Jiang Chun: [?]
Jiang Chun: Is your husband a pervert? Did he secretly take lessons in "domineering CEO forced love"? And he locked you in???
Jiang Chun: Sorry, but I actually find it a little thrilling...
Ji Mingshu: [?]
— The other party has withdrawn a message.
Jiang Chun: But come to think of it, it's just the door that's locked. Doesn't your elevator go to the underground parking lot? You can leave through the parking lot. I remember someone online even exposed that the parking lot at your Mingshui Mansion is practically a luxury car exhibition!
Ji Mingshu: My house is in the middle of the lake. Do you think there's a luxury car exhibition under the lake?
Jiang Chun: o.o
Jiang Chun: Then why don't you try tying the bedsheets into a long rope and climbing down from the second-floor balcony?
Ji Mingshu: [...]
Talking to this Little Earth Goose was too mind-numbing.
Fortunately, Gu Kaiyang was still a normal person and instinctively suggested she call a professional to pick the lock.
However, the Mingshui Mansion apartment was equipped with a smart security system. If the lock was forcibly picked or the door pried open, an alarm would immediately sound, and the villa security would rush to the scene.
If she absolutely had to leave, it wasn't impossible. Ji Mingshu paced around the living room for a while before finally looking toward the four-panel window on the south side.
Cen Sen had an important social engagement today at Suyuan Garden.
In the alleyways hung inconspicuous antique-style plaques. Behind the dark, small door lay a hidden world.
When he left in the morning, the sky was gloomy, with rain pouring down. By noon, it had mostly subsided, leaving only a light drizzle.
Cen Sen sat drinking tea with someone in a pavilion.
The Mr. Chang he was meeting today was one of the investors in the South Bay Project, a collaboration between Jingjian and Huadian.
Mr. Chang was born in Jiangnan but moved to Hong Kong in his youth and hadn't returned home in many years.
His wife was also from Jiangnan, a typical Jiangnan woman—delicate, gentle, and fluent in the soft Wu dialect.
The two had been together for over twenty years, and their deep affection was well-known. Even during business engagements, he never forgot to mention his wife and children at home.
Noticing the wedding ring on Cen Sen's finger, Mr. Chang chuckled and offered some advice, "Young people like you don't need to be so busy with work. Money is something you can never finish earning, and you can't take it with you. Spend more time with your family, go out for walks, talk about what's on your mind—that's how you can relax the tension in your head."
He lightly tapped his temple, smiled again, and took a sip of tea.
Cen Sen didn't respond but followed suit, lifting his teacup for a sip.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zhou Jiaheng nearby, raising a hand to cover his mouth in a silent reminder. Cen Sen set down his cup, glanced toward the restroom, and nodded slightly with an apologetic expression. "Excuse me for a moment."
Mr. Chang gestured for him to go ahead.
Cen Sen stood up and walked along the rain-dripping corridor toward the restroom, with Zhou Jiaheng discreetly following.
Stopping in a secluded spot, Cen Sen asked, "What is it?"
Zhou Jiaheng lowered his eyes, stepped closer, and whispered something into his ear.
Cen Sen paused briefly, then turned to look at Zhou Jiaheng.
Zhou Jiaheng inwardly groaned, not daring to lift his head.
If he had a choice, he wouldn't have wanted to inform his boss about such a disastrous situation.
—His wife had escaped through the window, and the bodyguards outside hadn't noticed until her family came to coax her into returning, only to find she was gone.
What kind of mess was this?It seems the higher the social standing, the more marriage life tends toward magical realism. Zhou Jiaheng had been by Cen Sen's side for a long time, hearing and seeing much, but it was the first time his own boss had become a party involved in a confinement play.
While Cen Sen remained quiet, Zhou Jiaheng reported in a low voice, "The two Madams of the Ji family have already returned. Chairman Ji and Director Ji are also aware of the matter. They will visit Nanqiao Hutong tonight."
Cen Sen gave an "Mm."
Zhou Jiaheng continued, "Madam only took her phone, ID card, and umbrella—nothing else. Director Ji has already notified Baicui Tianhua and the families close to Madam... So only Miss Gu Kaiyang has taken her in. Miss Gu requested leave from the magazine an hour ago. Both of them are now at Xinggang International. The specific floor and apartment have also been identified. What do you think..."
