My Queen, My Rules - 84
Giveaway
Whether she missed him or not was hard to say. The embarrassment and indignation, however, were undeniable.
All the way home, Ji Mingshu stared sulkily out the window and refused to speak to Cen Sen. Several times, Cen Sen tried to start a conversation, but she stubbornly held her tongue, silently arguing with him in her head instead.
Halfway home, Cen Sen received a call from Jiang Che and, without making any attempt to hide it from her, put the call on speaker through the car's Bluetooth.
She pricked up her ears and listened. Although the two of them never mentioned Cen Yang by name, she still caught the familiar words "Borui" and "Haichuan."
After Cen Sen hung up, Ji Mingshu couldn't help speaking first. "I read the financial papers on the plane. They said Jingcheng Capital intends to acquire Borui. Jingcheng Capital is the company you and Jiang Che founded together, right?"
"Mm."
Ji Mingshu asked again, "Then this acquisition... have you two been planning it for a long time?"
Up ahead was the ETC exit at the airport expressway toll station; where several cars were queued up. Cen Sen slowed down, seemingly considering the question. "Not that long. The plan only came together after I returned to the country last year."
That wasn't long?
"So... that time Cen Yang intercepted that billion dollar investment, was that part of your plan too?"
Actually, Ji Mingshu had been thinking about this on the plane. She'd always heard people say that Cen Sen was exceptionally capable and ruthless in business. Was that what they meant by exceptional? Getting his plans intercepted by someone who had only just returned to the country, then scrambling to clean up the mess afterward? The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.
Just as Ji Mingshu was picturing Cen Sen masterfully manipulating the entire situation and playing everyone like pieces in the palm of his hand, Cen Sen poured cold water on her fantasy. "No."
"..."
Never mind.
Cen Sen calmly added, "He wasn't worth planning around."
As he spoke, his gaze remained fixed on the road ahead, his expression calm and detached. The clean, elegant lines of his profile were striking. He was doing nothing more than sitting normally behind the wheel, yet somehow he radiated the composed assurance of a man who already had everything under control.
Ji Mingshu turned to look at him and, at the most inappropriate possible moment, found herself completely charmed for several seconds. Her fingers toyed with the flower petals as her heart went into a flutter.
It took her quite a while to recover. She casually turned her attention back to the window. When she caught sight of Cen Sen seriously focused on driving, she quietly pulled out her phone and rapidly typed a message, the corners of her lips lifting without her even realizing it.
Ji Mingshu: [OMG, when my Cen-shi Sensen gets all alpha, other men might as well not exist!]
Jiang Chun: [?]
Jiang Chun: [Unauthorized distribution of dog food outside the designated time and location. One red-card warning.]
Gu Kaiyang: [Ji-shi Shushu, you've changed.]
Gu Kaiyang: [You used to call him an absolute beta.]
Jiang Chun: [Because she's mutated into Cen-shi Shushu now!]
Ji Mingshu: [...]
Ji Mingshu: [I brought gifts for both of you. Think carefully before you say anything.]
[Jiang Chun retracted a message] x2
[Gu Kaiyang retracted a message] x2
And that, right there, was the truth of human nature. :)
Ji Mingshu had no idea that during those few minutes she spent chatting, Cen Sen had already glanced over at her three times.
At a red light, Cen Sen suddenly asked in his slow, low voice, "Are you chatting with Cen Yang?"
"?"
"What are you thinking about?"
Ji Mingshu was full of question marks. Without a second thought, she simply and openly showed Cen Sen the conversation on her phone.
Cen Sen actually looked, and before Ji Mingshu could react, he reached out and scrolled upward.
[OMG, when my Cen-shi Sensen gets all alpha, other men might as well not exist!]
Seeing that line, Cen Sen raised an eyebrow ever so slightly, then gave a faint nod and continued driving.
...?
Ji Mingshu was dumbfounded. Somehow, she managed to detect an emotion called pleasure on his otherwise expressionless face.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the reunion… even more ardent.
