The night was silent, moonlight spilling onto the lake’s surface, casting a gentle glow.
Mingshui Mansion stood at the center of the lake, surrounded by lush greenery that rustled softly when the wind blew.
Ji Mingshu had a terrible dream.
It was a recurring nightmare she couldn’t escape, and even though she knew she was dreaming, her eyelids felt as if they’d been sewn shut—no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t open them.
Six in the morning, the first light of dawn.
Ji Mingshu finally jolted awake from the dream.
Her silk nightgown was soaked with cold sweat, the smoky pink fabric on her back darkened by the dampness, and a faint sheen of perspiration glistened on her neck and jaw.
She stared blankly at the ceiling. After a few seconds, she moved her fingers and touched her chest.
Thump, thump.
It was beating vigorously.
Still there, still there—thank goodness it was still there.
As her consciousness returned, Ji Mingshu grabbed half of her pillow, folded it over, and covered her face.
She shouldn’t have read that novel about kidney and heart extraction last night. In her dream, she’d somehow concocted a bizarre scenario where Cen Sen dug out her heart and kidneys to cure his ex-girlfriend.
Looking back now, dreams really had no logic—if her heart was removed first, wouldn’t she be dead? How could she still be alive for someone to take her kidneys? And if Cen Sen dared to harvest her organs to treat that little green tea bitch, she’d dig up his family’s ancestral graves first.
But then again, the Cen Sen in her dream was truly terrifying—wearing a white coat and gold-rimmed glasses, performing the surgery himself. What a freak.
Ji Mingshu glanced at Cen Sen and instinctively shifted away.
But seeing him breathing evenly, sound asleep, Ji Mingshu somehow mustered her courage again. She quietly leaned closer, extended her small hand, and suddenly gave him a slap—
"Smack."
It was a light slap, more of a pat, nothing compared to the one she’d delivered at someone’s birthday party the night before.
After patting him, Ji Mingshu prepared to retreat.
But Cen Sen, with his eyes still closed, accurately grasped her wrist.
"What are you doing?" His voice was low, as if roughened by sleep.
"You… you’re awake… there was something dirty."
Ji Mingshu was stunned, completely baffled by how this dog of a man had suddenly woken up. Her heart raced with fright, making her words stumble.
Cen Sen slowly opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. "What dirty thing?" His gaze was calm and knowing.
"…"
Ji Mingshu exerted force, struggling briefly, but failed to break free.
She simply spoke with righteous indignation, telling the truth: "I dreamed you dug out my kidneys. I didn’t sleep well all night—what’s wrong with hitting you once?"
Cen Sen: "…"
His grip loosened slightly, and Ji Mingshu quickly withdrew her hand, even pretending to cover her kidney to prove she wasn’t talking nonsense.
Cen Sen glanced at her. "That’s your stomach."
Ji Mingshu paused, then immediately switched sides. But she soon realized something was off—don’t people have kidneys on both sides? What does it matter which side she covers?
Confused, she felt around left and right, completely forgetting the exact location of her kidneys.
In the end, she simply covered her heart and declared with conviction, "You didn’t just dig out my kidneys—you dug out my heart too! Why were you such a freak in my dream?"
"Didn’t take your corneas?"
Cen Sen mocked lightly.
…?
Ji Mingshu’s mind went blank. She immediately sat up and began searching for her phone.It wasn't on the cabinet, nor under the pillow. Looking up, she found it actually on Cen Sen's bedside table.
"You're such a pervert! Peeking at my phone—don't you know that's a violation of privacy?!" Ji Mingshu was furious, grabbing a pillow to hit him.
"Then I've violated quite a lot."
Cen Sen shifted slightly, his gaze lingering on her chest for a moment.
Ji Mingshu saw black spots before her eyes.
If it weren't for the clear prenuptial asset division agreement, she would have gladly smothered Cen Sen with a pillow right then and inherited his massive fortune :)
After such a noisy argument in bed early in the morning, Ji Mingshu had no mood to go back to sleep. She got up, washed, dressed, and deliberately made loud noises so Cen Sen couldn't sleep peacefully either.
