The meeting lasted until 5:30 p.m., followed by a social engagement.
Cen Sen was returning to Xingcheng and left promptly at eight o'clock, without participating in the transition activities.
Before getting on the highway, I suddenly felt some strange vibrations on the road.
The driver felt something was wrong, so after asking for permission, he slowed down, stopped, and pulled over to the side of the road with his hazard lights on.
Driver: "It feels a bit like an earthquake, but it shouldn't be around here. It should be over in a bit."
Zhou Jiaheng received an instant message: "A 5.8-magnitude earthquake has occurred in Changsha."
Cen Sen remained silent and called Ji Mingshu.
Chapter 75
The atmosphere in the car suddenly became tense after Cen Sen said those words.
It seemed that only now did the driver realize that this was the president of a group from the capital, not his usual boss who liked to pick him up and chat with his employees.
He wisely kept quiet.
Zhou Jiaheng didn't dare to offer any words of comfort, but kept making phone calls to keep in touch with the people in Xingcheng.
Just then, even more unexpected news arrived: due to landslides and roadbed collapses on the Chengshuang section, the Xingshuang Expressway was immediately closed.
—The highway they were taking back to Xingcheng was the Xingshuang Expressway.
The situation in Xingcheng is even more dire. The latest news is that civilian vehicles are prohibited from passing through, which means that it is impossible to send anyone out to look for Ji Mingshu.
Cen Sen was lost in thought. After listening to Zhou Jiaheng's report, he got out of the car and called Jiang Che.
Xingcheng is Jiang Che's home turf, so it's more direct and convenient for him to step in, whether it's to find someone or to give special treatment.
The phone was answered after only two rings.
Cen Sen got straight to the point, "I'm on my way back to Xingcheng from Chengshuang, but the Xingshuang Expressway is blocked. Make some arrangements for me; I need to get back immediately."
His voice was like the night wind, deep and cold, yet sharp and clear.
Jiang Che was waiting for his connecting flight at the airport. He chuckled casually, "What, are you rushing back to Xingcheng to check on me? I'm not here today."
Cen Sen: "Stop talking nonsense."
Jiang Che was about to make a joke, but then suddenly remembered something, "You didn't leave Ji Mingshu in Xingcheng and then lose contact with him, did you?"
He knew that Cen Sen was in Xingcheng on a business trip, and he vaguely remembered that Cen Sen had mentioned that Ji Mingshu had come along this time as well.
The silence on the other end of the phone seemed to confirm his guess. He instantly dropped his lazy demeanor, pondered for a moment, and calmly arranged, "There's an earthquake in Xingcheng. The surrounding satellite cities will definitely send fire and rescue teams. Send me your location, and I'll find someone to take you back. Also, send me where Ji Mingshu might be, and I'll help you find him."
He paused for a moment, then added, "You don't need to worry about the Xing Shi University apartments either."
After a brief silence, Cen Sen only said two words, "Thanks."
Jiang Che: "Stop talking nonsense."
Cen Sen and Jiang Che have been friends for over ten or twenty years.
Jiang Che was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and didn't need to cater to others, so he wasn't very tactful and always did what he liked.
Cen Sen has more experience, matured early, has a calm and steady personality, and is considerate and tactful in his dealings with others.
Over the years, Cen Sen has always been the one who is better at controlling the overall situation. When his childhood friends get into trouble and don't dare to go to their families, they usually ask him for help to clean up the mess.
When Jiang Che and Chen Xingyu's Jiangxing Technology was just starting out, there were many competitors. Several times, their competitors caused them to have cash flow problems. At that time, the Jiang family did not support Jiang Che much, and it was Cen Sen who was investing heavily in support behind the scenes.
This situation, where Cen Sen asks Jiang Che for help, seems to be the first time it has happened.
To be honest, Cen Sen disliked this feeling. Perhaps it was because of the experience of being arranged and chosen by others when he was young that left him with a deep psychological shadow. Over the years, he had become accustomed to being in a dominant position and having everything under his control.
The night wind was chilly. He turned around, gripping the handlebars with one hand, the veins on the back of his hand bulging out from his grip.
But the next second he suddenly let go, only lightly tapped the car window, and asked the driver for a cigarette.
The driver hurriedly handed him a cigarette, even warmly holding it up and lighting it for him.
He leaned against the car window, his gaze calmly fixed on the direction of Xingcheng, wisps of smoke flickering from his fingertips as they drifted away.
Cen Sen arrived in Xingcheng at 1 a.m. that night. News about the Xingcheng earthquake was already everywhere online, making it hard not to know about it.
The strongest tremor occurred at 8:15 p.m., lasting for nearly 17 seconds, and several aftershocks followed between midnight and midnight.
The epicenter was located in Fengyang County, a suburb of Xingcheng, very close to the main urban area of Xingcheng. Data on casualties and economic losses are still being compiled, but based on the information already released, the situation is not particularly serious.
But for Cen Sen, the situation was very serious because he couldn't get in touch with Ji Mingshu.
Ji Mingshu's phone was reachable for a long time, but no one answered.
But when I dialed back around midnight, all I heard was a mechanical female voice saying: "The number you dialed is currently switched off."
The hotel's surveillance footage had already been reviewed, and based on the time period recalled by the staff, it could be seen that she did indeed go out in the afternoon.
