Having been thwarted by Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu felt thoroughly displeased.
Throughout the journey back, she kept reflecting: what evil had possessed her to add Cen Sen back on WeChat after deleting him? Wasn’t that just asking for trouble? Whether he was added or not didn’t affect her ability to swipe her card and splurge anyway!
Fortunately, Ji Mingshu was the kind of young lady who would never let herself suffer. Since she couldn’t handle Cen's Sensen, dealing with the simple-minded Little Earth Goose was still well within her grasp. So, she tapped into the "Innocent College Girls Unbridled Online Chat Group" and started picking on Jiang Chun.
Ji Mingshu: 【Jiang Chun, come out.】
Jiang Chun: 【Quack!】
The simple-minded goose girl remained blissfully unaware of her fate. Upon receiving the summons from Her Highness, she responded with great enthusiasm and speed.
Ji Mingshu: 【What did you eat today? How many kilograms are left? Send me a video of you stepping on the scale.】
Jiang Chun was still quite a distance from her target weight. Recently, Ji Mingshu had been keeping her under remote surveillance, occasionally launching random surprise checks on her breakfast and lunch.
As for dinner, in Ji Mingshu’s words—
“How can there be such a thing as dinner in a girl’s world? Is cold boiled water too hot to drink? Are fruit salads not delicious enough? If you can’t even give up a measly dinner, how can you become the most dazzling socialite on Chang’an Street? You might as well become a competitive eater and start a mukbang—eat eight meals a day and no one will care. You could even support your family, buy a seaside villa, and reach the peak of life.”
With this deadly triple question, the group quickly fell into dead silence.
Ji Mingshu: 【Come out, don’t play dead.】
Jiang Chun: 【……】
Ji Mingshu swiftly launched a wave of sticker attacks.
After a while, Jiang Chun directly sent a voice message: “Reporting to Teacher Ji, here’s the situation: I ate an apple and drank a cup of black coffee this morning, no sugar or milk added. Around ten o’clock, Tang Zhizhou invited me to an art exhibition, so I brought an apple and set off. On the way to the exhibition, I ate a chicken cutlet—wow, that exhibition was amazing, but I couldn’t understand it at all! Then I didn’t eat anything in the afternoon. Tonight, I only plan to eat an orange to supplement my vitamin C. Am I doing exceptionally well?”
Jiang Chun spoke very quickly. The words “ate a chicken cutlet on the way” were mumbled and indistinct amidst her breathless, rapid-fire sentences. Ji Mingshu had to listen carefully three times before she understood.
Ji Mingshu: 【Chicken cutlet? What nonsense are you talking about? Say it again.】
Jiang Chun: 【Dare not speak up.jpg】
Ji Mingshu: 【Chicken cutlet has nearly 230 calories per 100 grams. A single piece is at least over 200 grams, meaning one piece alone is about 500 calories. Do you have any idea how long you’d have to pedal on the elliptical to burn off 500 calories? And your evasive, mumbling attempt to gloss over this shows an extremely poor attitude! If this were back in school, someone like you would be put on probation, I’ll have you know.】
Jiang Chun: 【Actually, I ate two pieces (muttering quietly)】
Ji Mingshu: 【……?】
Ji Mingshu: 【Is the fat growing on me? Was I the one whose fiancé was stolen? Is the white lotus flaunting her victory in front of me?】
Ji Mingshu: 【This student is probably hopeless.jpg】
Ji Mingshu: 【The last person who made me this angry now has grass growing on their grave tall enough to graze cattle.jpg】Jiang Chun: [Looks like I'll have to induce vomiting to regain my status in your heart :)]
Ji Mingshu: [Shut up, pretty girl.jpg]
Ji Mingshu: [You're no longer my sister.]
Jiang Chun wanted to keep blabbering, but the next second the page displayed: You have been removed from the "Innocent College Girl Uncensored Chat Group" by the group owner.
While Ji Mingshu was busy plucking goose feathers from Jiang Chun, Cen Sen, seeing her being lectured into silence, let out a low, soft chuckle.
This trip to Star City was arranged rather suddenly. Several assistants, including Zhou Jiaheng, had urgent matters to handle and couldn’t accompany him immediately, so the senior management at the Star City branch arranged for two staff members to serve as temporary assistants.
The first two temporary assistants assigned were both women. One was slightly older and relatively calm and steady in her work. The other was probably a decorative vase sent by the branch management to please him—the kind of counterfeit you’d find at Panjiayuan for fifty-five yuan apiece, so fake it couldn’t be faker.