Cen Sen: "She only took her phone and ID card?"
Zhou Jiaheng affirmed with a "Yes," then, struck by sudden insight, cautiously added, "The surveillance only captured those two items. Her passport and marriage certificate should still be there."
Cen Sen raised a hand to signal him to stop, his eyes darkening, his voice low and hoarse from days without rest. "Leave it for now."
Zhou Jiaheng nodded and said nothing more.
Cen Sen had been awake all night, his mind repeatedly filled with thoughts of Ji Mingshu.
Ji Mingshu making a fool of herself in front of him, Ji Mingshu twirling in a beautiful dress, Ji Mingshu shy in bed, and Ji Mingshu crying uncontrollably... Even when he forced himself to think about work, his thoughts would suddenly and unexpectedly stray.
Reason had always told him he hadn't done anything wrong—it was Ji Mingshu who couldn't handle her personal grudge with Li Wenyin and was acting unreasonably.
But whenever he recalled Ji Mingshu's accusations, he felt as if he had indeed done something wrong, and something terribly so.
As dawn broke, he went to the kitchen to wash rice and cook porridge. He had originally wanted to make a bowl of braised spare ribs, but there were no fresh ribs prepared at home.
While waiting for the porridge to cook, he stood at the central island counter, composing a text message.
He spent a full ten minutes writing, deleting, and revising. In the end, for reasons unknown, he deleted everything with one tap and tossed his phone aside.
Later, when he locked the door on his way out, it was merely a subconscious reaction. He didn't believe a single door could confine Ji Mingshu, nor had he imagined that, to run away from home, she would actually resort to the elementary-school-level act of climbing out a window.
If mistakenly entering the men's restroom and being unable to leave, privately insulting someone and getting caught, and turning around to hand out a condom to the wrong person were the three insurmountable peaks of embarrassment in Ji Mingshu's life, then climbing out a window on a rainy day to run away and, through a series of mishaps, turning herself into a refugee, was likely the insurmountable peak of humiliation in her life.
After climbing out the window of Mingshui Mansion, she stood by the roadside with her small floral umbrella, waiting for a taxi.
But accustomed to a life of luxury with chauffeurs, she had no concept of convenient ride-hailing. After waiting for over half an hour without a taxi in sight, she belatedly fumbled with a ride-hailing app.
After ten minutes of struggling, someone finally accepted her request. However, her location was off. For five minutes, she tried explaining her position to the driver amid wind and rain, only for the driver to grow impatient, mutter under his breath, hang up on her, and unilaterally cancel the ride.
Having suffered such pointless frustration and with the rain pouring down, if Gu Kaiyang hadn't received her message and come to pick her up in time, she would have considered climbing back through the window to wait for clear weather before leaving again.After being taken back to Xinggang International by Gu Kaiyang, Ji Mingshu first took a shower. Emerging from the bathroom, she smelled fragrant, still enveloped in a fresh mist of steam, as if she had come back to life. Even the air, unfiltered by a fresh air system, felt refreshingly clean.
Gu Kaiyang rarely saw her in such a delicate state and couldn’t help feeling a surge of affection. She even plugged in the hairdryer and personally helped Ji Mingshu dry her hair.
Ji Mingshu accepted this without any psychological burden, sitting at the dressing table fiddling with bottles and jars while chattering nonstop, complaining about the driver and Cen Sen.
After all, Gu Kaiyang was a working professional and not born into a wealthy family. Her way of thinking and problem-solving was more realistic than Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun’s.
She understood very well that Ji Mingshu’s marriage involved too many interests and couldn’t be easily dissolved, so she didn’t bring up divorce again. Instead, she asked, “What are you planning to do now?”
Ji Mingshu was puzzled. “What do you mean, what am I planning to do?”
“…”
Gu Kaiyang patiently guided her while combing through her hair. “You can stay here as long as you want, but you said it yourself—you feel like Cen Sen has never respected you. Even your family and Cen Sen’s friends don’t respect you much. But have you ever thought about how you can earn others’ respect if you don’t stand up for yourself?”