That night, the lights at Mingshui Manor stayed on until dawn.
Ji Mingshu experienced, in every possible sense, exactly what it meant for a man to be "alpha". When she woke the next morning and lay sprawled in bed, her whole person looked exceptionally serene, with an almost world-weary air about her.
Before, Cen Sen would clean up afterward. But ever since they had started talking about having a baby, they had stopped stocking up on those destined-to-be-trash contraceptive products.
Unfortunately, babies didn't seem to arrive with a single strike. Ji Mingshu's period had shown up right on schedule for the past month or two.
She was already beginning to harbor some small doubts about her own body, but Cen Sen did not look remotely concerned.
That led Ji Mingshu to a serious suspicion. He did not actually want a baby all that much. He just wanted to enjoy himself.
Her suspicion wasn't without evidence. Ever since they stopped using protection, this dog man's enthusiasm and stamina had both leveled up dramatically. Before, she was only occasionally pushed to the brink; now, every time was a journey beyond the brink and back.
Early that morning, when she saw Cen Sen emerge from the bathroom in a crisp white shirt and suit, his tie knotted with immaculate precision and the tie clip she had given him fastened neatly at the side, looking every inch the refined, distinguished gentleman, she couldn't help but mutter weakly from the bed. "Beast in gentleman's clothing!"
At that, Cen Sen turned around, walked to the bedside, tucked the covers properly around her, then smoothed her disheveled hair and kissed her on the lips. He admitted it without the slightest shame. "Mm. I'm in gentleman's clothing for now."
—Later tonight, I'll be the beast.
Ji Mingshu couldn't stop herself from kicking him.
"Don't move around. I just put medicine on you."
Cen Sen caught her ankle, sounding as casual as if they were chatting about the weather.
Ji Mingshu was so furious she was speechless for a long moment.
Fortunately, Cen Sen knew when to stop while he was ahead. "I'm going to the company. Stay home and get some proper rest today."
As he stood up, he seemed to remember something. Leaning down again, he whispered two words into Ji Mingshu's ear.
He certainly knew how to hit the right note. Hearing them, Ji Mingshu's barely gathered anger dissipated in seconds. Feeling flustered yet pleased, she proactively looped her arms around his neck and gave him a proper kiss.
Although Cen Sen had told her to stay home and rest, Ji Mingshu couldn't sit still once she thought about all the unfinished design work waiting for her.
Besides, over dinner the previous night, she and Cen Sen had talked at length about the documentary program. After serious consideration, she had finally given the producer a definite yes.
The program was ultimately titled Impressions of the Old Streets. It would be broadcast as a narrated documentary, and aside from introducing the renovation projects, the designers wouldn't appear on camera very often.
That was fundamentally different from Designer’s Abode. Designer’s Abode was really more about filming than design, whereas this program put design first and filming second.
In late June and early July, Junyi's designer-brand hotel, Junyi Yaji, completed construction of its main building and officially entered the interior renovation stage.
At this point, the designers didn't need to handle everything personally. If time allowed, they could drop by the site from time to time to inspect the work and offer guidance. If not, remote supervision wasn't a problem either.
Ji Mingshu didn't have much time to spare, because she had once again thrown herself wholeheartedly into the challenge of this new project, Impressions of the Old Streets.
When Ji Mingshu first heard the producer say they wanted to recreate the atmosphere of old Shanghai, she had assumed the renovation site would require a business trip to Shanghai. As it turned out, the location was actually Hu Street in the capital.
Hu Street was a secluded little pocket hidden within the city. Its location was excellent, but for various historical reasons, the area had never been fully redeveloped, nor had its architecture received proper preservation.
The old residential building slated for protective renovation was one of the few buildings on Hu Street that had already been vacated. It was a three-story Western-style house whose battered exterior couldn't completely conceal the Republican-era charm it had once possessed.
