My Queen, My Rules - 18

Shoot

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Silence filled the private room for three seconds. Cen Sen, Jiang Che, and Zhao Yang all turned to look at Shu Yang.

Cen Sen and Jiang Che maintained their composure, while Zhao Yang’s disdain and contempt for Shu Yang were practically written boldly across his face.

Shu Yang, however, had a face thicker than the silt at the bottom of the Yellow River. Even now, he brazenly pretended nothing was wrong, turning around with an exaggerated look of surprise. “Well, look who’s here! Xiao Shu! Come, come, let your big brother have a look. Where did this stunning beauty come from?"

Ji Mingshu gave a tight, perfunctory smile, grabbed her purse, and swatted it over his head.

A master of theatrics, he immediately started wailing, "Ow! Ow!"

"Shut up. I'm not even complaining about your greasy hair dirtying my bag yet—what are you yelling for?” Ji Mingshu felt like rolling her eyes.

These two, both with ‘Shu’ in their names, had been chatterboxes since childhood. Everyone was used to it by now. As they bickered back and forth, the others wisely stayed out of it.

Jiang Che, as if nothing had happened, played a pair of Queens. Cen Sen followed with a pair of Kings. Zhao Yang tapped the table edge. "Pass."

After running through her usual top-to-bottom critique of Shu Yang and achieving her customary overwhelming victory in their verbal spar, Ji Mingshu went to sit beside Cen Sen.

Cen Sen motioned toward the cards in his hand. She took them as her due, utterly unapologetic as she peeked at Jiang Che and Zhao Yang’s hands before rearranging the play order.

“Nine, ten, jack, queen, king—straight. Three fours with a pair. A pair of fives. Done. I’m out.”

“…Damn.” Zhao Yang folded his cards, craning his neck to look. “Who can play against that?”

He hadn’t seen this kind of play in years and felt a moment of bewilderment, a sense of déjà vu washing over him.

Ji Mingshu had already started settling the bets. "You owe one bag. You owe three."

"Why do I owe three?" Jiang Che looked up lazily.

Ji Mingshu: "He's at least a lifesaving doctor in service of the people now. You're just an unscrupulous capitalist exploiting the masses. What's wrong with you owing three?"

For a moment, Zhao Yang had the illusion that he’d gotten a great deal.

Ji Mingshu continued, righteously arguing with Jiang Che. “Besides, your buddy here just said whoever earns more money should contribute more to the Golden Canary. You owing three is perfectly fair.”

Jiang Che remained unimpressed. "Oh, he's not my buddy."

...?

"Hey, that's not what I said, was it?" Shu Yang’s head was full of question marks. He turned to Jiang Che. "Seriously? Three bags, and you're ready to disown me just like that?"

Jiang Che: "Then you buy them."

"Fine, I'll buy them! I'll buy ten!"

Ji Mingshu’s expression switched as fast as turning pages. She propped her chin on her hand, smiling sweetly. “Thank you, Brother Yang."

Shu Yang never thought before he boasted. Now, coming to his senses and remembering the price range of Ji Mingshu's bags, his heart bled.

He turned, trying to provoke Cen Sen to recoup some losses. "Brother Sen, how have you been mistreating her? Not even buying her bags, so she has to scam us?"

Cen Sen didn't take the bait. He said flatly, "Xiao Shu is rather thrifty and manages the household well."

Ji Mingshu timely offered a smile befitting a ‘virtuous wife who is thrifty and manages the household well’.

Shu Yang: "..."

Okay. You two are a perfect match. Please lock yourselves away and stop coming out to harm us innocent citizens :)

By the end of the gathering, Ji Mingshu had scammed, tricked, and swindled over a dozen bags out of them. Everyone indulged her. It had been a while, and they enjoyed teasing her.

Ji Mingshu, in turn, was compensating on behalf of Cen Sen, making up for the lack of energy he contributed to the group's dynamic.

They were all smart people. No one touched the minefield that was ‘Li Wenyin’ again for the rest of the night.

