My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Jiang Chun: [?]

Jiang Chun: [Is your husband a pervert? Did he secretly study "domineering CEO forced love"? He even locked you up???]

Jiang Chun: [Sorry, I actually feel like this is a little exciting...]

Ji Mingshu: [?]

——The other party has retracted a message.

Jiang Chun: [But then again, it’s just a locked door. Doesn't the elevator in your house go to the underground parking garage? You can go out through the parking garage. I remember people online even leaked that the parking garage at your Mingshui Mansion is basically like a luxury car expo!]

Ji Mingshu: [My house is in the middle of a lake. Do you think a luxury car expo can be held at the bottom of a lake?]

Jiang Chun: [o.o]

Jiang Chun: [Then why don't you try tying bedsheets into a long strip and climbing down from the second-floor balcony?]

Ji Mingshu: [……]

Chatting with this little country goose is a total drain on my intelligence.

Fortunately, Gu Kaiyang is still a normal person; she subconsciously suggested that she find a professional to come and pick the lock.

It's just that this property at Mingshui Mansion is equipped with a smart security system. If one were to forcibly pick or pry open the door, the alarm would sound immediately, and the villa area's security would rush to the scene instantly.

If she really had to leave, it wasn't impossible. Ji Mingshu paced the living room for a while, and in the end, she looked toward the four-panel window on the south side.

Cen Sen had an important social engagement today at Su Garden.

Inside the inconspicuous, ancient-style plaques hung in the small alleyways, the dark little doors opened up to a view that was an entirely different world.

When he left the house this morning, the sky was gray and heavy, with rain pouring down like a waterfall. By noon, it had eased, leaving only a drizzling rain.

Cen Sen sat in the pavilion, drinking tea with someone.

This Mr. Chang, whom he was meeting today, was one of the investors in the Nanwan project, a collaboration between Jingjian and Huadian.

Mr. Chang was born in Jiangnan and went far away to Hong Kong in his youth, having not returned home for many years.

His wife was also born in Jiangnan, a typical Jiangnan woman—spiritually elegant and gentle, speaking with a soft, melodic Wu dialect.

The two had been together for over twenty years, their deep affection and inseparable bond widely known. Even when socializing for work, he never forgot to mention his wife and children at home.

Seeing the wedding ring on Cen Sen's finger, Mr. Chang smiled cheerfully and offered a bit of advice: "You young people really don't need to be so busy with work. Money is something you can neither finish earning nor take with you. If you have time, spend more time with your family, go out, and chat about things that weigh on your heart—that’s the only way the string in your brain can loosen up."

He tapped his temple gently and smiled again, taking a sip of tea.

Cen Sen didn't respond, but he followed suit, lifting his teacup and taking a light sip.

Catching sight of Zhou Jiaheng in his peripheral vision, covering his mouth with his hand as a silent reminder, Cen Sen set down his cup. He looked toward the direction of the restroom and nodded slightly with a touch of apology. "Please excuse me."

Mr. Chang made a "please go ahead" gesture.

Cen Sen stood up and walked along the rain-drip corridor toward the restroom, with Zhou Jiaheng following silently.

Stopping in a secluded spot, Cen Sen asked, "What is it?"

Zhou Jiaheng lowered his eyes, stepped forward to the side of his ear, and whispered a sentence.

He paused slightly and turned back to look at Zhou Jiaheng.

Zhou Jiaheng was suffering bitterly inside; he didn't dare to look up at all.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to notify his boss about this kind of "shura field" event.

——His wife climbed out the window to escape, and the bodyguards outside hadn't even noticed until the wife's family came to coax her, only to discover she was gone.

What kind of mess was this?

It seemed that the more prominent the wealthy family, the more their married life leaned toward magical realism. Zhou Jiaheng had been by Cen Sen’s side for a long time, hearing and seeing plenty, but this was the first time his own boss had become the protagonist in a "prison play."

During the moment of silence from Cen Sen, Zhou Jiaheng reported in a low voice, "The two Madams from the Ji family have already returned. Chairman Ji and Director Ji also know about this matter; they will go to visit Nanqiao Alley tonight."

Cen Sen said, "Mm."

