"Can't you use La Mer?"
"Oh, it's nothing, I've just been using La Prairie Platinum lately."
After completing her daily skincare routine, she browsed the perfume shelves.
Gu Kaiyang has nearly a hundred perfumes, which, to be fair, is enough to last forever. However, after looking at them, Ji Mingshu couldn't find a single one to her liking. After all, since she was eighteen, all the perfumes she used had been custom-made for her by perfumers.
As it turned out, Gu Kaiyang's premonition was very accurate. For the next half day, she inexplicably fell into a quagmire of being relentlessly criticized by the princess.
"Why isn't your rug made of wool? Never mind, I'll just buy one now."
"I think you should at least install an air purification system in your home, the kind with constant temperature, humidity, and air quality. The air in Beijing is terrible, it can cause cancer."
"How do you usually drink coffee from a capsule machine that tastes like this? God, I can't stand it. Wait, I'll buy you one."
"I can't take it anymore, this projector screen is so uncomfortable to look at. Don't you have any speakers at home? You've wasted your movie subscription if the quality is like this."
...
After finally getting to bed, Gu Kaiyang was exhausted, while Ji Mingshu tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
At two o'clock in the morning, she suddenly sat up in bed and nudged Gu Kaiyang.
Gu Kaiyang was half asleep, and his voice was muffled, "What is it now?"
Ji Mingshu said seriously, "I've thought about this for a long time, and I think you should focus on making money, get promoted to editor-in-chief as soon as possible, and then move to a bigger house, at least so that your neighbors aren't like this."
She pointed to the ceiling.
Gu Kaiyang was so sleepy that he listened intently for a long time before he could hear the very faint sounds of intertwining on the bed.
Her eyelids were drooping, and she said weakly, buried in the pillow, "I've thought about it for a long time, and I think there must be some misunderstanding between you and Cen Sen."
The author has something to say: ——The fact that someone can live with a princess like you for so long and still refuse to divorce you must mean they love you deeply :)
Chapter 42
The passionate encounter on the ceiling didn't officially end until 3 a.m.
Gu Kaiyang had long since fallen asleep, while Ji Mingshu lay on the other side of the bed, wrapped tightly in the blanket, with his eyes closed, but he still couldn't fall asleep.
At six o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock rang on time.
Gu Kaiyang sat up in bed, yawned, picked up his phone, and ordered breakfast delivery.
Today is the monthly magazine finalization day, so she needs to arrive early. Even though she hasn't had enough sleep, she still has to get up, wash, and put on makeup.
After tidying up, Gu Kaiyang glanced upstairs and saw Ji Mingshu slowly sitting up from the bed and leaning against the headboard.
As she wiped off the excess lipstick, she asked, "Why did you wake up so early? Did my alarm clock disturb you?"
"without."
Because she didn't sleep at all.
Gu Kaiyang didn't ask any more questions. He glanced at the time and hurriedly said, "I've bought breakfast. There's soy milk, fried dough sticks, and steamed buns. They're on the table. If they get cold, just microwave them for thirty seconds. I've also put your room key on the table. Remember to eat breakfast. I have to go to work now."
"Okay, go ahead."
Ji Mingshu responded, wrapped his arms around his legs, rested his chin on his knees, and his heart was pounding rapidly due to a sleepless night.
Hearing the door slam shut with a bang, she didn't move, but simply closed her eyes quietly.
Two days have passed since the incident, and compared to the initial intense emotions, her heart has returned to calm.
But even in this tranquility, she felt an unprecedented sense of confusion about the future.
In fact, back when she misunderstood Cen Sen's affair with Zhang Baoshu, she was already confused: how should she live if she got divorced?
Later, she hesitated about whether to participate in the program. She also seriously considered Gu Kaiyang's advice to develop her career. However, after more than 20 years of comfort, she found it difficult to be prepared for the worst and to live her life like a Go player, thinking ten steps ahead for every one step she takes.
Although she's ended up in this situation, she still banters with Gu Kaiyang, unwilling to face the reality that she can't get a divorce and that she's really useless after leaving Cen Sen. But when she can't sleep at night, she thinks a lot and reflects a lot.
