My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The night was silent, and the moonlight spilled onto the surface of the lake, shimmering with a gentle halo.

Ming-Shui Residence was nestled in the center of the lake, surrounded by lush greenery. When the wind blew, it stirred up a rustling sound.

Ji Mingshu had a very unpleasant dream.

This dream entangled her repeatedly, and no matter how she tried, she couldn't break free. She even knew she was dreaming, but her eyelids felt as if they had been sewn shut; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't force them open.

At six in the morning, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Ji Mingshu finally jolted awake from her dream.

Her silk nightgown was soaked with cold sweat. The smoky pink fabric on her back had deepened in color, and there was a faint sheen of sweat on her neck and jaw.

She kept her eyes open, staring blankly at the ceiling. A few seconds later, she moved her fingers and touched her heart.

Thump, thump.

It was beating quite vigorously.

It was still there, still there; thankfully, it was still there.

As consciousness returned, Ji Mingshu grabbed the edge of her pillow, folded it over, and covered her face.

She shouldn't have read that kind of novel last night about people having their kidneys and hearts dug out. In her sleep, she had actually hallucinated a bizarre plot where Cen Sen dug out her heart and kidney to treat his ex-girlfriend's illness.

Thinking back on it now, the dream lacked any logic. If he dug out her heart first, wouldn't she be dead? How could she still be alive for him to dig out her kidneys? Besides, if Cen Sen dared to harvest her organs to cure some "little green tea" (bitch), wouldn't she have to dig up the Cen family's ancestral grave while they were still alive?

But come to think of it, the Cen Sen in her dream was truly terrifying. He had even put on a lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses to do it himself—he was such a pervert.

Ji Mingshu turned her head to look at Cen Sen, subconsciously scooting away.

But seeing Cen Sen breathing evenly, looking sound asleep, Ji Mingshu’s courage somehow returned. She stealthily leaned in, extended a small hand, and—out of nowhere—gave him a slap.

"Smack."

The slap was very light; it was just a pat, completely incomparable to the one she had delivered at the birthday party last night.

After the pat, Ji Mingshu intended to shrink back.

However, Cen Sen, still keeping his eyes closed, accurately grasped her wrist.

"What are you doing?" His voice was low, as if raspy from sleep.

"You, you're awake... there was something dirty on you."

Ji Mingshu was dazed. She couldn't understand at all why this jerk had suddenly woken up. Her heart accelerated from the fright, and she couldn't speak smoothly.

Cen Sen opened his eyes slowly and tilted his head to look at her. "What dirty thing?" His gaze was calm and knowing.

"..."

Ji Mingshu put force into her hand and struggled, but she couldn't break free.

She simply gave up and spoke bluntly and righteously: "I dreamt you dug out my kidney. I didn't sleep well all night; so what if I hit you?"

Cen Sen: "..."

His grip loosened slightly, and Ji Mingshu pulled her hand back just in time. She even pretended to cover her kidney, trying to prove she wasn't spouting nonsense.

Cen Sen glanced at her. "That's your stomach."

Ji Mingshu paused and immediately switched to the other side. But she soon realized something was wrong—don't people have kidneys on both sides? What did that have to do with which side she covered?

She was confused, touching her left side and then her right side, completely forgetting where the kidneys were actually located.

In the end, she simply covered her heart and said with great conviction: "You didn't just dig out my kidney, you dug out my heart, too! Why were you such a pervert in my dream?"

"Didn't I dig out your corneas?"

Cen Sen mocked lightly.

...?!

Ji Mingshu's brain exploded. She immediately sat up and started fumbling for her phone.

It wasn't on the nightstand, and it wasn't under the pillow. She looked up and saw that it was actually on Cen Sen's bedside table.

"Are you a pervert? Stealing a look at my phone—do you know this is an invasion of privacy?!" Ji Mingshu was about to die of anger; she picked up her pillow and started hitting him with it.

"Well, I've invaded plenty of things then."

Cen Sen shifted slightly, his gaze lingering on her chest for a moment.

Ji Mingshu felt the world go black.

If the pre-marital asset separation hadn't been signed so clearly, she would have wanted to smother Cen Sen with the pillow right now and directly inherit his massive fortune. :)

Having had such an argument in bed early in the morning, Ji Mingshu was in no mood to go back to sleep. She got up, groomed herself, and deliberately made a lot of noise so Cen Sen couldn't sleep peacefully either.

