My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

A week of aimless idling passed quickly. Because Cen Sen had changed his plans halfway through, Ji Mingshu didn't return to the Imperial Capital and instead spent the entire week hanging around Star City.

Neither of them mentioned that night of intoxication ever again.

Cen Sen had apparently suffered a blackout after drinking and had forgotten every single thing he had said. Once sober, he had reverted to the capitalist dictator Ji Mingshu always described—a man who spoke only of work and never of feelings.

As for Ji Mingshu, she was praying that no one would bring up a single thing that had happened that day, because only then could she completely move past the ultimate embarrassment of having her "identity" exposed in the group chat.

Before long, the day arrived for the filming of The Designer to begin.

Three days prior to the start of recording, Ji Mingshu received a detailed breakdown of the filming schedule from the production team, along with the design challenges each group would face.

For a variety show of this scale, the design subjects were mostly home renovations, and usually involved transforming old spaces into new ones; The Designer was no exception.

In truth, interior decoration is only a very small sub-category of spatial design. The barrier to entry for home designers is quite low, and there is no upper or lower limit to the grade of the finished product.

Renovating a three-hundred-million-yuan mansion is called interior design, and a renovation team from an eighteen-tier city that offers an all-inclusive package for fifty thousand yuan, complete with appliances, can also call itself interior design.

Ji Mingshu was professionally trained. Although she hadn't handled many "serious" projects, she had always been quite particular about the expression of art and emotion, as well as the embodiment of creative concepts.

Gu Kaiyang’s initial impression of Ji Mingshu’s "extravagant, inhumane" wealth came from the fact that while in school, in order for her designs to achieve the best visual effect, she had directly bought a large flat-floor apartment to present a real-life realization. It was said that the cost of renovating that apartment was double the price of the apartment itself.

Fortunately, Ji Mingshu had made a special point of debunking that rumor for her later: her cousin had already bought that apartment a long time ago and simply hadn't moved in. Upon hearing that she needed to do a practical project, he had just let her use it to practice.

As for the renovation cost being double the price of the house, that was because after the interior was finished, her cousin had hung a Tang Yin painting he collected inside.

However, all in all, because she had no concept of controlling post-renovation expenses, her design style was indeed very "lofty and refined," and not at all grounded in reality.

The first day of filming took place at the Star City Convention and Exhibition Center. The production team had built a photography studio in the style of American home décor to serve as the main venue for narration and interviews.

Unlike other more serious home renovation shows, the main gimmick of The Designer was "celebrity designers." Each group consisted of two celebrities paired with one amateur designer, and each group would also have a mysterious special guest.

The Designer planned to air twelve episodes in its first season, with each design challenge spanning two episodes. Afterward, two groups would be selected from the five to complete the final ultimate challenge through a collaborative effort.

The official line from the production team was that the amateur designers would be the backbone of the challenges, but Ji Mingshu felt the amateur designers were really just there to prevent these celebrities from messing around and creating some kind of monstrosity.

The groups had already been determined.

Ji Mingshu’s partners were one man and one woman. The man was Feng Yan, an "ugly-handsome" method actor who hovered in a state of lukewarm popularity, and the woman was Yan Yuexing, the "ace" of a certain girl group. Ji Mingshu had only heard their names and couldn't quite connect them to their faces.

Although the groups were settled privately, in order to cultivate a "reality show" atmosphere, the director said that the first episode would air a segment of the random group drawing.

That was the highlight of what they were filming today—the "I already know who I'm grouped with, but I have to pretend I have no idea and look very surprised and honored" segment.

Celebrities naturally excelled at putting on such small acts. For a socialite like Ji Mingshu, it was a piece of cake; after all, in their circles, this was part of the "Plastic Sisterhood 101" curriculum. Every fashionista was a full-mark student, already refined and perfected in the craft.

Ji Mingshu scanned the room. The biggest star on the show was likely Li Che, while the rest were second or third-tier actors, singers, or familiar faces on variety shows.

Feng Yan, who was in her group, seemed to have a very good personality and temper. He was extremely polite when he greeted her, never ignoring her just because she wasn't a celebrity. He even praised her for being beautiful and elegant, asking her to please look after him in the future.

