My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 68
Chapter 68
In truth, when Ji Mingshu looked back on it later, that New Year's Eve had been quite plain and unremarkable.
Cen Sen held her for a while at the entrance of the alley. As the snow began to fall more thickly, the two of them walked back hand-in-hand along the path they had taken for their stroll.
After returning to the courtyard, they watched the Spring Festival Gala with the elders in the main room for a while. When it was nearly midnight, they shared some dumplings. She couldn't finish hers and secretly transferred the better half to Cen Sen’s bowl.
Later, when the snow stopped, Cen Sen accompanied her outside to build a snowman. She used a twig to write the words "I like you" in the snow and tugged Cen Sen over to look at it. Because Cen Sen wanted to hear her say it after reading it, she—lacking any backbone—said it. The two of them lingered in front of the snowman for a bit before returning to their room to curl up under the covers, playing on their phones and chatting and laughing together.
Cen Sen’s smiles were always very faint; his expression was relaxed, the corners of his lips lifted slightly, and he rarely ever showed his teeth. But for someone who usually didn't smile, that occasional brief flicker of a smile made him seem exceptionally gentle.
Beyond that, they didn't do anything inappropriate for minors. Once they grew tired of chatting, they simply held each other and drifted into a deep sleep.
It was just such a plain, ordinary night that left Ji Mingshu sitting foolishly on the edge of the bed the next morning, unable to distinguish reality from a dream.
She had once felt that some people might be born without the capacity to love, and that having even a single unrequited crush was a rarity. Yet on New Year's Eve, the one-sided arrow she had managed to ignite suddenly received a response from the other side.
While brushing her teeth, Ji Mingshu turned her head, her mouth still full of white foam, and asked indistinctly, "Did you say you liked me last night? I’m not dreaming, am I?"
Cen Sen had already finished washing up. With his hair slightly damp at the forehead, he looked fresh and clean.
Seeing Ji Mingshu with her hair in a mess, looking up at him with her small face to ask the question, he poured another glass of water and handed it to her. "Brush your teeth properly."
Immediately after, he wrung out a towel.
Ji Mingshu stared straight at him, originally thinking that after Cen Sen’s confession, his personality had suddenly changed and he knew how to wring out a towel to help her wipe her face.
But she hadn't been secretly happy for even three seconds before she saw Cen Sen calmly using the towel to wipe the toothpaste splatter she had accidentally sprayed onto his own clothes.
Ji Mingshu: "..."
He was disgusted by a tiny speck of toothpaste? How was she supposed to believe that this dog of a man truly liked her, would go through thick and thin with her, never leave her side, raise children with her, and spend the rest of his life together?
Before she could voice the question from the depths of her soul, Cen Sen wrung out the towel again and helped her wipe her face.
His movements couldn't be called gentle, nor could they be called skilled, but they had the merit of being thorough.
After wiping, he leaned in slightly and planted a kiss on her face. "You aren't dreaming."
His lips were ice-cold and tasted of peppermint toothpaste.
Pink bubbles began to rise bit by bit from the bottom of her heart.
Ji Mingshu nodded slowly, then turned back to the mirror, silently rinsed her mouth quickly, and decided—to bury that earlier question back into the depths of her soul.
The Cen family had a custom of staying up for the New Year. At breakfast time, the adults had basically just touched their beds, so apart from Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen, only a few spirited little ones were sitting in the dining room.
With no elders around, Ji Mingshu didn't pay much attention to etiquette and spent some time scrolling through Weibo while eating.
After the major reversal in the malicious editing incident some time ago, her Weibo had gained a full four hundred thousand followers. Though she had cleared all her posts after the incident died down, her follower count continued to grow steadily, and her private messages were packed with people asking if she would consider debuting, why she had cleared her feed, when she would "work" (post content)...
Normally, a female celebrity could gain plenty of fans and buzz just by faking a rich-girl persona. Having a living, breathing, bona fide top socialite with a strong personality right in front of them naturally made people quite curious.
Ji Mingshu originally hadn't wanted to appear in public much, only hoping that everyone would soon forget about the incident and not drag her out into the spotlight every few days.
But even though things had calmed down on her end, the subsequent bickering between Yan Yuexing and the production team was like an endless soap opera. As one of the key figures in the incident, it was impossible for her to completely retreat from the gossip and discussions anytime soon.
Moreover, she had been truly desperate to show off last night! The moment Cen Sen confessed to her, she had wanted to announce to the world: The person I like likes me back! I, Shushu of the Ji family, must be the happiest woman in this world! I accept no rebuttals!!!
So, after bragging on her WeChat Moments, she couldn't resist posting the photo of the two of them holding sparklers to Weibo, with the caption: "New Year's Eve spent with Mr. Cen."
Her post had been throttled by Weibo’s algorithm, and after a while, there were only scattered responses, so she hadn't bothered to keep checking it.
But looking at it now, that post about their affection had broken five thousand reposts, likes, and comments, and there was a small blue "Hot" tag in the top left corner of the Weibo interface.
Ji Mingshu hadn't played with Weibo much and didn't know that this was a badge that only appeared when someone bought a promoted post for you; she truly thought she had become popular on her own merit.
So, resting her chin in her hand while scooping soup with a small spoon, she put on airs with Cen Sen. "My Weibo has fifty thousand followers now, and any post I make can hit the 'Hot' list. Did you know that?"
Cen Sen gave a highly perfunctory "Mmm," without even lifting his eyes.
He had been wearing a loose black sweater since early that morning, sporting light gold-rimmed glasses, and was sitting opposite Ji Mingshu eating breakfast while looking at financial news on his tablet, looking casual and domestic.