Once Cen Sen was annoyed enough to get out of bed as well, she tossed her hair and left in a carefree manner.

Originally, this turn of events had improved her mood, but when she opened WeChat to find someone to hang out with, she remembered she held leverage over Cen Sen that she hadn't used yet, and suddenly became angry again.

She searched online reluctantly, and then sent a screenshot to Cen Sen.

Cen Sen was already sitting in the back seat of his car when he saw the screenshot.

The screenshot showed an online explanation: "Ya (鸭). When used as a modal particle, it replaces 'ya' (呀) to express a simple tendency to act cute... the emotion expressed is similar to acting spoiled or cute, hoping to leave the other party with an impression of being cute and youthful..."

Ji Mingshu: [President Cen, try going online more often when you're free. With such an isolationist mindset, I feel Junyi will go bankrupt in your hands sooner or later :)]

Cen Sen scrolled up through their chat history and suddenly gave a light, mocking huff.

Both the driver and Zhou Jiaheng subconsciously glanced at the rearview mirror at that sound, but they only looked once and didn't dare ask any questions.

Having spent a long time beside a reticent boss like Cen Sen, everyone's desire to chat or probe had long since faded.

Some time ago, a bodyguard in the car behind had actually quit. It wasn't because the salary wasn't high enough or the work was too hard, but purely because he was a young man who couldn't stand being in a car full of people who all had mouths yet couldn't utter a single sound all day.

Soon, Ji Mingshu received a new message from Cen Sen.

The first two were his typical operations of turning a counter-argument into a display of dominance based on her screenshot.

Cen Sen: [So you were trying to act spoiled and cute. I'll be sure to cooperate next time.]

Cen Sen: [However, you are already twenty-five; you don't need to leave me with an impression of being youthful anymore. I have no interest in molesting children.]

The third was a link to a celebratory announcement from the Junyi Group's official account.

Clicking on it, the entire article was dedicated to showing off the group's glorious achievements in the hotel industry, with the ending used to encourage the employees and blow flattery at the leadership.

Of course, to Ji Mingshu, the meaning automatically changed to: "Don't worry, Junyi won't go bankrupt even if your grandson gets married."

Ji Mingshu sent back a "smiley face" emoji, found Cen Sen's profile picture, and blocked and deleted him from her contacts in one fluid motion.

After blocking him, Ji Mingshu didn't see Cen Sen for a week.

Cen Sen had a half-month arrangement for hotel inspections, flying everywhere both domestically and internationally, with at least three meetings a day to ensure he could keep up with the projects he had initiated at any time.

Ji Mingshu, on the other hand, couldn't resist Jiang Chun's pestering and promised to supervise this "little dirt goose" in her transformation makeover.

Ji Mingshu didn't really understand why she had taken on a task that usually belonged to the male lead in a novel, but since she had accepted, she intended to fulfill her duty strictly and accomplish the goal, leaving no room for any trace of "rusticity" to survive.

"Why is it still fifty-eight kilograms?" the strict Teacher Ji questioned, staring at the bathroom scale.

Jiang Chun looked innocent. "I don't know, I haven't been drinking milk tea, and I haven't been eating barbecue."

Ji Mingshu toured the ugly room that Jiang Chun hadn't gotten around to renovating yet, and accurately fished out three boxes of instant noodles from a corner. "Then what is this? Did they come free with the fruit?"

Jiang Chun was very candid; she took the instant noodles from her hand and stood on the scale again.

"Look, the weight hasn't changed. This stuff won't make me fat."

Ji Mingshu glanced at the fifty-eight that remained unmoved on the scale and choked for three seconds. For a moment, she actually felt that what she said made perfect sense.

Fortunately, the quick-witted Teacher Ji soon found the bug. "You eat the instant noodles dry? If you eat them and they don't digest, can they just be passed through?"

Jiang Chun: "..."

She hadn't been able to talk her way out of that one.

Teacher Ji continued to lecture, "You also say on Moments and Weibo every day that you want to lose weight properly. With such an improper attitude, what are you losing weight for? Why not save your energy to go back to Shenzhen to sell fish and spend your days scrolling through Moments, watching Yan and that 'little green tea' get happily married?"