When they met this morning, the counterfeit little vase was dressed to the nines, turning a workday into what seemed like a beauty pageant.
Cen Sen only glanced at her before dismissing her on the grounds of inappropriate attire, telling her to pack up and leave.
When the branch management learned about this, whether they misinterpreted the situation or not, they immediately sent him a male assistant in his twenties.
In the afternoon, the male assistant arrived for work dressed in proper office attire, feeling particularly anxious due to the female assistant being fired that morning.
Seeing that Cen Sen had finished signing contracts and even had time to check his phone, seemingly in a good mood, the assistant quickly brewed a cup of black coffee and carefully brought it into the office.
"Mr. Cen, your coffee."
But before he could finish speaking, an internal call came in. Without even looking up, Cen Sen put down his phone and answered the call.
As the assistant set down the cup, he observed Cen Sen’s expression and took the chance to sneak a glance at his phone screen.
A white-and-green chat interface—it was WeChat.
Wait, that contact name… "Darling Wife"?
The assistant thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. After three seconds of shock, he leaned in closer to get a better look.
Just as he confirmed he hadn’t misread it, a sudden, sharp "crack!" rang in his ears!
The cup and saucer hit the floor, coffee splattered everywhere, and the scene was a complete mess.
The assistant was stunned. Once he regained his senses, he frantically started cleaning up, repeatedly mouthing apologies.
Cen Sen was still on the phone. He only glanced at the assistant and said nothing.
Trembling as he cleaned up the mess, the assistant tried to console himself: The big boss looks so stoic, yet he enjoys flirting with his wife. He must be someone cold on the outside but warm on the inside, with a very interesting soul. Maybe he even likes telling dad jokes. Yeah, that must be it. Don’t be scared, don’t be scared.
When Cen Sen finished the call, the young man tried to apologize again, but somehow, the words that came out were, "Breaking brings peace, breaking brings peace." Then, in a moment of thoughtlessness, he added with a dry laugh, "Mr. Cen, your name has the same pronunciation as that Tang Dynasty frontier poet. What a coincidence, what a coincidence."
Cen Sen looked up, his voice cold and indifferent. "Do I look like someone who enjoys jokes?"
"Get out."
"Don’t come back from now on."
The assistant: "..."It seems the big boss only enjoys revealing his interesting soul to his wife, cold on the outside but warm on the inside. How pitiful :)
When Cen Sen returned to the hotel after finishing work in the evening, Ji Mingshu had already returned as well.
Seeing Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu only glanced up briefly, looking listless and ignoring him.
First, because she was feeling down after losing the battle;
Second, because her period had arrived, limiting her physical condition and preventing her from going out to have fun. Being stuck in the hotel every day, forced to act like a "longing-for-husband stone," felt like playing a captivity game—except it was all captivity and no play.
Ji Mingshu wasn’t someone who could stay idle. After wearing a face mask for a while, she suddenly had a brilliant idea: Since the show wouldn’t start recording until a week later, why not go back to the capital to have some fun first? She could just return to this shabby little place when it was time to record.
So, with her face still covered in a diatomaceous earth mask, she rushed out of the bathroom to discuss it with Cen Sen. Naturally, Cen Sen had no objections, as his opinions were mostly useless anyway.
Early the next morning, Cen Sen took Ji Mingshu to the airport.
On the way, while Ji Mingshu was touching up her makeup, Cen Sen received a phone call.
The call didn’t last long, and his responses were all quite brief, limited to a few interjections like "Hmm," "Ah," "Oh," and "Okay."
But after hanging up, he suddenly instructed the driver to turn around and gave an address: "Go to the Star University faculty apartments."
Ji Mingshu paused, already having a vague premonition. "...Do you have something urgent?"
Cen Sen rubbed his brow, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "I need to go to the An family. Come with me, we’ll have lunch there."
Ji Mingshu: "..."
She had thought that by spending less time in Star City, she could escape the fate of being a spy. Little did she know that, at the last moment, she would still find herself caught in a dilemma, forced to betray one side for another.
She tentatively suggested, "Then... why not drop me off at the airport first before you go? It won’t take too much time, right?"
Five seconds later: "...You can just drop me off, and I’ll call a private car to the airport. It’s not that far anyway."
Ten seconds later: "Fine, whatever."
Ji Mingshu really just wanted to be a high-end vase and had no interest in delving into the cold boss’s backstory. But, as the saying goes, "He who eats another’s bread is bound to their will." Suddenly, she felt as though fate had seized her by the skull.
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