.
Fortunately, Father Jiang was an exceptionally diplomatic and patient man. He amicably dissolved the engagement, stopped Jiang Chun from making a scene, and merely assured her there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to make Yan regret everything.
Jiang Chun hadn't inherited her father's patience. She wanted Yan inducted into the Scumbag Men Should Drop Dead Alliance immediately.
So she shamelessly clung to Ji Mingshu until she agreed to supervise her makeover. Jiang Chun intended to reinvent herself completely, outshine that little green tea in every possible way, then find a rich, handsome man on Cen Sen's level and make Yan regret everything so thoroughly that he'd go from red with regret, to green with regret, to pale with regret before dropping to his knees and calling her Daddy!
As for Jiang Chun's goal of finding a wealthy, handsome man who completely eclipsed Yan, Father Jiang supported it with both hands and both feet.
She was three months younger than Ji Mingshu. In recent years her family's fortune had exploded, so there was never any pressure for her to find a respectable job or earn money.
Father Jiang's only expectation had always been that she marry gloriously into an influential family. Back when she'd stubbornly insisted on marrying Yan, he'd been less than thrilled. Now that she'd finally come to her senses, he was overjoyed. Without wasting a second, he arranged a family gathering that was essentially a blind date, scheduled for next Friday.
Ji Mingshu had already looked into Father Jiang's chosen match.
She'd even shown Jiang Chun his photo beforehand.
He was undeniably handsome. Refined, elegant, scholarly. The sort of man who looked intelligent at first glance.
After a full week of Ji Mingshu's devilish training, Jiang Chun could finally pass for a proper socialite... as long as she stayed quiet.
While picking out clothes for the dinner, Ji Mingshu lectured her nonstop.
"The Tang family is full of academics. Don't say anything stupid when you meet them. If you don't know what to say, keep your mouth shut."
Jiang Chun nodded vigorously like a little goose pecking at rice.
So when Friday arrived, she put on the outfit Ji Mingshu had chosen and went off to meet her rich, handsome prince.
Ji Mingshu went to bed early that Friday night and forgot to ask how the blind date had gone.
Early Saturday morning, she instead received an emergency barrage of calls from Gu Kaiyang begging to borrow a dress.
The magazine Gu Kaiyang worked for was shooting a cover featuring a popular on-screen couple, but the gown prepared for the actress had suddenly run into issues. They urgently needed an identical replacement.
It happened to be one of this season's new autumn-winter designs.
Ji Mingshu happened to own one. She'd worn it exactly once, disliked it immediately, and had already banished it to the back of her wardrobe to collect dust.
The moment Gu Kaiyang asked, she agreed without hesitation.
Originally Gu Kaiyang had planned to send an assistant to collect it, but since Ji Mingshu had nothing better to do, she offered to deliver it herself.
On the drive over, she finally remembered Jiang Chun's blind date and called to ask how it had gone.
Jiang Chun answered almost immediately. Her voice, however, sounded listless, the dejection practically crawling through the signal to Ji Mingshu’s end.
"So? Didn't go well?" Ji Mingshu asked.
"I... don't think so. I honestly don't know what I did wrong. Whenever he looked at me, he always had this... half-smile. It was kind of creepy."
Still lying in bed, Jiang Chun began recounting every detail of the blind date.
She went into excruciating detail, what lipstick she'd worn that morning, what dishes she'd eaten at lunch, even how many bowls of rice she'd had.
Ji Mingshu finally lost patience and cut her off. "Get to the important part."
After a brief pause, Jiang Chun finally skipped ahead to the time they'd spent alone.
"He asked who my favorite painter was. How would I know any painters? I only remembered you once saying your husband bought some paintings by Eight Great Master, so I told him I liked Eight Great Master. Their paintings are really unique. I didn't dare say anything beyond that."
“Wait,” Ji Mingshu thought she’d misheard. “You think that was ‘not much’?”
“I only said one sentence, how is that too much? Aren’t they unique? I was already being vague. Did I still get it wrong?"
“No, you, did you think the ‘Eight Great Masters’ were like the ‘Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove’ or the ‘Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou’? It’s one person, not eight! I told you, if you don’t know, just shut up!”
Ji Mingshu was so exasperated she almost laughed.
Jiang Chun blinked blankly. "Then... why didn't he correct me? He even went grocery shopping with me afterward. Maybe he didn't know either?"
“Don’t project your ignorance onto others!”
The moment Ji Mingshu raised her voice, Jiang Chun shrank back.
After obediently admitting her mistake, she continued recalling what happened at the supermarket.
"When we got to the fruit section, he mentioned a bunch of fruits I'd never even heard of and said he loved them. Then he asked what fruit I liked. I thought I couldn't lose face, so I said pears. You know, that really popular kind... shi duo pi li. I love those. But we walked all over the supermarket and couldn't find them..."
...?
Jiang Chun continued rambling.
Ji Mingshu interrupted expressionlessly, pronouncing each syllable with impeccable British English.
"Strawberry. Listen carefully. Strawberry. Did you finish primary school? Strawberries. Shi duo pi li is strawberry, not a kind of pear."
Jiang Chun: “…”
Ji Mingshu: “Please, for my sake, never tell anyone we’re friends. Thanks.”
Understood.
Jiang Chun quietly hung up on herself.
By the time Ji Mingshu arrived at the magazine office, she was still caught in a mix of fury and amusement.
Thanks to her friendship with Gu Kaiyang, most people at the magazine knew who she was. As soon as she walked in, they all stood to greet her.
Ji Mingshu’s mind was still full of Jiang Chun’s goose-brained nonsense. She responded absently and didn’t notice the slightly odd expressions on their faces.
When she entered the deputy editor's office and found Gu Kaiyang, she realized Gu Kaiyang wasn't nearly as busy as expected.
In fact, the instant she arrived, Gu Kaiyang jumped to her feet, hurriedly poured her tea, and fussed over her with obvious caution.
Removing her sunglasses, Ji Mingshu frowned. "Weren't you rushing to finish the shoot?"
"The company sent an emergency notice." Gu Kaiyang hesitated. "It's canceled."
"Why?"
"Well... the actress got caught up in a scandal. The news just broke..."
Her voice grew quieter and quieter, every word dripping with guilt.
Ji Mingshu frowned. "What's wrong with you? You're acting really weird."
Seeing how completely unaware Ji Mingshu still was, Gu Kaiyang wrestled with herself in agony.
But thinking that sooner or later it would come out, she steeled herself, closed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth, and blurted everything out in one breath.
"Fine! I'll tell you! That shameless woman Zhang Baoshu has been linked to your Cen Sen! The story broke just twenty minutes ago!"
"It hasn't blown up yet, we got the internal notice first. I really think you should call your husband before jumping to conclusions. Maybe there's some misunderstanding. Whatever you do, don't do anything impulsive!"
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