Yes, the point was that he praised her beauty and elegance and asked for her guidance. She appreciated people like this; they didn't waste breath, but every word hit the mark.

It was just that a personality like his, which didn't know how to play the game, probably wouldn't be very popular in the entertainment industry. Compared to the other teenage idol in their group who was active all over the set and constantly trying to draw focus to Li Che, Ji Mingshu conservatively estimated that after the show aired, Feng Yan’s screen time would be at least half that of Yan Yuexing's.

As for Yan Yuexing, the girl group ace, Ji Mingshu had specifically looked her up online before coming to the filming. The impression wasn't great.

There were plenty of negative rumors about her lip-syncing, plastic surgery, and hinting for fans to crowdfund money. Recently, a solo single she claimed was original had also been exposed as being plagiarized in both lyrics and music video.

At first, Ji Mingshu thought you should only believe half of what you read online, and that the person might not be as troublesome in real life.

Seeing her in the flesh today, she felt that you could indeed only believe half of the online news.

Given how this little sister was constantly "Li Che-ge" this and "Li Che-ge" that, terrified of missing a chance to cling to the popular guest, and yet had only had so few negative rumors exposed, it could only mean she had either a stellar PR team or was acting with reckless abandon.

After the group drawing, there was a segment where each group sent a representative to draw their design challenge—naturally, this was also a scripted process.

The representative sent by Ji Mingshu’s group was Yan Yuexing.

What should have taken ten seconds stretched into three minutes of unnecessary drama. Ji Mingshu stood outside the camera lens, arms folded low, watching her performance in silence.

This was not good. At the thought of having to record a show for a month with this drama queen, Ji Mingshu felt she would inevitably clash with her and have a showdown sooner or later.

Ji Mingshu had a vague premonition of this, but she never expected the showdown to come so quickly.

After Yan Yuexing brought back the design challenge dictated by the script, the production team required the group members to discuss it.

In other groups, the designers would look at the floor plans and photos of the actual space, then explain their general concept according to the homeowner's requests. The celebrities just needed to nod and agree, waiting to be assigned specific tasks—after all, they didn't understand the professional side, and forcing their way into the conversation would only expose their lack of culture.

But Yan Yuexing wasn't afraid of exposing her true level in the slightest. Her little mouth didn't stop flapping, constantly harping on about her "Mary Sue rural socialite" aesthetic.

"...I think, oh, this wall can be torn down. Connect the small bedroom and the study, cover everything in pink wallpaper. At the doorway, we can hang a dreamcatcher and some bead curtains. That would be more dreamy..."

Ji Mingshu didn't even look up as she interrupted, "That is a load-bearing wall; it cannot be torn down."

Was she blind to the thick, solid black lines on the floor plan?

Yan Yuexing froze for a moment, then immediately cupped her face in feigned shyness, "Is that so? I didn't know, eh."

If you don't know, then stop flapping your mouth.

But Yan Yuexing clearly hadn't read Ji Mingshu’s internal thoughts. She didn't quiet down for even ten seconds; after giving Ji Mingshu and Feng Yan three lines' worth of time to speak, she began to express her "brilliant insights" again.

She pointed to a spot on the floor plan and analyzed, "I think the lighting in the dining area isn't good. Let's move the dining room to a place with sufficient light; I think it’ll make the dining mood much more pleasant. Also..."

"..." Ji Mingshu was not a professional actor, and hearing this, she couldn't help but give Yan Yuexing a look that said, "Are you a complete idiot?" "This isn't the dining room; it's the music room."

So this girl had been pointing fingers with "logical" arguments for half a day, and she hadn't even realized she was holding the floor plan upside down. She was truly impressed.

Corrected for the second time by Ji Mingshu, Yan Yuexing’s expression instantly turned sour.

She signaled for the camera to stop filming.

Once the lens was off, she immediately dropped the floor plan, the sweet smile on her face replaced in a second by a look of disgust. She inexplicably put on the air of a top-tier star, despite being a D-list celebrity, "Designer Ji, can you please stop interrupting me when I'm talking?"

