With Cen Sen's "baby," Ji Mingshu was finally satisfied. Like someone who had just drunk honey, she nestled obediently in Cen Sen's arms, causing no further trouble, though the corners of her lips remained stubbornly upturned.
That night, there were no more aftershocks in Star City, and the two slept peacefully.
Early the next morning, Cen Sen held a three-way video conference with headquarters and the hotel managers in Star City to get a closer understanding of the measures each hotel had taken in response to the earthquake.
Junyi's hotels all followed a high-end route, with earthquake resistance standards set very high from the beginning of construction.
Moreover, the hotels were well-prepared, conducting quarterly training drills for fire safety and earthquakes, ensuring the staff were highly trained.
After the earthquake the previous night, tasks such as structural self-inspections and customer guidance and reassurance had been carried out in an orderly manner from the very first moment.
With this understanding, the headquarters executives felt much more at ease, and Cen Sen didn't stay in Star City any longer.
Back in the capital, people had long been worried and kept urging them to return as soon as possible. He adjusted his work schedule and took Ji Mingshu back to the capital that afternoon.
On the way back, Ji Mingshu spent the entire time replying to WeChat friends who had sent messages the day before to check on her.
Seeing her not look up for over half an hour, Cen Sen glanced over.
As luck would have it, his glance landed on a familiar note: Li Che.
Li Che: "Mingshu, are you okay? It looked like you were in Star City from your WeChat Moments a couple of days ago?"
Ji Mingshu: "I'm fine, thanks for your concern. /Cute"
Cen Sen: "Are you close with Li Che?"
Ji Mingshu didn't even look up. "Not close."
Cen Sen pondered slightly. "If you're not close, you shouldn't reply with that emoji. The first one would be more appropriate."
"The first one? Smile?" Ji Mingshu looked up, slightly surprised. "Don't you know what 'smile' means?"
Cen Sen's expression was calm, as if to say, "Smile means smile, what else could it mean?"
Ji Mingshu paused. "You probably don't use WeChat for work, right?"
"Not really. I mostly only chat with you on WeChat."
"That's good." Relieved, she lowered her head again to continue replying.
Cen Sen adjusted his tie, glancing at her phone screen out of the corner of his eye while looking at his tablet.
In that short moment, she and Li Che had exchanged three or four more messages.
He couldn't help but say in a low voice, "Mingshu, you're married now. You should keep your distance from male celebrities like him. Don't give people room for imagination or cause unnecessary misunderstandings."
"...?"
What room for imagination? What misunderstandings? Isn't it just human nature for someone to check in after seeing earthquake news?
Suddenly, she thought of something and leaned in with interest. "Are you jealous?"
Cen Sen: "I'm just kindly reminding you, so you don't get too close to male celebrities and end up trending on social media again, facing online harassment."
"I see..."
Ji Mingshu deliberately drew out her words and nodded slowly.
Just then, Li Che sent a new WeChat message.
Ji Mingshu, quick as lightning, covered her phone slightly against her abdomen and deliberately turned to the side, preventing Cen Sen from catching a glimpse.
Cen Sen: "..."
Whatever the message was, Ji Mingshu held her phone and typed continuously, smiling happily.
Cen Sen watched her for a while but couldn't hold back. Expressionlessly, he took the phone from her hand.Li Che's message read: 【That puts my mind at ease. You can rest well once you're home.】
But Ji Mingshu hadn't replied yet; the message was still in the input box: 【You! Are! Just! Jealous!】
Cen Sen: "..."
Ji Mingshu tilted her head triumphantly and gave him a victory "V" sign.
He calmly lowered his gaze, deleted the message in the input box, and typed a new one—
【Thank you for your concern for my wife. I will take good care of her.】
Send.
Ji Mingshu never expected him to pull such a move and hurriedly snatched the phone to recall the message. "Are you crazy? He'll think we're both lunatics!"
She recalled it a bit too late because Li Che had been waiting for her reply. Suddenly seeing this message, Li Che inexplicably felt a pang of guilt.
Truth be told, he had indeed been somewhat interested in Ji Mingshu before. But after learning that she was already married—and to someone not to be trifled with—he gave up on pursuing her. Instead, he thought he could get closer to Cen Sen by befriending Ji Mingshu. But it seemed he had overdone it and ended up making things worse.
He rubbed his forehead and began thinking of ways to remedy the situation.
As for whether Li Che tried to make amends, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen didn't really care. After sending that message, the two of them delved into an in-depth discussion on the issue of maintaining distance from the opposite sex.
This discussion continued for a long time even after they returned to the capital.
Ji Mingshu gradually realized that Cen Sen's possessiveness was quite extreme. Although he claimed he wouldn't stop her from contacting the opposite sex as long as she maintained a safe distance, in reality, he practically wanted her to delete every male contact in her WeChat.
Moreover, he was a hypocrite about it—he had several female assistants himself, but in his case, it was "just a purely professional relationship."
Ji Mingshu was very dissatisfied, but since she couldn't win the argument on her own, she sought advice from Gu Kaiyang. From time to time, she would use Gu Kaiyang's theories—such as "women should have their own personal space," "even after marriage, one should have their own social circle," and "gender equality means no double standards"—to argue her case with Cen Sen.
Cen Sen remained noncommittal about it.
Apart from this discussion, Ji Mingshu's main focus after returning to the capital was on the guest room design drafts for the Junyi Elegant Collection.
To create a satisfactory design plan, she didn't leave the house for nearly half a month, staying cooped up at home every day.
She also had a strong sense of fair competition. Although she was curious to see the guest room design plans others had submitted for the Junyi Elegant Collection, she felt that looking at them in advance would be like cheating to win.
