The private room fell silent for three seconds. Cen Sen, Jiang Che, and Zhao Yang all turned to look at Shu Yang. Cen Sen and Jiang Che were relatively composed, but Zhao Yang’s disdain and contempt for him were practically written all over his face.
Yet Shu Yang’s skin was thicker than the silt at the bottom of the Yellow River. Even now, he stubbornly pretended nothing had happened, turning around with an exaggerated look of surprise. “Oh, Xiao Shu, you’re finally here! Come, come, let your big brother take a look. Where did this stunning beauty come from?”
Ji Mingshu offered a forced smile and swung her handbag, swiping it over his head.
He was a master at putting on an act and immediately started wailing, “Ouch, ouch!”
“Shut it. I haven’t even complained about your greasy hair dirtying my bag yet, so what are you yelling about?” Ji Mingshu felt like rolling her eyes.
These two, whose names both contained “Shu,” had always been talkative since childhood, and everyone was long used to it. As they bickered back and forth, the others wisely stayed out of it.
Jiang Che played a pair of queens as if nothing had happened, and Cen Sen followed with a pair of kings. Zhao Yang, meanwhile, tapped the edge of the table and said, “Pass.”
After thoroughly berating Shu Yang from head to toe and, as usual, achieving an overwhelming victory in their verbal sparring, Ji Mingshu sat down directly beside Cen Sen.
Cen Sen gestured toward the playing cards, and she naturally took them over. With unshakable confidence, she even peeked at Jiang Che and Zhao Yang’s cards before rearranging the order of play accordingly.
“Nine, ten, jack, queen, king—a straight; three fours with two singles; a pair of fives. Done, I’m out.”
“…Damn.” Zhao Yang tossed his cards down and leaned forward to take a closer look. “Who can handle this?”
It had been years since he’d seen such a playstyle, and he felt a bit of long-lost confusion.
Ji Mingshu had already started tallying the wagers. “You owe one bag, and you owe three.”
“Why do I owe three?” Jiang Che lazily lifted his eyes to ask.
Ji Mingshu replied, “He’s at least a white coat serving the people and saving lives now, while you’re just an unscrupulous bourgeois exploiting the common folk. What’s wrong with you owing three?”
Zhao Yang suddenly felt as if he’d gotten a bargain.
Ji Mingshu continued, making her case to Jiang Che with conviction, “Besides, your buddy just said that whoever earns more money should contribute more to the golden canary. You owing three is perfectly fair.”
Jiang Che dismissed it. “Oh, he’s not my buddy.”
…?
“Did I really say that?” Shu Yang was baffled, turning to look at Jiang Che. “Seriously, three bags—is that worth turning your back on me?”
Jiang Che replied, “Then you buy them.”
“Fine, I’ll buy them. I’ll buy ten!”
Ji Mingshu’s expression shifted as quickly as flipping a page, and she smiled, resting her chin on her hand. “Thank you, Brother Yang.”
Shu Yang never thought before boasting, and now, as he came to his senses and remembered the price range of Ji Mingshu’s bags, his heart bled.
He turned to provoke Cen Sen, hoping to recoup some of his losses. “Brother Sen, how have you been mistreating her? Not even buying her bags, and now you’re scheming to swindle ours?”
Cen Sen remained entirely unfazed, replying calmly, “Xiao Shu is quite frugal and good at managing the household.”
Ji Mingshu promptly offered a smile that said, “A virtuous woman, frugal and good at managing the household.”
Shu Yang: “…”
Okay, you two are a perfect match. Please lock yourselves away and stop tormenting decent folks :)
At that day’s gathering, Ji Mingshu managed to swindle over a dozen bags out of everyone. They all indulged her, and after not seeing her for so long, they enjoyed teasing her.
Ji Mingshu, in turn, was stepping in for Cen Sen, making up for the lack of liveliness he brought to the atmosphere.Everyone present was intelligent, and throughout the entire gathering, no one brought up the minefield that was "Li Wenyin."
