My Queen, My Rules - 42
Greedy
The muffled lovemaking from upstairs finally came to an end at three in the morning.
Gu Kaiyang had long since drifted into dreamland. On the other side of the bed, Ji Mingshu lay curled beneath a small blanket, eyes closed, yet sleep never came.
At six sharp, the alarm rang.
Gu Kaiyang sat up with a yawn, grabbed her phone, and ordered breakfast delivery.
Today was the magazine's monthly final proofing day. She had to be at the office early, so no matter how exhausted she was, she still had to get up, wash up, and put on her makeup.
Once she was ready, Gu Kaiyang glanced upstairs just in time to see Ji Mingshu slowly sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard.
As she wiped away the excess lipstick, she asked, "Why are you awake so early? Did my alarm wake you?"
"No."
Because she had never fallen asleep in the first place.
Gu Kaiyang didn't press further. Checking the time, she hurriedly reminded her, "I bought breakfast. Soy milk, youtiao, soup dumplings, they're all on the dining table. If they've gone cold, just microwave them for thirty seconds. I left the keycard there too. Don't forget to eat, okay? Alright, I really have to get to work now.”
“Mm, go ahead.”
Ji Mingshu answered softly, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin atop them. Her heart pounding rapidly from the sleepless night.
Hearing the front door slam shut, she still didn't move. She simply closed her eyes in silence.
Two days had passed since everything happened. Compared to the emotional storm at the beginning, her heart had finally settled.
Yet within that calm came something she had never experienced before: She had no idea what her future would look like.
Truthfully, she had already asked herself this question back when she mistakenly believed Cen Sen was having an affair with Zhang Baoshu.
If they divorced... how would she live?
Later, when she was debating whether to join the reality show, she had genuinely considered Gu Kaiyang's advice about building a career. But after more than twenty carefree years, she simply didn't have it in her to prepare for danger while life was comfortable, or to plan ten steps ahead for every move.
Even now, she could still joke with Gu Kaiyang and refuse to face two uncomfortable truths. That this marriage might not end after all. And that without Cen Sen, she was truly useless. But during the countless hours she lay awake at night, she had thought about many things.
She wondered whether Cen Sen would apologize and come take her home.
She wondered if, now that she finally understood her own feelings, she could still accept returning to their old plastic marriage, content to spend the rest of her life without ever earning his love or his respect.
Most of all, she wondered whether the root of everything was simply that she wasn't good enough.
From the summer solstice to the winter solstice, daylight grew shorter with every passing day. By late autumn and early winter, morning didn't truly brighten until half past seven.
Outside, the city awoke to another day of bustling traffic. Gu Kaiyang's little Beetle had already disappeared into the morning rush. Ji Mingshu slowly rolled onto her side, curled herself into a ball, and finally drifted into an uneasy sleep.
She didn't wake until two in the afternoon. By then, the sun outside was blazing.
Heading downstairs, she casually unlocked her phone and glanced at her account history. Yesterday, she'd bought a few skincare products and household items on impulse.
The total had somehow come to nearly a hundred thousand.
She scrolled through the messages from the producer of Designer’s Abode. She hadn’t noticed before, but her payment for participating in the show had long been settled.
The problem was, back then she'd considered the amount too insignificant to care about. The bank card she'd casually provided wasn't with her now, wasn't linked to her phone, and who knew which forgotten corner it had ended up in.
Which meant, the one hundred thousand Jiang Chun had given her was all she had left.
She sat quietly for a while, then picked up the keycard, changed her shoes, and went out.
Gu Kaiyang's magazine office wasn't far from Xinggang International. Ji Mingshu stopped by a nearby Hong Kong-style café to pick up some afternoon tea and made her way to Zero Degrees magazine.
It was final proofing day, and everyone in the office was swamped. Staff hurried back and forth, completely consumed by deadlines, too occupied to pay her any attention.
Spotting a familiar assistant, she pulled her aside to ask, “Where’s your deputy editor?”
The assistant knew Ji Mingshu was Gu Kaiyang's best friend. Pushing up her glasses awkwardly, she answered, "Gu-jie... she's in the editor-in-chief's office right now."
After a tiny pause, she lowered her voice until it was barely audible. "I think... she's being scolded."
Ji Mingshu: "Why?"
The assistant answered carefully. "She took emergency leave yesterday, and the work handover wasn't finished properly. A small mistake happened, but today, during final proofing, it turned into a huge problem. The entire layout had to be redone in a rush, so..."
Ji Mingshu froze.
The assistant added, "Miss Ji, if you're looking for Gu-jie, why don’t you wait in her office?”
"No." Ji Mingshu suddenly stuffed the boxed pastries into the assistant's arms. "You guys can have them. Don't tell anyone I brought them, and don't tell your deputy editor I was here."
"Huh?"
The assistant stood there in bewilderment, staring after Ji Mingshu as she walked away without another word.
In the capital, late autumn and early winter meant late sunrises but early sunsets. By six in the evening, the last traces of daylight had already vanished.
