My Queen, My Rules - 87
Heart-to-Heart
The airport was a constant tide of people coming and going. Amid the murmur of scattered conversations and the rumble of suitcase wheels, announcements sounded overhead. The electronic boards updated in real time, and every moment brought another farewell or reunion.
Cen Sen's arrival should have drawn the final line to this farewell. Ji Mingshu slowly pulled herself from his arms, and Cen Yang, taking the hint, was preparing to leave as well.
But then, out of nowhere, there came a soft clatter. Several mysterious objects tumbled from Ji Mingshu's pocket.
Cen Yang was the first to react. He bent down to pick them up and, naturally, took a closer look. His expression became rather remarkable.
Cen Sen didn’t even bother asking what they were. He coolly snatched them from Cen Yang's hand and lowered his eyes to look at them.
Then the two men looked at Ji Mingshu in unison.
Ji Mingshu: "..."
The silence lasted for what felt like several dozen seconds. Again, Cen Yang was the first to recover. He cleared his throat and said warmly, "Congratulations."
Ji Mingshu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pressed her lips together.
Pregnancy itself was hardly anything shameful, but having pregnancy tests fall out of her pocket like that was so mortifying she felt she could barely breathe.
She cast a seemingly casual glance at Cen Sen, only to find him staring at her without blinking.
Desperate to bring this increasingly awkward farewell to an end. She shuffled over in tiny steps, slipped her arm through his, cleared her throat, and said to Cen Yang, "Um, you still have to go through security and customs, so you should head in early. We won't see you off any further. We'll… meet up next time we're in the States."
Cen Yang nodded without saying anything more and simply waved goodbye.
Planes came and went in a constant stream, some landing as others roared into the sky and disappeared into the distance.
After Cen Yang left, Cen Sen asked, "So this is what you were sneaking out to buy today?"
"I wasn't sneaking out." Ji Mingshu awkwardly changed the subject. "Anyway, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to discuss that investment today? Did it go well?"
Cen Sen: "The contract is signed."
"Good." She breathed a sigh of relief.
Cen Sen: "You haven't answered my question."
"What question?"
Cen Sen lowered his eyes to the pregnancy tests in his hand.
Ji Mingshu paused, gathering her words before explaining, "It's just... I threw up this morning, remember? Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun said it might be… you know. So I thought I'd buy some tests to check. I couldn't exactly go to the hospital by myself, could I?"
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"You had the contract to negotiate with! I was going to wait until I got the result, then have you come with me to the hospital for a proper checkup."
Cen Sen was silent for a moment. He did not pursue the subject further. Instead, he said, "I've already had Zhao Yang arrange a prenatal examination. We're going now."
Already? But she hadn't even seen him make a phone call.
A slow question mark seemed to form in Ji Mingshu's mind.
As she followed Cen Sen into the car, she was a little dazed and nervous.
Some people became especially talkative when they were nervous. Ji Mingshu was one of them. The moment she got into the car, she chattered nonstop, recounting everything that had happened after she received Cen Yang's farewell call.
When she got to the part about their phone conversation, she still found it a little funny. "By the way, why were you so nervous on the phone earlier? You two are seriously weird. You didn't really think Cen Yang was going to kidnap me, did you? What kind of logic is…"
"What if he was?"
Cen Sen interrupted her suddenly.
Ji Mingshu: "...?"
Cen Sen looked at the Passat following behind them, with his personal bodyguard seated inside, his voice giving little away.
"He was kidnapped when he was still living with the Cen family. It happened just after the Cen family learned about his real identity. Faced with an enormous ransom demand, they were prepared to abandon him."
"He's resented the Cen family all these years, so I can't rule out the possibility that, having lost all his leverage, he might kidnap you as an act of revenge."
Cen Yang was kidnapped? When did that happen?
Ji Mingshu couldn't process it for a long time.
Cen Sen had already withdrawn his gaze. His voice was calm as he concluded, "Fortunately, he still has some sense."
These were old stories buried in the past, things Cen Sen had never intended to tell Ji Mingshu. But she had been protected too well, sheltered from seeing the ugliness and coldness of human nature firsthand.
If Cen Yang hadn't genuinely decided to let go of the past and move on today, and had instead chosen to seek revenge against the Cen family regardless of the consequences, he could have easily used their shared history and a single phone call to lure Ji Mingshu away.
Even if the possibility of Cen Yang dragging everyone down with him and making sure no one came out unscathed was only one in ten thousand, the mere thought of it had been enough to shake his composure.
After digesting what he'd said, Ji Mingshu felt neither frightened nor shaken. She was simply surprised. "How come I never knew about this? Why would they want to abandon him?"
Cen Sen lowered his eyes and said flatly, "You know too little about the Cen family."
That was why she didn't know that coldness was simply part of their nature.
