My Queen, My Rules - 76

With that one "baby" from Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu was finally satisfied. Like she'd drunk honey, she nestled obediently in his arms and stopped causing trouble, though the corners of her upturned mouth simply wouldn't stay down.

That night, Xingcheng experienced no more aftershocks. The two slept peacefully.

Early the next morning, Cen Sen held a three-way video conference with headquarters and the hotel managers in Xingcheng to gain a close understanding of the measures each hotel had taken in response to the earthquake.

Junyi's hotels were all high-end, built from the start to meet very high anti-seismic standards.

Moreover, the hotel management was well prepared, conducting quarterly training drills for fires and earthquakes. The staff were very well-trained.

After last night's earthquake, tasks like self-inspections of the hotel's structure, guest evacuation, and reassurance had been carried out in an orderly manner from the very first moment.

Learning this, the headquarters executives were considerably reassured. Cen Sen also did not stay in Xingcheng any longer.

People in the capital had been worried sick, urging them to return as soon as possible. He adjusted his work schedule and took Ji Mingshu back to the capital that same afternoon.

On the return journey, Ji Mingshu spent the whole time replying to the WeChat friends who had sent concerned messages the day before, letting them know she was safe.

Seeing her not look up for over half an hour, Cen Sen glanced over.

As luck would have it, this glance landed on a familiar contact name: Li Che.

Li Che: [Mingshu, are you okay? I saw your Moments post a couple of days ago, and it seemed like you were in Xingcheng?]

Ji Mingshu: [I'm fine, thanks for your concern.] She added the wide-eyed, innocent-looking emoji.

Cen Sen: "Are you and Li Che close?"

Ji Mingshu didn't even look up. "Not really."

Cen Sen pondered for a moment. "If you're not close, you shouldn't reply with that emoji. Replying with the first one is more appropriate."

"The first one? The smile?" Ji Mingshu looked up, slightly surprised. "You don't know what the 'smile' emoji means?"

Cen Sen's gaze was calm, as if saying: A smile means a smile—what else could it mean?

Ji Mingshu paused. "You don't usually use WeChat for work, right?”

"I don't need to. I basically only chat with you on WeChat."

"That's good then." Relieved, she lowered her head to continue replying.

Cen Sen adjusted his tie, glancing at her phone screen from the corner of his eye while pretending to look at his tablet.

In that short time, she and Li Che had exchanged another three or four messages.

He unconsciously deepened his voice and said, "Mingshu, you're married. You should maintain a distance from the opposite sex, especially male celebrities. Don't leave room for imagination and cause unnecessary misunderstandings."

"...?"

What room for imagination? What misunderstandings? Wasn't it just basic human decency for someone to check in after seeing earthquake news?

A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she leaned in with keen interest. "Are you... jealous?"

Cen Sen: "I'm just giving you well-meaning advice, lest you become too familiar with male celebrities, end up trending on Weibo again, and get cyberbullied."

"I see..."

Ji Mingshu deliberately drew out her tone, nodding slowly.

Just then, a new message from Li Che came in.

Quick as lightning, Ji Mingshu covered her phone slightly against her abdomen, then deliberately turned to the side, not giving Cen Sen any chance to peek.

Cen Sen: "…"

Who knows what the message was. Ji Mingshu held up her phone, typing non-stop, a smile playing on her lips.

Cen Sen watched her for a while, but still couldn't resist. Expressionlessly, he plucked the phone from her hand.

Li Che's message read: [That's a relief. You should get some good rest once you're home.]

And Ji Mingshu hadn't replied yet. The message was still in the input box: [You! Are! Jealous!]

Cen Sen stared at the screen.

Ji Mingshu tilted her head triumphantly, flashing him a victory "V" sign.

He lowered his eyes calmly, deleted the message in the input box, and typed a new one—

[Thank you for your concern for my wife. I will take good care of her.]

Send.

Ji Mingshu never expected him to pull such a stunt. She quickly grabbed the phone back to recall the message. "Are you crazy? He'll think we're both lunatics!"

She recalled it a bit late because Li Che had been waiting for her reply. Suddenly seeing this message, Li Che felt inexplicably guilty.

Actually, he had been somewhat interested in Ji Mingshu before. But after learning she was married—and to someone not to be trifled with—he had abandoned any thought of pursuing her. Instead, he thought about befriending Ji Mingshu to get somewhat connected to Cen Sen. But it seemed his efforts had backfired.

He rubbed his forehead, starting to think about damage control.

Whether Li Che did damage control or not, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen didn't care much. After sending that message, the two delved into an in-depth study of the topic of maintaining distance from the opposite sex.

This study continued for a long time, even after they returned to the capital.

Ji Mingshu gradually discovered that Cen Sen's possessiveness was also quite… intense. Although he claimed he wasn't stopping her from contacting members of the opposite sex as long as she maintained a reasonable distance, in reality, he probably wished she would delete every single male contact from her WeChat.

And he was such a hypocrite. He himself had several female assistants, but when it came to him, he said it was "purely a professional relationship."

Ji Mingshu was highly dissatisfied. But she couldn't win the argument herself, so she sought advice from Gu Kaiyang, constantly using Gu Kaiyang's theories—"Women should have their own personal space," "Even after marriage, one should have their own social circle," "Gender equality means no double standards"—to argue her case against Cen Sen.

Cen Sen offered no opinion on this.

Apart from this study, after returning to the capital, Ji Mingshu's main focus shifted to the guest room design drafts for Junyi Yaji.

To create a satisfactory design plan, she stayed holed up at home for over half a month without going out.

