My Queen, My Rules - 20
Dream
She had to admit it. Cen Sen's quiet remark, "I'm not someone who likes dwelling on the past," had done wonders for Ji Mingshu's mood. The irritation she'd felt over the imminent arrival of that invasive species vanished without a trace.
When she climbed into bed that night, she unconsciously drifted toward him again. One arm looped around his neck while her smooth bare legs curled around his waist.
Half asleep, Cen Sen shifted, gathered the restless little octopus clinging to him into his arms, and held her firmly into his embrace.
That night, Ji Mingshu dreamed.
Perhaps the dream took place at sunset or perhaps the dreams itself simply came wrapped in their own honey-colored glow. Every scene seemed soaked in warm amber light, each memory unfolding like translucent frames from a strange, shimmering past.
The first half was filled with long, tedious high school memories that made absolutely no sense. One moment she was secretly shortening her school skirt in the dormitory, the next she was being rushed into an unexpected exam.
Halfway through the test, the grade coordinator burst into the room and announced, "Wrong exam. You're liberal arts students. You don't have to take physics."
Walking out afterward, she was delighted, yet oddly confused. Wasn't she only a first-year student? They hadn't even split into arts and sciences yet. Besides, wasn't the exam she’d just taken geography?
Then, without the slightest warning, Cen Sen appeared in the second half of the dream.
Standing in the hallway outside the examination room, Ji Mingshu spotted him from afar, walking toward her with Li Wenyin.
Tall and lean, he somehow made the blue-and-black school uniform that everyone at Affiliated High loved to complain about look crisp and elegant. As they approached, they briefly met her eyes before he passed by with nothing more than an indifferent glance.
Ji Mingshu stood rooted to the spot, inexplicably annoyed without knowing why.
The scene shifted again, this time to their classroom after school. Honey-colored sunlight streamed through the windows onto the desks, the lingering warmth of dusk filling the room while a gentle breeze stirred the curtains.
The classroom was empty except for Ji Mingshu. She lay sprawled across her desk, wondering what she should have for dinner.
Just then, Cen Sen walked in.
For a senior to suddenly stroll into a freshman classroom, sit beside her, and insist on going over an exam paper with her, it was utterly nonsensical.
Yet dream logic had apparently devoured her brain. She didn't find anything strange about it. After rummaging frantically through her schoolbag, she looked up nervously and said, "My exam paper is gone."
Cen Sen said, "It doesn't matter."
He smiled with impossible gentleness, patted her head, leaned closer... and kissed her.
What happened next took a hard turn into R-18 territory.
Cen Sen lifted her onto the classroom desk. Standing between her legs, he pushed up the shortened hem of her skirt, then removed the last barrier between them.
By the end she was lying flat across the desktop while he remained standing beside it, moving steadily against her.
She covered her eyes with both hands, yet couldn't resist secretly opening the tiniest gap between her fingers to steal a look at him. Clean, restrained, almost ascetic in appearance, yet utterly uninhibited in the moment.
At the peak of passion, he gripped her waist, bent close, and murmured questions so shameful she could barely bear to hear them.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Li Wenyin standing in the classroom doorway. She was nervous, flustered... yet beneath the panic was a secret thrill she couldn't explain. Leaning close to Cen Sen's ear, she whispered sweetly, "I like it."
Then she woke up.
For several long seconds after opening her eyes, her mind was completely blank. Even her fingertips were trembling.
What on earth had that dream been?
Her heart was pounding wildly, and the unfamiliar ache lingering through her body hadn't disappeared with the dream.
Her vision gradually focused, and she finally saw the culprit responsible for both the dream's abrupt change in tone and the sensations coursing through her body that morning.
To be fair, Cen Sen hadn't expected Ji Mingshu to sleep so soundly. He had teased her for a long while without waking her. It wasn't until the very end, upon his release, that she finally stirred.
Fortunately, her body's instincts had been far more honest than her sleeping mind.
Their eyes met.
Seamlessly connecting this to the scene in her dream, Ji Mingshu’s ears turned an uncooperative red, she couldn't quite hold his gaze.
Meanwhile, the real culprit remained perfectly composed. Once the last traces of pleasure faded, he withdrew, looking entirely like a man who had gotten exactly what he wanted.