When Cen Sen was finally disturbed enough to get up, she casually flipped her hair and left with flair.
This little maneuver had initially lifted her spirits, but when she opened WeChat to find someone to hang out with, she remembered she still hadn't used the leverage she had over Cen Sen, which made her angry again.
Unwilling to let it go, she searched online and sent Cen Sen a screenshot.
By the time Cen Sen saw the screenshot, he was already sitting in the back seat of his car.
The screenshot showed an online explanation: "Duck. When used as a modal particle, it replaces 'ya,' expressing a simple tendency to act cute... The conveyed emotion is similar to coquettishness or acting cute, hoping to leave an impression of cuteness and childishness on the other person..."
Ji Mingshu: [Mr. Cen, why don't you spend more time online when you have nothing to do? With such isolationist tendencies, I think Junyi will go bankrupt under your leadership sooner or later :)]
Cen Sen scrolled up through their chat history and suddenly chuckled softly.
Both the driver and Zhou Jiaheng instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror at the sound of his chuckle but didn't dare ask anything more.
After working long enough for a boss as taciturn as Cen Sen, everyone's desire for conversation and curiosity had long since faded.
Not long ago, a bodyguard from the following car had left—not because of insufficient pay or hard work, but simply because the young man couldn't stand being in a car full of people who, despite having mouths, couldn't utter half a word all day.
Soon, Ji Mingshu received new messages from Cen Sen.
The first two were his usual routine of piling on after her screenshot.
Cen Sen: [So you wanted to act cute and coquettish. I'll make sure to cooperate next time.]
Cen Sen: [But you're already twenty-five. No need to leave a childish impression on me anymore—I have no interest in molesting children.]
The third message was a link to a celebratory announcement from the Junyi Group's official account.
Clicking in, the article was full of boasting about the group's glorious achievements in the hotel industry, ending with some encouragement for employees and flattery for the leadership.
Of course, to Ji Mingshu, it automatically translated to: "Don't worry, Junyi won't go bankrupt even by the time your grandchildren get married."
Ji Mingshu replied with a "smiling" emoji, found Cen Sen's WeChat profile, and smoothly blocked and deleted him in one swift move.
After blocking him, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen didn't see each other for a week.
Cen Sen had a two-week hotel inspection schedule, flying around domestically and internationally, with at least three meetings a day to ensure he could keep up with the projects he was overseeing.
Ji Mingshu, unable to resist Jiang Chun's persistent pleading, agreed to supervise Little Earth Goose's transformation makeover.Ji Mingshu wasn't entirely sure why she had taken on the kind of task typically reserved for male leads in novels, but since she had, she was determined to fulfill her duties strictly, leaving no room for any trace of tackiness to escape.
"How is it still fifty-eight kilograms?" the strict Teacher Ji demanded, glaring at the scale.
Jiang Chun looked innocent. "I don't know either. I haven't had milk tea or barbecue."
Ji Mingshu circled the ugly, unrenovated room and accurately pulled out three boxes of instant noodles from a corner. "What are these, then? Free gifts with fruit?"
Jiang Chun was remarkably unfazed. She took the noodles from Ji Mingshu's hands and stepped back onto the scale.
"See? My weight hasn't changed. These don't make you fat."
Ji Mingshu glanced at the unchanged number fifty-eight on the scale, choked for three seconds, and for a moment actually thought she had a point.
Fortunately, the quick-thinking Teacher Ji soon spotted the flaw. "Do you eat the noodles dry? Do they just pass right through you without being digested?"
Jiang Chun: "..."
She hadn't managed to talk her way out of it this time.
Teacher Ji continued lecturing, "And you're posting on WeChat Moments and Weibo every day about how you're seriously trying to lose weight. With such a half-hearted attitude, why bother? Why not save your energy to go back to Shencheng and sell fish, casually scrolling through your feed to watch Yan and Little Green Tea tie the knot?"
"I did say I'd lose weight properly, and I'm saying it every day!" Jiang Chun couldn't help muttering under her breath.
But seeing Ji Mingshu's expression that seemed to say, "Say that again and you won't live to see tomorrow's sunset," she immediately changed her tune. "Fine, I was wrong. I won't eat instant noodles anymore."