"I did say I wanted to lose weight properly. Isn't that what I've been saying every day?" Jiang Chun couldn't help but mumble.

But seeing Ji Mingshu's expression that screamed, "Say that one more time and you won't see tomorrow's sunset," she immediately changed her tune. "Fine, I was wrong. I won't eat instant noodles anymore."

"Thirty minutes on the elliptical, incline at eight. Don't even think about slacking off," Teacher Ji ordered coldly.

Recently, she had to use the elliptical every day. As soon as Jiang Chun heard those three words, she felt her thighs and calves aching vaguely.

But Ji Mingshu was already standing next to the elliptical, and her "death stare" had already locked on accurately.

She took a deep breath and walked over as if she were facing certain death.

In truth, Jiang Chun's determination to upgrade herself this time was also because she wanted to vent her anger thoroughly.

The fact that Ji Mingshu had slapped the "little white flower" that night had been recorded and photographed by many people present. Although Young Master Zhang the Second had followed procedure and checked everyone's electronic devices to delete all footage before they left, there were still those who slipped through the cracks.

Two days later, the news of that "little white flower" getting slapped for being a mistress was leaked online.

She was now a minor celebrity with some name recognition, so naturally, a small group of people online were discussing it.

No one knew how that "little white flower" had played the victim to Yan, but Yan seemed to be under a spell. In a fit of rage for a beauty, he issued a statement saying his relationship with her was legitimate, and he even found the Jiang family to warn Jiang Chun not to pull any more tricks.

Jiang Chun had been so angry she almost fainted. She wished she could hire internet trolls to buy hot searches, ruin their reputations, and make them eat shit together!

However, Father Jiang was a tactful person who knew how to handle things from all sides and had tremendous patience. He dissolved the engagement in a friendly manner and even stopped Jiang Chun from causing more trouble, saying only that there would be plenty of ways to make Yan regret it in the future.

Jiang Chun wasn't like her father; she was hot-tempered and wished she could make Yan join a "Scumbag Die Die Group" right now.

Thus, she had pestered Ji Mingshu to help supervise her, holding her breath and wanting to make a gorgeous transformation to crush that "little green tea" everywhere, then find a rich, handsome man like Cen Sen to make Yan regret it until his intestines turned from red to green, then green to white, and have him kneel down to call her "Daddy"!

Regarding her request to find a rich, handsome man to beat Yan at his own game, Father Jiang was in complete agreement.

She was three months younger than Ji Mingshu, and in these past years, the family's sudden wealth meant they lacked for nothing—money in particular—so naturally, no one required her to find a proper job to earn a living to support the family.

Father Jiang's only expectation for her was that she could marry into a prestigious, wealthy family in a glorious manner. At the time, she had stubbornly liked Yan, and Father Jiang hadn't been very satisfied. Now that she had come to her senses, Father Jiang was very relieved and immediately arranged a family gathering similar to a blind date for next Friday.

Ji Mingshu also knew about the object Father Jiang had found for Jiang Chun. Ji Mingshu had already gotten a photo and shown it to Jiang Chun—he was quite handsome, gentle, and refined; he looked very cultured at first glance.

After a week of "devil training," Jiang Chun looked like she had a bit of a socialite aura when she was quiet.

While picking out clothes for Jiang Chun to wear to the dinner, Ji Mingshu educated her: "The Tang family are all highly educated intellectuals. When you meet them, don't talk nonsense. If you don't know what to say, just keep your mouth shut."

Jiang Chun nodded like a little goose pecking at rice.

On Friday, she wore the "battle robe" chosen by Ji Mingshu to meet the rich, handsome man.

Ji Mingshu went to sleep early on Friday night and forgot to ask how the blind date went. Early Saturday morning, she received a frantic, repeated call from Gu Kaiyang, who wanted to borrow a dress.

The magazine Gu Kaiyang worked for had invited a screen couple to shoot a dual cover, but the clothes prepared for the actress had suddenly had an issue and couldn't be worn. Now, they were urgently looking for an identical dress to complete the shoot.

The dress was from this year's autumn/winter collection. Ji Mingshu happened to have one, but she had only worn it once and didn't like it much, so it had long been relegated to the cold palace waiting to collect dust. Hearing Gu Kaiyang mention it, she agreed without hesitation.

