The stranger's build was strikingly similar to Cen Sen's, and both wore black overcoats.
But upon closer inspection, the styles of their coats were not identical, and the man's ordinary appearance was far from Cen Sen's.
Caught off guard by the sudden delivery of such a large box of condoms, the stranger was momentarily stunned. He glanced down at the item in his arms, then looked up at Ji Mingshu, his face filled with bewilderment. Deep down, he even felt a faint, pleasant surprise, as if luck had unexpectedly smiled upon him.
"Miss, you..."
He had barely begun to speak when a gentle male voice suddenly sounded from the other side. "Sorry, my wife mistook you for someone else."
Cen Sen stepped forward, subtly shielding Ji Mingshu behind him, his expression calm and detached.
He glanced at the "lucky bomb" in the man's hands, took it without changing his expression, and tossed it back into the shopping cart.
The man was taken aback, nodding awkwardly. Feeling embarrassed by his own overactive imagination, he said nothing more.
Earlier, after grabbing the item, Ji Mingshu had hurriedly walked ahead. As Cen Sen followed, the stranger had merged from another aisle.
Seeing the man pushing a cart and moving slowly, Cen Sen had circled around, keeping a distance of one display stand between himself and Ji Mingshu.
Who would have thought that even at such a close distance, Ji Little Vase could suddenly pull off such an inexplicable and bewildering move?
Now, hiding behind Cen Sen, Ji Little Vase was so mortified that her scalp tingled, and she hardly dared to breathe.
As Cen Sen took a step forward, she followed closely behind.
But when she noticed Cen Sen heading toward the manned checkout counter, she couldn't help but tug at the back of his coat and whisper urgently, "Go to self-checkout!"
Cen Sen tilted his head slightly backward.
Ji Little Vase, like a startled bird, also tilted her head, desperately avoiding his peripheral gaze.
Fortunately, Cen Sen neither mocked her nor made a fuss, obligingly heading toward the self-checkout lane.
After scanning the barcodes of the items, Cen Sen took out his phone to pay.
Ji Mingshu was eager for him to finish quickly and take her away from this utterly embarrassing place. Unexpectedly, he suddenly asked, "Did you delete me from WeChat again?"
Ji Mingshu was speechless for several seconds.
Sir, how long ago was that? Are you only noticing it now? If one could unilaterally file for divorce on their own, wouldn’t you only realize you’d lost your wife when the family started asking about grandchildren?
But she couldn’t afford to offend her savior now. Hiding behind him, she quietly shifted the blame, "It must have been a mistake, or maybe WeChat glitched. Such a lousy app!"
Cen Sen: "..."
Stealing a glance at his expression, Ji Mingshu hurriedly took out her phone and sent a friend request. "Added, added. Please accept it."
But Cen Sen didn’t even look, simply putting away his phone and saying calmly, "We'll see."
Ji Mingshu: "…?"
Why did she sense a meaning of "depending on your performance" in those three simple words, "We'll see"?
Cen Sen started walking out, and Ji Mingshu had no time to dwell on it. She stealthily grabbed the hem of his coat again, following closely behind him step by step.
By the time they returned to the hotel suite, it was already ten in the evening. Unsurprisingly, Ji Mingshu immediately dashed into the bathroom.
Cen Sen paid no mind, taking the ingredients straight to the kitchen.
While soaking in the bath, Ji Mingshu played on her phone. Seeing a flood of concerned messages from those in the know on WeChat, she posted a unified response on her Moments: "Thank you for your concern. I’ve safely returned to the hotel. /Heart"
Along with it, she attached a cute and innocent emoji.Turning to the "Three Little Fairies" group chat of respectable women, she stormed in with an aura of menace, starting with "What sins did I, Ji Mingshu, commit in my past life?" and proceeded to vent for a full five pages.
Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun first responded with a synchronized chorus of "hahahaha," teetering on the edge of being kicked out of the group.
Then, with practiced ease, they dissed the production team, Yan Yuexing, and even innocent bystanders—along with the equally innocent Cen Sen—all to appease Ji Mingshu before she could fly into a rage. In short, they adopted the stance of "those who follow the sparrow prosper, those who oppose it perish."
After being so shamelessly placated, Ji Mingshu finally cooled down a bit. Once again, she sincerely felt that only sisters are good in this world, while men are nothing but dogtail grass.
Remembering that Cen Sen still hadn’t added her on WeChat, she couldn’t resist cursing him a few more times in the group.
But Jiang Chun, who had only recently joined the flattery brigade, hadn’t yet mastered the art to perfection.
Moreover, she had always believed that Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen were a loving couple, so she naturally assumed Ji Mingshu’s cursing was just playful banter between spouses.
Thus, she cleverly started praising Cen Sen, going on for two full pages without pause. Ji Mingshu stared wide-eyed, unable to find a chance to interject.
After finishing her praise, this Little Earth Goose, drawing from her own experiences with Tang Zhizhou, sincerely sent a voice message suggesting, "Fighting is affection, cursing is love. We all know you really like your husband, but it’s fine to curse him in the group chat. In front of him, though, you should try to show your gentle side. Otherwise, he might not understand this unconventional way of expressing affection, you know? Because I’ve realized men’s thought processes are really simple—they can’t grasp this roundabout way of expressing feelings."
