Although she kept telling herself not to get angry, anyone who could remain calm and smiling after encountering such a thing would probably have to be the reincarnation of the ever-smiling Maitreya Buddha, radiating an aura of pure serenity.
For a few seconds, Ji Mingshu even wanted to shove her phone in Cen Sen’s face and let him see how his astonishingly white lotus ex-girlfriend was putting on a show of shameless antics.
But a sliver of remaining reason told her that since Cen Sen had said he wouldn’t dwell on the past, she shouldn’t take her anger out on him for no reason.
Maybe Li Wenyin was counting on her hot temper to cause a scene with Cen Sen, deliberately using this trick to drive a wedge between them as a couple, and was now waiting to watch the drama unfold.
Yes, that’s exactly it.
Don’t fall for it, absolutely don’t fall for it!
But she was really, really angry!!!!
Ji Mingshu picked up a cushion, buried her face in it for a moment, then kicked Cen Sen aside with a thud, straightened up, and sat upright, her whole body seething with anger, teetering on the edge of an outburst and a confrontation.
Normally, Ji Mingshu was straightforward, but whenever it involved her nemesis Li Wenyin, she became almost obsessive, holding onto many grievances she couldn’t voice aloud.
Outside, elementary school hadn’t let out yet, but the nearby small shops had opened, and street vendors were gradually setting up their stalls.
“Stop the car!” Ji Mingshu suddenly called out, looking at the stalls outside. “I’m hungry.”
The driver was quick-witted and immediately chimed in, “Madam, what would you like to eat? I’ll go buy it.”
Ji Mingshu: “No need, I’ll go myself.”
As soon as she got out of the car, Ji Mingshu headed straight for a fried food stall and ordered some chicken strips.
Fried food stalls, like stationery shops, were a staple of life outside schools of all sizes. Aside from the soaring prices and the QR codes pasted on the carts, everything looked just as she remembered from her childhood.
The vendor moved deftly, picking up some chicken strips from the metal tray and placing them on the scale. He’d taken a bit too much, so he picked up two pieces from the small scale, gave them a light shake, and tossed them back onto the tray.
This series of practiced and indifferent actions seemed to tell Ji Mingshu: Give up, my stall doesn’t accept payment with good looks.
Actually, Ji Mingshu only started strictly controlling her diet in her second year of high school. As a child, she loved junk food—Sprite, Coke, potato chips, spicy strips, fried snacks, and barbecue—they were all her favorites.
Back in middle school, she’d relied on her youth and fast metabolism, going out for late-night snacks with her girlfriends every now and then.
But during the summer after her first year of high school, her class organized a final gathering before splitting into different tracks. She’d eaten a lot of heavily oiled and spicy skewers mixed with beer, and after returning home, her stomach hurt so badly she thought she was dying. She kept running to the bathroom and was eventually diagnosed by the family doctor with acute gastroenteritis, requiring three full days of IV drips.
At the time, her aunt scolded her while feeling sorry for her, and her cousins gathered around, nagging incessantly. Terrified by these “Tang monks,” she had no choice but to raise four fingers and swear, “I’ll never eat junk food again, or else I’ll marry an ugly monster!”
Her youngest cousin, sharp-eyed and serious, insisted she put one finger back down and swear again.
Feeling guilty, Ji Mingshu weakly repeated the oath, finally earning herself a temporary reprieve. But once she was alone in the room, the silence felt overwhelming, and the pain in her stomach grew even more pronounced.She curled up in bed, tears welling in her eyes as she rubbed her stomach, thinking back to the party where the girls in her class had said, "Li Wenyin actually managed to hook Cen Sen" and "What luck." Tossing and turning, she couldn’t sleep at all.
In her memory, that was probably the most unbearable night of her life so far.
When she made the vow, she hadn’t taken it seriously. But after that night, she developed an inescapable, deep-seated fear of gastroenteritis. Just the sight of junk food would make her heart tremble with lingering dread, and she truly ended up keeping her promise, turning over a new leaf and starting afresh.
In the frying oil, chicken strips coated in breadcrumbs sizzled with golden bubbles. Ji Mingshu’s thoughts returned to the present, and she tapped the glass counter again. "Add a sausage."
At some point, Cen Sen had already followed her over.
He glanced at Ji Mingshu but didn’t see any particularly strong desire for fried food in her eyes.
The food was quickly fried. Ji Mingshu held the chicken strips and handed the sausage to Cen Sen. "Hold this for me."
Cen Sen didn’t take it for a while.
For some inexplicable reason, she suddenly poked the sausage toward his face and challenged him with a hint of sourness, "Didn’t you ever hold snacks for your girlfriend when you were in school?"
Cen Sen finally took the bamboo skewer from her hand and casually recalled, "No."
"..."
Who would believe that?
If he never held snacks, then what on earth was Li Wenyin reminiscing about?
Feeling annoyed, Ji Mingshu walked toward a beef noodle shop, but Cen Sen spoke up from behind to remind her, "The one further ahead tastes better."
"How do you know?"
Cen Sen’s voice was calm. "I used to study here."
...?
Ji Mingshu froze for two seconds before turning to look at the elementary school across the street.
—Star City Normal University Second Affiliated Elementary School.
The red paint on the school’s nameplate was peeling, and like the old Sentry Post, it seemed it hadn’t been renovated in years. The road inside the school was shaded by lush trees on both sides, making it harder to see the further in you looked. Only the distant brick-red teaching building was faintly visible.
When Cen Sen used to live in Star City, did he study here?