Li Wenyin was Cen Sen's ex-girlfriend. Their rumored period lasted three years; their actual tenure, three months.

An ex-girlfriend wasn't necessarily a forbidden topic. The crux was that Li Wenyin and Ji Mingshu had never gotten along. They’d been rivals since middle school, causing plenty of unpleasantness.

Moreover, Li Wenyin seemed free and easy on the surface, but from time to time, she'd made a show of her lingering feelings for Cen Sen.

In the first year of Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen's marriage, Li Wenyin had gone viral on Weibo with a little first love story: “My Ex Got Married.”

That post was later deleted by Li Wenyin herself under the pretext of “not wanting to disturb his life,” but it had been widely reposted online and was still occasionally referenced.

On the way home after the gathering, Ji Mingshu didn't speak for the entire ride. She looked out the window, at her phone, and into the rearview mirror, using any reflective surface she could find to subtly observe any micro-expressions on Cen Sen's face.

But Cen Sen had no expression, let alone any changes. He fell asleep as soon as he got in the car, though his mind seemed equipped with radar, waking up the moment they arrived home.

Ji Mingshu didn't know why, but she was furious and didn't want to talk to him at all.

Cen Sen remained oblivious to her sulky mood. He’d originally planned to recharge and engage in some marital activities upon returning home. But after his shower, he found Ji Mingshu already fast asleep. He didn’t mind much, simply mentally rescheduling the marital activities for a later date.

——

The magazine shoot postponed due to the Zhang Baoshu incident had been rescheduled. Zero Degree had replaced the pair with another on-screen couple, but they still needed to borrow the dress.

Finding the dress utterly irritating now, Ji Mingshu would have gladly given it to them. She agreed immediately.

On Thursday morning, she brought Jiang Chun along to Zero Degree, intending to give this Little Earth Goose some exposure to high fashion.

The on-screen couple shooting that day were currently trending idols, rising to fame after starring in an idol drama together. They had many solo fans and many CP fans. With their fanbases constantly at odds, arguing every three days and fighting every five, they’d managed to tear their way into trending status despite having few notable works.

“Move the key light for A-Che a bit closer… yes, right there, perfect.”

Gu Kaiyang stood in the studio, dressed in a stylish little suit, directing with arms crossed. She’d been in her deputy editor role for a while now and was wielding her authority with increasing assurance.

Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun sat in a corner of the photography studio, watching the shoot and chatting in low voices.

Ji Mingshu: “What were you up to last night? I wanted to ask you out to a movie, but your phone was unreachable.”

Jiang Chun: “Unreachable? Maybe bad signal. Tang Zhizhou took me to a movie last night.”

Ji Mingshu turned to look at her. "Tang is still willing to talk to you after the 'Eight Great Masters' and 'Strawberry' incidents?"

Jiang Chun: "What’s that supposed to mean? I may not be the most cultured, but I’m sincere, okay? After you told me, I apologized to him on WeChat. He said it was fine and even called me cute.”

Ji Mingshu looked at her with an expression that said: Is he blind?

After forcing that wave of self-praise, Jiang Chun remembered the slight ambiguity between her and Tang Zhizhou while watching the movie last night. Her ears reddened slightly. Unable to resist, she swatted her goose-like paw at Ji Mingshu and forcibly changed the subject. "You’re one to talk! What exactly happened with Cen Sen and that three-hundred-eighty-tier little green tea? I didn't even see the cause or process—how did we jump straight to the result?"

Ji Mingshu: "I told you, it was just a misunderstanding. I don't even remember that woman's name. What's the use of asking me?"

Asking Ji Mingshu was indeed useless. From start to finish, she'd only clarified that Cen Sen hadn't cheated. The rest, she didn't know and didn't care about.

Gu Kaiyang, however, knew the whole story. After handing over the shoot to the photographer, she gave Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun a brief rundown of the incident’s side story, how Zhang Baoshu had stirred up trouble and her subsequent miserable downfall.

