My Queen, My Rules - Extra Chapter 8

Extra Chapter - Cen Sen’s Perspective

Cen Sen remembered the day he returned to Nanqiao West Lane. A drizzle was falling, the raindrops hitting the puddles on the ground and leaping up in tiny sprays of water. The sky was a dull, hazy grey, like dirty water used to rinse a rag, unevenly smeared across the horizon.

It wasn't just that day; for a long time after returning to Nanqiao West Lane, he felt as if he could always see that dim, gloomy sky.

It was cold, melancholic, lifeless, and seemingly endless, yet it possessed an incredibly powerful sense of oppression, coating even the briefest flickers of light in shades of grey.

The awkward transition from his childhood to his teenage years seemed to be perpetually draped in that grey hue.

Immersed in a past that felt increasingly distant, he unilaterally rejected all kindness from the outside world.

Long after, as his and Ji Mingchu’s daughter, Cen Zhuo, grew up, she looked more and more like a quiet, miniature version of Ji Mingchu.

Whenever he saw Cen Zhuo, he would often wonder: if, many years ago, he had accepted the brave, outstretched hand of young Ji Mingchu, would those many dark, solitary times that followed have been bright instead?

In Cen Sen’s impression, Ji Mingchu had always been a pretty and boisterous girl. Spoiled, willful, wanton, and arrogant, she seemed capable of turning herself into the center of the universe wherever she went, naturally demanding that all "asteroids" revolve around her.

When Cen Sen was in his third year of middle school, Ji Mingchu was just a freshman. That entire year, the probability of Cen Sen hearing the name "Ji Mingchu" was higher than that of hearing his head teacher’s name.

Moving on to high school, the pressure of academics increased sharply, and the gossip interest of his classmates during breaks dwindled slightly. However, since the middle school and high school departments of the Affiliated High School were not separated, Ji Mingchu remained the central figure in all sorts of campus rumors.

"That Ji Mingchu from the second year of middle school is getting pretty close to the class monitor of the class next door."

...

"Have you heard? The track team captain is chasing Ji Mingchu."

...

"Someone sent flowers to a second-year class during lessons yesterday. We’ll probably have to listen to a school-wide disciplinary announcement during our homeroom meeting later. Old Yang definitely won’t make us do practice papers—that's a good thing!"

...

Such snippets of news flowed past Cen Sen’s ears day after day. He didn't need to pay attention, yet he would always remember bits and pieces.

At that time, after evening self-study, Cen Sen had a habit of staying in the library for an hour or two before returning to the dormitory, as the dormitory was just as noisy as Ji Mingchu, and it was hard to focus on studying there.

Of course, this didn't mean that by waiting an hour or two, he could avoid the plague of vacuous topics.

During the late-night chats after lights-out in the dorm, no matter the topic, it would always strangely circle back to the girls at school.

One night, his roommates were discussing:

"Hey, didn't I oversleep this morning? I ran into Li Wenyin and Ji Mingchu at the school gate, stuck there because of the penalty points for shortening their uniform skirts. I’m not just saying this, but Ji Mingchu is truly beautiful. When she wears that short skirt, her legs are so fair and straight—it's something else! I’m not exaggerating; I really didn't even want to blink when I saw her."

"Li Wenyin is pretty good-looking too. The quality of girls in this grade is really something. Not like our grade, pfft—can you even count them on one hand?"

"Li Wenyin is good looking if you look at her alone, but standing next to Ji Mingchu, she’s still lacking quite a bit. She’s a bit bland."

Adolescent boys are inevitably restless, and discussions about female classmates occurred frequently. Whenever someone threw out a topic, the enthusiasm for participation would spontaneously skyrocket exponentially. The only ones in the room uninterested in the girls' gossip were probably Cen Sen and Jiang Che.

Back then, Jiang Che was playing in information science competitions; he wanted to recite code even in his subconscious while sleeping, and he would usually push away anyone who disturbed him with impatience.

