"..."
It was that subtle, yet palpable, mockery again, and the little canary's fragile heart shattered.
While Ji Mingshu remained silent, Cen Sen also possessed the skill of saying, "If you don't speak, I can stay silent too; it's best if we all remain silent until the end of time."
Ji Mingshu stirred the porridge half-heartedly, suddenly suspecting that this scoundrel was slowly torturing her by cutting her flesh with a dull knife.
But glancing at his expression, it didn't seem like it.
After teetering on the edge of embarrassment for 180 rounds, Ji Mingshu had to admit that, regardless of the man's initial intentions, she was already tormented by this sudden surge of patience.
She suddenly put down her spoon and raised her voice, "Could you...could you stop staring at me? I want to sleep a little longer!"
Without waiting for Cen Sen's reply, and without daring to look at him, she kicked the blanket with her hands and feet and hurriedly lay down.
The worst part was that her face started to heat up uncontrollably, and no amount of self-suggestion helped. The thought of "how embarrassing" kept taking hold, like a barrage of comments playing on repeat at double speed, never stopping even when she opened or closed her eyes.
Cen Sen saw her bright red ears and felt a slight stirring in his heart.
But it only lasted for a moment, and there was no time to think about it.
He tidied up the porridge, left the ward, and closed the door behind him.
Ji Mingshu only stayed still for four or five seconds after hearing the door close before turning around impatiently. Seeing Cen Sen still standing by the window, she very cowardly curled back up.
Cen Sen suddenly smiled.
Zhou Jiaheng, who had been waiting outside, was slightly surprised. When he looked up, he saw that the slight smile on Cen Sen's face had disappeared.
As he checked the time, he walked out, followed by a series of work arrangements: "We need to find a company to cooperate with for publicity in Xingcheng. The branch's publicity capabilities are not good enough, and we will have to replace them sooner or later."
Zhou Jiaheng: "Jiabo?"
“You make the arrangements,” Cen Sen said calmly. “The accounts with Rongjia Real Estate are almost due for collection. Find a time to talk to their boss, Mr. Chen. Also, don’t interfere with Wei Chengfeng and Huang Peng’s private contacts for now, and don’t let the other people interfere. It’s not the right time yet.”
"yes."
Zhou Jiaheng followed beside him. Seeing that he had finished his business, she wanted to ask him something, but in the end, out of the inertia of her professional ethics, she held back.
Inside the ward, Ji Mingshu lay curled up on the bed, motionless. In her mind, she replayed in high definition the sins she had committed in front of Cen Sen recently. The more she thought about it, the more ashamed she felt. She clutched the pillow and silently vented her anger several times. In the end, perhaps because she was exhausted, she actually fell asleep again.
I slept until 8 p.m., by which time the IV drip was finished.
The gentle nurse carefully advised her as she collected the empty IV bag: "After the IV drip, it's best to eat something light to fill your stomach. Overeating, especially oily or spicy food, can easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort."
Ji Mingshu nodded absentmindedly, still glancing towards the door.
That bastard Cen Sen just disappeared like that? Is there no one left to take her back?
Watching the nurse leave the ward, Ji Mingshu sadly withdrew his gaze.
But the next second, the door was pushed open again, bringing in a few wisps of the sparse autumn night breeze.
Cen Sen leaned against the doorway, exchanged a calm glance with her, and suddenly spoke, "Pack up, let's go home."
Ji Mingshu sat on the bed with her legs drawn up, staring blankly as he approached step by step, her heart pounding uncontrollably.
Autumn had arrived before they knew it. The nights were cold and the wind was chilly. Ji Mingshu wrapped himself in a trench coat.
Upon getting on the bus, she couldn't help but glance at the shopping bag from a certain brand on the back seat. "Did a client give this to you, or are you giving it to a client?"
“I saw it at the airport and thought it would suit you perfectly.” Cen Sen got into the car from the other side and glanced at her.
"..."
For her?
Ji Mingshu looked at him suspiciously and reached for the shopping bag.
I would glance at him every now and then while unpacking the boxes.
Upon seeing the bag in person, Ji Mingshu felt a surge of excitement, and his usually straight lips curved into a slight smile.
It looks pretty good; the brand, color scheme, style, and size are all to her liking.
Do you like it?
Ji Mingshu scrutinized the bag without missing a beat, feeling extremely satisfied inside, but maintaining a haughty and aloof expression on her face, she commented, "It's... barely acceptable."
She touched it lovingly, then suddenly remembered something, turned her head, and asked with her usual stern expression, "Why...why are you being so nice to me today?"
"Is there?"
Isn't that right? He poured her porridge, personally came to pick her up, and even gave her a bag—it all seems like he has ulterior motives!
Last time, he unusually went to the magazine office to pick her up, and unusually made her braised pork ribs. Wasn't he just waiting to feed her and plot against her?
Thinking of this, Ji Mingshu gripped the bag handle tightly, feeling uneasy.
That jerk of a man, is he? She just came out of the hospital today, why is he so impatient and inhumane?
But just a few minutes later, the car pulled into the underground parking garage of a large shopping mall. Cen Sen said he was going to the supermarket to buy groceries to cook porridge for her, which seemed to further confirm her guess.
She got out of the car carrying her new bag, and was very wary of Cen Sen. On the way to the supermarket, she kept reminding him that she was a patient who had just come out of the hospital and was weak and needed to rest well and not to overwork herself!
