My Queen, My Rules - 97

New Year's Eve, 8:00 AM.

Firecrackers crackled outside, punctuated now and then by the gleeful shrieks of children at play.

Gu Kaiyang pulled off her sleep mask, yawned, and sat up slowly in bed, stretching her arms high above her head.

Work kept her busy. The only days she could truly sleep in all year were during this short New Year holiday.

Her phone on the nightstand kept lighting up automatically as a stream of New Year's blessing texts flooded in.

She ignored it. These days, she no longer needed to stay tense, clutching her phone out of fear of missing an important call from her boss.

Gu Kaiyang was thirty-five, the editor-in-chief of Zero Degree, a top-tier men's magazine in China. A few years back, she'd gained public recognition after appearing on a reality dating show and had gradually developed into a well-known fashion blogger with thirty million Weibo followers.

The studio loft apartment she’d once drained her savings to buy had long since been swapped for a riverfront penthouse with panoramic views. Her old Beetle had been upgraded to a Mercedes, and now to a Ferrari.

The life she’d fantasized about at fifteen, she had fully achieved by thirty-five.

The only slight imperfection was that, at thirty-five, she was still alone.

All these years, Gu Kaiyang hadn't been in a relationship. No time. And she hadn’t met anyone who caught her eye enough to make her want to waste time on them.

If she had to trace her last flutter of attraction, it would probably be to Zhou Jiaheng, whom she’d met on that reality show.

Zhou Jiaheng was now the de facto head of the Junyi Group. A few years ago, he’d married a gentle, beautiful high school English teacher.

Gu Kaiyang had been in Milan on business at the time of the wedding and couldn't attend. She'd just sent a generous cash gift via WeChat instead.

For nearly two weeks afterward, Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun had tiptoed around her in conversation, afraid of stepping on a landmine and upsetting her.

Gu Kaiyang found it both frustrating and a little amusing.

She really didn't think it was that big a deal. Back during the show, she had been a little interested in Zhou Jiaheng. He was an excellent catch, handled himself with perfect poise, and compared to the other male contestants, liking him was only natural. She’d never denied that.

But Gu Kaiyang wasn’t the type to hold onto something she couldn’t have. Nothing had ever started between them, and Zhou Jiaheng had had zero interest in her. She was a bit down for a few days back then, but as far as she was concerned, she’d turned the page on the whole thing.

She’d explained more than once to Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun that it was ancient history, but those two, overdosed on novels, kept adding extra dramatic scenes for her. It was honestly a bit much.

Though awake, Gu Kaiyang had no desire to get up, wash up, or go out for breakfast. For one simple reason: the moment she laid eyes on her parents and the various aunts who’d come over for the family reunion dinner, the conversation would inevitably circle back to three topics: finding a man, getting married, having kids.

In a big city like Pingcheng, being thirty-five and unmarried wasn’t odd. But back in her hometown, no matter how capable or wealthy she was, she couldn’t avoid the label of "old maiden."

Sometimes, she felt an impulse to skip coming home for the holidays altogether.

Her hometown mostly valued sons over daughters. When she was an only child, her parents hadn’t shown that tendency; they’d even sent her abroad to study design.

She’d always thought her parents were different. But the year she graduated from university, they’d surprised her with a little brother. And every so often, they’d bring up funding her overseas studies, a not-so-subtle reminder that she was expected to support her brother wholeheartedly in the future.

Slowly, her feelings for her family grew inexplicably distant. After starting work, the money she sent home increased, but the phone calls grew fewer. Coupled with the unchanging marriage pressure over the last seven or eight years, their bond wore thinner and thinner, and they found less and less common ground.

Lying flat for another half hour, the noise outside grew louder. The aunts had probably all arrived. Hiding any longer would be rude.

She got up, washed, applied makeup, and scooped up her phone to take a look.

Zhan Xingyi: [Happy New Year's Eve, Editor Gu! /Grin]

Seeing the latest WeChat message from Zhan Xingyi, Gu Kaiyang was slightly surprised.

Zhan Xingyi was a male celebrity. Officially twenty-seven, though she guessed his actual age might be a year or two older. Luckily, he had a boyish charm. After languishing for a few years without much traction, he’d shot to fame with two hit dramas in the past two years, quickly joining the ranks of popular idols.

