My Queen, My Rules - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Inside the luxurious and spacious walk-in closet, Ji Mingshu held up her phone, filming while asking, "What do you think of this set? Is it too formal?"

She was trying on a wine-red satin cocktail dress with the petticoat removed; it featured a bare-shoulder design and a fine waist belt encrusted with blingbling diamonds.

This dress demanded a high standard of physique, but because she had a petite frame and fair skin, it fit her without being a fraction of an inch too tight or too loose, making her bright eyes, pearly teeth, and delicate beauty stand out even more.

Jiang Chun, on the other end of the video call, seemed unable to tear her eyes away, staring blinkless for several seconds. It wasn't until Ji Mingshu called her name twice that she snapped back to reality. "Oh, it is a bit formal, but if you're going to a Western restaurant, a play, or a concert, it should be fine. By the way, where are you two going tonight?"

"That’s just it—I don't know where we're going. He only asked if I had time for a date and then said he’d pick me up after he finished work."

Ji Mingshu frowned slightly when saying the first half of the sentence, looking genuinely a bit distressed. But the more she talked, the more the corners of her lips curled upward, impossible to suppress.

Every little affectation and coy expression seemed to be screaming: "That's right, I am a little golden canary baby currently immersed in the throes of love! tvt!"

Jiang Chun really didn't know what she had done wrong; it was barely mid-afternoon and she hadn't even woken up fully, yet someone had pried her mouth open and forcibly shoved a mouthful of dog food into it.

She swallowed the "dog food" with difficulty, but she still felt it wasn't quite real. She simply couldn't imagine what Cen Sen—a cold-faced bigwig who treated every second spent in idle chatter as a loss of a hundred million—would look like when inviting someone on a date.

However, she didn't need to imagine, because Ji Mingshu was too fond of showing off; she couldn't hold it in after picking her clothes and insisted on showing her a screenshot of their chat.

Cen Sen: 【Baby, do you have time to go on a date with me tonight?】

Jiang Chun slapped herself lightly.

Mm, a little bit of pain—it wasn't a dream.

Jiang Chun: 【This is your husband?】

Ji Mingshu: 【Who else would it be?】

Jiang Chun: 【Did you call your husband? It looks like his account was hacked.】

Ji Mingshu: 【……?】

Ji Mingshu: 【Can you even talk properly?】

Jiang Chun: 【No, this message is too magical. Think about it yourself—is it reasonable for Cen Sen to call you "baby"? Even Tang Zhizhou isn't this cheesy...】

Ji Mingshu: 【You have successfully offended three people in one sentence. /Smile】

Jiang Chun: 【……】

Jiang Chun: 【Humble.jpg】

Jiang Chun’s cold water clearly couldn't extinguish the enthusiasm Ji Mingshu felt while rubbing her hands in anticipation of the date. One had to know that in the nearly four years they had been married, apart from that one time on Christmas Eve when they watched a movie and had hotpot, they had never been on a proper date.

She carefully applied her "date makeup," styled her hair into a look that seemed lazy and casual but was actually full of hidden intent, and changed into a smoky-pink off-shoulder dress that was relatively less formal, perfectly revealing her exquisite and sexy collarbones.

Yet after changing, she felt something was still missing. Remembering a bracelet she had left at Bai Cui Tian Hua that would match today’s outfit perfectly, she thought about it, informed Cen Sen, and had her driver take her there.

At 4:57 PM, the high-level meeting at Junyi was still deadlocked; the managers in charge of the two key projects were arguing until their faces were flushed red over the competition for resources.

On regular days, everyone was a leader and could put on a mask of gentleness and harmony regardless of whether they were dealing with superiors or subordinates. But when it came to speaking about interests, a leader was no different from an auntie at a wet market arguing with a vendor over three cents of change.

If one had to find a difference, it was that they were fiercer, stronger, and more intense. Given their posture, if the conference table hadn't been so wide and their arms so short, they probably would have rolled up their sleeves and fought to the death right there.