"Thirty minutes on the elliptical, incline eight. Don't even think about slacking off," Teacher Ji ordered coldly.
Having to use the elliptical every day lately, just hearing the words made Jiang Chun feel a dull ache in her thighs and calves.
But Ji Mingshu was already standing beside the elliptical, her death glare precisely locked on.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chun walked over as if marching to her doom.
Truth be told, Jiang Chun's fierce determination to level up this time was also driven by a burning desire to vent her anger.
That night, when Ji Mingshu slapped Little White Flower, many people present recorded videos or took photos. Although Zhang Er checked everyone's electronic devices and deleted all footage as per protocol before they left, some still slipped through the cracks.
Within days, the incident of Little White Flower being slapped for being a mistress was exposed online.
Now that she was a somewhat recognizable minor celebrity, a small group of people naturally discussed it online.
Somehow, Little White Flower managed to play the victim to Yan, and Yan, as if bewitched, flew into a rage for his beauty. He issued a statement claiming he and Little White Flower were in a legitimate relationship and even went to the Jiang family to warn Jiang Chun against causing any more trouble.
Jiang Chun was so furious she nearly fainted, wishing she could hire trolls and buy trending topics to drag them both through the mud and make them eat shit!
But Mr. Jiang, ever diplomatic and patient, calmly dissolved the engagement and stopped Jiang Chun from stirring up more trouble, saying there would be plenty of ways to make Yan regret it later.
Unlike her father, Jiang Chun was hot-tempered and wished she could make Yan join the "Scumbags Go to Hell" club right now.So she shamelessly clung to Ji Mingshu, begging her to supervise, holding her breath as she aimed for a stunning transformation to completely outshine that little green tea b*tch everywhere. Then she’d find a high-society, wealthy, handsome man like Cen Sen to make Yan regret it so hard his intestines would turn from red to green, then from green to white, until he knelt down and called her daddy!
As for her desire to find a high-society, wealthy, handsome man to crush Yan, her father, Mr. Jiang, was all for it, supporting her with both hands and feet.
She was three months younger than Ji Mingshu. In recent years, her family had struck it rich, and money was the last thing they lacked. Naturally, no one expected her to find a proper job to earn a living.
Her father’s only expectation for her was to marry into a prestigious and distinguished family with great fanfare. Back when she was stubbornly infatuated with Yan, her father wasn’t too pleased. Now that she had come to her senses, he was overjoyed and immediately arranged a family gathering that resembled a blind date for her, scheduled for the following Friday.
Ji Mingshu was also familiar with the match Mr. Jiang had found for Jiang Chun. She had already gotten a photo and shown it to Jiang Chun. The guy was quite handsome—refined and elegant, clearly well-educated.
After a week of intense training, Jiang Chun had begun to look somewhat like a socialite when she kept quiet.
While picking out clothes for Jiang Chun to wear to the gathering, Ji Mingshu lectured her, “The Tang family is highly educated. Don’t talk nonsense when you meet them. If you don’t know what to say, just keep your mouth shut.”
Jiang Chun nodded obediently like a little goose pecking at rice.
On Friday, she wore the battle attire Ji Mingshu had chosen to meet the high-society, wealthy, handsome man.
Ji Mingshu went to bed early on Friday night and forgot to ask Jiang Chun how the blind date went. Early Saturday morning, she received a frantic series of calls from Gu Kaiyang, who wanted to borrow a dress.
Gu Kaiyang’s magazine had invited a popular on-screen couple for a dual cover shoot, but the outfit prepared for the actress suddenly had issues and couldn’t be worn. They urgently needed to find an identical dress to complete the shoot.
The dress was this year’s autumn-winter new release. Ji Mingshu happened to have one, though she had worn it once and didn’t like it much. It had long been banished to the back of her closet, waiting to gather dust. Hearing Gu Kaiyang’s request, she agreed without hesitation.
Gu Kaiyang had originally planned to send a junior assistant to pick it up from her home, but since Ji Mingshu had nothing else to do, she offered to deliver it herself.
