He suddenly realized that he had forgotten to mention two words to that minor celebrity named Shu: figure.
In terms of looks, temperament, education, and background, she is no match for Ji Mingshu, nor is she as good as him in terms of figure.
This wasn't the first time he'd encountered women taking the initiative to visit him after marriage, nor was it the first time he'd decisively refused them.
They're all just decorative vases. He already has the most valuable and beautiful one, so why bother collecting defective ones? He's not a professional junk collector.
Ji Mingshu had just drunk half a glass of ice water and hadn't even turned around when she suddenly felt a pair of hands wrap around her from behind, locking tightly around her waist.
Her brain froze for three seconds. She put down her water glass and turned her head, only to have Cen Sen capture her lips.
He drew closer, his lips warm and his breath carrying the scent of alcohol.
Ji Mingshu tried to struggle, but he reached out and twisted her arms behind her back, holding them tightly. With his other hand, he pinched and controlled her chin, kissing her more deeply and domineeringly.
Depend on.
Was I drugged?
Ji Mingshu kept looking for a moment to catch her breath. Her legs were still free at first, but after kicking them a couple of times, Cen Sen simply picked her up and sat her on the island platform. His lower body was pressed against the platform, and he controlled her legs tightly, as if he was going to do her right there.
"...You're a pervert! Let me go!"
After being kissed for about a minute, Ji Mingshu finally found an opening in Cen Sen's body. She kicked him hard in the groin, broke free of his grasp, and pushed his face away.
Cen Sen was pushed back half a step, and Ji Mingshu was also exhausted, sitting on the edge of the central island platform, panting heavily.
The ceiling lights on the first floor were not on; only a warm yellow light strip was illuminated.
In the dim light, her smoky pink silk nightgown and snow-white skin shimmered with a faint glow, while her lips were glistening from being kissed. She looked like a beautiful yet innocent female ghost, casting alluring glances without realizing it.
Cen Sen was clearly hooked.
His fingers slowly grazed his lower lip in the opposite direction, his eyes looking at Ji Mingshu, and he suddenly chuckled softly.
Ji Mingshu sensed something was wrong and sat back a little.
But she had nowhere to hide and could only watch helplessly as Cen Sen stepped forward and effortlessly picked her up in his arms.
"What are you doing! Put me down! You pervert! I can sue you for marital rape!"
As they went upstairs, Ji Mingshu struggled violently, punching and kicking in Cen Sen's arms.
However, she has always strictly controlled her figure through diet and does not exercise often. No matter how hard she struggles, it is just a matter of a kitten scratching an itch for Cen Sen.
“Go ahead and sue. Your second uncle was transferred back to the Beijing Municipal Bureau this year. It’s much easier for you to sue him,” Cen Sen said calmly.
He reeked of alcohol, his collar was disheveled from being pulled by Ji Mingshu, and his nonchalant smile gave him the air of a refined scoundrel.
Ji Mingshu struggled a couple more times, then suddenly paused before entering the room—
Amidst the smells of smoke and alcohol, a faint, familiar, sweet aroma wafted through the air.
She quickly recognized the perfume.
I smelled it again carefully.
That's true.
In Ji Mingshu's mind, this perfume is a typical girly, mainstream scent. If the chance of smelling it while browsing a shopping mall is second only to Chanel No. 5, then it's probably the first. She wore it once when she was in high school, and her friends teased her for smelling like a typical "green tea bitch."
"You were sleeping around with innocent female college students? Where did that perfume smell from? You slept with other women and then came back to touch me, how disgusting!"
Ji Mingshu's eyes held an undisguised disgust.
Cen Sen kicked open the half-closed door, threw her onto the bed, then leaned over, placed his hands on her waist, and pulled her into his arms.
Ji Mingshu shrank back defensively.
Cen Sen said in a low voice, "You haven't studied math for years, and you can't even calculate time anymore? It's only been a short time since I brought you back, am I that short?"
"..."
Such shamelessness is truly rare in this world.
Ji Mingshu was so bewildered by his logic that he couldn't say a word for a long time.
Cen Sen did not make any further moves. He got up, took off his shirt, and went straight to the bathroom.
