My Queen, My Rules - 72
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Ji Mingshu had never forgotten the time she wanted to participate in Junyi's designer hotel project, only for Cen Sen to sarcastically remark she might as well kowtow her way to the Potala Palace then maybe she could move heaven and earth. Now that she had gotten her revenge, naturally, she was in an excellent mood.
After the stromy passion stopped sometime deep into the night, she lay lazily curled in Cen Sen's arms, idly playing with his eyelashes. Still half asleep, she thought hazily: He really is a dog of a man. His mouth says he's letting me participate because my design skills have improved, but his body certainly tells a different story. He has to be at the company for an eight o'clock meeting tomorrow morning, yet he still had the energy to keep me up until three...
Before she could ponder any further, she drifted into a deep, drowsy sleep.
At Junyi's first senior management meeting after the New Year, Cen Sen showed up on time in a perfectly tailored suit. Once the meeting ended, he led a large contingent of senior executives floor by floor to conduct an inspection of the various departments.
As usual, Cen Sen wore a gentle yet distant expression. Wherever he went, an invisible ten-meter radius seemed to spread around him, within which nobody dared make a single misstep.
Everyone stood properly and listened to the boss speak, though perhaps only a third were actually paying attention. Another third were preoccupied with their own work or personal affairs, and the final third, the moment they saw Cen Sen, instinctively remembered all the gossip surrounding the president and his wife lately.
Everyone online said their president was completely henpecked. But looking at him now, with that expression that practically screamed, ‘Every single one of your ancestors for eighteen generations owes me eighteen billion,’ it was impossible to imagine what he looked like when his wife had him so thoroughly under control that he barely dared say a word.
The colleagues in the Project Department, however, had been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse.
At the end of the inspection, Zhou Jiaheng deliberately lingered behind and told the person in charge of Group A of the Junyi Yaji project not to finalize the designer list just yet. There was supposedly another designer's profile that needed to be added. When the person in charge asked for the materials, Zhou Jiaheng said they had not been prepared yet, but the name was confirmed.
—Ji Mingshu.
After Zhou Jiaheng left, the person in charge turned to the project team. "Who's Ji Mingshu? Have any of you heard of her?"
The team collectively gave him a look that said: Boss, do you never go online? Do you not even read the company group chat?
It took a good while before someone finally enlightened him.
"Of course we've heard of her..."
"She's the president's wife..."
While Cen Sen was busy at work, Ji Mingshu was taking her New Year's resolutions very seriously. The list was hardly all about work. It included throwing parties, traveling, attending haute couture weeks, and entering full-on couple mode with Cen Sen so they could start going on dates, among all sorts of other plans.
After reading it, Jiang Chun offered her a sincere suggestion. "I think your plan is missing one very important point.”
"What?"
"Having a baby."
Jiang Chun said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, even launching into the same spiel her second uncle had been pushing.
Ji Mingshu found this very odd. "Why are you suddenly thinking about this?” Normally, the little goose could barely get through three sentences without talking about how delicious this was or how delicious that was. Yet after the New Year, she had somehow skipped straight past the ‘virtuous-wife’ stage and entered the ‘nurturing mother’ stage.
Jiang Chun gave her a mysterious, bashful little smile that was nevertheless tinged with unmistakable smugness, then raised her little goose claw and waved it enthusiastically in front of Ji Mingshu.
Ji Mingshu had far too many diamond rings. She usually picked one at random to wear simply for fun, and most of them carried no particular significance. If Jiang Chun had not made the implication quite so obvious, she genuinely would not have understood. After her brain froze for three seconds, she asked, "You and Tang Zhizhou… jumped the gun and are now getting hitched?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Tang Zhizhou and I are still perfectly pure, okay? It's an engagement ring!" Jiang Chun slapped her irritably.
"..." Ji Mingshu suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "It's just one engagement ring. You haven't even had your engagement ceremony yet. You're already thinking about having a baby? Could you have a little more ambition?"
Jiang Chun gave a strained smile. "To be completely honest, I was already thinking about having a baby before I even got engaged."
Ji Mingshu didn't know what she'd done to deserve this. Even having afternoon tea with a close friend, she'd somehow ended up being force-fed a whole philosophy about how people should hurry up and bear the fruit of their love with the person they loved. If Jiang Chun had not stopped short of mentioning a second child, Ji Mingshu might even have suspected that her second uncle had extended his ideological campaign into her inner circle and was preparing to brainwash her through a full-scale best-friend encirclement strategy.
It wasn't that Ji Mingshu was opposed to having children. She simply felt that she and Cen Sen had only recently confirmed their feelings for each other and had barely had the chance to enjoy being alone together. Jumping straight to the final stage would be such a waste. She still wanted to make up for all those missed years of puppy love and properly experience what it was like to date Cen Sen.
But then she remembered how busy Cen Sen was, and her mood sank again. The WeChat message she'd sent when she left the house still hadn't received a reply. So much for dating!
If this were their student days, a boyfriend like this would have been dumped by a girl three thousand nine hundred and eighty-six times over!
Whether Cen Sen had somehow sensed the resentment brewing in her heart or what, he replied not long afterward.
Cen Sen: [I'm going to Xingcheng on a business trip tomorrow.]
This message would have been better left unanswered, tvt!
Cen Sen: [Do you want to come with me?]
He had actually typed another sentence after that: [If you come, I can take you to have a look at the designer hotel Whistler opened in Xingcheng.]
But before he could send it, Ji Mingshu replied with a single "Okay," followed by an exclamation mark brimming with excitement.
Cen Sen half-covered his lips and suddenly laughed softly.
