My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

This lunch concluded amidst a flurry of chaos.

After the meal, Chen Biqing busied herself with clearing the dishes, An Ning helped by turning on the television, brewing tea, and slicing fruit, while Cen Sen went to the balcony to take a phone call. That left Ji Mingshu sitting on the sofa, watching a local news program that An Ning had tuned into.

The focus of the program was a young couple from a town near Star City who were about to get married. Before the wedding, the groom accidentally discovered that the bride had a history of abortion. Unable to accept this, he flew into a rage and called off the engagement.

The bride initially tried to win him back, but when that failed, she said the wedding could be called off, but the fifty-thousand-yuan bride price could not be returned. After all, he had slept with her, so she insisted that the money be treated as a breakup fee.

The two parties had come on the show purely to squabble over that fifty-thousand-yuan sum.

Ji Mingshu had never watched a show like this before. At first, she couldn't believe people would actually go on television to tear each other apart over fifty thousand yuan.

But when she saw the ticker scrolling at the bottom of the screen, which read: "Middle-aged man suffers a cerebral hemorrhage during a mahjong game following a dispute over a ten-yuan bet; currently rushed to Star City People's Hospital," she decided that this fifty-thousand-yuan dispute was actually quite reasonable and convincing.

She watched the TV while eating fruit, becoming surprisingly engrossed in the spectacle.

Seeing An Ning finish her chores and stand to the side not knowing what to do, she even gestured for An Ning to sit down and watch with her.

An Ning blushed and nodded, sitting on the very edge of the sofa. She kept her legs pressed together, her hands folded primly on her knees, looking so reserved that one might think this was Ji Mingshu's home and she was merely a distant relative visiting.

Even when eating fruit and watching TV, Ji Mingshu possessed the poise of a socialite. Despite the room being ordinary—or perhaps even quite dilapidated—she sat with the same elegance and aura of luxury one would expect to see in the front row of a Milan fashion show.

An Ning stole glances at her from time to time, pretending it was unintentional.

She couldn't help it; she had never seen such a beautiful woman. She was more stunning than the stars on television, like a pearl that could shine even in the bright light of day.

Ji Mingshu didn't notice An Ning's fan-girl gaze at first. Later, when she reached for a tissue, she caught the curious, measuring look. She froze for a second, then smiled warmly at her, trying to appear approachable and friendly.

But An Ning was incredibly shy. Once caught, she immediately averted her eyes, refusing to make contact again, her face turning as red as a tomato in an instant.

Ji Mingshu: "..."

What kind of pure, innocent girl from a bygone era is this? She's too shy...

It's no wonder she and Cen Sen aren't biological siblings; this girl doesn't share even one percent of Cen Sen's shameless genes.

In the next second, she naturally thought of Cen Yang.

When she was at the family compound, she had been too young, and as she grew older, her memories had blurred. She couldn't even remember Cen Yang’s exact features anymore, only that he was a sunny, cheerful big brother—a total polar opposite to the personality of his sister, An Ning.

During the brief moment Ji Mingshu was lost in thought, Cen Sen had finished his call and was walking back to the living room.

He walked straight up to the sofa and did not sit down.

Ji Mingshu looked up, meeting his gaze, and read the distinct message in his eyes: "Lunch is over, time to get up and go."

Wait, no. He went through the trouble of coming here for a meal, and he really was just here to eat?

It was one thing that he couldn't foster any sibling bond with An Ning and thus had nothing to say, but Chen Biqing... from the moment they walked in until now, the mother and son hadn't even exchanged three sentences.

Ji Mingshu was stunned, momentarily unsure of how to react.

Fortunately, Chen Biqing came out of the kitchen just then. She seemed to sense that Cen Sen was about to leave and couldn't help but call out, "Xiao Sen."

The air suddenly grew quiet.

For a long while, neither of them spoke.

Ji Mingshu felt this silence was becoming unbearable. After struggling for a moment, she finally stammered out, "Um... I seem to have lost my lipstick. Ning Ning, why don't you come with me to buy one?"