After much internal struggle, she still didn't ask Cen Sen about it. Instead, she quietly collected publicly available design works from these designers to study and analyze.
The more she studied and analyzed, the more she realized how many talented and creative people there were in the world. She, Ji Mingshu, wasn't as unique or irreplaceable as she thought.
However, while learning about how outstanding her competitors were, she also developed an unprecedented interest and passion for this hotel design project.
Jiang Chun had never seen Ji Mingshu working seriously and always thought Ji Mingshu's design work was just sketching on paper and then directing others to decorate and arrange things according to her ideas.
So when Ji Mingshu refused to leave the house for nearly half a month this time, Jiang Chun kept suspecting that Ji Mingshu was secretly up to something big behind her back.The most suspicious thing was that Gu Kaiyang had also been refusing to go out lately. She worked frantically during the day, and whenever someone tried to make plans with her in the evening, she would come up with all sorts of excuses.
Jiang Chun let her thoughts run wild, growing more and more sentimental as she dwelled on it.
Half a month later, she solemnly posted a notice in the group chat announcing that Little Earth Goose would be leaving the group. Although the notice accidentally contained a few typos, it was still heartfelt and tear-jerking.
She concluded with, "If you don’t want to hang out with me anymore, you can just say so. I’ll leave the group on my own," adding a heartbroken emoji before silently exiting the group chat.
Ji Mingshu had just emerged from her work bubble when she saw this. Both confused and amused, she immediately pulled Jiang Chun back into the group.
Ji Mingshu: [...]
Ji Mingshu: [Are you starring in a melodrama?]
Jiang Chun: [You’re all ignoring me TVT!]
Ji Mingshu couldn’t be bothered to argue with her and simply uploaded an unrendered concept model video to the group.
Ji Mingshu: [It took me half a month just to get this far. Who has time to pay attention to you?]
Jiang Chun clicked on it and was instantly stunned by the high-end video.
Jiang Chun: [Did you make all of this?]
Ji Mingshu: [Who else would have made it?]
Jiang Chun was left speechless and could only express her shock with a screen full of exclamation marks and ellipses.
Just then, Gu Kaiyang suddenly popped up to explain.
Gu Kaiyang: [I’ve been recording a show recently and signed a non-disclosure agreement.]
Jiang Chun: [...?]
Jiang Chun: [What kind of show would an editor like you be recording?]
Jiang Chun: [Wouldn’t it be better to spend that time dating?]
Gu Kaiyang: [...]
Gu Kaiyang: [It’s a dating show.]
Gu Kaiyang said it casually, but both Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun responded with a row of question marks, shocked: Our Gu Gu is actually dating!!!
Jiang Chun: [When did you go?]
Ji Mingshu: [What’s the name of the show?]
Jiang Chun: [How exactly are you dating?]
Ji Mingshu: [Is it real or fake?]
The two of them worked in perfect sync, focusing their firepower on the contradictions and launching a relentless interrogation.
Gu Kaiyang: [...]
Gu Kaiyang: [It’s hard to explain in just a few words.]
Ji Mingshu: [Then use five words, four words, eight words, or seven words!]
Jiang Chun: [Exactly! If you have a mouth, why are you afraid you can’t explain clearly? Is it that you can’t explain, or you don’t want to? Gu Kaiyang, this goose solemnly warns you—you’ve already developed an ideological problem!]
Bombarded by the two of them, Gu Kaiyang couldn’t hold out and finally confessed honestly to the organization.
After the New Year, she had participated in a dating show for ordinary people, which was produced by a video website that collaborated with their magazine.
It happened during a dinner gathering. A certain executive from the video website praised her, saying how impressive it was for someone so young to become deputy editor-in-chief. Their editor-in-chief, Sister May, being a big mouth, casually added, "Xiao Gu is young, beautiful, and capable, but she’s so dedicated to her work that she hasn’t even found a boyfriend yet."
Upon hearing this, the executive’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he insisted on introducing her to the show. He went on and on about how high their standards were for ordinary participants, how outstanding she was, and how perfectly suited she was for the show. In the end, out of consideration for their business collaboration, she had no choice but to reluctantly agree.In fact, various major TV stations and video streaming platforms have been launching similar programs one after another, and Gu Kaiyang has some understanding of these as well.
Even if it’s not about genuinely falling in love, at the very least, participating in such a program allows one to meet a few elites. Moreover, Sister May approved of this, so it wouldn’t interfere too much with her work. For her, there were no downsides, which is why she ultimately decided to go.
Recently, she has been working normally during the day, only needing to return to the villa in the evenings to live with other ordinary participants for the recording. Once she got used to it, it was actually quite manageable.
Jiang Chun asked the most crucial question: 【Have you taken a liking to anyone?】
Gu Kaiyang: 【No.】
Gu Kaiyang: 【But today, a familiar face moved in as the fourth male participant.】
Jiang Chun: 【Who?】
Gu Kaiyang: 【Zhou Jiaheng.】
Ji Mingshu: 【？？？？】
In the evening, when Cen Sen returned home, Ji Mingshu bombarded him with questions like a curious child.
"Zhou Jiaheng went to participate in a dating show. He really has a lot of free time, doesn’t he?"
"Could this be something you specifically arranged? Did you know Gu Kaiyang was participating in that program?"
Cen Sen avoided the question: "Gu Kaiyang? She really should focus more on her own relationship issues instead of, as a single person, constantly instilling strange theories she hasn’t even practiced herself into married people and disrupting the harmony of their marriages."
OpenNovel