Cen Sen glanced at her and said, "I know."
"..."
That indifferent, dismissive look... what do you know? I bet you know absolutely nothing.
Cen Sen had no idea what she was thinking, nor did he feel that he had done anything unusual or that he had done anything special to her today.
Everything seemed to happen naturally; he did whatever he wanted and felt it was all perfectly justified.
Ji Mingshu rarely goes to supermarkets, and this is the first time she has gone to a supermarket with Cen Sen.
She glanced at the trolley outside, which had a cute little car design, a few more times.
Cen Sen suddenly reached out and nudged her head, saying calmly, "Stop looking, your weight isn't right."
His hands were still a little cold. Even though he was just patting her head, she felt her heart skip a beat uncontrollably.
By the time he came to his senses and tried to explain, Cen Sen had already pushed the cart forward four or five meters.
She quickly followed, and together with Cen Sen, she gripped the cart handle. After calming her racing heart, she made conversation by asking, "By the way, when did you learn to cook? I had no idea before."
“When I was in college,” he said, picking out seasonings, “I didn’t specifically learn how to cook; I just downloaded recipes and followed them.”
“I’ve followed the recipe before, how could I not know how?”
Cen Sen put a bottle of cumin powder into the shopping cart, then turned to look at her with an expression that seemed to say, "Don't you know that yourself?"
Ji Mingshu wisely kept quiet.
The supermarket was brightly lit. Ji Mingshu looked around and noticed many young couples pushing carts together, chatting and laughing, some of them quite affectionate.
As they walked towards the seafood section, the air began to smell fishy. Ji Mingshu covered his mouth and nose. Before he could take two more steps, a fish in a glass tank suddenly splashed water out of the tank.
She instinctively protected the new bag Cen Sen had given her, and after the fish calmed down, she carefully picked it up and wiped it clean.
As she wiped them, she felt something was off. She carried her BCK bag around like a work bag, so why was she being so meticulous with an ordinary bag that wasn't particularly valuable?
For some reason, she immediately stopped wiping her bag.
She glanced at Cen Sen, who was selecting live shrimp, and said quickly, "It smells awful here. I'm going to look for some snacks and I'll come back to find you later."
After saying that, she immediately turned around, paused for two seconds, and then quickly fled from Cen Sen's sight.
Cen Sen looked up at her back but didn't think much of it.
However, considering that Ji Mingshu could do some bizarre things from time to time once he was out of his sight, he didn't linger in the seafood area. After having the shrimp processed, he planned to go find the little vase that couldn't walk on its own.
Ji Mingshu drifted leisurely through the snack area with her bag in hand, her stomach finally feeling the belated hunger.
Normally she has little desire for puffed snacks, but right now she really wanted to open a bag of potato chips, eat them first, and then pay the bill.
Fortunately, her image ultimately prevailed over her appetite, and she floated forward, intending to avoid seeing it altogether.
Out of sight, out of mind; her stomach was empty, but she still couldn't calm down.
There were some things she didn't quite understand lingering in her mind, like a minefield full of landmines. If she thought about them too much, they would blow up a huge hole in her peaceful life.
She lingered in front of the shelf for a long time, trying to remove the word "Cen Sen" from the shelves.
But the moment the thought crossed his mind, Cen Sen's calm voice rang out unexpectedly from behind him, "I've bought it."
She was startled, her shoulders trembled involuntarily, and then she grabbed a box from the shelf and hurried forward without looking back, saying, "I've bought mine too!"
After walking for a while, she glanced down and realized she was holding a large box of condoms—the kind with huge, prominent logos on the cardboard boxes. There were at least a dozen or twenty boxes inside.
What is a landmine? This is a real landmine.
Ji Mingshu was stunned for a moment. Seeing that there were quite a few boys around, she turned around without thinking and stuffed the box into Cen Sen's arms.
When Ji Mingshu looked up, he wished he could die on the spot.
Where is Cen Sen?!
Chapter 33
The stranger's build was very similar to Cen Sen's, and both were wearing black coats.
However, upon closer inspection, the coats were not all the same style, and the man's appearance was plain, quite different from Cen Sen.
Caught off guard by the large box of condoms, the stranger was a little dazed. He kept looking down at the contents of his arms and then up at Ji Mingshu, his face full of confusion, while a faint sense of surprise, as if it were a stroke of good luck, filled his heart.
"Miss, you..."
He had just begun to speak when a gentle male voice suddenly rang out from the other side, "I'm sorry, my wife has mistaken you for someone else."
Cen Sen stepped forward and subtly shielded Ji Mingshu behind him, his expression calm.
He glanced at the "lucky bomb" in the man's hand, took it without changing his expression, and threw it into the shopping cart.
The man was taken aback, nodded awkwardly, and felt very embarrassed that he had imagined things too much, so he didn't say anything more.
Just as Ji Mingshu grabbed her things and hurriedly walked forward, Cen Sen followed, but the stranger came from another path ahead of her.
Seeing that the person was pushing the cart and moving slowly, Cen Sen went around to the side and followed behind Ji Mingshu across a display stand.
Who would have thought that at such a close distance, Ji Xiaohuaping could suddenly pull off such an unbelievable feat?
At this moment, Ji Xiaohua was hiding behind Cen Sen, so embarrassed that her head was numb and she didn't dare to breathe.