She immediately vented her anger on the assistant director, "What kind of impolite, uncultured people has this show hired? How are we supposed to record this show in the future?"

Ji Mingshu crossed her arms, leaned back into the sofa, and glanced at her lazily.

Without waiting for Feng Yan or the assistant director to mediate, Ji Mingshu mocked her lightly and carelessly, "Oh, so I shouldn't interrupt you, so you can continue pretending to be an expert while spouting nonsense, and while you're at it, discuss your 'rural socialite' aesthetic?"

"You!"

"I advise you to shut up if you don't know what you're talking about. If you don't want to record, then don't. Do you really think you're some kind of big shot? Do you know where you are and who you’re talking to?"

The head director was soon informed of their argument. The subordinates were panicked and inexperienced, even asking if they should swap the two of them into different groups. The head director, however, found it interesting and whispered, "Swap them? Why swap them? I was just worried their group had no selling point. Go mediate, but don't let it get too ugly."

Yan Yuexing had never met an amateur who was this arrogant!

She was the "ace" of her group. Although her small, obscure group didn't have much mainstream appeal, they had a lot of die-hard fans. She was used to being treated like royalty and would treat other nameless members of her group like servants, mocking and insulting them behind the scenes.

The company didn't care. The whole group relied on her to carry them, and only she had the most fans who were the most bloodthirsty. Of course, whoever could make money was the ancestor to be worshipped.

She was furious, but because Li Che, whom she wanted to hook up with, was nearby, she couldn't afford to lose her image too much.

With the assistant directors' persuasion, she was miserable but reluctantly managed to finish recording the follow-up interview.

Ji Mingshu was also quite angry.

She had been mindful of the fact that they were filming a show today and hadn't wanted to be too overbearing. She had tried to control her tone when she reminded her earlier, and even when they argued later, she had left a three-part margin of grace.

When she was leaving, Li Che came up to strike up a conversation. Ji Mingshu, still feeling half-suffocated with irritation, found everyone unpleasant to look at. She gave two cold, indifferent replies and, just like last time, stepped out of the elevator and headed for her car without a care for anyone else. Once again, Li Che’s entourage was made to feel the unbridled spirit and coolness of this amateur designer.

Today’s filming could hardly be called happy. When she was getting ready for bed, Cen Sen was leaning against the headboard looking at documents and asked casually about how the filming went. Ji Mingshu, with a face mask on and playing on her phone, said in a muffled voice, "Not great."

Cen Sen was just about to respond when Ji Mingshu suddenly received an apologetic WeChat from the director, as well as an advance notice that their group's mystery guest was the explosively popular star-child Pei Xiyan, whose fame rivaled the top celebrities.

Ji Mingshu stared at the two characters "Pei Xiyan" for two seconds, and without warning, sat up in bed and shrieked "Ahhhh!!!"

"Pei Xiyan!"

"My partner is Pei Xiyan!"

"Woooo, Yan-zai, Mama loves you! What kind of heaven-sent fate is this!"

Cen Sen: "..."

He naturally knew that Pei Xiyan was the son of Bureau Chief Pei and Su Cheng. But he didn't know that his own wife, in addition to buying bags and diamonds, worked part-time as a "stan," and the person she was stanning was an underage celebrity seven or eight years her junior.

Ji Mingshu sprang out from under the covers like a canary. At the same time, she ripped off the one-thousand-yuan face mask she was wearing to make a life-or-death call to Jiang Chun—a fellow "mom-fan"—and then proceeded to kneel on the bed, wildly chattering for twenty minutes straight.

"Ahhhh, what kind of god-tier production team is this? My bad mood from the whole day has been cured, wooooooo! I was so angry today that I forgot to look at the sponsors! Wooooo, what kind of sugar-daddy is this to actually invite the cutest, coldest baby boy!"

"No way, that little drama queen with the aesthetic even more eye-searing than yours is definitely going to stick to my baby boy and try to leech off his heat! I absolutely must guard my baby boy!"

As Ji Mingshu spoke, she was gesticulating wildly, and with a "slap," she backhanded the documents Cen Sen was holding directly onto his face.

Sugar-daddy: "...”