Li Wenyin was Cen Sen's ex-girlfriend, with a rumored relationship lasting three years, though the actual tenure was only three months.
In truth, an ex-girlfriend wasn't necessarily a taboo topic, but the key issue was that Li Wenyin and Ji Mingshu had never gotten along. Since their middle school days, they had been rivals, causing plenty of unpleasantness.
Moreover, while Li Wenyin appeared carefree, she would occasionally make a show of her lingering feelings for Cen Sen.
In the first year of Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen's marriage, Li Wenyin gained immense popularity on Weibo with a story about her first love—"My Ex Got Married." Although she later deleted the post under the pretext of "not wanting to disturb his life," it had already been widely reposted online and was still occasionally referenced to this day.
On the way home after the gathering, Ji Mingshu remained silent the entire time. She stared out the window, checked her phone, and glanced at the rearview mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of any subtle changes in Cen Sen's expression through any reflective surface she could find.
But Cen Sen showed no expression, let alone any changes. He fell asleep as soon as he got in the car, yet he woke up the moment they arrived home, as if his mind were equipped with radar.
For some reason, Ji Mingshu felt incredibly irritated and had no desire to speak to him.
Cen Sen remained completely oblivious to her mood. He had originally planned to conserve his energy for some marital intimacy upon returning home, but after taking a shower, he found Ji Mingshu already fast asleep. He didn't think much of it, simply postponing their plans for another day.
The magazine photoshoot that had been delayed due to the Zhang Baoshu incident had now resumed. Zero Degree had replaced the original pair with a popular on-screen couple, but they still needed to borrow the dress.
Ji Mingshu now found the dress utterly distasteful and would have gladly given it away, so she agreed without hesitation.
On Thursday morning, she took Jiang Chun with her to Zero Degree, hoping to expose this Little Earth Goose to a bit of fashion influence.
The on-screen couple being photographed that day were currently trending celebrities, having risen to fame after starring together in an idol drama. They had a large number of solo fans as well as devoted shippers, and the frequent clashes between these factions had turned the two, who had little notable work to their names, into major stars.
"Move the lighting a bit closer to A-Che... Yes, just like that."
Gu Kaiyang stood in the studio, dressed in a stylish little suit, arms crossed as she directed the shoot. She had been in her new role as deputy editor for some time now, and her authoritative demeanor was growing more pronounced by the day.
Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun sat in a corner of the studio, watching the shoot while whispering to each other.
Ji Mingshu: "What were you up to last night? I was going to ask you to watch a movie, but I couldn't get through to your phone."
Jiang Chun: "Couldn't get through? Maybe the signal was bad. Tang Zhizhou took me to see a movie last night."
Ji Mingshu turned to look at her. "After the Eight Great Masters and strawberry incident, Tang is still willing to talk to you?"
Jiang Chun: "What do you mean? Even though I might not be the most cultured, I'm sincere, okay? After you told me, I sent him a WeChat message apologizing, and he said it was fine. He even called me cute."
Ji Mingshu looked at Jiang Chun with an expression that seemed to say, "Is he blind?"Jiang Chun forcefully praised herself for a moment, then remembered the subtle flirtation from watching a movie with Tang Zhizhou last night. Her ears flushed slightly, and she couldn’t help but swat at her with her goose-like claw, forcibly changing the topic. “And you’re talking about me? What’s really going on with Cen Sen and that low-tier little green tea? I didn’t even see how it started or unfolded—how did it already reach the conclusion?”
Ji Mingshu: “I already said it was just a misunderstanding. I didn’t even remember the girl’s name, so what’s the point of asking me?”
Asking Ji Mingshu about this was indeed useless. From start to finish, she only understood one thing: Cen Sen hadn’t cheated. As for the rest, she didn’t know and didn’t care.
However, Gu Kaiyang was very clear about the whole story. After the photographer took over the shoot, she gave Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun a bit of an “extra chapter” on the matter, roughly explaining how Zhang Baoshu had stirred up trouble and how her downfall had been particularly brutal.