Cen Sen, however, was gentle and quiet. Although he always had a vague sense of detachment, he maintained a good classmate relationship with most people and was still the "big brother" in the dorm. By the end of a discussion, the conversation would usually turn toward him.

"Hey, Brother Sen, between Ji Mingchu and Li Wenyin, which type do you prefer?"

"Do you even have to ask? It's definitely Li Wenyin. Isn't this an easy mark?" a roommate teased on his behalf.

Like Ji Mingchu, Cen Sen was also a renowned figure at school with frequent fresh scandals. One of the more widely circulated ones was that he and Li Wenyin were childhood sweethearts with a very ambiguous relationship.

Cen Sen had heard of it occasionally but didn't take it to heart. Li Wenyin had lived at the Ji family’s home when they were children; if that counted as being childhood sweethearts, then there seemed to be no reason why he and Ji Mingchu shouldn't be counted as such, too.

Usually, when someone interrupted a topic, it would just fade away, but that night, after the interruption, the roommate persisted in asking Cen Sen: "Hey Brother Sen, you haven't said it yourself yet. Which type do you actually like?"

Cen Sen lay flat on his bed, looking at the ceiling illuminated by the sparse moonlight outside the window, and replied nonchalantly: "Li Wenyin, I suppose."

The roommates dragged out an "Oh" with meaningful intonations, followed by the expected playful teasing.

But even as Cen Sen answered "Li Wenyin," his mind couldn't help but recall Ji Mingchu walking past him with her chin slightly raised, blowing chewing gum bubbles, and sneaking a look at him with a roll of her eyes.

This little girl, Ji Mingchu, often didn't walk properly. When happy, she liked to put her hands behind her back, hopping lightly with her toes.

Still, the pair of legs under that pleated skirt were indeed just as his roommates had described: fair, glowing, straight, and slender.

That fleeting thought was extremely brief, and he had no interest in paying attention to someone who had little to do with him. His studies were busy, and he stayed busy like that until graduating high school.

When Li Wenyin came to confess to him, he had just received his recommendation letter from the principal and had a relatively rare period of rest.

He was at an age where he could date; he had time, someone had confessed, and she happened to be the type he appreciated at the time—so, why not give it a try?

To him at the time, this seemed just like trying to solve a new competition problem; it was simple and required no deep reflection. That included his later decision to break up peacefully when he felt they were incompatible—from his perspective, it followed the same logic.

In matters of the heart, Cen Sen felt he could be considered a refined egoist. He had never imagined that one day, he would treat a woman well without conditions.

After breaking up peacefully with Li Wenyin, he went abroad to study. During those years abroad, his time was packed, yet his emotional life remained a blank slate.

After returning to the country, at that class reunion, he and Ji Mingchu had a semi-coerced sexual encounter. Later, driven by the interests of both their families, they logically ended up married. However, for a long time after marrying Ji Mingchu, he didn't feel that marriage had brought any significant changes to his life.

Everything changed, perhaps, after they returned from Australia.

He didn't know why, but he found himself paying more and more attention to every move this "vase" wife made.

Clearly, the adult Ji Mingchu was just as spoiled, willful, and wanton as before, as if the earth had to rotate around her alone for things to be perfect. Yet, in this willfulness, there seemed to be a vitality he hadn't understood before—not at all off-putting, even making one inexplicably want to submit to her.

In his rational definition, this was originally just a marriage of no great importance. Once the Ji family's utility decreased, dissolving this marital relationship wouldn't matter much. Yet, when Ji Mingchu asked him for a divorce for the first time, he didn't feel relieved; on the contrary, he felt a certain displeasure at losing control.

Later on, his emotions were always being tugged by Ji Mingchu, changing uncontrollably. No matter how busy he was, as soon as he had a moment of leisure, it felt as if something was weighing on his heart.

He truly confirmed his feelings, perhaps, during that period when Ji Mingchu misunderstood his relationship with Li Wenyin and ran away from home.

One night, he and Jiang Che went to a bar together and inadvertently heard someone disparaging Ji Mingchu with dirty language. For the first time in his life, he resorted to violence against someone, acting without thinking, without considering the consequences.

