My Queen, My Rules - 79
Note
Ji Mingshu’s threat of divorce had, of course, been nothing more than an angry outburst, and Cen Sen clearly hadn't taken her words seriously. Still, after sitting through that 4D movie, the second half of their date had managed to collapse spectacularly from every possible angle.
Cen Sen had originally arranged for them to take a drive along the river, then stop at an open-air bar for drinks and live music. But the moment they walked out of the theater, Ji Mingshu looked like a survivor who had narrowly escaped a disaster. She was overwhelmingly eager to get home, as though thinking, Hurry up and take me home, maybe I can still be saved!
Seeing her like that, Cen Sen had no choice but to cancel the rest of their plans.
Fortunately, the early-spring night breeze in the capital was soft and pleasant. With the gentle wind blowing through the car all the way home, much of the frustration weighing on Ji Mingshu gradually dispersed.
Once she'd calmed down and thought it over carefully, she decided she couldn't blame Cen Sen entirely for this debacle.
Cen Sen was practically an antique left over from the last century. He had probably been to the cinema only a handful of times in his life. How could she possibly expect him to know beforehand just what kind of intelligence-lowering experience a 4D movie was?
The fact that he had taken the initiative to invite her out and send her flowers, and had actually made an effort to talk to her over dinner, was already a huge step forward. They had plenty of time ahead of them, no need to rush.
After giving Cen Sen that generous round of excuses, Ji Mingshu finally managed to find herself a little comfort.
But the very next second, as she scrolled through WeChat, the mental defenses she'd just painstakingly built collapsed in an instant. Her smile slowly disappeared, and her expression gradually stiffened.
Overjoyed by today’s date, she'd been posting a new update to her social media almost every hour to document their progress.
Before entering the theater, she'd even arranged their two movie ticket stubs together, taken a photo, and added the caption: "Movie date with Mr. Cen~ So happy."
She hadn't looked at her phone again after posting it, so she had no idea that two hours earlier, Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun had already sent her a warm reminder and a high-alert warning.
Gu Kaiyang: [You two okay? A 4D movie for a date?]
Jiang Chun: [Hahahahahaha
, I'm sorry, but I kind of want to laugh!]
Gu Kaiyang: [???]
Gu Kaiyang: [Where are you?]
Jiang Chun: [Probably already inside.]
Gu Kaiyang: [Alright then.]
Gu Kaiyang: [True love must not only withstand the tests of house renovation and couple travel, but also the test of watching a 4D movie together. Good luck, darling!]
Jiang Chun: [Hahahahaha you devil! I’m laughing so hard HAHAHAHAHA!!!]
Worse still, the two of them had continued keeping a close eye on her updates.
Jiang Chun: [Hello, little birdie. It's been two hours since your last post. Are you still alive?]
Gu Kaiyang: [Probably filing for divorce.]
Jiang Chun: [Pfft!]
Jiang Chun: [Don't say things like that. I can already picture her throwing a divorce paper at him! Hahahahaha!!]
Ji Mingshu's face had gone sour. Suppressing the urge to curse them out, she tossed a GIF into the group chat: [I don’t talk to people who have no sex life.gif]
In truth, the moment that ticket-stub post went up, she wasn’t the only one subjected to ruthless mockery. Cen Sen’s childhood friend group had been buzzing nonstop for a full two hours.
Shu Yang: "A 4D movie hahahaha! Sen-ge really is something else!"
Shu Yang: [I genuinely thought Sen-ge had hired a professional carry and gone straight from bronze to king this time. Turns out he's still a stubborn bronze player!]
Jiang Che: [And a Stubborn Bronze 1, at that.]
Zhao Yang: "I think I need to reserve a hospital bed for Sen-ge at our hospital hahahahahaha!"
Cen Sen was completely unaware of these two hours of mockery and equally oblivious to Ji Mingshu’s rollercoaster of emotions throughout the journey home.
As far as he was concerned, while the 4D movie experience had been unpleasant, it was nothing more than a minor mishap in the overall course of their date.
When they got home and saw that Ji Mingshu wasn't showing much expression, he assumed she was simply tired. In what he considered a thoughtful gesture, he ran a hot bath for her and even added some soothing essential oils to the water.
He had initially entertained the idea of taking a bath with her, but after Ji Mingshu took her pajamas into the bathroom, she wordlessly locked the door behind her. After bathing, she curled up on one side of the bed and promptly fell asleep, showing not the slightest intention of communicating with him.
After being given the cold shoulder for an entire night, even Cen Sen's notoriously slow-to-catch-on brain finally understood that last night's 4D movie had directly caused Ji Mingshu's dissatisfaction with their date.
And her displeasure had remarkably fresh shelf life. It didn't even need refrigeration to remain perfectly intact until the next morning. The clearest evidence was that this morning, although she was clearly awake, she hadn’t pestered him for a good morning kiss.
As it happened, Cen Sen's schedule that morning involved playing golf with the general manager of a cinema chain to discuss Junyi Yaji’s pre-movie advertisement placements.
Truthfully, a mere ad placement didn’t require Cen Sen’s personal involvement. However, this general manager was his high school classmate. The man had spent the last few years gaining experience in a subsidiary of the group and had recently been promoted to general manager. This was as much an opportunity for the two of them to catch up as it was a chance to lay the groundwork for any future collaboration.
