My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 63

Chapter 63

And so, by the time Ji Mingshu finished deliberating over her WeChat message, she had once again ascended to the top of the trending searches.

The masses, who had failed to catch the "fresh melon" the night before because the keywords were blocked, now browsed the trending topics, nibbling on new tidbits of information while catching up on the old lessons they had missed. They all commented that the feeling of learning was truly refreshing for both body and mind.

There were also entertainment gossip WeChat official accounts with super-strong summarizing abilities. They sorted out the cause and effect of this incident with both pictures and text, titling it—Click to watch the domineering president pampering his wife online!

This WeChat article was later revered as an annual classic in the "gossip-eating" community, as it also compiled many details that had been overlooked.

For instance, the very moment Ji Mingshu spoke out, Feng Yan, Li Che, and Pei Xiyan had liked and reposted her Weibo. When the incident first broke, a certain niche socialite blogger had already predicted that the program team and Yan Yuexing were "done for."

Meanwhile, discussions on major forums unfolded in all sorts of ways. Some dug up the fact that Ji Mingshu had collaborated on runway stages with Chris Chou twice; some had earnestly watched these two episodes of Designer and expressed that Ji Mingshu’s designs were actually quite noteworthy; even more people were taking screenshots to appreciate the "visual assault" of Ji Mingshu’s beauty or turning her into emojis and GIFs.

Among them, the most viral GIF was the one where Ji Mingshu pointed at the carpet to question Yan Yuexing, along with the one where Ji Mingshu turned her head and walked away impatiently.

The text content on these was replaced with things like, "It's dawn, please shut your mouth," "You spendthrift," "I have nothing to say to an idiot like you," "Give you one second to disappear from this president's wife's sight," and so on.

By the afternoon, all related content of the program had been removed from the entire network, and the production team and Yan Yuexing’s studio released apologies one after another.

Interestingly, the two sides seemed unable to agree. Yan Yuexing’s studio didn't say a word about "malicious editing," and their apology was only directed at the fan cyberbullying of Ji Mingshu. They acted like total "white lotuses," as if they were completely oblivious to everything and it was all the production team’s doing.

Perhaps out of resentment, the production team actually uploaded three videos on Xingcheng TV. The total duration of the three videos was nearly two hours. Upon clicking in, one could see the raw, unedited footage—no filters, no skin smoothing, and one could even hear the live audio recording.

[God, I thought the contrast when the show aired was brutal enough, but the unedited version is just like the difference between a high-born lady and her ugly maid.]

[Are this Muter’s beauty, skin, and figure even real? By the way, gotta mention, Yan-zai is too handsome. How is he so tall at sixteen?!]

[Highlight! Highlight! Everything JMS said from 3 minutes 18 seconds to 4 minutes 01 seconds in the first video was cut. YYX was the one acting out, yet they edited it to make JMS look like she was losing her temper. Respect!]

[Watching the unedited version, I noticed that Ji Jihong, Feng Yan, and Pei Xiyan seem to ignore Yan Yuexing; the three of them are all consulting each other.]

[Pei Xiyan follows JMS and FY on Weibo, just not YYX. I’ve said this too many times, no one listens to me tvt]

The masters on the forums used high-speed playback to fly through the videos, then cut out a key highlight reel from the long and boring raw footage.

No one expected this highlight reel to ignite the entire internet!

"If you don't understand, talk less and do more. Have you graduated from university? Is the song you sang your own original? Do you have even the most basic respect for original design in your brain? A brand that has been collectively boycotted by the fashion circle and can't enter the Chinese market, yet they still won't change their ways and turn to partner with furniture merchants to sell a piece of broken carpet for 6,500? The point is, there are still people like you, with half a bucket of water sloshing around, who would earnestly praise it?"

This carpet dispute, where she rationally and crazily blasted Yan Yuexing but wasn't included in the official cut, was shared frantically throughout the afternoon. Ji Mingshu’s fan count was skyrocketing by hundreds or thousands every second, and the top comment on her long Weibo post suddenly changed style to—

[Ahhhhh! The President’s wife has such an aura, I’m dead!!!]

[The President’s wife roasted exactly what I was thinking! That ugly carpet cost 6,500 and a bunch of influencers were recommending it!!!]

[I unilaterally announce that I’m in love! Madam, are you debuting?! Wuu wuu wuu, I’m willing to use all my pocket money to help our Madam debut in the center position!]

[After watching the raw footage, I think the production team has a problem. Maliciously editing Ms. Ji to promote Ms. Yan?! It’s very obvious the show would have been a hit if they promoted Ms. Ji!]

Ji Mingshu: "..."

She was very curious about who was running the official Junyi Weibo account. "Ms. Ji" this, "Ms. Ji" that—now people were calling her Ms. Ji everywhere.

Give me a break, she was just a little fairy who would always be eighteen, okay? "Ms. Ji" sounded way too much like a stern member of the National People’s Congress or the Dean of Students who made all the students tremble in fear.

She complained about this in her group chat with her sisters.

Gu Kaiyang: [???]

Gu Kaiyang: [Sister, your focus is really off.]

Jiang Chun: [Yan Yuexing is also called Ms. Yan, and she’s much younger than you. You’re not losing out.]

Ji Mingshu: [Please hush, thank you.]

Jiang Chun: [Turning your back on your friends once you’re famous, I’ve seen through you, Shushu of the Ji family!]

Following that, Jiang Chun launched an "emoji attack" on her, this time using her own emojis—everything from static to dynamic.

Ji Mingshu couldn't take it anymore and just threw her phone aside, flopping onto her bed.