She wondered if Cen Sen would apologize, compromise, and take her home.
Now that she has realized her feelings for Cen Sen, can she still be satisfied with maintaining the old "plastic couple" lifestyle with him, and be willing to never gain his love and respect?
She even wondered if the root of all this was because—she was bad.
During the period from the summer solstice to the winter solstice, the daylight hours get shorter and shorter, and in late autumn and early winter, it doesn't get bright until 7:30 in the morning.
Outside, the sounds of a new day's traffic filled the air, and Gu Kaiyang's little Beetle had already joined the throng. Ji Mingshu closed his eyes and slowly lay down on his side, then curled up into a ball and drifted off to sleep.
Ji Mingshu slept until 2 p.m. When he woke up, the sun was already very strong outside.
She went downstairs and glanced at her bill on her phone. She realized that the skincare and household items she had casually bought yesterday had cost her nearly 100,000 yuan.
She looked through the messages sent by the producers of the "Designer" program and realized that she hadn't noticed before that her payment for participating in the program had already been settled.
The key point is that she didn't care about that small amount of money at the time, and the card she filled out on the spur of the moment was neither brought with her nor linked to her phone number, and she didn't know where it was in some nook or cranny.
So now, she only has the last 100,000 yuan that Jiang Chun helped her with.
She sat quietly for a while, then picked up her key card, changed her shoes, and went out.
Gu Kaiyang's magazine office was not far from Xinggang International. Ji Mingshu went to a nearby tea restaurant to get afternoon tea and then went straight to "Zero Degree".
Today is the final draft day, and everyone in the magazine is extremely busy, shuttling back and forth with their work, with no time to pay much attention to her.
She spotted the familiar assistant and pulled her aside to ask, "Where's your deputy editor-in-chief?"
The assistant knew that Ji Mingshu was Gu Kaiyang's best friend. She pushed up her glasses and said awkwardly, "Sister Gu... she's in the editor-in-chief's office right now, probably being reprimanded."
She said the last sentence very softly, almost in a whisper.
Ji Mingshu: "Why were you being lectured?"
The assistant said cautiously, "Yesterday, Sister Gu took a last-minute leave, and the handover of work wasn't done properly, which caused some problems. Today, finalizing the draft was particularly troublesome, and the entire layout had to be changed in a rush, so..."
Ji Mingshu was taken aback.
The assistant then said, "Ms. Ji, if you're looking for Sister Gu, why don't you go to her office and wait?"
“No need,” Ji Mingshu suddenly handed the packed afternoon tea snacks to her assistant. “You guys eat them. Don’t say I sent them, and don’t tell your deputy editor that I was here.”
"ah?"
The assistant was completely bewildered as Ji Mingshu turned and walked away after finishing her sentence.
In the capital city during autumn and winter, it gets light late but dark early; by six o'clock, the sunset is already gone.
On the way from the horse farm to the clubhouse, Zhou Jiaheng reported to Cen Sen on the progress of the follow-up work in Xingcheng.
Cen Sen leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and pretended to doze off, without replying.
After Zhou Jiaheng finished his report, he paused briefly, then changed the subject without changing his tone, saying, "This afternoon, Madam went out at 2:30 to get some snacks from a tea restaurant. She arrived at the Zero Degree magazine office at 3:00 and came out at 3:10. She walked along Huainan Third Road to the Luxander Supermarket at the intersection of Huainan Second Road and Dongjing Street and bought a bag of groceries. She returned to Xinggang International at 4:30 and didn't come out again."
Cen Sen did not respond, but simply changed the direction of his arms which were clasped low.
The Bentley drove all the way to Heyonghui. Today, Jiang Che was returning to the capital to meet a professor from a chip research and development team, and he had arranged to meet him here.
Jiang Che is currently in the throes of a passionate romance, feeling quite pleased with himself, and has become a little fond of lecturing.
Upon seeing Cen Sen, who rarely drinks during private meetings, enter, he ordered a bottle of whiskey and suddenly said, "Have you noticed a problem with you?"