Zhou Jiaheng continued, "Madam didn't bring anything except her phone, ID card, and umbrella. Director Ji has already notified Boci Tianhua and several other families with whom Madam is on good terms... so only Miss Gu Kaiyang took her in. Miss Gu requested time off from the magazine office an hour ago. Now, both of them are at Xinggang International, and the specific floor and unit have already been found. What do you think..."

Cen Sen: "She only took her phone and ID card?"

Zhou Jiaheng replied, "Yes," and then, suddenly inspired, he considered his words and added, "Surveillance only saw those two items; the passport and marriage certificate should still be there."

Cen Sen raised his hand to signal him to stop. His eyes darkened slightly, and his voice held a hoarseness hard to hide after days without rest. "Don't worry about it for now."

Zhou Jiaheng nodded and said nothing more.

Cen Sen had not slept at all the night before. In his mind, it was all Ji Mingshu, over and over again.

The way Ji Mingshu looked when she made a fool of herself in front of him, the way Ji Mingshu looked spinning around in a beautiful dress, the way Ji Mingshu looked shy on the bed, and even the way Ji Mingshu cried uncontrollably... Even when he forced himself to think about work, his thoughts would suddenly drift off course.

In fact, his reason kept telling him that he hadn't done anything wrong—that it was Ji Mingshu who couldn't handle her personal grievances with Li Wenyin and was acting unreasonably.

But whenever he recalled Ji Mingshu's accusations, he would feel as if he had truly done something wrong, and wrong to an outrageous degree.

When the sky was just barely light, he went to the kitchen to wash rice and cook porridge. He had originally wanted to make a bowl of braised pork ribs, but the house wasn't stocked with fresh ribs.

While waiting for the porridge to finish cooking, he stood at the kitchen island and wrote a text message.

He wrote for a full ten minutes, deleting and revising, but in the end, thinking of something, he deleted it all at once and threw his phone aside.

Later, when he locked the door while leaving, it was just a subconscious reaction. He didn't think a single door could trap Ji Mingshu, but he also never thought that she would actually go so far as to perform an elementary school student's move like climbing out a window just to run away from home.

If accidentally entering the men's restroom and being unable to get out, being caught swearing in private, and turning around to stuff a condom on the wrong person were the three insurmountable peaks of embarrassment in Ji Mingshu's life, then running away by climbing out a window in the rain and turning herself into a refugee through a series of mishaps was probably the peak of her life's humiliation.

After climbing out the window of Mingshui Mansion, she held her small floral umbrella and waited for a taxi by the side of the road.

But she had always been pampered, with cars picking her up and dropping her off; she had absolutely no concept of how to hail a taxi easily. After waiting for over half an hour without seeing a car, she belatedly started fumbling with a ride-hailing app.

After fumbling for ten minutes, someone finally accepted the order, but her location pin was inaccurate. She spent five minutes explaining her location to the driver in the wind and rain. The driver lost patience, cursed under his breath, and then hung up on her, unilaterally canceling the order.

Having suffered unprovoked irritation and with the rain falling harder, if Gu Kaiyang hadn't received the news and come to pick her up in time, she would have wanted to climb back in the window and wait for the weather to clear up.

After being brought back to Xinggang International by Gu Kaiyang, Ji Mingshu took a bath first. When she came out of the bathroom, she smelled fragrant and was still carrying fresh, swirling water mist. It was as if her whole person had come back to life, and even the air without the filtered fresh-air system felt refreshing.

It was rare for Gu Kaiyang to see her so pitiful, and she couldn't help but feel a sense of affection, plugging in the hair dryer to help her blow-dry her hair personally.

She accepted this without any psychological burden, sitting at the vanity table playing with bottles and jars, her little mouth buzzing non-stop, complaining about the driver and complaining about Cen Sen.

Gu Kaiyang, after all, was a working professional and not born into a rich family. She thought about things more realistically than Ji Mingshu or Jiang Chun.

She was very clear that Ji Mingshu's marriage involved too many interests to be shed so easily, so she didn't mention the divorce again, only asking, "What do you plan to do now?"

Ji Mingshu was baffled, "What do you mean, what do I plan to do?"

"..."

Gu Kaiyang played with her hair while patiently guiding her, "You can stay here as long as you want, of course, but you said it yourself—you feel that Cen Sen has never respected you, and even your family and Cen Sen's friends haven't respected you much. But have you ever thought about how you are supposed to win the respect of others if you can't stand on your own?"