Their paths crossed occasionally for work. Right before the New Year, on her way back from a Paris trip, she’d run into Zhan Xingyi. He’d swapped outfits with his assistant to evade obsessive fans, only to be recognized by regular fans and stuck in a crowd. Without overthinking it, she’d stepped in to provide cover and then given him a ride back to his hotel.

He’d thanked her profusely. She hadn’t stood on ceremony, asking for a stack of autographed photos on the spot, thinking she could hand them out to the starstruck teenage girls in her family over the holidays.

Staring at Zhan Xingyi’s WeChat message, Gu Kaiyang paused for two seconds. For the sake of the signed photos, she typed back a casual: [Happy New Year’s Eve.]

Zhan Xingyi, upon receiving her reply, began pondering how to continue the conversation. But she didn't give it a second thought. After replying, she tossed her phone aside and went out to "bond" with the relatives.

During the reunion dinner, the round table in the living room was packed with two full tables of people. As the Gu family’s most successful offspring—and a thirty-five-year-old "old maiden"—Gu Kaiyang was naturally the center of attention. The topics orbiting this center were, without exception, focused on relationships and marriage.

Knowing this was coming, Gu Kaiyang had prepared herself mentally. It was just once a year; she'd just have to listen politely and respond appropriately. It wouldn’t kill her.

Her mental preparations were thorough, but she couldn’t withstand some distant relative, who’d overestimated their own importance, pushing their luck and speaking increasingly out of line, using the guise of a "caring elder" to fish for a sense of superiority.

Gu Kaiyang bit her tongue again and again. Finally, when a cousin, so distant they were practically strangers, suggested setting her up with a divorced civil servant pushing forty, she couldn’t help but shoot back with matching sarcasm. "Auntie, do you have some misunderstanding about what 'good conditions' are? His annual salary is less than my monthly bank interest. How are we supposed to live?"

The aunt’s face flushed, then paled. "He’s a decent, honest man!"

Gu Kaiyang gave a light snort. "If I went and found a male student from the polytechnic university across the way and paid him tens of thousands a month to keep me company, I bet he’d be pretty honest too. And younger. And I wouldn’t have to help raise someone else's kids."

"Gu Kaiyang!"

"Where are your manners at your age?"

Her mother put down her chopsticks and scolded her with a stern face.

Gu Kaiyang: "Who needs good manners when you have money?"

The atmosphere at the table turned awkward. Other relatives changed the subject, trying to smooth things over. Having vented her pent-up anger, she no longer felt like staying. She made an excuse and left the table.

She was about to report her glorious battle to her group chat with the girls, but when she opened WeChat, she found several new messages from Zhan Xingyi.

Zhan Xingyi: [I really owe you one for helping me out last time.]

Zhan Xingyi: [By the way, Editor Gu, any plans for New Year’s?]

Zhan Xingyi: [Are you in Pingcheng?]

Gu Kaiyang was no naïve young girl. Staring at these messages for a long moment, she sensed something unusual.

She carefully recalled her previous interactions with Zhan Xingyi.

He was pretty sunny.

Had a bit of puppy-dog charm.

Had a good reputation in the industry.

But he wasn’t even thirty yet.

Gu Kaiyang didn’t know what she was thinking. After a long while, she typed back: [What about you?]

Zhan Xingyi replied instantly: [I'm in Pingcheng.]

Zhan Xingyi: [Spending New Year’s alone this year.]

Zhan Xingyi: [If you’re in Pingcheng, want to grab a drink tonight? Maybe watch the New Year’s Gala?]

Gu Kaiyang stared at the words "watch the New Year’s Gala" for a long time, a smile tugging irresistibly at her lips.

Gu Kaiyang: [Okay.]

After sending the reply, she opened a flight app and booked a ticket back to Pingcheng.

—

New Year’s Eve, 2:00 PM.

The snow had stopped in Pingcheng, leaving a thick, fresh blanket on the ground. Jiang Chun and Tang Zhizhou were in the yard making dumplings with their kids.

Jiang Chun and Tang Zhizhou had welcomed twin boys in the third year of their marriage. Their paternal grandmother had chosen the names: one Tang Jingxing, the other Tang Xingzhi.

Jiang Chun had specifically looked up the origin of the names: "High mountain, one looks up to it; great road, one travels it."

After reading the meaning, she’d grumbled to Tang Zhizhou, "Jingxing pairs with 'great road,' and Xingzhi pairs with 'high mountain.' Did his grandma think 'Tang High-Mountain' didn’t sound as good as 'Tang Xingzhi,' so she didn’t make them symmetrical? But all these different readings for the characters are so awkward. 'Tang Dalu' and 'Tang Gaoshan' are much more straightforward."