But this casual, domestic look appeared to Ji Mingshu—paired with that heartless "Mmm"—to be total indifference toward her, a blogger with fifty thousand followers!
She suddenly stood up, scooted over to sit next to Cen Sen, and stuffed the half-eaten bun she was holding into Cen Sen’s mouth. Half-spoiled and half-threatening, she said: "Let me tell you, if you ever dare to treat me badly in the future, I’m going to call you out on Weibo!"
"..."
Cen Sen put down his tablet, his long, slender fingers pinching the bun, and chewed slowly. Only after finishing did he lower his eyes and ask, "When have I ever treated you badly?"
Ji Mingshu tugged on his arm, justified and righteous. "I was just talking to you and you kept looking at the news. Isn't that treating me badly and not caring about what I have to say at all?"
Her whole face was written with "Your little pampered wife is very unhappy right now." Cen Sen took a sip of soup, ruffled her hair, and said slowly: "I'll correct it in the future."
Ji Mingshu was finally satisfied. She then picked out comments under her post from people shouting, "The President's wife is too beautiful!" and "President's wife, please debut!" to broadcast live to Cen Sen, wanting to apply some pressure to make him acknowledge just how high the market value was for his beautiful wife.
A few little ones at the table who were also eating breakfast sized them up, occupying a corner of the round table and whispering.
Little Boy #1: "When we grow up, we must never find a wife like Great-Aunt. She's too scary!"
Little Boy #2: "Brother, you're right. I think Dad is totally correct—pretty faces aren't useful. We have to look at the inner self."
Little Girl #1: "It's like you two could ever find a wife as pretty as Great-Aunt even if you wanted to..."
Little Girl #2: "Exactly! You're such chauvinistic pigs for being so young!"
Little Boy #1: "And you're just a radical feminist!"
Little Girl #2: "Cen Bigeng, can you stop using words you don't understand? You're so stupid!"
Children don't think twice about what they're doing when they argue. Before long, these little ones had escalated from whispering to shouting, and had drifted from the original topic into personal attacks.
Just then, Cen Sen suddenly put down his bowl, lifted his eyes to sweep over them, and said in a deep voice: "If you aren't going to eat, go write your winter break homework."
With that single, calm sentence, the children acted as if they’d been hit by a freezing spell—they suddenly sat up straight and became as quiet as chickens, even holding their breath carefully.
Ji Mingshu glanced at those little faces, now taut with tension, and a thought suddenly popped into her head—
In the future, when she and Cen Sen had children, she probably wouldn't need to worry about much. Cen Sen’s cold-faced aura, like a grand boss guarding a tower, would likely be enough to bring any child to heel. As the merciful mother, she would only need to occasionally show her own gentleness and consideration, taking the little ones out for shopping and photos.
Thinking of this, Ji Mingshu looked at Cen Sen with a smile, clearly very satisfied with his performance.
However, this satisfaction didn't last long, because his lingering ex-girlfriend, who wouldn't leave his life, was determined not to let anyone have a peaceful time, and started causing trouble on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Following the announcement that her film had started shooting, Li Wenyin had actually started selling books! She was selling a novel with the same name as the film, and had even asked several well-known writers to write prefaces and recommendations!
No one knew how long Li Wenyin had been holding back this big move; there hadn't been a whisper of promotion beforehand. She had simply dropped a long Weibo post out of the blue on the first day of the New Year, rambling on from the conceptual design of the cover all the way to the gifts included with the book. Between the lines, she spoke of her dedication and the way she cherished this book. One could say she had pushed the concept of "cashing in on nostalgia" to the absolute limit.
Li Wenyin’s article from back in the day, "My Ex-Partner Got Married," had garnered quite a few Weibo followers. These past few years while studying abroad, she hadn't forgotten to occasionally post a few lines of foreign language that no one could understand, take photos of art exhibitions and artworks, write film and book reviews for highly-rated arthouse works, and very occasionally post selfies, sharing her daily routine of tea tasting, illustration, and attending high-end events. Her Weibo follower count had actually slowly risen to nearly a million.
This kind of blogger, who followed the path of "literary pretension," had a lot of active fans. When she suddenly burst out with a big move like publishing a movie-tie-in book on the first day of the New Year, her fans naturally responded enthusiastically.
Furthermore, she had been prepared long ago. It wasn't long before the reposts, likes, and comments on her long Weibo post all broke ten thousand, and both "#LiWenyinNewBook" and the name of her film quietly climbed onto the trending topics list.
What was even more exaggerated was that within an hour or two, her book pre-sales had topped the charts on major bookselling websites. She even posted a thank-you Weibo, saying something about how she hadn't expected so many people to buy it, and that her editor had just notified her that the first print run would have to be expanded, blah blah blah.
When Ji Mingshu saw this Weibo post, she almost died of anger. She unceremoniously shoved her phone into Cen Sen’s face. "This is what you meant by 'don't be in a rush, don't be in a rush'! The movie won't be released! I don't know if the movie will be released, but this book is about to hit the shelves! Does your ex-girlfriend think she's a modern-day Li Qingzhao, or what?! She's publishing books, she's printing extra copies—does she want your touching, earth-shattering love story to be immortalized for ages to come?!!"
Ji Mingshu was so angry. "And why does she have so many more Weibo followers than me! The reposts, likes, and comments are more than double mine! I have zero prestige left!!!"
Cen Sen: "..."
He kept his eyes closed, removed the phone from his face, and for a moment, truly didn't know which problem he should solve for Ji Mingshu first.