This renovation tackled both the interior and exterior. The exterior work focused primarily on restoration, and because it involved specialized issues such as wall construction, the production team brought in a well-known architect from the industry.
The interior renovation would be handled by Ji Mingshu and several other interior designers, working in coordination with the architects.
The production team had originally estimated that the renovation would take two months, but they had severely underestimated how difficult it would be.
And the production team itself had a tendency to make things up as they went. The original plan had been perfectly clear: renovate the unoccupied old residential building and turn it into an exhibition space. Then, out of nowhere, the producer and screenwriter suddenly declared, "It's not warm enough. It doesn't feel human enough."
So, on a whim, they reached an agreement with the relevant authorities to take on the neighboring residential building as well, a place packed with elderly, disabled, and otherwise vulnerable residents.
When Ji Mingshu first heard the news, a stampede of mental curses ran through her mind. Her immediate thought was to quit and let whoever wanted the job deal with it. But after the producer patiently appealed to her with reason and emotion, she somehow ended up agreeing to it in a daze.
Because of the sudden expansion of the workload, everyone spent the entire summer buried in the project, and even then barely managed to complete two-thirds of it.
By the time the project was finally completed in late autumn, Ji Mingshu felt she herself had been completely renovated from the inside out.
The unoccupied building was manageable enough. The occupied one, however, was a never-ending headache. Every day, Ji Mingshu seemed to hear ten thousand chickens, ducks, and geese squawking around her, as if she'd been transported overnight back to some primitive farming village.
The residents would refuse to tear down unauthorized structures they had built themselves and would fight tooth and nail over even half a square meter of communal land. It was a world utterly removed from the life Ji Mingshu had always known.
She used to hear that poverty limited imagination. Now she realized wealth could limit imagination too.
She had to admit that this hastily added renovation plan had struck her weakest point dead-on. She really wasn't very good at putting herself in other people's shoes and designing spaces around the realities of everyday life.
But no matter how difficult it was, everything eventually came to a satisfying conclusion. When filming wrapped, Ji Mingshu felt she had gained many new insights.
The delay in the renovation created quite a few problems afterward. For one thing, the television station's scheduled broadcast slot couldn't be changed.
There was no choice. Post-production had to be rushed at breakneck speed, and within a week of the renovation being completed, the promotional video was already online.
Ji Mingshu quietly reposted the official account’s promotional video. She’d only meant it as a formality, but after lying dormant for half a year, her sudden "resurrection" still drew considerable attention and engagement.
The timing of her return was simply too perfect. Recently, a famous rich-girl blogger who regularly posted vlogs showing off her bags, watches, clothes, and walk-in closet had been exposed. The story kept taking one unexpected turn after another, and from Weibo to every major forum, the whole thing raged for three days.
It had started when the rich-girl blogger was unboxing an Hermès bag. A little Chanel bag serving as background decoration caught the attention of a young fan, who questioned whether its pattern was authentic. The fan was promptly mobbed by the influencer's die-hard supporters.
Indignant, the young fan went so far as to dig up all kinds of evidence suggesting that the Chanel bag was suspicious and submitted it to one of the relevant exposé accounts.
The rich-girl blogger's use of counterfeit goods became a full-blown scandal. She tried to shift the blame by claiming that the Chanel bag had been a gift from a friend, then used her alt account to insinuate that the gift had come from a former best friend who had already left social media.
The former friend had a fiery temper. Even quitting social media could not keep her out of the drama. After clarifying that she had never given the influencer a fake, she used her main account to accuse the rich-girl blogger of faking her educational credentials and being kept by a wealthy businessman. That instantly set off a three-day spectacle of ordinary onlookers digging for dirt and fans rushing to defend their idol.
Ji Mingshu neither knew nor cared about this ridiculous mess that had absolutely nothing to do with her, but the internet's spectators could connect the two of them with a single stroke!
[When it comes to all these so-called wealthy-beauties influencers online, I only recognize the CEO's wife.]