Even as the sound of running water echoed from the bathroom, Ji Mingshu remained lying beneath the blankets, dazed for a long time.
Why had she dreamed something so unbelievably shameful? And in the dream, it was right in front of Li Wenyin of all people!
And another thing. This dog man had already tormented her three times the night before. Why couldn't he behave himself first thing in the morning?
She'd been sound asleep! How was that any different from necrophilia?
Wait. No. She wasn't a corpse!
While Ji Mingshu was spiraling through those ridiculous thoughts, Cen Sen had already showered and stepped out of the bathroom. Succumbing to temptation this morning had cost him quite a bit of time; his phone had been ringing nonstop since eight o'clock.
Still talking on the phone, he adjusted his shirt collar with one hand. His tie, however, required both. Glancing at Ji Mingshu, he walked over and handed it to her.
She had no idea what possessed her. Wrapped in nothing but the quilt, she sat up and obediently took the tie to knot it for him.
"...Hexie will give in sooner or later. Their funding gap is simply too large. Besides Junyi, they have no better option. You don't need to worry about that."
Perhaps due to the vigorous early-morning activity, his voice was lower than usual, roughened by sleep and carrying an unmistakable note of satisfied ease.
Ji Mingshu kept reminding herself that married couples had normal sex lives all the time and she shouldn't act like some lovestruck fool.
Unfortunately, her traitorous brain kept replaying the shameful scenes from her dream, making her blush harder with every passing second.
By the time Cen Sen finished his phone call, she still hadn't managed to tie a proper Windsor knot.
He looked at her for a long moment, then quietly taking the tie back from her hands.
"I'll do it myself."
Ji Mingshu didn't even dare look him in the eye. Hugging the blanket tightly around herself, she sat stiffly on the bed, finally forcing herself to sound indignant. "Y-you should've tied it yourself in the first place! What's wrong with your brain? Couldn't you have just put the call on speaker? Why did you have to make me do it?"
The instant the words ‘make me do it’ left her mouth, she realized how easily they could be misunderstood. Before her face could grow any hotter, she flopped back down and yanked the quilt over her head.
A quiet chuckle drifted from outside the blanket.
She remained motionless, committed to playing dead until Cen Sen left.
At half past eight, Zhou Jiaheng and the driver finally saw Cen Sen emerge.
It was strange. In Zhou Jiaheng's memory, Cen Sen's self-discipline bordered on terrifying. Being late was something that simply shouldn't happen to a boss like him.
Naturally, he didn't dare ask.
Instead, he silently assumed the married couple must have had some sort of domestic dispute.
That morning's agenda was the regular executive meeting, where managers from each division presented their routine reports.
Among all the cities where Junyi operated hotels, the largest concentration was in the capital and Xingcheng. Cen Sen had yet to inspect the Xingcheng properties, there were twenty-three hotels there across four different Junyi brands, a visit would require at least a week's stay.
As luck would have it, the meeting also uncovered a messy internal dispute involving senior management at the Xingcheng branch.
Once the meeting ended, Cen Sen immediately instructed Zhou Jiaheng to adjust his upcoming schedule.
Zhou Jiaheng reminded him that tonight's appointment with Director Chen would be difficult to postpone.
"Then we'll leave as soon as it's over," Cen Sen replied.
Back in his office, after finishing the documents piled on his desk, he leaned against his chair and closed his eyes for a brief rest.
For no reason at all, Ji Mingshu's image suddenly surfaced in his mind again. Beneath him, softly moaning, sweet enough to intoxicate and tempting enough to drive anyone mad.
His Adam's apple bobbed. He sat upright again and took a sip of black coffee.
He and Ji Mingshu had actually known each other for many years. Yet upon reflection, they barely understood one another.
For instance, her staunch insistence on ‘divorce in case of infidelity’ had completely caught him off guard.
Even more unexpected was his own reaction.
The very word divorce stirred an inexplicable resistance inside him, as though it represented something slipping beyond his control.
The thought almost made him laugh.
The Ji family held little use for him now. If anything, this marriage benefited the Ji family far more than it did him.
How dare Ji Mingshu constantly threaten divorce? The Ji family family themselves would be the first to object.