Cen Sen slightly raised his eyes.
Jiang Che stretched his arm out on the back of the sofa, tilted his head slightly, and looked lazy and unserious.
A few specks of crimson smoke peeked from the cigarette between his fingers, the curling smoke making his voice sound low, husky, and languid. "You're particularly bad at handling things involving emotions. You don't know how to face the An family, and you don't know what to do with your wife."
Cen Sen lowered his eyes again. He never touched a cigarette normally, but today he lit one with Jiang Che's light, holding it low between his fingers and letting it glow and fade.
"Do you remember when you first came to Nanqiao Hutong as a child, Ji Mingshu really liked you and would bring you snacks to play every day?"
"Is there?"
He only remembered that Ji Mingshu was extremely spoiled and childish, and seemed to have ostracized him along with a few other children.
"Of course she did. Back then, Shu Yang used to laugh at her every day, saying she was heartless for forgetting Cen Yang so quickly."
When Jiang Che mentioned Cen Yang, Cen Sen suddenly remembered him.
Because Shu Yang and Cen Yang share a homophone in their names, they've always had a good relationship. However, Shu Yang initially didn't like him; they only became close friends later on.
Jiang Che flicked off his cigarette ash. "To be objective, I actually quite admire Ji Mingshu's personality. She's rather simple and straightforward..."
Cen Sen looked at him.
“I don’t mean anything by it, I just want to say that when dealing with a woman like your wife, you should be more direct. You should bear a large part of the responsibility for making such a big fuss over Li Wenying’s little problem.”
Shu Yang and Zhao Yang don't understand Cen Sen as well as Jiang Che. Jiang Che witnessed the whole thing between Cen Sen and Li Wenying.
To say that Cen Sen would disregard the friendship between the Cen and Ji families and insist on divorcing and remarrying for Li Wenying, he would be the first to disbelieve it. First of all, Cen Sen is not a love-struck person, and secondly, Li Wenying really doesn't have that ability.
Thinking of something, he suddenly said lazily, "I should also say something I shouldn't say, do you know that your current behavior... running back as soon as you hear that Ji Mingshu is in trouble, and then drowning your sorrows in alcohol and smoking after the incident, is exactly like what I would do when Zhou You and I are arguing."
Cen Sen paused for a moment, then stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, his voice calm, "If you shouldn't say it, then shut up."
Jiang Che chuckled lightly.
The two met not for idle chatter, and Jiang Che was not the kind of mother who liked to meddle in other people's love lives. After a few words, the topic quickly turned back to business matters related to the cooperative project.
At nine o'clock in the evening, the night sky, dotted with stars, enveloped this dazzling, decadent city.
Cen Sen and Jiang Che were talking quietly in the private room of He Yonghui. Gu Kaiyang also finally finished his overtime work and rushed back to Xinggang International.
She was worried that Ji Mingshu hadn't eaten properly, but when she got home, she saw Ji Mingshu holding up his bleeding finger, squatting in front of the coffee table looking for a first-aid kit.
"Ji Mingshu, what did you do? What happened to your hand?!" Gu Kaiyang rushed forward anxiously without even changing his shoes, staring intently at her finger where blood was oozing out. "Does it hurt?"
"Of course it hurts!" Ji Mingshu frowned pitifully, but seeing that Gu Kaiyang was focused on putting on a band-aid for her, she endured it for a moment and forced herself to say, "But it's okay, it was just a light scratch, it won't hurt in a while."
Gu Kaiyang's heart eased slightly, but he continued to press, "What happened? What did you touch? Were you trying to scare me to death?"
"I was just thinking that you work hard and wanted to cook you a few dishes."
"...?" Gu Kaiyang looked completely bewildered. "You...cook?"
She glanced back at the kitchen, and sure enough, the pots, pans, and utensils showed signs of having been moved. "Where are the vegetables?"
"You're so annoying."
Ji Mingshu slapped her hand away in disgust, got up on her own, sat on the sofa, and said with a mix of righteous indignation and unease, "Isn't this a lack of practical experience, and still exploring the path of socialist construction?"