All the way to the hospital, Ji Mingshu kept turning over the fact that Cen Yang had once been kidnapped. With something else to occupy her mind, all the nervousness she'd felt earlier disappeared without a trace. Even after the examination was finished and they were waiting for the results, she was still somewhat distracted, half wondering whether she was actually pregnant and half pondering about the Cen family's past.
While they waited, Cen Sen was on the phone, listening as Zhou Jiaheng gave him real-time updates on the progress of his work.
His expression was as calm and composed as ever, but as he stared at the door of the lounge, his attention drifted away without him realizing it. Zhou Jiaheng had to call his name twice before he could refocus.
Ji Mingshu's results were delivered to the lounge personally by the head nurse.
"Mr. Cen, Mrs. Cen, congratulations."
The head nurse smiled brightly as she handed over the report.
Cen Sen took it and glanced over the results. Ji Mingshu leaned in to look as well.
In truth, both their minds had went blank the moment they heard "congratulations.” Looking at the report was nothing more than instinct. No matter how closely they stared at those numbers and medical indicators, neither of them could make sense of them.
It took a full half-minute before they finally heard the head nurse explaining the precautions to take during early pregnancy.
One sat quietly without speaking. The other listened and gave the occasional faint nod.
Seeing their reaction, the head nurse secretly thought: People who've seen the world really are different. Even news of a pregnancy doesn't faze them. So calm and composed.
After the head nurse left the lounge, silence settled over the room for a while.
Ji Mingshu slowly came back to herself and tugged lightly at Cen Sen's clothes. "I... I'm really pregnant."
Cen Sen's fingertips moved slightly. He didn't speak, just slowly turning around and drawing her into his arms.
Ji Mingshu had thought she'd already prepared herself for the possibility of pregnancy, but actually hearing the confirmation made everything feel like a dream. Unreal, and strangely wondrous.
She also wrapped her arms around Cen Sen, but after holding him for a while, she felt that he was being too quiet. She tilted her head up, half coquettish and half dissatisfied. "Why aren't you saying anything? Weren't you the one who said you wanted us to have a baby? Aren't you happy that I'm pregnant?"
Cen Sen rested his forehead against hers and gazed into her eyes. After a long while, he finally said in a low, husky voice, "I'm very happy."
Ji Mingshu glanced toward the door. Seeing that no one was coming in, she suddenly lifted the hem of her shirt to reveal her smooth, pale stomach and declared, entirely without reason, "Then kiss your baby and prove that you're really happy, and that you really love them."
Cen Sen was silent for a moment. Then he guided her to sit on the sofa, braced his hands on the cushions beside her, and actually leaned down slowly to press a kiss to her belly.
Ji Mingshu couldn't stop the corners of her lips from curling upward. She stood up and hugged him tightly, adding a another order. "But after the baby is born, you still have to love me the most!"
Cen Sen gave a quiet "Mm," rubbed the top of her head, and promised softly, "I'll love you the most."
The head nurse, remembering she'd forgotten to give them the prenatal handbook, returned to the room. But just as she reached the door and was about to knock, she heard the unbearably sweet conversation inside.
"..."
Never mind. She'd leave them to it.
---
Having only just learned about the pregnancy, neither Ji Mingshu nor Cen Sen had fully grasped the reality of it yet. On the way home, they discussed it and agreed to keep the news from their families for now.
Cen Sen had little affection for his family to begin with and saw no need to tell them immediately.
Ji Mingshu, meanwhile, had been deeply influenced by all those palace-intrigue dramas where characters hid their pregnancies, and was convinced they shouldn't make any grand announcements for the first three months.
After they returned home, the two of them were still floating in an unreal haze. Though they tried their best to act normally, the pregnancy had affected them both profoundly.
Ji Mingshu watched an entire episode of a drama and have no idea what it had even been about. Cen Sen cooked a simple stir-fry of green peppers and pork and somehow turn it into green peppers with red peppers, and managed to salt it twice.
That night, after showering, they lay in bed, one playing on her phone and the other reading. Ji Mingshu's mind wasn't on her phone at all, but seeing how intently Cen Sen was reading, she didn't know how to bring it up.
She glanced at him once, then glanced again ten minutes later.
Suddenly, as if she'd made a great discovery, she snatched Cen Sen's e-reader away and questioned him with the smug satisfaction of having caught him red-handed. "You've only turned one page in ten minutes! What are you doing?"
Cen Sen pressed his fingers to his brow and admitted, "I'm thinking about the baby."
Ji Mingshu lay down across his lap. "So am I."
"Hm?"
Ji Mingshu sighed, sounding a little melancholy. "It just still feels... so unreal. I'm not even mature myself, and suddenly I'm going to be raising a child. And my mother barely paid attention to me when I was little. I don't even know how a mother is supposed to treat her child."
Cen Sen gently ran his fingers through her hair. He seemed lost in thought and did not answer.