He opened another file, skimmed barely two lines, then suddenly reached for his phone instead and sent Ji Mingshu a WeChat message.
When Ji Mingshu received the message, she was checking in at a trendy dessert café with Jiang Chun and Gu Kaiyang.
Their table was covered with beautifully plated desserts, and they had taken countless photos.
None of them, however, was actually eating.
Instead, they only sipped bland tea.
Ji Mingshu and Gu Kaiyang both had strict standards for their figures. Finishing an entire plate of braised pork ribs the night before had filled Ji Mingshu with tremendous guilt. Even though she'd had bedroom exercised from night until morning, the scale still informed her she'd gained a solid 0.3 kilograms.
Fat, after all, was a lie detector no amount of money could ever bribe. Ruthless and brutally honest.
Jiang Chun, on the other hand, genuinely wanted dessert.
Unfortunately, the moment she reached out with her little goose claw, Ji Mingshu launched into a lecture beside her ear.
"Eat, eat, eat. Is that all you ever think about? Do you seriously think you've already slimmed down into Zhao Feiyan? Staying in shape is a lifelong mission for women. Yan Yu and that little white lotus are still watching. At this rate, how are you supposed to make Yan Yu regret everything and send the two of them off to eat dirt together?"
(1: A famous Chinese empress during the Han Dynasty, a symbol of slender beauty.)
"And don't think you can slack off just because things are finally going somewhere with Tang Zhizhou. Today he's wearing rose-colored glasses and thinks your chubby cheeks are adorable. Tomorrow he could turn around and call you an uncultured little fatty!"
Jiang Chun: "..."
Damn, who could still have an appetite after that?
Having successfully stopped Jiang Chun from indulging, Ji Mingshu turned back to discussing the program invitation with Gu Kaiyang.
Her socialite pride was simply too strong, she couldn't make up her mind.
Gu Kaiyang, however, thought it sounded like an interesting experience. She had always been independent and believed women should build careers of their own.
"Joining the show is an experience first and foremost," Gu Kaiyang said. "But it can also help your career. Xingcheng TV has pretty good influence. If you appear as an interior designer, you'll probably get a lot more design commissions afterward. Your husband is generous, and he has more money than anyone could spend, but isn’t money you earn yourself more satisfying to spend?"
"Not really." Resting her chin in one hand, Ji Mingshu answered matter-of-factly, "Personally, I think spending someone else's money feels even better."
"..."
The more Gu Kaiyang thought about it, Ji Mingshu wasn’t exactly wrong.
Just then, Ji Mingshu received another WeChat message from Cen Sen.
Cen Sen: [I'm going to Xingcheng tonight. I'll probably be there for a month or two.]
He was going to Xingcheng?
Ji Mingshu suddenly remembered the show's filming schedule was also about a month.
Another message appeared.
Cen Sen: [Call if you need anything.]
The night before, she had wanted to ask him if he had any opinions about her joining the program.
Unfortunately, they'd gotten thoroughly distracted in bed, and the matter had flown completely out of her mind.
Now she diligently followed his advice to call if you need anything. The second his message arrived, before he'd even put down his phone, she called.
After exchanging a few casual remarks, Cen Sen suddenly asked her to wait.
About half a minute later, his voice returned.
Ji Mingshu got straight to the point. "So... Xingcheng TV invited me to join one of their programs. It's an interior design competition where designers are paired with celebrities to complete design projects together. What do you think?"
Cen Sen looked at the participant list Zhou Jiaheng had delivered only moments earlier.
His eyes settled on one line Zhou Jiaheng had specifically highlighted.
Group Three: Li Che, Ji Mingshu (Tentative)
Note: Li Che plans to end his promotional pairing with Meng Xiaowei. The production team can match him with the civilian participant as a new CP pairing. The civilian participant has exceptional visuals and should receive priority filming.
He flipped through Li Che's profile before answering flatly, "I don't think it's a good idea."
Ji Mingshu: "..."
"You'd probably be better suited for a show like Swap Lives."
(A popular Chinese reality show where, typically, a troubled urban teenager and a rural teenager swap lives for a period.)
Ji Mingshu: "...?"
---
Comments
Post a Comment