"..."
Who likes him?
Isn’t it your Little Earth Goose brain that’s too complicated?!
I’m just cursing him, cursing him, cursing him!!!
Ji Mingshu: 【Shut up!】
Jiang Chun was momentarily stunned and hadn’t yet processed what happened when she noticed the group name had changed to "Two Little Fairies and One Little Earth Goose."
Perhaps it was the steam from the bathroom or the high temperature, but Ji Mingshu felt a bit hot.
She stared at the line of text converted from the voice message—"We all know you really like your husband"—unable to look away.
After a long while, she forced herself to flip her phone screen down and set it aside, stood up, dried herself off, and hurriedly left the bathroom.
In the short time Ji Mingshu was bathing, the kitchen had already begun to emit the fragrant aroma of simmering porridge.
She curled up in the living room, absentmindedly watching a palace drama for a while, then wrestled with her thoughts for what felt like a hundred rounds before finally padding barefoot into the kitchen.
"So, what kind of porridge are you making? It smells pretty good."
She stood with her hands behind her back, her shoulders and back slender and straight, exuding the air of a princess on an inspection tour.
"Vegetable and shrimp."
Cen Sen continued preparing ingredients without even looking up.
Ji Mingshu tiptoed forward to peek, then mustered the courage to ask awkwardly, "Well, do you need my help? Like... is there anything I can do?"
"No."
Concise and direct, shattering fragile hearts in one sentence.
"..."
Cen's Sensen is being gentler today—the top of the world’s three great illusions:)
Ji Mingshu was so choked up she turned to leave immediately, but Cen Sen suddenly stopped what he was doing, turned around, and said, "If you’re that idle, why don’t you go revise your design drafts?"Ji Mingshu stopped in her tracks. "What's wrong with my design?"
This time, she had completed the design quickly, finalizing the theme and renovation plan within two or three days after the program team provided the actual house to be remodeled.
The male and female homeowners had met through a musical film, which featured a concluding song for the entire story called "Epilogue"—the very theme of Ji Mingshu's design this time.
It perfectly matched the homeowners' request for a light retro style and carried the beautiful meaning of moving from the prelude to the epilogue. Inspired, Ji Mingshu had worked swiftly, and the final rendered effect was flawless. Even Yan Yuexing from their team couldn't find a single fault after seeing the renderings.
So what was the problem?
Cen Sen wiped his hands and said leisurely, "You have many design concepts, and your renderings carry a strong academic style. But the homeowners are ordinary people. A home is not an exhibition hall—practical functionality should always come first."
In short, it was impractical and unlivable.
Ji Mingshu opened her mouth, instinctively wanting to argue, but for a moment, she couldn't figure out where to start.
She was wearing a smoky pink silk nightgown, barefoot, leaning against the kitchen doorway. She stood there foolishly for ten minutes, looking pitiful, small, and helpless.
Cen Sen said, "Stop thinking about it. Have some porridge first."
Ji Mingshu snapped back to reality and finally caught the savory aroma of the vegetable and shrimp porridge.
Her thoughts had been interrupted repeatedly along the way, her stomach alternating between hunger and fullness until it was now completely empty. Temporarily setting aside other concerns, she followed Cen Sen to the dining room, her eyes fixed on him longingly.
But even on flat ground, she suddenly slipped as if possessed, falling backward with a thud and landing heavily on the floor.
Cen Sen turned around from the dining table, looking at her as if she were a little madwoman.
She was dazed from the fall.
Sitting on the floor with her hands propped behind her, her tailbone felt numb and painful, and the pain inexplicably seemed to spread all the way to her skull.
The most terrifying part was that Cen Sen simply stood there watching her for a full minute, as if confirming that she would never be able to walk independently in this lifetime. Only then did he step forward and, with a hint of pity, scoop her up in his arms.
Cen Sen asked, "Are you so hungry you've lost your intelligence?"
Ahhh! Take away your filthy hands stained with blood! I don't need your help—I can stand up from where I fell, strong and independent!!!
Ji Mingshu remained independent in spirit, but physically, she could only be a humble little vase, clinging tightly to Cen Sen's neck. Even as her butt trembled in pain, she kept her face expressionless.
Cen Sen suddenly chuckled.
Ji Mingshu's fragile heart shattered again. "What are you laughing at? Did you just laugh?"
Cen Sen neither admitted nor denied it.
Ji Mingshu said sadly, "I can't live with you anymore. Our birth charts might be incompatible."
As she spoke, she reached out and pinched Cen Sen's cheeks, doing so in an especially intimate manner, pulling them to both sides.
She kept pinching all the way to the bedside before realizing what she was doing, then hastily let go in a fluster.
Cen Sen didn’t seem inclined to make an issue of it. He placed her on the bed, laying her face down horizontally.
Ji Mingshu instinctively raised her head.Cen Sen didn't know what came over him either. Leaning slightly forward, he suddenly pinched her cheek in return, his voice low and deep, still carrying a slight hoarseness from jet lag. "Then who do you think you can live with?"
Ji Mingshu fell silent.
The two of them stared at each other in this particularly strange posture.
Their hearts, as if by agreement, gave a heavy thump.
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