On the way to deliver the dress to Gu Kaiyang, Ji Mingshu finally remembered Jiang Chun’s blind date and called to ask about it.
Jiang Chun answered the phone quickly, but her voice sounded listless, and her dejection seemed to travel through the signal to Ji Mingshu’s side.
Ji Mingshu asked, “What’s wrong? Did it not go well?”
“Probably not too well. I don’t know what I did wrong, but whenever that guy looked at me, he always had this… half-smile, and it gave me the creeps.”
Jiang Chun hadn’t gotten out of bed yet and lay there, recounting the details of the blind date to Ji Mingshu.
She recalled everything in great detail, even mentioning what lipstick she wore in the morning, what she ate for lunch, and how many bowls of rice she had.
Ji Mingshu impatiently cut her off, telling her to get to the point.
After a pause, Jiang Chun skipped to the key moment when they were alone together.
“He asked me which painters I liked. How would I know any painters? I only remembered you mentioning that your husband had bought a few paintings by the Eight Great Masters, so I said I quite liked the Eight Great Masters—their paintings are very unique. I didn’t dare say anything more.”
“Wait,” Ji Mingshu thought she had misheard. “You think you said very little?”
“I only said one sentence—how is that too much? Aren’t they unique? I kept it so vague—did I still say something wrong?”"No, do you think the Eight Great Masters are like the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove or the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou? It's 'he,' not 'they'—it's one person, not eight! Didn’t I tell you to keep quiet if you don’t know?"
Ji Mingshu was practically laughing in exasperation.
Jiang Chun was stunned for a moment. "Then why didn’t he correct me and even went grocery shopping with me? Does he not know either?"
"Don’t project your own ignorance onto others!"
Whenever Ji Mingshu got fierce, Jiang Chun would back down.
After humbly admitting her mistake, she recalled what happened during their grocery trip.
"When we got to the fruit section, he mentioned a few fruits I’d never heard of and said he really liked them. Then he asked me what fruits I liked. I thought I couldn’t lose face, so I said I like pears. You know, that really popular one right now—strawberry—I really like it, but we looked all over and couldn’t find that pear..."
...?
Jiang Chun continued to ramble on.
Ji Mingshu, expressionless, interrupted her with a crisp British accent: "Strawberry. Listen carefully, strawberry. Did you even go to elementary school? Strawberry. Strawberry is strawberry, not a pear."
Jiang Chun: "..."
Ji Mingshu: "Please don’t tell anyone you’re my friend. Thanks."
My apologies.
Jiang Chun silently hung up the phone.
By the time Ji Mingshu arrived at the magazine office, she still felt both amused and annoyed.
Because of her relationship with Gu Kaiyang, almost everyone at the magazine knew her. When they saw her, they stood up to greet her.
Ji Mingshu’s mind was still filled with Jiang Chun’s ridiculous remarks, so she responded absentmindedly and didn’t immediately notice the slightly odd expressions on their faces.
When she met Gu Kaiyang in the deputy editor’s office, she found that Gu Kaiyang wasn’t as busy as she had imagined. In fact, as soon as Ji Mingshu arrived, Gu Kaiyang immediately stood up from her chair, carefully offering her tea and water with a cautious expression.
Ji Mingshu took off her sunglasses and asked curiously, "Aren’t you rushing for a shoot?"
Gu Kaiyang: "The group issued an urgent notice saying the shoot is canceled."
Ji Mingshu casually followed up, "Why?"
"Well, the female subject got into trouble. The news just broke..."
Gu Kaiyang’s voice was soft and extremely vague, giving off a particularly guilty vibe.
Ji Mingshu felt puzzled. "What’s wrong with you? You’re acting strange."
Seeing how clueless Ji Mingshu was, Gu Kaiyang wrestled internally, feeling tormented.
But thinking that sooner or later, it would all come out anyway, she braced herself, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and blurted it all out—
"Fine, I’ll tell you. That shameless woman named Zhang Baoshu and your Cen Sen made headlines twenty minutes ago! The news just broke!"
"It hasn’t spread widely yet—we got the notice early. I think you should contact your husband first. There might be some misunderstanding. Please don’t act impulsively!"
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