The other attendees maintained an "it has nothing to do with me" attitude, at most offering a few meaningless words of consolation, while mostly waiting for the big boss sitting at the head of the table, Cen Sen, to express his stance.

But Cen Sen remained calm and undisturbed; his fingers tapped lightly on the table, his gaze quiet, revealing no true thoughts.

Some people silently assumed in their hearts that this was the calm before the storm; after all, his consistent style was either to say nothing at all, or to drop a bombshell the moment he spoke.

After waiting patiently for three minutes, Cen Sen finally showed signs of dropping that bombshell. "Manager Huang, Manager Song."

The arguing stopped abruptly.

The room was silent as everyone looked simultaneously toward the main seat.

Cen Sen raised his eyes and said in a light, clear voice, "It's five o'clock. We'll stop here for today. The meeting is adjourned."

……?

Adjourned?

Everyone present, including the two managers, Huang and Song, didn't quite react.

Although there were always time estimates for meetings, the concept of a meeting ending just because the time was up when the big boss was presiding didn't exist. When they were in school, would a head teacher stop mid-speech just because the homeroom teacher told him to quit blabbering during morning self-study?

They were too stunned to come back to their senses, but Cen Sen had already stood up to adjust his lapels, and Zhou Jiaheng stepped forward with practiced timing to gather his meeting materials.

They just watched as Cen Sen walked out of the conference room at an unhurried pace, their brains racing at high speeds as they tried to madly decipher the real meaning behind his inexplicable departure.

The two managers had now realized what happened, and recalling how unseemly their arguing had been in front of Cen Sen, they broke out in cold sweat, feeling that this was a precursor to a reckoning. They grabbed onto Zhou Jiaheng—their only lifeline—refusing to let him leave until he gave them a clear answer.

Zhou Jiaheng was speechless. It was just a meeting adjournment, literally. Did they really need to be this scared? Weren't they all quite capable during the meeting just now? The man had a wife to coax; he had no interest in listening to them battle it out here.

At 5:30 PM, Cen Sen’s car stopped punctually downstairs at Bai Cui Tian Hua. He called Ji Mingshu.

Ji Mingshu answered with a nonchalant "Wait a bit" and then lay by the window with a small telescope, looking down.

Although she had nothing to do and was waiting specifically for Cen Sen to pick her up, the necessary procedure of playing hard to get for a date still had to be followed.

However, she was so restless while playing this game that after five minutes, she couldn't take it anymore and hurried downstairs.

Seeing her in her little pink dress, pretending to be cold and aloof while playing with her hair, Cen Sen got out of the car and opened the passenger door for her.

Ji Mingshu glanced at the driver's seat. "You’re driving yourself?"

Cen Sen hummed an acknowledgement, picked up the pink and white roses from the passenger seat, handed them to her, and looked her up and down, complimenting, "You seem, exceptionally beautiful today."

A CEO is a CEO; the word "exceptionally" had clearly been studied with intent, blocking off from the root any possibility for girls to ask back, "Does that mean I’m not beautiful usually?"

Ji Mingshu gave him a look that said, "You know what’s good for you," and carefully protected the flowers as she got into the car.

This bouquet had only eleven flowers; the bundle wasn't big, but it was fresh and exquisite.

Ji Mingshu couldn't keep her hands off them, taking dozens of selfies with them along the way. When they were at a red light, she even signaled for Cen Sen to lean over so they could take one together.

But Cen Sen’s angle in the frame was always a bit awkward, so she simply took a side-profile photo of him driving.

Ji Mingshu: 【On a date with Mr. Cen~/Cute】

She attached two photos.

Once posted to Moments, the likes and comments skyrocketed instantly.