[The fake ones spend all day showing off their bags, watches, and walk-in closets. The real rich girl is out there doing charitable renovations.]
[Can we please stop hyping every 380-tier nobody a "top-tier socialite”? The CEO's wife isn't even boasting. Please shut up and take notes.]
Other influencers who had bad blood with the exposed wealthy-beauty blogger also started spilling tea:
[They're not even in the same league. This is like trying to fake a moon landing.]
[The president's wife has more than seven hundred Hermès bags. Why on earth would she do an unboxing just for a Kelly?]
[Ever heard of Bocui Tianhua? The penthouse owner's surname is Ji. Just saying.]
Ji Mingshu somehow gained a wave of attention out of nowhere, along with nearly a thousand people begging to see the "seven hundred-plus Hermès" collection. She was completely baffled until Jiang Chun explained the whole saga to her, at which point she finally managed to understand what had happened.
Gu Kaiyang worked in magazine media, so she knew exactly how to capitalize on a hot topic. "You could make a vlog and just casually film something. Isn't your documentary airing soon? You could promote it."
Ji Mingshu couldn't fathom how Gu Kaiyang had managed to come up with such a historically unprecedentedly terrible idea as making a vlog specifically to flaunt her wealth under her real name. Just imagining it made her feel so embarrassed she could barely breathe.
Still, Gu Kaiyang's suggestion wasn't entirely without merit. Using the opportunity to promote the documentary was actually a good idea.
It wasn't that she was trying to become wildly famous and reach the pinnacle of life. But after spending a full four or five months filming this project, she'd feel disappointed if no one watched or paid attention to something they had worked so hard to create.
So after taking two days to rest, she asked Zhou Jiaheng to put together an entire production team to help her film a video.
……
"To be honest, I've never been particularly good at residential design. Even this time, I didn't find out that the plan had changed to include the renovation of occupied residential buildings until filming had already begun.
"At first, I was pretty discouraged, because a lot of the time I don't really understand what residents actually need. In fact, I'd always believed that if something wasn't my strength, then I didn't need to understand that aspect of it.
"But during this renovation, I encountered a lot of things that really stayed with me. For example, one household had a female occupant with mobility issues, while another had an elderly family member with Alzheimer's. In situations like these, interior design has to completely serve the homeowner's everyday life. Interior design isn't only about creating something artistic. A life lived with warmth is also a form of interior design."
……
The video was only three minutes and forty seconds long, but it was neatly divided into three sections.
The first focused on Ji Mingshu's design insights from the preservation renovation, the second shared what she had learned from renovating occupied residential buildings, and the third was straightforward promotion for the documentary.
She was quite good at getting the most out of an opportunity. At the very end, she even mentioned that Junyi Yaji, which was scheduled to begin trial operations at the end of the year, would also feature one of her design projects.
Afraid that no one would watch it, Ji Mingshu took Gu Kaiyang's advice and organized a repost giveaway.
She didn't really understand the usual scale of online giveaways and was afraid that offering too little would look stingy. After thinking it over, she posted: [Repost for a chance to win a Hermès Birkin. Ten winners will have their shopping carts cleared. One hundred winners will receive a thousand-yuan cash gift.]
Gu Kaiyang saw the Weibo post she had put up without consulting her first and immediately sent her a row of question marks: [Girl, isn't this a little too extravagant?]
Ji Mingshu: [...Is it?]
Something even more extravagant followed after. The official Junyi account reposted her post immediately and added another prize: one winner would receive a lifetime of free stays at any hotel under the Junyi Group.
The comments exploded instantly.
[If you round that up, they basically just gave someone a house.]
[The private hot-spring suite at Junyi Shuiyunjian is 8,999 yuan a night. Is that the sort of room rate your family charges?]
[What reincarnation of a professional bootlicker is running the official account? Is it the CEO himself?]
---
Comments
Post a Comment