During a break in the game, his old classmate received a work call.
Cen Sen, preoccupied with thoughts of Ji Mingshu the entire time, also put down his club and sent her a WeChat message.
Cen Sen: "I'm sorry. I didn't arrange our date well last night. I'll definitely make it up to you next time."
When Ji Mingshu received this very ‘Cen-shi Sensen’–style message, she was still curled up beneath the covers, not yet out of bed. The aftereffects of last night's ‘beating’ had been surprisingly severe. Her back and waist ached, especially around her shoulder blades and tailbone, both of which hurt whenever she pressed on them.
—You think there’ll be a next time?
After typing this petulant reply, Ji Mingshu paused, deleted it with one keystroke, and rewrote.
Ji Mingshu: [That was the worst date I've ever had T_T!]
This one was better. It conveyed her anger with a touch of coquettishness, and the emoticon added just enough cute appeal to soften the complaint. Ji Mingshu read it over several times and was quite pleased with herself before hitting send.
But Cen Sen's attention always seemed to land on the strangest things. Instead of following her little sulk and playful complaint, he proceeded to interrogate her like a census taker: "What other date experiences have you had that you were satisfied with?"
Before their marriage, he had looked into Ji Mingshu’s past and knew she hadn’t had any serious boyfriends over the years.
But Ji Mingshu attended university abroad, where dating culture was prevalent, and seeing several people at once wasn't exactly something anyone would condemn. So he couldn't completely rule out the possibility that she'd gone on dates before.
Ji Mingshu silently sent back a whole row of ellipses.
She had, after all, been the campus beauty for more than a decade. She'd had countless admirers. What was so unusual about going on a date with a guy?
Cen Sen was about to ask more, but his high school classmate had already finished his call and was walking back, shaking his head and launching into a triple complaint. "The cinema business really isn't easy these days. The platforms are constantly demanding discounts and subsidies. Anything related to promotions or screening schedules somehow ends up on my desk."
Cen Sen put his phone away.
His high school classmate continued, "Oh, right. What were we talking about just now? Ah, your wife, wasn't it?"
He chuckled. "I have to say, I never expected the two of you to end up together. If I remember correctly, when we were seniors in high school, Ji Mingshu was only a freshman, right? Back during military training, everyone was always talking about those junior girls coming up from the middle school division. Ji Mingshu was such a pretty little thing back then. Tao Li from our dorm even wrote her a love letter."
"Oh, right. I also have a younger cousin, Zhou Zhen. He was on the school basketball team. I don't know if you remember him. Come to think of it, he and you actually have quite a bit of fate between you. For a while, he was pretty close to Li Wenyin, and after we graduated, he almost ended up dating your wife. Small world, huh?"
"Is that so?"
Cen Sen gazed at the lush green grass in the distance, his voice mild and detached.
His high school classmate only grew more enthusiastic, as though this connection were something worth boasting about. "Yeah. He's a bit of a slow starter. He'd had his eye on Ji Mingshu ever since she entered high school, but he never had the chance to do anything about it. The line of guys chasing your wife back then stretched from the south gate of the school to the north gate! It wasn't until later that he heard she might have been a little interested in him that he finally made a move. But the timing was off, and it still didn't work out..."
Cen Sen maintained his balance behind the ball, his body perfectly poised to make the shot. Yet when he swung, he couldn't help putting too much force into it, and the ball failed to launch cleanly.
Meanwhile, seeing that Cen Sen wasn't going to ask anything more, Ji Mingshu finally put down her phone and got out of bed.
She had a brand event to attend that afternoon, and judging by the time, her stylist would be arriving soon.
After washing up, she applied a sheet mask, then went downstairs to carefully trim the roses from last night and arrange them in a vase. She then returned upstairs and continued with the rest of her skincare routine.
When she heard the housekeeper downstairs open the door for her stylist, Ji Mingshu tidied up Cen Sen's clothes in the bedroom.
He had worn an overcoat for their date the night before. She'd wrapped herself in it for a while during the movie, and the faint scent of her perfume still lingered on the fabric.
She picked it up and tossed it straight into the wicker hamper, but as she turned away, she suddenly caught sight of something brown and leather peeking out from the pocket. A wallet?
She pulled it out and took a look. It wasn't a wallet. It was a small notebook.
She quickly flipped through it from back to front. The pages at the back were completely blank and pristine, while the first few pages contained Cen Sen's handwriting.
His handwriting was just like the man himself. The lines were sharp and austere, yet undeniably beautiful. What he'd written, however, wasn't so cold and hard-edged.
Date Itinerary:
1. Reserve roses.
Note: Bouquet shouldn’t be too large; inconvenient to carry. Pink and white are the best choice, followed by bright red.
2. Pick up Mingshu at 5:30.
3. Arrive at the restaurant at 6:20.
Note 1: Mingshu doesn't particularly like foie gras.
Note 2: Pay attention to interaction and conversation during the meal. Slow down the pace of eating.
Topics for conversation: interior design, music, art exhibitions, etc. Pay attention to balancing serious topics with lighthearted ones.
4. Take a walk.
5. Watch a movie.
Note: Preomedy and action blockbusters. Avoid overly heavy or artistic themes.
6. Go to a riverside bar for drinks.
Note: Folk songs are the top choice; live guitar performance is the best.
7. Go home.
Unfinished matters to be supplemented in the next date.
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