Ji Mingshu stared at the direction of the bathroom for a few seconds, then tugged at her nightgown and smelled it, afraid that she might have picked up the smells of cigarettes, alcohol, and perfume that she didn't like.
Soon the sound of running water came from the bathroom. Ji Mingshu lay down in bed and thought about it carefully.
In fact, she and Cen Sen have been married for so long that they have a certain understanding of each other.
Cen Sen is the kind of man who is ambitious and driven by his career, but has little patience for women and relationships.
She thought that casual flings might be a way to satisfy his needs, but it was unlikely that he would keep a mistress, since maintaining an improper relationship would be too exhausting for him.
Thinking of this, she suddenly gave a self-deprecating chuckle, recalling Gu Kaiyang's disappointed criticism of her before their marriage—
"Your only requirement for your husband is that he doesn't keep mistresses, and if he does, that they don't cause any trouble and embarrass you?! Do you, a rich and beautiful woman, have to be so subservient???"
Thinking about it carefully, it really is quite humble.
The Ji family in Beijing is a truly prestigious family. Having grown up in such a family, she has seen and experienced too much since childhood. She also knows that the more wealthy a place is, the more filth and corruption it can harbor. Harmonious marriages and families are extremely rare in this social class. For her and Cen Sen to be able to appear loving in public after their marriage is already quite remarkable.
She was generally satisfied with Cen Sen; he was handsome, good in bed, not clingy, and let her spend his money as she pleased.
Before going to sleep, she was thinking: It would be good if things could stay like this forever. We wouldn't need to teach each other anything for the rest of our lives. We could just live like this, without a care in the world.
The annual Paris Autumn/Winter Haute Couture Week is fast approaching, and Ji Mingshu has already received invitations from various brands.
She started attending fashion shows at the age of eight, cultivating an exceptional taste through her lavish lifestyle. In the socialite circles of Beijing and Shanghai, she is considered a trendsetter at the forefront of fashion.
Before departing for Paris, Ji Mingshu made a series of preparations at home in a flurry of activity.
She has to match her outfit with the brand she attends for their fashion show. She's not a celebrity, so she can skip the airport looks for photoshoots, but she can't skip the afternoon tea looks, dinner looks, and her favorite high-jewelry show looks.
In just two or three days, Ji Mingshu had packed seven suitcases.
Actually, this is considered traveling light for her. She still has some dresses that she has made at the haute couture workshop, which she can wear directly to the fashion show in Paris.
Ji Mingshu was in a good mood, as she was about to go out and splurge again, and she had been smiling at Cen Sen these past few days.
Cen Sen didn't quite understand the kind of pleasure that belonged to a pretty face. He only knew that every time Ji Mingshu went abroad to watch a fashion show looking radiant, the amount of luggage he brought back would inevitably double.
Moreover, during this period, his credit card would be updated frequently, as if reminding him that the high-class canary he had married in his lifetime was probably unmatched in his extravagance.
When Cen Sen graduated from university, his grandfather gave him a Gulfstream as a graduation gift. He rarely rode in it, but after marrying Ji Mingshu, Ji Mingshu was quite good at making the most of it.
Ji Mingshu took a private plane to Paris late at night and slept for eleven hours on the plane. When he woke up, it was just dawn in Paris.
A private car was waiting for her at the airport. When she arrived at the hotel, the suite butler had already brewed coffee for her, prepared various breakfasts, and arranged invitations and gifts from various brands into a heart shape.
The room was chosen for her in advance by the butler, and it fully met all her pre-ordered requirements. There was even a little surprise – the room number was her birthday, and her English name was embroidered in the corner of the bedding.
After having breakfast at the hotel, Ji Mingshu changed her clothes and prepared to go shopping.
As she went downstairs, she thought of Gu Kaiyang and made a video call to offer her condolences.
As the deputy editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine, Gu Kaiyang was naturally a regular at Fashion Week, but he traveled as a team and arrived two days early.
When Gu Kaiyang received Ji Mingshu's video call, he was personally checking the details of more than a dozen dresses used for the photoshoot.