But she never came back after she went out. The hotel room was empty, and the surveillance footage didn't show a precise time period, making it difficult to investigate.
When Cen Sen arrived at the Junyi Huazhang Hotel where he was staying, Jiang Che finally sent accurate news: Ji Mingshu had gone out to check out a popular cafe in the afternoon, and after leaving the cafe, she seemed to have gone straight back to the hotel. Moreover, the location of the last phone call she received that afternoon was also at the hotel.
Standing in the hotel lobby, Cen Sen glanced at the final location Jiang Che had given him and suddenly understood something.
Last time Ji Mingshu came to Xingcheng, she was really looking forward to checking out a certain popular coffee shop, but because she was in a hurry to get back to the capital and have a party battle with Li Wenyin, she didn't end up going there.
She did manage to go, but the coffee shop was nothing like what she had imagined. She disliked everything, from the decor to the popular desserts and even the owner's taste in coffee beans. She got up after drinking half a cup of coffee without even taking a picture.
Perhaps because Cen Sen had been too active last night, she had no interest in shopping and quickly returned to the hotel, took two vitamin pills, and went to sleep.
For Ji Mingshu, this day was ordinary, so peaceful that it was almost unremarkable.
So when she woke up groggily, breathless from the kiss, she felt a little dizzy.
"What are you doing? Don't you let people sleep at night?"
She pushed Cen Sen's face away, not forgetting to pull her silk slip dress closer, her voice soft and coquettish.
All she could get in response was a deep, relentless kiss.
The kiss was so forceful that she couldn't even whimper. A chill ran through her as her nightgown, which she had just gathered up, was ripped open.
After being jolted awake, Ji Mingshu was completely sober.
Cen Sen was acting really strange. He hadn't even taken a shower yet, and he was in such a hurry, and he was being particularly forceful. Most importantly, he kept calling her "baby" affectionately in her ear.
They drank fake alcohol.
But why doesn't it taste like alcohol?
Maybe fake alcohol just doesn't taste like alcohol...?
While lost in thought, Ji Mingshu held Cen Sen close, biting her lip in endurance.
At this moment, she was like a salted fish pressed on a chopping board, unable and powerless to resist, and could only let Cen Sen flip her over from left to right.
...
After everything was over, Ji Mingshu was held tightly in Cen Sen's arms. He kept asking her if she felt uncomfortable anywhere and kept kissing her, much more affectionate than he usually was afterward.
Ji Mingshu looked at Cen Sen suspiciously, her fingertips gripping the edge of the blanket, and asked cautiously, "If you're possessed, blink?"
Cen Sen: "..."
Perhaps to prove that he wasn't possessed, he stared at Ji Mingshu quietly for almost half a minute, while Ji Mingshu couldn't help but blink, but he didn't.
Ji Ming breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "What's wrong with you? You seem really strange today."
"It's nothing." He didn't say much, but suddenly got up and carried her into the bathroom to take a shower.
No one could understand Cen Sen's mental journey during those five or six hours.
The moment he saw Ji Mingshu, it seemed that only possession could prove that Ji Mingshu was real and still in his arms.
Noticing that Cen Sen was unusually silent tonight, Ji Mingshu didn't ask any further questions.
After taking a shower and returning to the master bedroom to use her phone, she realized that her phone was out of battery.
After it was plugged in to charge, her phone almost exploded from the flood of messages coming in from all directions.
"……earthquake?"
Ji Mingshu was completely stunned.
"When did this happen? How come I didn't feel anything at all?"
After saying that, she seemed to have a feeling that the whole world had indeed shaken for a while in her sleep. But that didn't make sense either; a 5.8 magnitude earthquake should have felt very strong, so how could she have been sleeping so soundly?
She picked up the vitamins from beside the bed and glanced at them.
It wasn't vitamins, it was sleeping pills.
She took the wrong medicine!
After a series of powerful shocks, Ji Mingshu suddenly realized, "You didn't think something had happened to me, did you?"
Cen Sen didn't say anything and turned off the bedside lamp.
Ji Mingshu pressed closer, shining the light from her phone screen on him, her eyes sparkling. "You thought something had happened to me, didn't you? You were really worried about me, weren't you? Are you stupid? I don't know many people in Xingcheng, where could I go? Couldn't you have called someone to come to my room to check on me?"
"I called."
The staff member who came to check the room was new and couldn't even tell how many rooms were in the suite. He mistook the secondary bedroom for the master bedroom and didn't check three bedrooms properly. Moreover, he called her name while searching the room, but there was no response. How could a normal person imagine that the president's wife had mistakenly taken sleeping pills and was sleeping too soundly?
Ji Mingshu lay on the bed, cupping her face in her hands as she looked at Cen Sen, unable to suppress a laugh, "You admit it."
Cen Sen didn't answer, but simply put her phone back on the bedside table, closed his eyes, and said, "Go to sleep."
Ji Mingshu: "I slept too much this afternoon and can't fall asleep now."
Cen Sen: "Then I'm going to sleep."
Ji Mingshu reached out and pried open his eyelids. "Don't sleep!"
Cen Sen: "I'm really sleepy."
"Why weren't you sleepy just now? Weren't you quite impressive? You're sleepy as soon as you finish? Are you seventy or eighty years old? Get up and chat with me, tell me about the earthquake."
Cen Sen remained unmoved.
"You don't have to tell me, but call me 'baby' one more time and I'll let you off the hook."