This time, Cen Sen wasn't traveling to Xingcheng alone. He was bringing five or six senior executives with him, along with the assistants following behind. Altogether, the group numbered more than ten people.
Standing beside Cen Sen in her sunglasses, Ji Mingshu felt a little thrill. This was her first time traveling with him and the group's senior executives in her capacity as the president's wife.
Of course, none of this excitement showed on her face. Throughout the entire journey, she maintained the exact same poker face as her husband. Paired with her matte velvet red lipstick, her impeccably draped camel trench coat, and tall boots with impossibly slender heels, she looked devastatingly sharp. From head to toe, she radiated the aura of a corporate ice queen who could walk straight into a negotiation room at any moment.
The newly replaced executives in Xingcheng, unaware of the situation, initially thought the CEO had simply changed his chief assistant when they came out to greet them.
Of course, Ji Mingshu only managed to keep up that imposing act until they reached the hotel where they were staying.
That evening, while they were dining at the revolving restaurant on the top floor, she asked him with barely contained excitement, "So? So? Don't you think I looked exactly like some kind of powerful businesswoman today?"
Cen Sen undid one button at his collar, hummed in agreement, and then exchanged his neatly cut steak for hers.
Resting her chin in her hand, Ji Mingshu was still savoring the feeling. "You know, I've suddenly realized that being the big boss isn't so bad. You get to sit there and command the whole battlefield, make decisions from above, stay mysterious and inscrutable... Mm."
She leaned back slightly, frowning in displeasure, and looked down at the dessert Cen Sen had just slipped into her mouth.
Cen Sen said nothing and didn't so much as change his expression, but Ji Mingshu was perceptive enough to guess exactly what was going through his mind: If you want to eat well, drink well, and live a good life for the rest of your life, you'd better leave the company alone.
Before she could stubbornly launch into another grand declaration, Cen Sen brought up the news that the program Designer’s Abode would resume airing.
He had already gotten Ji Mingshu's approval for it.
The production team had spent the past few days alternating between tearful apologies and desperate pleas, but that was of no concern to her. Her main consideration was for the other designers.
Only two episodes had aired so far, both featuring the group she had been in. If the remaining episodes couldn't be broadcast, it would be unfair to the other participating celebrities and non-celebrity designers.
This was especially true of the professional designers. During filming, she had spoken with several of them, and many had design philosophies that were no worse than those of top interior designers overseas. What they lacked was simply an opportunities to show their talent.
A program like this, regardless of how well it performed in the ratings, at least gave them a platform to showcase themselves and let people in the industry see what they were capable of.
Besides, her two episodes had already been re-edited. Yan Yuexing had disappeared completely, and the production team had learned its lesson the hard way. Continuing to air the show would have no impact on her anymore.
But when Cen Sen brought up the program, an idea occurred to her. "When will you have some free time? I'd like to follow up with the homeowners from my previous renovation project."
She didn't actually have much experience designing hotel guest rooms like those for Junyi Yaji. But there were plenty of similarities between the home design she had previously done for that family and hotel-room design. She wanted to go back and see how the homeowners actually felt about living in the space and what kind of feedback they would have.
Cen Sen glanced at the schedule on his phone. "Tomorrow, I won't finish until seven in the evening. The day after, it'll be eight."
"Going for a follow-up at night? That doesn't seem very appropriate."
Ji Mingshu thought for a moment. "How about this? I'll go by myself tomorrow afternoon, and once you're finished, you can come pick me up. How does that sound?"
Cen Sen: "Can you manage on your own?"
"Why couldn't I? Just have someone drive me there. Do you think I can't function on my own?"
Cen Sen fell silent as he cut his steak.
The path of his knife and fork said it all: Yes. Exactly. You are a decorative little vase who is incapable of walking anywhere without assistance.
Ji Mingshu couldn't resist kicking him under the table again. Only then did he reluctantly nod in agreement.
The following afternoon, Ji Mingshu deliberately dressed simply in a beige turtleneck sweater paired with slim-cut jeans. When they passed a fruit shop, she even had the driver stop so she could buy a fruit basket.
After arriving at the residential complex, she carried the fruit basket and followed her memory to the old school-district apartment where she had once spent more than a month.
As she knocked on the door, she couldn't help congratulating herself internally on what an excellent memory she had.
She heard footsteps slowly approaching from inside, but after waiting a while without anyone opening the door, Ji Mingshu politely asked, "Excuse me, are Mr. Wang and Miss Li home?"
At last, a slightly childish male voice came from inside. "My uncle and aunt aren't here."
"You're Mr. Wang and Miss Li's nephew, right?"
"Yes. Who are you?" The boy had clearly seen through the peephole that she was pretty, which was probably why he was willing to talk to her a little longer.
Ji Mingshu patiently said, "Hello, little one. I'm the designer who worked on the renovation of your uncle and aunt's home before. I came today just to check in and have a look. I'll leave as soon as I'm done. If you're afraid to open the door, you can call your uncle and aunt first."
The boy hesitated inside for a while, then opened the inner door, but he still didn't unlock the metal security door.
"You can just look from there. There are no adults at home, so I'm still not going to open the door for you."
"Which time was yours? My uncle and aunt just had someone renovate the whole place again before the New Year. I heard our home was even featured on a show before. My uncle and aunt complain about it every day. They say the whole program was a scam, that it was full of frauds who made the house impossible to live in. Other than the appliances they gave us, everything was just stuff that looked nice sitting there."
Standing outside the door, Ji Mingshu stared through the gaps in the security gate at the living room inside, which had been stripped of anything resembling a designed space, and her mind went completely blank.
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