She was quite conscious of fair competition. Although she was tempted to see the other designers' guest room design proposals for Junyi Yaji, she felt that looking at them in advance would feel like cheating to win.

After much internal struggle, she still didn't ask Cen Sen for access, silently studying and analyzing the publicly available design works of these other designers instead.

The more she studied, the more she felt that there were truly many inspired and talented people in this world. She, Ji Mingshu, wasn't as unique and irreplaceable as she had thought.

However, while understanding how outstanding her competitors were, she also developed unprecedented interest and passion for this hotel design project.

Jiang Chun had never seen Ji Mingshu work seriously before and always thought her design work involved just sketching on paper and then directing people to decorate and arrange things according to her ideas.

So, this time, when Ji Mingshu refused to go out for over half a month, Jiang Chun kept suspecting that Ji Mingshu was secretly up to some major scheme behind her back.

Most suspiciously, Gu Kaiyang had also been refusing to go out recently. Jiang Chun tried all her luck during the day, and when she wanted to meet up at night, Gu Kaiyang still found all sorts of excuses.

Jiang Chun's thoughts ran wild, and the more she thought, the sadder she became.

Half a month later, she solemnly posted a "Notice of Little Earth Goose's Departure" in the group chat. The notice, though accidentally containing a few typos, could be considered sincere and heartfelt, each word dripping with "blood and tears."

She ended with, "If you don't want to hang out with me anymore, you can just say so. I'll leave the group on my own," attached a heartbroken emoji, and silently exited the group chat.

Ji Mingshu, having just emerged from her creative seclusion, saw this and found it both baffling and hilarious. She directly pulled her back into the group.

Ji Mingshu: […]

Ji Mingshu: [Acting in a tragic drama?]

Jiang Chun: [You guys all ignore me tvt!]

Ji Mingshu couldn't be bothered arguing with her. She directly uploaded a yet-to-be-rendered conceptual model video to the group.

Ji Mingshu: [I've been working on this for half a month and barely got it to this stage. Who has time to ignore you?]

Jiang Chun clicked it open and was instantly awed by this high-class video.

Jiang Chun: [You did all this?]

Ji Mingshu: [Otherwise, you did it?]

Jiang Chun was speechless, resorting to a full screen of exclamation points and ellipses to express her shock.

Right then, Gu Kaiyang also suddenly surfaced with an explanation.

Gu Kaiyang: [I've been recording a show recently. Signed an NDA.]

Jiang Chun: [...?]

Jiang Chun: [You're an editor. What show are you recording?]

Jiang Chun: [Wouldn't it be better to spend that time dating?]

Gu Kaiyang: [...]

Gu Kaiyang: [It's a dating show.]

Gu Kaiyang said it casually, but Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun simultaneously sent a row of question marks expressing shock: Our Gu Gu is actually dating!!!

Jiang Chun: [When did you go?]

Ji Mingshu: [What's the show called?]

Jiang Chun: [How exactly does it work?]

Ji Mingshu: [Real dating or fake dating?]

The two coordinated perfectly, focusing their firepower on the key questions and launching an interrogation.

Gu Kaiyang: […]

Gu Kaiyang: [It's hard to explain in a few words.]

Ji Mingshu: [Then use five words, four words, eight words, seven words!]

Jiang Chun: [Yeah! You have a mouth—are you afraid you can't explain clearly? Is it that you can't explain clearly or that you don't want to explain clearly? Gu Kaiyang, this goose solemnly warns you, you have issues in your thinking!]

Bombarded by the two of them, Gu Kaiyang couldn't hold out and finally confessed her "sins" to the "organization" honestly.

After the New Year, she had participated in a reality dating show. This show was produced by a video platform that cooperated with their magazine.

It happened at dinner. A certain executive from the video platform praised her a few times, saying it wasn't easy for someone so young to become deputy editor-in-chief. Their editor-in-chief, May, being a big mouth, casually added, "Xiao Gu is young, beautiful, and capable, completely devoted to her work. She doesn't even have a boyfriend."

Hearing this, that executive's eyes suddenly lit up. He insisted on introducing her to this show, going on and on about how high their show's standards were for participant quality, and how outstanding and suitable she was. In the end, out of consideration for the business cooperation, she had to grit her teeth and agree.

Actually, many major TV stations and video platforms had been making similar shows one after another, and Gu Kaiyang had some understanding of them.

If nothing else, at least participating in this show could help her meet a few elites. Besides, May had agreed to it, so it wouldn't interfere too much with work. For her, there was no downside, so she actually went.

Recently, during the day, she worked normally. She only needed to return to the villa in the evenings to live with the other participants for recording. Once she got used to it, it was actually quite alright.

Jiang Chun asked the most crucial question: [Is there anyone you like?]

Gu Kaiyang: [No.]

Gu Kaiyang: [But today, a familiar face moved in as Male Contestant No. 4.]

Jiang Chun: [Who?]

Gu Kaiyang: [Zhou Jiaheng.]

Ji Mingshu: [？？？？]

That evening, when Cen Sen returned home, Ji Mingshu unleashed a barrage of "hundred thousand whys" questions at him.

"Zhou Jiaheng went to join a dating show. He's got a lot of free time on his hands."

"This wasn't specially arranged by you, was it? Did you know Gu Kaiyang was on that show?"

Cen Sen gave an irrelevant answer: "Gu Kaiyang? She really should worry more about her own love life. As a single person, she shouldn't keep instilling strange theories she hasn't even put into practice into a married person, disrupting other people's marital harmony."

---

← Previous | Table of Contents | Next →

0