My Queen, My Rules - 16

Divorce

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Ji Mingshu had the driver take her straight to the Junyi Group headquarters. Scenery flew past the window, but she had no interest in admiring it. Whether her eyes were closed or open, countless scenes from her marriage with Cen Sen kept replaying in her mind.

She initially intended to notify Cen Sen first.

But opening WeChat, she remembered she’d deleted him. And in the new friend requests, there was none from him.

Of course, there wouldn't be. She didn’t know why she had clicked on it with a faint hope anyway.

She pondered seriously: were some things simply destined? For example, she and Cen Sen were destined to be incompatible. 

She remembered when young Cen Sen first arrived at the compound. She’d thought this older brother was so good-looking and had taken the rare initiative to extend kindness to him a few times, even sharing her favorite snacks with him. But he remained quiet and withdrawn, indifferent to her advances.

After getting the cold shoulder one too many times, her patience wore thin. Even at that young age, her childish affection had somehow curdled into resentment. She rallied the other kids in the compound to ostracize him.

But Cen Sen was a year or two older than her and her little cliques. He didn’t care about being isolated by a bunch of childish brats.

Through elementary, middle, and high school, Cen Sen was always two grades ahead. Wherever he went, he was the impeccable model student, praised by teachers, delivering eight out of every ten speeches at school.

She found him unbearably irritating, her disdain and impatience growing alongside his template-perfect existence. When they crossed paths at school, she would breeze past him without a glance, sometimes adding a dismissive snort or snapping her gum loudly near him on purpose.

Cen Sen was even colder, not even deigning to look at her, simply acting as if she didn’t exist.

So later, when chance landed them in bed together and circumstance logically followed with marriage, Cen Sen was still much the same, finding fault with her at every turn. 

Only, the adult world added a layer of pretense. He would cloak himself in a gentle facade, keeping her like a golden canary, one he didn’t particularly like, but was willing to sleep with.

She'd joked about being a ‘golden canary’ in front of Gu Kaiyang, but in hindsight, it was unexpectedly fitting.

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On a Saturday morning, the capital’s CBD was still bustling with people.

The two-week hotel inspection tour had just concluded. After landing in the capital, Cen Sen had attended an early meeting and hadn’t even had time for breakfast. Walking back to his office, he instructed his assistant to brew a black coffee.

“What’s the situation? Which media outlet reported it?”

Back in his office, Cen Sen put on his glasses and continued reviewing the new hotel assessment documents, casually asking about the earlier incident.

On the ride back, Zhou Jiaheng had given him a brief overview of the situation, but with the impending meeting requiring full attention, Cen Sen hadn’t been in the mood to listen in detail.

Zhou Jiaheng explained the whole story, paused slightly, then added, “During the meeting, Miss Zhang Baoshu and Mr. Zhang called to apologize. Both sides said it was a misunderstanding and that the news would be taken down immediately.”

“A misunderstanding.” Cen Sen’s gaze didn’t shift from the documents, he signed the bottom right corner, then instructed calmly, “Call Zhang Qi. Inform him Junyi has decided to withdraw from the West Suburb project. If personal matters start affecting partners, I find it difficult to trust their professional attitude.”

Zhou Jiaheng lowered his gaze. “Understood.”

Cen Sen suddenly changed the subject. “And my wife?”

But as if thinking of something, he didn’t wait for an answer and continued himself, “Never mind. Cancel or postpone all arrangements for tonight. Go retrieve the bracelet Mr. Xie sent last time.”

Zhou Jiaheng once again responded with “Understood.” Seeing Cen Sen had no further instructions, he quietly left the office.

The office fell silent. Cen Sen rubbed the bridge of his nose, leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a half-minute rest, sensing a tough battle ahead tonight.

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“Ma’am, may I ask…”

“Step aside.”

Ji Mingshu didn’t even glance at the building security, her heels clicking with icy determination.

The bodyguards who usually remained virtually invisible around Ji Mingshu finally stepped forward, clarifying her identity to the security personnel.

Without looking back or acknowledging them, Ji Mingshu simply let them clear the way. She walked into Cen Sen’s private elevator, sunglasses on, arms crossed, expressionless.

“Who is that woman? So pretty, and so fierce! She looks like a celebrity.”

“She took the executive elevator to the CEO’s office. Must be President Cen’s girlfriend.”

“Isn’t President Cen married?”

“Then that’s his wife?”

The receptionists were whispering among themselves when security confirmed the answer for them.

Yes, that’s right. That was President Cen’s wife.

Thus, in the few minutes it took Ji Mingshu to ride the elevator, the news of Mrs. Cen’s grand arrival, storming straight into the CEO’s office, spread like wildfire through the company’s various chat groups.

“The way the president’s wife charged in… feels like she’s here to catch someone in the act.”

“Catch someone? With which beauty from his executive assistant team?”

“No way. Every time he goes out, he keeps women outside a three metre radius. Might as well say he’s having an affair with Assistant Zhou.”

“Woman, you have my attention. Here’s a pen, write that fanfic, thanks.”

Although some sensed Ji Mingshu’s mission, the minor tabloid news had been killed in its cradle long before her arrival. No one connected it to the actress.