She'd been so busy these past two days that she was dizzy and exhausted. Seeing Ji Mingshu on the other side of the screen, looking radiant in sunglasses and even having the leisure to walk up the stairs to digest his food, she muttered to herself, "I swear I'll never criticize these kinds of arranged marriages between wealthy families again. They're just too perfect!"
"Do you know what? This handyman hasn't slept for two whole days! Seriously, you can't imagine how stingy our company is! It's really strange, before I became the deputy editor-in-chief, the company was quite generous, even providing suites for deputy editors-in-chief at the level of the four major companies, how come I only got a standard room?! My clothes are piled up all over the room, there's barely any room to step! If they're any stingier, they might as well just send us to sleep under a bridge!"
"I'm telling you, I'm done trying! I'd rather be married off as a wife to a memorial tablet than give up!"
Ji Mingshu: "No, you mean who should marry the memorial tablet of a gay man's wife?"
Gu Kaiyang: "Isn't that what you said all the time? It's not my fault."
Just as Ji Mingshu was about to retort, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye.
Across from him, Gu Kaiyang continued his incessant chatter. Ji Mingshu paused slightly, subtly switching the camera to a rear-facing one, aiming it at a couple checking in at the hotel lobby.
At the same time, just as she expected, Gu Kaiyang's screeching sound came through her earphones.
Chapter 9
"Holy crap! Isn't that Jiang Chun's fiancé?! Yan, right? Damn, that woman, come closer so I can get a better look!"
"It really is! It's that second female lead from that recently popular period drama! Holy crap, Yan Ke is a real jerk, she cheated on me right after our engagement! No, is this cheating or infidelity???"
After not sleeping for two days, Gu Kaiyang was still so excited to immediately throw himself into the gossip business. Ji Mingshu sincerely felt that Gu Kaiyang was born to fight on the front line of the paparazzi team.
She turned down the volume on her headphones, barely managing to withstand Gu Kaiyang's barrage of questions.
After listening to Gu Kaiyang recount the dark history of the girl next to Yan for thirty seconds without taking a breath, and with the intention of continuing, Ji Mingshu pushed up his sunglasses, lowered his voice, and stopped him in time, saying, "Alright, you know so much about the life of this nobody, are you planning to write a book about her?"
She watched intently as Yan and that nobody (who's barely made it into the elevator) walked hand-in-hand into the elevator, her eyes glued to the screen. When their faces were finally revealed, she even managed to capture a precise screenshot.
Gu Kaiyang couldn't help but remind them, "Follow them and see where they live."
"Are you crazy? It's not like my husband cheated on me."
Besides, who is she anyway? Why would she do something so despicable?
Ji Mingshu tilted his head slightly, adjusted his sunglasses, and went out shopping as if nothing had happened.
Shopping alone is no fun, so she only bought three bags, a pair of shoes, and a trench coat. Afterward, she went to visit Gu Kaiyang on set and had lunch with him.
She returned to her hotel to rest at noon, and waited for someone from the brand to pick her up in the afternoon to try on dresses at the haute couture workshop.
Waking up from her afternoon nap, Ji Mingshu was in a good mood thinking about her new dress. As she left the hotel, she was still having a silent concert playing in her mind.
Before she even left the hotel, someone called out to her from behind, "Ji Mingshu?"
The voice sounded familiar. She turned around and saw Jiang Chun wearing a pink Chanel suit and a beret, standing prettily in the rest area, with hotel staff helping her with her luggage.
Ji Mingshu paused for a moment, then slowly took off his sunglasses.
Jiang Chun was quite satisfied with Ji Mingshu's reaction. Although she disliked Ji Mingshu, she had to admit that Ji Mingshu, who had been raised in luxury since childhood, had good taste. She could make Ji Mingshu lose her composure. Was her outfit today not bad? She suddenly felt a little smug.
"What are you doing here?" Ji Mingshu asked.
Jiang Chun thought Ji Mingshu wanted to mock her for not being invited by the brand, so she subconsciously said, "It's not like you own the hotel."
After speaking, Jiang Chun remained silent for three seconds.
She suddenly remembered that this hotel had just been acquired by Junyi last year, and it really was her family's property.