“She was quite a promising young girl, but now she’s been completely blacklisted. Why did she have to provoke Zhang Qi, of all people? That young master holds grudges like no other.”
“Besides, a girl like her has tasted the spotlight. Asking her to leave the industry and find a nine-to-five job is impossible. Her path forward is going to be very difficult, that’s for sure.”
Jiang Chun thought of the little white lotus who had snatched Yan Yu away and felt not an ounce of sympathy. She simply commented, “She brought it on herself.” After a brief pause, she asked about something else, “By the way, what about that Shi Qing you mentioned?”
Gu Kaiyang raised an eyebrow and made a throat-slitting gesture.
Jiang Chun: “Fired?”
Gu Kaiyang: “Yeah. Speaking of which, I still find it strange. That day’s incident was ultimately a personal grudge between her and me. Shu said it wasn’t her doing, so I don’t know why the company fired her.”
Jiang Chun suddenly had a wild idea and looked at Ji Mingshu. “Could it have been your husband?”
“…?”
“Girl, have you been reading too many romance novels?”
Jiang Chun was stunned by her incredulous expression and fell silent for a moment, also starting to doubt the reasonableness of her own deduction.
As for Ji Mingshu, hearing Jiang Chun’s suggestion, she first thought it was absurd. But upon careful consideration, she realized it wasn’t entirely impossible.
Taking advantage of the break, she sent Cen Sen a WeChat message.
Ji Mingshu: 【A few days ago, I got into an argument with a woman at Gu Kaiyang’s magazine. That woman got fired.】
Ji Mingshu: 【Sneakily observing.jpg】
She waited distractedly for Cen Sen’s reply, but he seemed busy, and there was no response for a while.
During this time, Jiang Chun went to the restroom, and Gu Kaiyang stepped out to take a phone call before returning.
When she came back, Gu Kaiyang’s expression was a bit odd.
Ji Mingshu looked up and, seeing her expression, was reminded of the fear she felt a few days ago when she was notified about the “affair.” “What’s wrong? You look weird again.”
Jiang Chun had just returned as well, wiping her hands while adding fuel to the fire. “Are you constipated?”
“No, I just got a notification about a feature interview.”
“Who? Her husband? Showing off their love in a magazine?”
Jiang Chun, with her romance-novel brain, pointed at Ji Mingshu without a second thought.
Gu Kaiyang paused. “His ex-girlfriend.”
Jiang Chun & Ji Mingshu: “…”
The atmosphere suddenly turned subtle and awkward.
To ease the awkwardness, Jiang Chun once again voiced a question from the depths of her soul: “Then… isn’t your Zero Degree a men’s fashion magazine? Why are you interviewing a woman?”“But isn’t there a woman on the cover of this issue?”
Gu Kaiyang pointed backward before continuing, “I’ll think of something. This feature doesn’t necessarily have to be about Li Wenyin, but she should be returning in the next couple of days.”
She could find a way to decline this interview subject, but she really couldn’t stop someone from flying back to the embrace of the motherland.
Just then, Ji Mingshu’s phone buzzed.
Cen Sen: 【I did it.】
Ji Mingshu paused briefly as she read the three short words.
Cen Sen: 【Are you at the magazine office?】
Ji Mingshu: 【Nods obediently.jpg】
Cen Sen: 【Then I’ll pick you up after work.】
Looking at the brief exchange on her screen, Ji Mingshu felt a little happy for some reason.
She couldn’t help but curl the corner of her lips upward. Then, she straightened her posture, smoothed her hair, and said to Gu Kaiyang with an air of noble indifference, “No need. Let’s do the interview with her. I want to see what kind of flower she can talk her way into blooming.”
Jiang Chun silently sipped her milk beside them. Having spent enough time with Ji Mingshu, she couldn’t help but feel the subtext was, “If this little bitch dares to talk nonsense, I’ll make sure she regrets it.”
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