On the drive from the riding club to the private club, Zhou Jiaheng reported the latest progress on the follow-up work in Xingcheng.
Leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed, Cen Sen listened in silence.
After finishing his report, Zhou Jiaheng paused briefly, his tone unchanged as he shifted topics, “Today, Madam left the apartment at two-thirty this afternoon. She picked up some pastries from a café, arrived at Zero Degrees magazine at three, and left at ten past three. Afterward, she walked along Huainan Third Road to the Lucende Supermarket at the intersection of Huainan Second Road and Dongjing Street, where she bought a bag of groceries. She returned to Xinggang International at four-thirty and hasn't gone out since."
Cen Sen remained silent, only adjusted the position of his loosely clasped hands.
The Bentley continued toward Heyong Club.
Jiang Che was back in the capital today to meet with a professor leading a semiconductor research team. Since they were meeting nearby anyway, the two had arranged to see each other there.
Fresh from the bliss of a new romance, Jiang Che had become just a little too fond of giving relationship advice.
Watching Cen Sen order a bottle of whisky, even though he rarely drank outside business occasions, Jiang Che suddenly said, "Have you noticed you have a problem?”
Cen Sen lifted his eyes slightly.
One arm draped lazily across the back of the sofa, Jiang Che tilted his head, looking lazily irreverent.
The ember at the tip of his cigarette glowed faintly through the curling smoke, making his already husky voice sound even lazier. "You're terrible at dealing with anything involving feelings. You don't know how to face the An family, and you don't know what to do with your wife."
Cen Sen lowered his gaze again. He normally never touched cigarettes, but today he accepted Jiang Che's lighter, lit one, and held it loosely between his fingers, silently watching the ember burn.
"Do you remember when you first came to Nanqiao Hutong as a kid? Ji Mingshu really liked you back then. She brought snacks every single day just to play with you."
"Did she?"
All he remembered was that Ji Mingshu had been a particularly spoiled little princess, and ridiculously childish. He even vaguely recalled her gathering a group of children to ostracize him.
"Of course she did. Shu Yang used to tease her every day for chasing after someone who wouldn't give her the time of day. He even joked she'd already forgotten Cen Yang completely. Said she had no loyalty."
At the mention of Cen Yang, something stirred in Cen Sen's memory.
Shu Yang and Cen Yang shared the same pronunciation in one character of their names and had always been close. Because of that, Shu Yang hadn't liked Cen Sen at first. The group only became friends much later.
Jiang Che flicked ash into the tray. "Let me be objective here, I actually kind of admire Ji Mingshu's personality. She's straightforward, simple…"
Cen Sen shot him a look.
“I don’t mean anything else. I'm just saying that girls like your wife respond better when you're direct. That whole mess with Li Wenyin never should've blown up into such a circus. A big part of that is your own fault."
Among their circle, neither Shu Yang nor Zhao Yang understood Cen Sen as well as Jiang Che did.
He had witnessed every step of Cen Sen's relationship with Li Wenyin back then.
If anyone claimed Cen Sen would disregard the ties between the Cen and Ji families, divorce Ji Mingshu, and marry Li Wenyin instead. Jiang Che would be the first to laugh.
For one thing, Cen Sen had never been ruled by romance.
For another, Li Wenyin simply wasn't capable of making him do something like that.
A thought suddenly occurred to him, he added with a teasing grin, "Here's something I probably shouldn't say. Do you realize the way you've been acting lately? Rushing back moment something happened to Ji Mingshu, drinking and smoking to drown your sorrows over it… That's exactly what I do whenever Zhou You and I have a fight."
Cen Sen paused. He stubbed the cigarette into the ashtray to extinguishing it and said flatly, "If you know you shouldn't say it, then keep your mouth shut."
Jiang Che chuckled.
Naturally, they hadn't met just to chat. Jiang Che wasn’t a busybody who loved meddling in others’ love lives. After only a few more remarks, the conversation returned to business and their joint project.
By nine o'clock, the glittering night had settled over the city.
While Cen Sen and Jiang Che quietly discussed work inside a private room at Heyong Club, Gu Kaiyang finally finished working overtime and hurried back to Xinggang International.
She had been worrying all day that Ji Mingshu hadn't eaten properly.
The moment she stepped inside, she found Ji Mingshu crouching in front of the coffee table, one finger bleeding as she rummaged through the first-aid kit.
“Ji Mingshu, what did you do? What happened to your hand?!” Gu Kaiyang rushed over without even changing her shoes, staring anxiously at the bead of blood forming on her fingertip. "Does it hurt?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course it hurts!" Ji Mingshu scrunched up her face pitifully. Seeing Gu Kaiyang carefully putting a bandage on her finger, she forced herself to sound nonchalant. "But it's fine. Just a little cut. It'll stop hurting soon."
Gu Kaiyang finally relaxed a little. "What were you doing? What did you touch? Are you trying to scare me to death?!"
"I was just thinking you've been working so hard, so I wanted to cook you a few dishes."
"...What?" Gu Kaiyang stared at her as though she'd misheard. "You? Cooking?"