Seeing Ji Mingshu’s uncomprehending expression, she added, “Forget it, let’s not talk about long-term things. I’ll just ask you this: You don’t want to use Cen Sen’s money now, and your Second Uncle has made it clear he’s cutting off your financial resources to force you back home. So, where will you get the money to support yourself? How long will the 200,000 Jiang Chun transferred to you last?”
Ji Mingshu paused for a moment, then turned her head and looked innocently at Gu Kaiyang.
“…?”
Gu Kaiyang suddenly had a bad feeling. “You’re not expecting me to support you, are you?”
Ji Mingshu was particularly unapologetic and even gave a cute little nod.
Gu Kaiyang felt her vision darken and began to stammer incoherently. “No, I—you can’t possibly not know how much I earn, right?”
Over the years of struggling and working hard in the capital, buying this loft apartment and her Beetle for commuting had already exhausted all her savings.
After being promoted to deputy editor, she had to send part of her monthly salary to her parents, use another part for daily living expenses, and spend the rest on jewelry and clothes to maintain the glamorous image of a fashion magazine deputy editor. When she did the math, there really wasn’t much left over.
Actually, if it were just about feeding and housing Ji Mingshu, it wouldn’t be a problem. The key issue was that this young lady could casually spend six figures on a single trip to the mall. How could Gu Kaiyang possibly support that? By selling blood? Even selling blood wouldn’t be enough!
Ji Mingshu, however, remained optimistic, resting her chin in her hands. “I think I have appearance fees from the show I recorded? I’m not sure if they’ve been paid yet. Don’t worry, I won’t spend recklessly.”
Years of workplace experience had honed Gu Kaiyang’s intuition. She glanced suspiciously at Ji Mingshu, not truly reassured.
Gu Kaiyang’s apartment had a floor area of 40 square meters, but with a ceiling height of 4.5 meters, the usable space was close to 60 square meters after being converted into a small duplex. Logically speaking, it should have been more than enough for two girls to live in.But Ji Mingshu, accustomed to living in grand mansions and villas, initially found this little nest novel, but after sitting there a while longer, she began to feel cramped and confined.
Moreover, once she recovered from her disheveled state, her latent princess syndrome slowly flared up. "Do you only have La Mer here?"
"...?"
"Can't you use La Mer?"
"Oh, it's fine. It's just that I've been using La Prairie's Platinum lately."
Making do with her daily skincare routine, she then browsed through the perfume shelf.
Gu Kaiyang had nearly a hundred perfumes, which, to be fair, was enough to last a lifetime. Yet after looking through them all, Ji Mingshu couldn't find a single one she liked. After all, since she was eighteen, her perfumes had been custom-blended by perfumers just for her.
As it turned out, Gu Kaiyang's premonition was spot-on. For most of the day, she found herself inexplicably trapped in the hellish mire of being relentlessly criticized by Her Highness.
"Why isn't your carpet wool? Never mind, I'll just buy one now."
"I think your home should at least have an air purification system installed, one of those triple-constant ones. The air in the capital, oh, it'll give you cancer."
"How do you usually drink coffee from a capsule machine? The taste is just... oh, I really can't stand it. Wait, I'll buy you one."
"No, I can't take it anymore. This projector screen is making me so uncomfortable. Don't you have speakers at home? The effect is so poor, your movie membership is wasted."
...
Finally making it to bedtime, Gu Kaiyang was utterly exhausted, but Ji Mingshu tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
At two in the morning, she suddenly sat up in bed and nudged Gu Kaiyang.
Gu Kaiyang, half-asleep, mumbled incoherently, "What now?"
Ji Mingshu said seriously, "I've been thinking for a long time, and I think you should seriously focus on making money, get promoted to editor-in-chief as soon as possible, and then move to a bigger place. At the very least, the neighbors should have better manners than this."
She pointed at the ceiling.
Gu Kaiyang, barely able to keep her eyes open, strained to listen for a while before hearing the faint, muffled sounds of entangled bodies from the bed above.
Too tired to even lift her eyelids, she buried her face in the pillow and said weakly, "I've also been thinking for a long time, and I think there must be some misunderstanding between you and Cen Sen."
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