Somehow, what had seemed like an ordinary little street suddenly took on a familiar, nostalgic flavor of bygone days, making her inexplicably want to learn more.
Even after following Cen Sen into the noodle shop, Ji Mingshu was still carefully looking around. She found it hard to imagine that Cen Sen, in his childhood days as a little sprout, had lived here for a long time.
Cen Sen thought she was acting like a princess who couldn’t accept such a simple environment, so he even laid two tissues on the plastic stool. Little did he expect that Ji Mingshu didn’t even notice. After looking around, she pulled out a small plastic stool and sat down on her own.
The shop owner sized up Cen Sen, his eyes seeming to say, "What’s the deal with a grown man being more particular than this pretty girl?" Cen Sen, however, remained unfazed. He sat down and ordered directly, "Two bowls of beef noodles, mildly spicy."
Ji Mingshu corrected him, "I don’t want beef. I want the three-delicacies version."
"Got it."
The elementary school students hadn’t been let out yet, so the owner quickly prepared their noodles in just a few minutes.
The owner was an honest man, and his differential treatment was quite obvious. Cen Sen’s bowl was a normal portion, but Ji Mingshu’s bowl of three-delicacies noodles was piled high with toppings like a small mountain.Unfortunately, Ji Mingshu’s small appetite was destined to betray the owner’s generous offer of extra portions at no extra cost. Having controlled her diet for so long, both her body and mind had developed a habit. After just a few chicken strips, the calorie count began spinning rapidly in her mind.
Unable to eat more, she idly stirred the contents of her bowl with her chopsticks.
Perhaps feeling the atmosphere was too quiet, she asked Cen Sen while stirring, “Did you often come to this shop to eat when you were in elementary school?”
Cen Sen added some chili to his bowl. “Not often. I usually ate at home.”
Mentioning home inevitably reminded Ji Mingshu of Chen Biqing and An Ning. After that one meeting, Cen Sen seemed to have cut off contact with them. Was he planning to just ignore them?
Resting her chin on her hand, Ji Mingshu said casually, “I saw on social media that An Ning seems to have started school.”
Cen Sen glanced up, and for some reason, his train of thought took a sudden turn as he asked, “Are you asking whether Cen Yang has returned?”
“...?”
“I wasn’t.”
Ji Mingshu instinctively denied it, feeling utterly bewildered.
Heaven knows, she was exhausted like a dog every day lately—how could she possibly have the time to think about the blurry-faced Cen Yang?
Whether Cen Sen believed her or not, he didn’t respond.
Ji Mingshu snapped out of her confusion and realized he had abruptly shifted the topic to Cen Yang to avoid discussing family matters. She didn’t press further.
After all, this matter had little to do with her, and she knew she wasn’t capable of acting as a mediator to repair the messy family bonds in her plastic husband’s household.
The next moment, she remembered something that did concern her.
That interview with Li Wenyin was truly heartfelt, overflowing with nostalgia for their past romance. Was three months really that precious? Had she never seen a man before? This cold, hard, stinky rock—only a white lotus like Li Wenyin would treasure it so dearly!
The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt, and an overwhelming urge to stir up trouble took hold.
Abruptly, she picked up the vinegar bottle and poured nearly half of it into Cen Sen’s bowl, staring at it with feigned sincerity as she said, “I think adding some vinegar makes it taste better.”
Cen Sen paused his chopsticks but didn’t say much. He simply swapped their bowls.
By the time they left the noodle shop, the sun was already setting. Across the street, elementary school students were either craning their necks looking for their parents or lining up to board the school bus.
Standing by the roadside, Ji Mingshu suddenly acted like a child herself, tugging at Cen Sen and refusing to move.
Cen Sen asked, “What’s wrong?”
“My feet hurt. I can’t walk.”
First warning—Ji Xiaoque was starting to stir up trouble.
Cen Sen glanced down. “Then I’ll call the driver to pick us up.”
Ji Mingshu replied, “This is a one-way street. The car would have to make a huge detour to turn around here.”
She didn’t even have a driver’s license, yet she knew traffic rules quite well.
Ignoring her, Cen Sen prepared to dial the number.
But she covered his phone with her hand and said righteously, “Why do you always like to trouble others?”
“...”
Cen Sen gave her a look that said, “Anyone else could say that, but not you.” After a moment of silence, he asked, “Then what do you want? Should I carry you?”
Ji Mingshu crossed her arms and glanced around, deliberately putting on a nonchalant air as she half-squinted her eyes. “When I was little and couldn’t walk, Cen Yang gege would always carry me.”
“...”
Cen Sen continued searching for the driver’s number.
“...?”
What kind of shitty attitude was this?She wasn't really going to make him carry her in front of a bunch of elementary school students, but he could at least show a little of the gentle care expected of a husband. Hadn't he carried Li Wenyin before? Why couldn't he carry her!
The more Ji Mingshu thought about it, the angrier she became, and without thinking, she blurted out, "I wonder when Brother Cen Yang will be back. He's been smart since he was little, and he must have done well abroad all these years. Honestly, I haven't met many boys as outstanding as him, and he's especially kind-hearted—when we were kids, he used to feed all the stray cats around the neighborhood."
Just as Ji Mingshu was chattering away, making things up, the driver had already been notified and pulled the car over.
Cen Sen stepped forward to open the car door but paused suddenly. He turned back to look at Ji Mingshu and said flatly, "He has many traditional Chinese virtues. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of them."
Ji Mingshu: "...?"
Before she could react, the car door slammed shut with a bang.
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