—With things having reached this point, the farce could be considered settled. She had gotten back the justice she wanted, and was inexplicably gifted with explosive levels of attention.

One had to admit, the power of online public opinion these days was truly strong, and this public opinion was ever-changing. No one knew what would happen the next second, just like how Ji Mingshu had never imagined that the moment the raw footage was released, she would inexplicably enter "fan-gathering" mode.

To say something a bit provocative, the feeling of being forced into the public eye was really quite strange. She didn't know how to deal with it for the time being, so she simply couldn't be bothered to deal with it at all.

She rolled over, intending to catch up on some sleep.

However, she hadn't slept for even three minutes before she suddenly grabbed her phone to attack Cen Sen.

Ji Mingshu: [You dead pig’s hoof.]

Ji Mingshu: [I’m famous.]

Ji Mingshu: [Let’s break up.]

Ji Mingshu: [Of course, if you can bring back some gifts from Paris, I can consider living with you for a while longer.]

She waited five minutes, but there was no response from Cen Sen’s side. It should be morning in Paris, so it was impossible he hadn't woken up; that meant he was busy with work?

Thinking of this, Ji Mingshu didn't wait any longer. She covered her phone and contentedly drifted off to sleep.

When Ji Mingshu woke up, the sky was already dark. She looked bleary-eyed, yawning while wondering what to eat for dinner.

She was the only one in the house, so she hadn't closed her bedroom door while sleeping. At that moment, her sharp ears caught the sound of rustling downstairs, and there even seemed to be footsteps.

She subconsciously thought of the helper they hired.

But that wasn't right; although their helper lived in the house, the helper’s room and the driver’s room were not connected to the main living area. One had to enter directly from the back of the villa, and when there were people in the house, the helper would absolutely never come in without calling first.

Ji Mingshu, wondering what was going on, quickly shook off her sleepiness. She hurried off the bed and walked out, some kind of hunch forming in her heart.

She suppressed it, not daring to let her hidden anticipation become too intense, but as she stood by the stair railing and saw Cen Sen downstairs—changing his shoes and loosening his tie, existing in true reality—it seemed she was struck by a massive sense of happiness.

Cen Sen had just arrived home. Hearing the movement, he looked up slightly.

The exhaustion of forty-eight hours of non-stop work seemed to dissipate the instant he met Ji Mingshu’s gaze.

Winter sunset light streamed in beam by beam through the four-paned windows from the south, falling upon him. After changing his shoes, he leaned against the door, right at the intersection of half-light and shadow, his whole body still surrounded by a lingering air of fatigue.

But as he looked up at Ji Mingshu, he suddenly tugged at his lips in a faint, light smile and spread his arms slightly, making a motion to embrace her.

The daylight seemed to brighten in an instant. Ji Mingshu didn't hesitate for even a second; she ran downstairs barefoot.

For some reason, as she ran down, scenes from her middle school days uncontrollably flooded her mind.

The red plastic track. The brick-colored teaching building. The navy blue school uniform.

The blue of the sky back then seemed brighter than it was now, and the grass was a tender green. Perhaps because she was young, the memories were always automatically coated with a vibrant halo.

And the Cen Sen of that time was also clear and detached. He was always so far, far away from her. Occasionally they would run into each other, and she would brush past him with disdain.

But after every act of disdain, she seemed to unconsciously turn her head to look at the boy’s refined and upright back one more time.

After many years, she could finally, as she wished, throw herself openly and legitimately into that boy’s arms.

In fact, the scene of Ji Mingshu sprinting toward him from upstairs was something Cen Sen would also always remember later on.

The smoky pink nightdress, hair as black as a waterfall, and the stars twinkling in her eyes.

At that moment, he seemed to finally be certain that his feelings for Ji Mingshu were not just "liking."

She smelled of the faint, fresh scent of camellia body lotion. He closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of her neck, letting himself sink into her scent, not wanting to break free.

That embrace after their short separation in the winter dusk lasted for about a minute. Even after they had hugged, Ji Mingshu refused to let go, just pressing against his chest and asking in a muffled voice: "Why did you come back so soon? Did you finish negotiating the deal?"

Cen Sen gave a low "Mmh."

Ji Mingshu hugged him even tighter. She originally wanted to ask if he was tired or if he wanted to rest for a while, but the words, without thinking, inexplicably changed into, "Why aren't you holding me and spinning me around? TV dramas always have people spinning around when they hug."

Before Cen Sen could speak, she muttered in a low voice: "Forget it, you’re already an old man pushing thirty, you don't have much strength, you probably can't lift me... Ah!!!"

Before Ji Mingshu could finish her sentence, she was suddenly lifted into the air without warning. She subconsciously clutched Cen Sen’s neck, and the room began to spin around her.

"O-okay, okay, okay, put me down quickly!"

She had been acting quite fierce, but her physical coordination was poor; she was dizzy after just two turns. When she finally landed, she stepped on Cen Sen’s foot and kept swaying backward, and it was only thanks to Cen Sen catching her that she didn't fall.

Ji Mingshu was recovering from the dizziness when Cen Sen took advantage of her distraction to suddenly ask: "I only saw your message after getting off the plane. I didn't bring you a gift, what should I do?"

Ji Mingshu still had stars in her eyes. A "It's fine" was already on the tip of her tongue, but she suddenly cleared her mind right before speaking.

"What else can you do? Let’s break up, then." She provoked him in a super low voice, even extending a finger to poke at Cen Sen’s chest.

Cen Sen’s eyes darkened, his voice low, hoarse, and slightly gravelly: "But I also just returned from Paris. How about you accept me as the gift?"

Ji Mingshu: "..."

Is a dog man who knows how to flirt like this actually real?!!!