My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Having been slighted by Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu felt thoroughly miserable.
On the way back, she spent the entire journey reflecting: what on earth had possessed her to add Cen Sen back on WeChat after she had deleted him? Wasn't she just asking for trouble? Whether she had him added or not didn't change the fact that she could still swipe her card and squander money!
Fortunately, Ji Mingshu was the kind of young lady who absolutely refused to mistreat herself. Since she couldn't handle the "Cen-family Sen-Sen," dealing with a simple little "earth goose" was easy as pie. Thus, she tapped into the "Pure Female College Students Uncensored Online Chat Group" to stir up trouble with Jiang Chun.
Ji Mingshu: [Jiang Chun, come out.]
Jiang Chun: [Quack!]
The simple-minded little goose remained oblivious to her fate. Upon receiving the Princess's summons, her attitude was extremely eager, and her response was lightning fast.
Ji Mingshu: [What did you eat today? How many kilograms are you now? Record a video of the scale for me to see.]
Jiang Chun was still quite a distance from her target weight. Recently, Ji Mingshu had been keeping her under remote surveillance, conducting random spot checks on her breakfast and lunch from time to time.
As for dinner, to use Ji Mingshu’s words—
"How can something like 'dinner' exist in a girl's world? Is cold boiled water too scalding for your mouth? Is fruit salad not tasty enough? If you can't even abstain from a mere dinner, how can you expect to be the most dazzling socialite on Chang'an Avenue? You might as well become a mukbang streamer, eating eight meals a day with no one to stop you; at least that way you could feed your family, buy a seaside villa, and reach the pinnacle of life."
Once this "death-dealing trio of questions" was released, the group chat fell into immediate, dead silence.
Ji Mingshu: [Come out. Don't play dead.]
Jiang Chun: [……]
Ji Mingshu immediately launched an attack with a wave of memes.
A moment later, Jiang Chun sent a voice message directly: "Reporting to Teacher Ji, it’s like this. I ate an apple and drank a cup of black coffee this morning—no sugar, no milk. Around ten, Tang Zhizhou asked me to go to an art exhibition, so I brought an apple with me. On the way to the exhibition, I ate a piece of fried chicken. Wow, that art exhibition was incredible; I didn't understand a single thing! Then I didn't eat anything all afternoon. I only planned to eat an orange for dinner to supplement my Vitamin C. Don't you think I've maintained my diet especially well?"
Jiang Chun spoke very quickly. The words "ate a piece of fried chicken on the way" were tucked into her breathless, long sentence, sounding low and muddled. Ji Mingshu had to listen three times before she clearly understood what was said.
Ji Mingshu: [Fried chicken? What on earth did you just say? Repeat that.]
Jiang Chun: [Daring not to make a sound.jpg]
Ji Mingshu: [The calorie count for fried chicken is nearly 230 kcal per 100 grams. One piece is at least 200 grams, meaning one piece sets you back 500 kcal. Do you have any clue how long you’d have to stay on the elliptical to burn off 500 kcal? And your muddled attitude, trying to gloss over it, is extremely incorrect! Back when we were in school, someone like you would have been put on disciplinary probation, let me tell you.]
Jiang Chun: [Actually, I ate two pieces (whispering timidly)]
Ji Mingshu: [……?]
Ji Mingshu: [Is the fat growing on my body? Was my fiancé stolen? Is the little white lotus showing off in front of me?]
Ji Mingshu: [This student is beyond saving.jpg]
Ji Mingshu: [The weeds on the grave of the last person who made me this angry are already tall enough to graze cattle.jpg]
Jiang Chun: [Looks like the only way to restore my position in your heart is to induce vomiting :)]
Ji Mingshu: [Shut up, beautiful girl.jpg]
Ji Mingshu: [You are no longer my sister.]
Jiang Chun wanted to keep babbling, but the next second, the page displayed: You have been removed from the "Pure Female College Students Uncensored Online Chat Group" by the group owner.
On her end, Ji Mingshu was busy plucking the feathers off Jiang Chun. On his end, seeing her rendered speechless by her own education, Cen Sen let out a low, soft chuckle.
The trip to Star City had been quite sudden. Several of his assistants, including Zhou Jiaheng, had pressing matters to attend to and couldn't accompany him immediately, so the senior management of the Star City branch arranged for two staff members to serve as temporary assistants.
The first two temporary assistants arranged were women. One was a bit older and quite calm and steady in her work. The other was likely a vase sent by branch executives to try and curry favor with him—the kind of fake that was so fake it might as well have been worth fifty-five cents at the Panjiayuan market.