She turned toward the kitchen. Sure enough, someone had clearly used the pots and pans. "Then where's the food?"
"You're so annoying."
Ji Mingshu swatted her hand away in mock annoyance, stood up on her own, and flopped onto the sofa. "I just lack practical experience. I'm still exploring the long road of socialist construction."
The failed meal wasn't what shocked Gu Kaiyang.
What truly stunned her was the fact that Ji Mingshu, a pampered young lady who had never once set foot in a kitchen, had actually wanted to cook.
Determined to bury that embarrassing chapter of her life forever, Ji Mingshu suddenly sat up straight and spoke with serious solemnity. "Yangyang, I really thought things through today. You were right. I can't keep relying other people forever. Jiang Chun heard some insider gossip today. Apparently Junyi pulled its investment from Li Wenyin's movie a couple of days ago."
Gu Kaiyang blinked, struggling to keep up. "Isn't... isn't that a good thing? I told you there had to be some misunderstanding between you and Cen Sen. Wait. Then why are you suddenly talking about not relying on other people?"
"It doesn't matter whether he withdrew because it was simply business procedure or because he never knew what the movie was about. The fact is, from the beginning, he never considered my feelings. He didn't respect me."
"He doesn't respect me because, in his eyes, I'm just a canary he keeps in his gilded cage. Why would he need to respect something he raises? When you get to the root of it, it's my own fault. I wanted his money, and I wanted his respect too. I was asking for too much. And my second uncle and my family... aren't they so confident because they believe I can't survive without Cen Sen?"
Gu Kaiyang stared at her solemn face in complete disbelief. "What is this? Are you transforming into Niuhulu Shushu?”
"Can you be serious? I'm talking about something important. Isn't everyone out there working hard to make a living? Cen Sen may be... difficult in many ways, but I do admire his work ethic. His assistant once told me that he only slept three hours a night for half a month while negotiating an acquisition. And you. You work this hard every day, and because of me you even got scolded by the editor-in-chief. I should also..."
Gu Kaiyang: "Hold on. How did you know I got scolded?"
Ji Mingshu froze.
Recovering almost instantly, she pointed a finger accusingly at Gu Kaiyang instead. "What's wrong with you? You interrupted my train of thought. Now I've forgotten what I was going to say."
She glanced at the time. “It’s almost ten. Why aren't you in bed yet? Gu Kaiyang, don't you have work tomorrow?"
Thinking back to the box of pastries the assistant had unexpectedly delivered that afternoon, Gu Kaiyang suddenly understood.
That night, both of them went to bed unusually early.
Lying there with her eyes closed, Ji Mingshu thought about what she'd overheard at the magazine office that afternoon.
She thought about the street vendors she'd passed on her lonely walk home.
Quietly, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself.
Everyone in this world worked hard to build their own lives. Why couldn't Ji Mingshu do the same?
She had to admit, when Jiang Chun's message arrived earlier that day, she'd secretly felt just a tiny spark of happiness.
But if she went back now without any dignity, Cen Sen would never respect her for the rest of his life.
She was so greedy.
She didn't just want his money anymore.
She wanted his respect.
She wanted him to love her.
She wanted his heart.
While Ji Mingshu and Gu Kaiyang were already asleep, the capital's nightlife was only just beginning.
Cen Sen was normally a restrained man. Aside from business entertainment, he rarely went out for fun and almost never stepped into nightclubs.
But Jiang Che was in town today, and Shu Yang kept calling the two of them, insisting they come to a pub. He claimed he owed them drinks as an apology.
In the end, they went.
It happened to be the very same pub where Ji Mingshu had once stood up for Jiang Chun.
Thanks to the publicity from Zhang Lin’s birthday party, it had quickly become the hottest nightlife spot in the capital, attracting the city's biggest party crowd. Most of the regulars there were familiar faces.
When Cen Sen and Jiang Che arrived, the night scene was at its peak. Men and women swayed on the dance floor beneath flashing multicolored lights.
As they walked past the VIP booths through the pounding music and constant chatter, Cen Sen suddenly heard someone nearby mention Ji Mingshu.
He turned toward the voice.
"She's nothing but some pampered little ornament. I seriously don't know what she's always so arrogant about. She even wants to divorce her husband? That's hilarious. If she actually gets divorced, I'll write my name backwards!"
"Writing your name backwards? That's nothing. If she divorces him, I'll even take her surname. Hahaha."
"Honestly, can you blame her? Her husband invested in his first love's movie. Damn, I've never seen someone slap his own wife in the face so creatively. Her husband is really something else.”
"I heard that movie's supposed to commemorate their relationship too. If Ji Mingshu could put up with that, I'd be shocked. Have you seen how high and mighty she usually acts?"
"But seriously, Ji Mingshu is gorgeous. If she really gets divorced... I'd love to have a turn with that princess and see what she's really..."
Before the filthy-mouthed man could finish his sentence, a flash of white exploded before his eyes.
Something warm began trickling slowly down the side of his forehead.
"Ahhh!"
The women in the booth screamed, scrambling to their feet as shards of broken glass scattered across the floor.
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