An Ning was caught off guard and didn't react immediately.

Ji Mingshu, with maximum initiative, rose quickly, grabbed her bag, and pulled An Ning up, dragging her out of the room.

The security gate creaked shut, leaving only Chen Biqing and Cen Sen alone in the house.

The afternoon sun was quiet. A breeze carried in the last scents of late summer flowers and grass, mixed with a faint metallic tang of rust—so familiar it felt like traveling back in time.

Cen Sen remembered an equally sunny and pleasant afternoon like this one. He had woken up from his nap early, obsessed with buying a comic book.

Before putting on his bag to go to school, he wanted to peek at his little sister in the master bedroom, but outside the door, he heard his father and mother talking.

Driven by curiosity, he pressed his ear to the door to eavesdrop.

His father, An Guoping, said, "So what if the Cen family is powerful? Can they just snatch him from our hands? This is simply bullying! If they dare to play hardball, I'll report them to the organization! I don't believe that in this day and age of the rule of law, they can get away with it!"

Chen Biqing sighed, "The Cen family is indeed overbearing. They want to take A-Sen back, but they won't even let us see the child. We don't even know what his name is now."

Hearing this, An Guoping fell silent.

The couple exchanged a few more words in low voices that Cen Sen couldn't make out clearly. Finally, he heard Chen Biqing say with a hint of tears in her voice, "How could something like this happen?"

Cen Sen was young then and couldn't fully comprehend the snippets of their conversation, but he already had a vague premonition that things involving him were happening behind his back.

It was from that moment on that he began consciously eavesdropping on Chen Biqing and An Guoping, and the truth was slowly pieced together through those fragments of conversation.

Later, when the Cen family’s cars and bodyguards stopped in front of the faculty apartment building, and Chen Biqing and An Guoping dragged things out until the very last moment to tell him the truth, he was unexpectedly calm.

He had heard their debates about adamantly refusing to return him to the Cen family many times while eavesdropping.

But in the end, his father and mother had still abandoned him.

Perhaps it had been too long ago; looking back now, it felt like a lifetime away.

Cen Sen sat on the sofa, looking at Chen Biqing, who was no longer young, and suddenly asked, "All these years, did you never go abroad?"

He had studied abroad for many years; it was easy for him to tell if someone had just returned from overseas.

Chen Biqing looked at the fruit platter on the table and said softly, "No, we have always lived in Nancheng. Yang Yang... he went abroad. He... he wasn't very close to us." As she said this, she lowered her head further. "He went abroad many years ago and rarely came back."

Cen Sen remained silent.

Chen Biqing then asked tentatively, "Are, are you doing well? You and Xiao Shu got married three years ago, right?"

"Yes."

Chen Biqing nodded. "Xiao Shu is a wonderful girl—so pretty and so lovely. As long as you two are doing well, I can rest easy."

Having said this, she hurriedly wiped the corner of her eye and smiled.

Cen Sen didn't respond.

After a long while, he suddenly asked, "What about Dad?"

In that instant, it was Chen Biqing's turn to go silent.

A long time passed before she finally said slowly, "He... passed away."

"Passed away?" Ji Mingshu was slightly startled.

After leaving the An family home, Ji Mingshu took An Ning to the car, planning to go to a nearby mall to buy some things.

The closest mall was a fifteen-minute drive away. Ji Mingshu felt that sitting in silence for fifteen minutes would be awkward, so she started chatting with An Ning in the car.

Calling it chatting was a stretch; it was more like an interrogation.

An Ning was a simple and honest girl; she answered whatever Ji Mingshu asked. So, Ji Mingshu couldn't resist the temptation and took the opportunity to probe into the affairs of the An family.

"Just a while ago, Father fell ill. Mother wanted to find Brother Cen Sen to come back and see him, but before she could find him, he couldn't hold on through the treatment and passed away."