The entire company knew she was here. Cen Sen wasn’t so blind or deaf as to be unaware, especially since the bodyguards accompanying her were there by his tacit permission to clear her path.

 

By the time Ji Mingshu reached the 68th floor, the office doors were already wide open. Cen Sen’s imposing row of assistants had all risen to form a line of welcome.

Expressionless, Ji Mingshu mentally psyched herself up, walked straight into Cen Sen’s office without breaking stride.

Cen Sen was sitting at his desk, working, wearing light gold, thin-framed glasses that gave him a refined scoundrel aura.

Ji Mingshu stopped in front of his desk, mentally counting ‘One, two, three…’, then threw the printed, unbound divorce papers at his head—

“Divorce.”

She’d rehearsed her tone several times on the way over, striving for that aloof quality, disdain tinged with indifference, granting a favor yet utterly final.

After speaking, she crossed her arms, looking down at him with a haughty glare.

“…”

Cen Sen closed his eyes, pressed a hand over the papers. After three seconds of silence, he flattened them on the desk. He didn’t look up, remaining quiet for a moment.

In truth, the second he learned Ji Mingshu was coming to Junyi, he had prepared a response, even streamlined his explanation to minimize unnecessary nonsense.

But he had to admit.

It had never crossed his mind that Ji Mingshu would ask for a divorce.

Since his return, Ji Mingshu seemed to keep throwing curveballs at him. And this declaration of ‘divorce’ was the curveball to end all curveballs.

He removed his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose, then activated the projection screen behind Ji Mingshu.

“Turn around.”

Ji Mingshu instinctively glanced back.

Footage from a dashcam soon appeared on the screen. Though the device hadn’t captured faces, Ji Mingshu quickly connected it to the photos she’d seen at the magazine office.

The dashcam audio was somewhat garbled, not entirely clear, but the office was quiet. Listening carefully, she seemed to catch key phrases like “don't compare to my wife,” “splash some water on your face and sober up.”

Just then, Zhou Jiaheng knocked.

Cen Sen: “Come in.”

Zhou Jiaheng entered. Seeing Ji Mingshu, he showed no surprise, giving her a polite nod before reporting to Cen Sen in his usual formal manner, “President Cen, I have conveyed your message to President Zhang. But President Zhang wishes to speak with you personally.”

“Put him through.”

Zhou Jiaheng acknowledged, then placed a red velvet jewelry box on the desk. “This is the bracelet for Madam Cen.”

Having said that, he quietly exited.

Soon, Zhang Qi’s call was patched through to the office. Cen Sen had put it on speaker.

Ji Mingshu listened as Zhang Qi, this free narrator, chattered on, explaining the whole incident. In Zhang Qi’s account, Cen Sen was a pure, untainted lotus flower on a mountain peak, unmoved by beauty, steadfast in his virtue.

Cen Sen merely responded with occasional “Mhm,” idly playing with the diamond bracelet in his hand. Once Ji Mingshu seemed to understand, he hung up directly.

“…”

Ji Mingshu stared intently at the bracelet in his hand.

She recognized it. It was a Van Cleef & Arpels piece auctioned at Christie’s a while back. The final bid wasn’t astronomical, she vaguely recalled it to be over a million dollars. She’d quite liked it.

Wait. That’s not the point right now.

She snapped back to attention.

Oh. So, all that heartache from the magazine office till now, reminiscing about the past, imagining the future, concocting all sorts of scenarios, nearly breaking down in tears for this dog man—it was all just a misunderstanding.

…How utterly riveting.

All her melancholy vanished in an instant, replaced only by a faint, profound embarrassment at the absurd internal drama she’d just orchestrated for herself.

“Still divorcing?”

“…”

Silence was the little golden canary’s song at this moment.

Cen Sen loosened his tie, looking at her with composure. “If I’ve fallen short and you truly can’t bear it, if you insist on divorce, then I respect your decision.”

“But Mingshu, perhaps I need to remind you of the prenuptial agreement. Should we divorce, I’m afraid you won’t be able to continue collecting rare Birkins, take private jets to Milan for fashion week, or bid without blinking on that 15-carat Sri Lankan Padparadscha sapphire ring…”

“Wait,” Ji Mingshu was now fully clear-headed, “I think… I can endure a bit longer.”

The faint embarrassment deepened a few shades.

Ji Mingshu hadn’t expected this supposedly ‘offline’ man to be so talkative, to know about her love for collecting Birkins and bidding on gems and diamonds, and to now produce a rather pretty bracelet to bribe her.

She was, of course, deeply moved and delighted to accept.

Hearing Ji Mingshu’s answer, for some reason, Cen Sen felt a sudden lightness in his chest.

Without changing expression, he stood up, walked over to Ji Mingshu, lifted her wrist, and fastened the diamond bracelet around it.

A faint scent of fir enveloped her. Ji Mingshu’s ears flushed slightly red. Somehow, beyond the embarrassment, a small, irrepressible flicker of joy stirred in her heart.

She hypnotized herself: It must be because I’m so happy about continuing to spend lavishly. Yes, that’s definitely it.

Holding back the corners of her mouth that wanted to curl up, she cleared her throat and emphasized, “If you cheat, I really will divorce you. This time… I’ll let it slide. I forgive you.”

“Much obliged.”

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