They had met for the first time that morning, and the "fake vase" had come dressed to the nines, putting in enough effort to turn the workday into a beauty pageant.
Cen Sen had glanced at her once and, citing her attire as insufficiently formal, ordered the "vase" to pack her bags and get lost.
When the branch executives learned of this, whether they misread the situation or something else, they immediately sent him a male assistant in his twenties.
That afternoon, the male assistant arrived in a standard, respectable work uniform, feeling exceptionally anxious because of the incident with the female assistant that morning.
Seeing that Cen Sen had finished signing contracts and still had time to look at his phone, he seemed to be in a decent mood. The assistant hurriedly brewed a cup of black coffee and cautiously carried it into the office.
"President Cen, your coffee."
Before he could finish his sentence, an internal call came through. Without even lifting his eyes, Cen Sen set his phone down and answered the call.
The male assistant observed Cen Sen’s expression while setting down the cup, taking the opportunity to sneak a peek at his phone screen.
White and green text bubbles—it was WeChat.
Wait, that contact name... "Dear Wife"?
The male assistant thought his eyes were deceiving him. After three seconds of shock, he leaned forward a little, wanting to get a better look.
Who would have thought that in the very next second, after confirming he hadn't misread it, a crisp bang echoed unexpectedly in his ears!
The cup and saucer hit the floor; coffee splattered everywhere, leaving a mess on the ground.
The male assistant was completely dumbfounded. Once he realized what happened, he scrambled to clean it up, his mouth forming silent apologies.
Cen Sen was still on the phone, merely glancing at him once without saying a word.
He trembled while cleaning up the aftermath, still holding onto a shred of hope and consoling himself: The Big Boss seems so ascetic, yet he likes to flirt with his wife? He must be an interesting soul, cold on the outside and warm on the inside. Maybe he even likes telling cold jokes? Yes, that must be it. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.
Once Cen Sen finished his call, the young man wanted to apologize again, but for some reason, the words turned into, "May everything be peaceful and safe, peaceful and safe." Then, his brain misfired, and he laughingly added, "President Cen, your name is pronounced exactly like that famous frontier poet from the Tang Dynasty. What a coincidence, what a coincidence."
Cen Sen lifted his eyes, his voice cold and indifferent, "Do I look like the type of person who likes to joke?"
"Get out."
"You don't need to come back."
Male assistant: "..."
It seems the Big Boss only likes to show his interesting soul by being cold on the outside and warm on the inside to his wife. So humble :)
When Cen Sen returned to the hotel after work that evening, Ji Mingshu had already returned as well.
Seeing Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu only lifted her eyes slightly, looking listless and ignoring him.
First, she was moody because she had lost the battle of wits;
Second, because of her period, her physical condition was restricted, and she couldn't go out to have fun. The feeling of being stuck in the hotel every day forced to act as a "waiting-for-husband stone" was like being in a "caged" play—except there was only the cage and no play.
Ji Mingshu wasn't the type who could stay idle. After wearing a face mask for a while, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration: since the show wouldn't start filming for another week, she could go back to the capital to mess around for a bit, right? Couldn't she just come back to this little dump when it was time to record?
So, wearing a diatom mud face mask, she rushed out of the bathroom to negotiate with Cen Sen. Cen Sen, naturally, had no objections—after all, his opinions rarely mattered anyway.
Early the next morning, Cen Sen took Ji Mingshu to the airport.
Halfway there, as Ji Mingshu was touching up her makeup, Cen Sen received a phone call.
The call didn't last long, and his answers were quite brief, consisting of little more than "Mm," "Ah," "Oh," and "Good."
But after hanging up, he suddenly instructed the driver to turn around, giving a location: "Go to the Star University faculty apartments."
Ji Mingshu paused, a vague premonition forming in her heart. "...Do you have something urgent?"
Cen Sen rubbed his temples, and after a moment of silence, said, "I have to visit the An family. Come with me; we'll have lunch."
Ji Mingshu: "..."
She had thought that by leaving Star City early, she could escape the fate of being a spy. She didn't expect that at the very last moment, she would still be forced into this dilemma of being a two-faced traitor.
She probed, "Then... wouldn't it be better if you dropped me at the airport first and then went there? It shouldn't take too much time, right?"
Five seconds later: "...You can let me out, I can call a private car to take me to the airport myself. It’s not that far anyway."
Ten seconds later: "Fine, whatever you want."
Ji Mingshu really only wanted to be an expensive, rare vase; she didn't want to get a deep understanding of the story behind the cold-hearted Boss. But, having eaten his food and taken his favors, she suddenly felt as though destiny had gripped her by the skull.