Thus, whenever Jiang Chun got angry, she’d yell:

"Tang Gaoshan! If you don’t eat your food right now, you’ll never eat again!"

"Tang Dalu! Turn off the TV right this second! Or you can forget about Ultraman for the rest of your life!"

Brainwashed daily by their demon mother, Tang Jingxing once, in a daze during a first-grade exam, wrote his name as "Tang Dalu." His test paper later got mixed up with another boy’s from a different class who was actually named Tang Dalu, causing quite a stir.

But Jiang Chun showed no remorse. Even while making dumplings for New Year’s, she used her beloved nicknames to spur on her little ones:

"Tang Gaoshan, where are your dumpling pleats? They’re so ugly, Zhuo Bao definitely won’t eat them."

"Tang Dalu, less filling! How is little Zhuo Bao supposed to eat such a huge chunk?"

That's right. Jiang Chun, with her grand foresight, had mentally reserved Zhuo Bao, Ji Mingshu's daughter, as her future daughter-in-law from the moment the girl was born. She dragged her two boys over to see "Little sister Zhuo Bao" every other day to build their presence and encouraged them to compete fairly for the little girl's favor.

But no matter how Jiang Chun pushed, the dumplings her two little masters produced remained a pitiful sight to behold.

On the way to drop off some dumplings at the Ji residence, Jiang Chun sighed mournfully. "Relying on these two, I might never manage to become in-laws with my little dear shushu."

Tang Zhizhou backed the car into the garage, leaned over to unbuckle her seatbelt, and patted her slightly rounded belly with a chuckle. "You can still count on her."

Well… the little one in her belly had been confirmed as a girl. Matching her with Cen Yan wouldn’t be a bad deal either.

Thinking this, Jiang Chun’s eyes curved into happy crescents again.

—

New Year’s Eve, 7:00 PM.

Following tradition, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen spent the afternoon at the Ji residence and returned to Nanqiao Hutong in the evening. The difference now was that any outing required bringing along Little Cen Yan and Little Cen Zhuo.

That evening, Little Cen Zhuo ate two of the dumplings sent by her Little Earth-Goose Auntie, then dozed off with her mouth slightly open. Little Cen Yan and the other Cen family kids hauled a few cardboard boxes from the car trunk, buzzing with excitement to set off fireworks.

Ji Mingshu had eaten a bit too much. She pouted at Cen Sen, then slipped her arm through his for a walk to aid digestion.

Nanqiao Hutong hadn’t changed over the years. It was even included in a plan to restore ancient streets and might remain preserved exactly like this forever.

The snow was deep. Ji Mingshu trudged ahead in her kid-leather boots, leaving deep footprints. Looking at the familiar street scene, she was unconsciously reminded of the past.

"You remember you confessed to me one New Year’s Eve, right on this spot." Stopping before a lamppost at the lane’s entrance, Ji Mingshu suddenly sighed.

Cen Sen held her gently from behind. "I remember."

Ji Mingshu, thinking of something, couldn't help but secretly smile.

"Hmm? What’s so funny?"

Ji Mingshu quickly schooled her expression and cleared her throat seriously. "Nothing… It’s just, I think this proves that whoever falls in love first loses. See, you confessed first, so now I have you wrapped around my finger. So I think we should raise our Zhuo Bao to be a bit more aloof. That way, she won’t be so easily swept off her feet. Don't you agree?"

Cen Sen unconsciously recalled Ji Mingshu’s whispered confession to him while he was pretending to sleep all those years ago. The corner of his mouth twitched upward, but he simply went along with her. "Mm. Right."

—

New Year’s Eve, 12:00 AM.

New Year's fireworks bloomed in clusters in the sky, illuminating Pingcheng's quiet night for a moment, bright as day.

Gu Kaiyang, bundled up with only her eyes visible, clinked glasses with Zhan Xingyi in a small bar, smiling as they wished each other a Happy New Year.

Jiang Chun, Tang Zhizhou, and their two boys sat around the dining table eating steaming dumplings, joining the TV hosts in the final countdown.

Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen built four abstract-looking snowmen in the yard. Zhuo Bao was still asleep. Sensible Little Cen Yan carefully covered her little sister’s ears.

The old year’s contract expired at this moment. A new year’s renewal began.

May we have this day, this dawn, year after year. 

---

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