Ji Mingshu suddenly reached up and poked his Adam's apple, finally asking the question she'd long been curious about but had never brought herself to ask.
"So… I was wondering. Your mother, your biological one, I mean… have you ever met her?"
"Once."
There was no deciphering the emotion in Cen Sen's eyes.
Ji Mingshu: "I saw her many times when I was little. But then, all of a sudden, she disappeared with Cen Yang."
In the past, Ji Mingshu hadn't been one to dig for answers. For one, she wasn't particularly curious. For another, she didn't want to meddle. For a long time, she'd even been exceptionally conscious of the boundaries dictated by their family-arranged marriage, deliberately preserving each other a private space.
She never pressed him about how he and Cen Yang had been switched at birth, never investigated why her mother-in-law was completely absent from their lives, and never asked what Cen Sen had been thinking all these years.
But tonight, she suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to step completely into Cen Sen's past.
This urge had begun taking shape when she noticed his polite but distant relationship with his family. It crystallized today in the car when he said, "You know too little about the Cen family." It only struck her then that she had doled out so much sympathy to Cen Yang, yet had never really stopped to wonder why Cen Sen, despite having a family of his own, had carried the loneliness of someone who had cut himself off from every blood relation he had.
Cen Sen wound the ends of her hair slowly around his fingers. After a long silence, he finally answered her question. "She passed away a long time ago."
Cen Sen's biological mother had been born into a distinguished family. Before marrying Cen Yuanchao, she had been engaged to her childhood sweetheart, but he died in a car accident before they could marry.
When Cen Yang was still very young, she discovered that he was not Cen Yuanchao's biological son. But she never considered the possibility that he wasn't her own child either. Instead, she instinctively assumed that she must have conceived him with her childhood sweetheart before their marriage, and went to great lengths to keep the truth hidden from the entire Cen family.
It was thanks to her that Cen Yang's true identity remained concealed until he was seven or eight years old.
She had never stopped loving her childhood sweetheart, and poured all the love and devotion she had into Cen Yang.
Later, Cen Yuanchao happened to discover that Cen Yang's blood type did not match either of theirs. He secretly arranged for two paternity tests. Once the results came back, he followed the trail and quickly traced it to the An family.
Back then, the An family was also a scholarly and prestigious household in the capital. By coincidence, both families had given birth at the same hospital, where a careless nurse had accidentally switched the two babies.
After the An family's daughter-in-law, Chen Biqing, gave birth, the An family's patriarch had been forced to step down from his position over certain sensitive matters. The entire family then moved to Xingcheng, and their lives gradually settled into peaceful obscurity.
After that came the discovery of Cen Sen's true identity and Cen Yuanchao's decision to bring him home.
Cen Yuanchao was initially adamant about keeping Cen Yang and raise both boys. But when his wife learned about the mix-up, she completely broke down. It wasn't the switched babies that shattered her. It was the realization that the child she had devoted herself to protecting and loving was not the child she'd believed to be the fruit of her love.
Upon learning the truth, Cen Yuanchao was furious. His disgust extended even to Cen Yang. When Cen Yang was kidnapped, he disregarded the kidnappers' threats to kill him and went straight to the police. Fortunately, Cen Yang was lucky enough to survive, and was rescued by the police.
Later, Cen Sen declared that there could be no Cen Yang if there was going to be a Cen Sen, and Cen Yuanchao took the opportunity to send Cen Yang back to the An family.
From that point on, Cen Sen's biological mother fell into a deep decline. He met her once after returning to the Cen family. The look she gave him held more than unfamiliarity; it was laced with disgust.
By then, she and Cen Yuanchao had already begun divorce proceedings. The day after Cen Sen returned to the Cen family, she left without a trace of reluctance.
To the outside world, the Cen family claimed that she had accompanied Cen Yang overseas for his studies. The following year, she fell ill and passed away. Her ashes were buried in the cemetery on the western outskirts of the city. From then on, like Cen Yang, she became a forbidden subject within the Cen family.
Outside, a light rain pattered softly. The floor lamp cast a warm golden glow. Cen Sen's voice was calm and low as he narrated the entire story, as though it had nothing to do with him.
Ji Mingshu remained dazed for a long time after hearing it.
So this was the whole story.
She had seen his biological mother when she was little too, although back then, the woman had still been Cen Yang's mother.
In Ji Mingshu's memories, she had been a gentle, serene, well-mannered woman. It was hard to imagine that she could be so cold toward her own biological child, so cold that she didn't even said a single word during the only time they met.
For some reason, the thought of that gentle aunt from her childhood looking at Cen Sen with disgust made her heart ache terribly.
The room was quiet for a long time. Suddenly, Ji Mingshu wrapped her arms around Cen Sen's waist, then rose to embrace his neck and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. Once, twice, three times.
"Husband, don't be sad. From now on, the baby and I will be good to you."
---
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