An Ning kept her head down as she spoke, "We only returned to Star City because Father passed away. Before he died, he said he wanted to come home to see it."

An Father had passed away.

Ji Mingshu was surprised but not entirely shocked. From the moment she hadn't seen An Father at the house, she had already formed many theories in her mind.

"Then... what about Cen Yang? Oh, he should be called An Yang now, right?"

An Ning shook her head. "Brother didn't change his name. I haven't seen him much. He went to live abroad many years ago—it seems it was arranged by the Cen family. He usually only returns once every few years."

"This time, when Father passed away, he said he would come back, but he still hasn't arrived. I haven't seen him for a very, very long time."

"I see..."

Ji Mingshu nodded slightly, an indescribable feeling in her heart. She didn't know how to respond to that.

Fortunately, they had arrived at the mall. While she wasn't good at many things, shopping was definitely her area of expertise.

She pulled herself together, linked her arm with An Ning’s, and walked inside, beginning to lecture her on her own theory of "the canary"—that a woman must live exquisitely.

"You're in college now; you can't be this plain all the time. Look at your beautiful, radiant face—you should dress yourself up properly and date while you're young." She glanced at her, "You don't have a boyfriend yet, right?"

An Ning shook her head shyly.

"University is the best time for romance. Once you leave school, where will you find pure love? You'll just be measuring the other person's material assets the moment you lock eyes."

An Ning asked curiously, "Are you and Brother Cen Sen college classmates, then?"

Ji Mingshu: "..."

Excuse me, but we are precisely the kind of "plastic couple" who had to evaluate each other's material assets the moment we stood before one another.

She changed the subject, "Actually, it's not just about dating. Even if a girl isn't dating, she still needs to treat herself well. Don't you think you feel happy when you dress up beautifully?"

On this, An Ning agreed. In her college dorm, besides studying and romance, the topic that came up most was clothes, bags, skincare, and cosmetics.

Influenced by her peers, she knew a little bit, but she had never had the courage to take that step, spending all her time burying her head in her studies.

Ji Mingshu couldn't bear to see such a pretty young girl be so plain. She originally planned to take An Ning to buy some skincare products first, but then she received a call from the Designer production team. The signal in the mall was poor, and the voice was cutting in and out, so she pointed to a nearby brand and told An Ning to wait there, promising she would come back as soon as she finished the call.

An Ning naturally agreed.

The first floor of the mall was filled with jewelry and beauty counters. An Ning rarely stepped into such places, and she was a bit dazzled by the countless spotlights.

She wandered near the brand Ji Mingshu had pointed out. By chance, she saw a cosmetics brand her roommate had been raving about lately. She had heard that one of their lipsticks was very popular.

She walked over, her eyes lingering on the display cabinet as she tried to recall the shade her roommate had mentioned.

Finally, she found the tester for that lipstick on the second-to-last shelf. She picked it up and tried a swatch on her hand; it was indeed quite pretty.

She was a junior this year and hadn't bought a single lipstick yet, so she was feeling a bit eager to try.

"Excuse me, how much is this lipstick?"

She held up the lipstick and asked the counter girl.

The attendant scanned her from top to bottom, seeing her poor, student-like appearance, and couldn't be bothered to serve her. She rolled her eyes and went back to playing on her phone, speaking with no sincerity at all, "Sorry, this is a hot item. We don't sell it individually. It requires a 2:1 purchase ratio—you have to buy other products with it."

Purchase ratio?

An Ning had no idea what that meant. She assumed she was just being too countrified, and her face flushed bright red in an instant, leaving her at a loss.

But the very next second, she caught the scent of a light, familiar fruit fragrance.

Ji Mingshu had appeared beside her, snatched the tester from her hand, and threw it directly at the counter girl.

Her voice was cold and mocking, "Purchase ratio? Do you bundle the sale with that sour face of yours? You think you're Hermès or something, requiring a bundle?"

Even I, this princess, have never had to accept a bundle sale for a Hermès bag.