The funniest thing was that, before this, he had always felt that using violence to solve problems was a very stupid thing to do.

That night, after the altercation, he drove and sat in the cold wind downstairs from Ji Mingchu’s apartment for a long time.

It was probably from that night on that he knew very clearly: he had fallen for her.

Recognizing this fact, his feelings weren't complicated; for a moment, he even felt a sense of relief and smiled involuntarily.

If he had fallen, then so be it.

Living a lifetime, one is bound to meet their destined nemesis.

Cen Sen and Ji Mingchu officially fell in love in the third year of their marriage. In the fifth year, they gave birth to their first baby, and in the twelfth year, they had their second.

When Ji Mingchu gave birth to their second child, Zhuo-Bao, she was thirty-four, yet she still looked like a girl in her early twenties, possessing an innocence in her personality that shouldn't belong to that age.

This was likely because she had been protected too well. From a two-person household to three, and then to four, Cen Sen’s first priority had always been this little, never-aging golden canary of a baby, Ji Mingchu.

In the fifteenth year of their marriage, the always energetic little golden canary baby fell ill—the kind that required surgery.

It started with physical discomfort, leading to a hospital check-up, where a shadow was discovered.

Ji Mingchu usually acted fierce, but in reality, she was timid, and she loved to overthink. Even fainting from dieting made her imagine she had an incurable disease. Waiting for the results was undoubtedly a long torture for her.

For Cen Sen, it was also a torture.

Ji Mingchu didn't show anything in front of the children, and even in front of him, she pretended to be relaxed, always saying, "Our family is so rich, what illness can't be cured?" But one night, he discovered that Ji Mingchu had gotten out of bed and was hiding on the balcony, crying secretly.

He walked over slowly and hugged her from behind.

Ji Mingchu cried even harder, her voice sobbing, "Do you think I have cancer? Actually, I... I’m so scared... I’m so afraid of dying... I can’t bear to leave you, can’t bear to leave the babies, really can’t bear it..."

He gently stroked Ji Mingchu’s head, his warm breath lingering by her ear, yet he couldn't utter a single word of comfort.

That seemed to be the most powerless moment of the first half of his life.

During that period, both he and Ji Mingchu lost a lot of weight. Later, the results came back; it was a benign tumor that required surgical removal.

He put down all his work to accompany her through the whole process.

The surgery was relatively simple and went smoothly, but it was still an operation. After the surgery, Ji Mingchu recuperated for a long time before recovering her lively, spirited self.

Yet, Cen Sen suddenly realized that they were no longer as young as they were in their teens or twenties.

When Ji Mingchu was sick, he had prepared for the worst. If Ji Mingchu were to pass away first, he would fulfill the duties of both father and mother in her stead, raising Cen Yan and Cen Zhuo to adulthood, watching them start their own families, and then leave to find her without a second thought.

His life had always been lonely; because of Ji Mingchu, he had stolen many years of warmth. He couldn't let this coward wait for him for a long, long time alone.

He remembered many years ago, meeting an investor named Chang for the Nanwan project. That Mr. Chang was famously devoted to his family, often saying during their talks that money could never be earned in full, and one should spend more time with their family when possible.

At that time, he hadn't cared, but now, he felt that no matter how much he gained, if he didn't have Ji Mingchu to share it with, it seemed to have no meaning at all.

His work schedule was drastically reduced, and he delegated many responsibilities to the younger members of the Cen family he had been cultivating over the years.

He would plan reasonable and healthy meals for Ji Mingchu, accompany her to the mall and social events, travel with her, and even started planning early for their retirement—moving the Cen family power entirely to Cen Yan once he grew up so the two of them could live a life of two.

While traveling in Morocco, Ji Mingchu was noisy about wanting to send postcards to her good sisters, Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun.

He also took the opportunity to send one, addressed to Ji Mingchu.

Written in regular script, it contained a single sentence:

"Baby, whether this life is long or short, I will be the one who accompanies you to the end. Thank you for bursting into my life without any warning.”