"She was quite a promising young girl. Now? Straight to the freezer. Say, of all people to pick a trouble with, she had to provoke Zhang Qi? That young master holds a grudge like no other."

"And a girl like her—once she’s tasted the spotlight—asking her to leave the industry and find a regular nine-to-five job is impossible. Let's just say her path forward will be very difficult."

Jiang Chun thought of the little white lotus who’d stolen Yan Yu from her and couldn’t muster an ounce of sympathy. She simply commented, “She brought it on herself.” After a slight pause, she asked about something else. "By the way, what about that Shi Qing you mentioned?"

Gu Kaiyang raised an eyebrow and made a slashing motion across her throat.

Jiang Chun: "Fired?"

Gu Kaiyang: "Yeah. Speaking of that, I find it really strange. When you get down to it, that day's incident was a personal grudge between me and her. Shushu said it wasn't her doing, so I had no idea why the group decided to fire her."

Jiang Chun had a sudden brainwave and looked at Ji Mingshu. "Could it be your husband?"

"...?"

"Sis, have you been reading too many novels?"

Ji Mingshu’s incredulous expression silenced Jiang Chun, making her doubt the validity of her own deduction.

As for Ji Mingshu, at Jiang Chun’s words, her first thought was how absurd it sounded. But thinking it over carefully, she felt it wasn’t completely impossible.

During the mid-shoot break, she sent Cen Sen a WeChat.

Ji Mingshu: [The other day at Gu Kaiyang’s magazine, I had an argument with a woman. That woman got fired.]

Ji Mingshu: [Observing secretly.jpg]

She waited distractedly for Cen Sen's reply, but he seemed busy. There was no response for a good while.

During that time, Jiang Chun went to the restroom. Gu Kaiyang stepped out to take a call and returned.

Gu Kaiyang’s expression was somewhat odd when she came back.

Ji Mingshu looked up. Seeing her expression instantly brought back the memory of being notified about the ‘affair’ a few days prior. "What's wrong with you? You have that strange look again.”

Jiang Chun returned just then, wiping her hands as she chimed in, “Are you constipated?”

"No, I just got a notification about a personality feature interview."

"Who? Her husband? Coming to the magazine to show off marital bliss?” Jiang Chun pointed at Ji Mingshu without a second thought, her mind full of novel tropes.

Gu Kaiyang paused. “Her husband’s ex-girlfriend.”

Jiang Chun & Ji Mingshu: "..."

The atmosphere suddenly turned subtly awkward.

To break the awkwardness, Jiang Chun posed another question from the depths of her soul: "But... isn't Zero Degree a men's magazine? Why interview a woman?”

"Aren't we shooting a woman for the cover right now?" Gu Kaiyang gestured behind her, then continued, "I'll try to think of a way. We don't necessarily have to feature Li Wenyin for this topic. But Li Wenyin should be returning to the country in the next couple of days."

She might be able to refuse this particular interviewee, but she certainly couldn't stop someone from flying back to the embrace of the motherland.

At this moment, Ji Mingshu's phone chimed.

Cen Sen: [I did it.]

Ji Mingshu stared at these three short words, pausing for a moment.

Cen Sen: [You're at the magazine?]

Ji Mingshu: [Nodding obediently.jpg]

Cen Sen: [Then I'll pick you up after work.]

Looking at the brief exchange on the screen, Ji Mingshu didn't know why, but she felt a little happy.

The corners of her lips unconsciously quirked up. Then, she straightened up, smoothed her hair, and said to Gu Kaiyang with an air of haughty and aloof elegance, "No need. Go ahead with her interview. I’d like to see what kind of story she can spin."

Jiang Chun silently sipped her milk tea beside them. Having spent so much time with Ji Mingshu, she couldn't help but feel the subtext was: ‘If this little bitch dares to spout nonsense, just see if I don't end her.’

———

Author's Note:

Borderland Poet: Don’t get too excited. I just wanted to have some marital activities. (adjusts glasses)

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