Zhao Yang: 【You two old married couple are way too sickeningly sweet.】

Shu Yang: 【I think I need to go to the pet hospital for a checkup.】

Zhao Yang replied to Shu Yang: 【No need for a checkup; you’re just stuffed with dog food.】

Gu Kaiyang: 【Absorbed today's dose of Shu-Bao’s beauty!】

Jiang Chun: 【Baby, are you planning something?】

Cen Yingshuang: 【Planning a second child?】

Ji Mingshu replied to them one by one, but before she could finish, Cen Sen pulled over and reminded her, "We're here."

"So fast."

She was slightly surprised.

Actually, it wasn't that fast; she had spent nearly forty minutes taking photos and editing them alone.

Cen Sen didn't explain, simply hummed in agreement with her, and leaned over to help her unbuckle her seatbelt.

They arrived at a French restaurant.

The moment Ji Mingshu thought about having to eat a very long French meal outside with Cen Sen, she felt a conditioned-reflex headache.

But since it was a date, one had to eat, so she closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and walked straight in.

Unexpectedly, this meal was not the torturous experience of having a proctor sitting in front of you urging you to hand in your test paper; instead, it was quite comfortable and pleasant.

Cen Sen ate very slowly and was very considerate of her feelings, helping her pour water and red wine, and finding topics to chat with her about.

Furthermore, he adjusted the topics of conversation quite skillfully, chatting about serious things for a while, then switching to light, trivial banter.

Ji Mingshu found it quite magical. How did he suddenly adopt a chatty persona while eating?

Usually, he only had this much to say when he was lecturing her or talking dirty in bed.

Of course, there was no denying that she really liked him looking at her and saying these random things; it gave her a feeling of... him putting his heart into spending time with her.

After the meal, the two walked hand-in-hand, aimlessly window-shopping, and continued chatting about their school days, which they had touched upon in the restaurant, having a rare heart-to-heart talk.

Everything was perfect and fit Ji Mingshu’s definition of a couple’s date—if only the two of them hadn't gone to see that 4D movie.

After wandering for about half an hour, Ji Mingshu couldn't walk anymore, so Cen Sen suggested watching a movie.

When buying tickets, he saw they had 4D screenings and asked if she wanted to try it. Being the kind of person who was "love-struck," she of course did whatever her husband wanted, nodded obediently, and then a two-hour nightmare of passive breakdancing began.

The movie opened with a car-chase scene. Ji Mingshu hadn't even warmed her seat yet when, following the movie’s camera angles, the seat began to shake wildly without warning, and her ice cream cone went straight into her face.

After wiping her face, she planned to take a sip of cola to calm her nerves, but the back of the seat, following a shooting scene in the movie, suddenly punched her right in the shoulder blades, causing half a cup of cola to spill onto the floor.

The most terrifying part was the air conditioning and mist spray that occurred every thirty seconds on average—it was a literal, real-life version of "cold rain hitting my face in a chaotic mess." She was shivering from the cold even while wrapped in Cen Sen’s coat. The only thing she could be thankful for was that her makeup was light and waterproof, so she wouldn't be sprayed into looking like a black-mountain hag.

When the movie ended, she was already half-crippled from being beaten by the chair. Her dress was wrinkled, her hair—each little curl of which had been designed with carefully calculated arcs—was now in a chaotic mess. She looked as haggard as if Cen Sen had abused her eighteen times in the theater, with her whole body radiating the message: "I am weak, pathetic, and helpless."

Cen Sen had also paid money to suffer for two hours, but he still maintained his cold-boss persona, expressionless and keeping his emotions hidden.

He stood up to adjust his lapels and reached out toward Ji Mingshu.

Ji Mingshu grabbed his hand and stood up shakily, stumbling half a step into his arms as she rose.

He took the opportunity to hold her.

Ji Mingshu was exhausted, angry, and tired. With bright, moist eyes, she leaned into his chest and whispered aggrievedly in a small voice: "Did you do that on purpose! I’m so mad! I want a divorce!”