Seeing Ji Mingshu’s confused expression, she added, "Forget it, I won't tell you about these long-term things. I’ll just ask you this: you don't want to use Cen Sen's money now, and your second uncle has made it clear he wants to cut off your financial sources to force you home, so where will you get the money to support yourself? Will the 200,000 that Jiang Chun transferred to you be enough to last you a few days?"

Ji Mingshu paused for a moment and then turned her head, looking at Gu Kaiyang innocently.

"……?"

Gu Kaiyang suddenly had an ominous premonition, "You don't mean to rely on me to support you, do you?"

Ji Mingshu was very righteous and even nodded adorably.

Gu Kaiyang felt the world go black, her words becoming incoherent, "No, I... surely you don't know how much my salary is, do you?"

All her years of struggling and fighting in the Imperial Capital, buying this loft apartment and the Beetle she drove, had exhausted all her savings.

After being promoted to deputy editor-in-chief, she had to send a portion of her monthly salary to her parents, use a portion for daily living, and another portion had to be used for jewelry and clothing to maintain the glamorous identity of a fashion magazine's deputy editor-in-chief. When calculated carefully, there really wasn't much left over.

Actually, if it was just feeding Ji Mingshu, it wouldn't be a problem. The key was that this young lady could easily spend six figures in a shopping mall on any given day. What was she going to use to support her? Sell blood? Even selling blood wouldn't be enough!

Ji Mingshu was optimistic, cupping her face in her hands, "Don't I still have a guest appearance fee for that show? I don't know if it’s been paid yet. Hey, just rest assured, I won't spend money recklessly."

Years of workplace experience had trained Gu Kaiyang's intuition. She looked at Ji Mingshu suspiciously, not feeling truly reassured.

Gu Kaiyang’s apartment had a floor area of forty square meters, but with a height of 4.5 meters, converted into a small duplex, the usable area was nearly sixty square meters. By rights, it was more than enough for two girls to live in.

But Ji Mingshu was used to living in mansions and villas. Staying in this little nest felt fresh at first, but after sitting for a while, she felt it was narrow and cramped.

And after recovering from her sorry state, her hidden "princess syndrome" slowly started acting up again, "Do you only have La Mer here?"

"……?"

"Can't you use La Mer?"

"Oh, it's fine, it's just that I’ve been using that La Prairie Platinum series lately."

After making do with her daily skincare routine, she started picking and choosing from the perfume rack.

Gu Kaiyang had nearly a hundred perfumes, which in all honesty was enough to spray until the end of time, but after looking through them, Ji Mingshu didn't like a single one. After all, since she was eighteen, her perfumes had all been custom-made for her by perfumers.

The facts proved that Gu Kaiyang's premonition was very accurate. For the rest of the day, she inexplicably fell into a muddy hell of being crazily nitpicked by Her Highness the Princess.

"Why isn't your carpet wool? Forget it, I'll buy one now."

"I think your house should at least have an air purification system installed, the three-constant kind. With the air in the Imperial Capital like this, you’ll get cancer."

"How do you drink this kind of flavor from a capsule coffee machine? God, I really can't stand you. Just wait, I'll buy you one."

"No, this projector screen is so uncomfortable to look at. Doesn't your house have a sound system? Your movie membership went to waste with these effects."

……

It was exhausting to finally make it to bedtime. Gu Kaiyang was already worn out, but Ji Mingshu tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

At two in the morning, she suddenly sat up from the bed and poked Gu Kaiyang.

Gu Kaiyang was sleeping in a daze, her voice thick and unclear, "What is it again?"

Ji Mingshu said solemnly: "I've thought about it for a long time. I think you should focus on earning money, get promoted to editor-in-chief soon, and then move to a bigger place—at least one where the neighbors don't have this kind of quality."

She pointed at the ceiling.

Gu Kaiyang was sleepy enough to die. She concentrated and listened carefully for a long while before she heard the extremely faint sound of people entangling on the bed above.

She couldn't even open her eyelids, burying herself in the pillow and saying weakly, "I've also thought about it for a long time. I think there must be some kind of misunderstanding between you and Cen Sen."