Gu Kaiyang had originally planned to send her assistant to take it, but thinking she had nothing to do, she offered to deliver it herself.

On the way to deliver the clothes to Gu Kaiyang, Ji Mingshu finally remembered Jiang Chun's blind date and called to ask.

Jiang Chun answered the phone quite quickly, but her voice was languid, and her dejection crawled across the signal all the way to Ji Mingshu.

Ji Mingshu: "What's wrong? An unsuccessful campaign?"

"It should be unsuccessful, I guess. I don't know what I did wrong. Anyway, every time that man looked at me, he was... smiling but not quite smiling. The way he smiled made my scalp feel a bit numb."

Jiang Chun hadn't gotten out of bed yet and was lying on the bed recounting the process of the blind date to Ji Mingshu.

She recalled it in great detail, mentioning what lipstick she had used in the morning, what dishes she ate at noon, and how many bowls of rice she had served—she told it all crystal clear.

Ji Mingshu interrupted her impatiently and told her to get to the point.

She paused, then jumped to the point where the two were alone.

"He asked me which painters I liked. How would I know any painters? I just heard you say that your husband had bought a few paintings by Bada Shanren, so I said I quite liked Bada Shanren. Their paintings are very special. I didn't dare say anything more than that."

"Wait," Ji Mingshu thought she had heard wrong. "You think you said very little?"

"I only said one sentence; how is that a lot? Aren't they special? I was so vague, so how could I be wrong?"

"No, do you think Bada Shanren is the 'Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove' or the 'Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou'? And 'their'—he is one person, not eight! Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut if you don't know something!"

Ji Mingshu was almost laughing out of anger.

Jiang Chun was stunned for a moment. "Then why didn't he point it out and still went to the supermarket with me? Does he not know himself?"

"Don't blame others just because you're ignorant!"

When Ji Mingshu got stern, Jiang Chun shrunk back.

After humbly admitting her mistake, she recalled what happened when they were shopping at the supermarket.

"When we went to the fruit section, he mentioned a few fruits I'd never heard of, saying he liked them very much. Then he asked me what fruit I liked. I felt I couldn't lose, so I said I liked pears. There's something very popular right now—'shi-duo-pi-li' (strawberry), I really like those, but we walked around and couldn't find this pear..."

...?!

Jiang Chun was still rambling on.

Ji Mingshu was deadpan, using standard British pronunciation to interrupt her: "Strawberry. Listen carefully: strawberry. You went to elementary school, right? Strawberries. 'Shi-duo-pi-li' is a strawberry, not a pear."

Jiang Chun: "..."

Ji Mingshu: "Please never tell anyone that you're my 'sister' when you go out. Thank you."

Excuse me.

Jiang Chun silently hung up the phone.

Arriving at the magazine office, Ji Mingshu still felt both angry and amused.

Because of her relationship with Gu Kaiyang, almost everyone at the magazine knew her. Seeing her arrive, they all stood up to greet her.

Ji Mingshu's mind was still full of Jiang Chun's "goose-speak." She responded casually and didn't notice the slightly strange expressions on their faces.

Meeting Gu Kaiyang in the deputy editor's office, she found that Gu Kaiyang wasn't as busy as she had imagined. As soon as she saw her come in, she immediately stood up from her chair, gingerly serving tea and water, her expression extremely cautious.

Ji Mingshu took off her sunglasses and asked strangely: "Aren't you rushing to shoot?"

Gu Kaiyang: "The group issued an urgent notice saying the shoot is cancelled."

She asked casually: "Why is it cancelled?"

"Well, the woman had an issue. It's news that just broke..."

Gu Kaiyang's voice was very soft and extremely vague, giving one a particularly guilty feeling.

Ji Mingshu felt it was inexplicable. "What's wrong with you? You're acting all weird."

Seeing her completely unaware, Gu Kaiyang struggled back and forth in her heart, suffering greatly.

But thinking that whether she said it sooner or later wouldn't change the situation, she steeled herself, closed her eyes, bit the bullet, and blurted it all out—

"Fine, I'll say it. That shameless woman named Zhang Baoshu is in the news with your husband, Cen Sen. It just exploded twenty minutes ago!"

"It hasn't fermented outside yet; we got the notice in advance. I think you should contact your husband first. Maybe there's some misunderstanding. Please don't act impulsively!”