Ji Mingshu's legs dangled in the air as she occasionally leaned in to pluck his eyelashes and tickled him.
Cen Sen couldn't take it anymore. He tried to turn over several times but couldn't get rid of her. So he rolled back and hugged Ji Mingshu, pressing her head into the crook of his neck and calling out in a low, deep voice, "Baby."
Chapter 76
With Cen Sen calling her "baby," Ji Mingshu was finally satisfied. She was as sweet as if she had drunk honey, obediently snuggling in Cen Sen's arms and no longer causing trouble, although the corners of her upturned lips just wouldn't straighten.
No aftershocks occurred in Xingcheng that night, and the two slept soundly.
The next morning, Cen Sen held a three-way video conference with the headquarters and hotel managers in Xingcheng to learn about the measures taken by each hotel in response to the earthquake.
Junyi's hotels all follow a high-end route, and their earthquake resistance standards were set very high from the very beginning of construction.
Moreover, the hotel is well-prepared, arranging training and drills for fire and earthquakes every quarter, and the staff are very well-trained.
Following last night's earthquake, the hotel immediately and systematically carried out tasks such as self-inspection of its walls and guidance and reassurance of customers.
After learning about these circumstances, the headquarters executives were much relieved, and Cen Sen did not stay in Xingcheng any longer.
They were extremely worried in the capital and kept urging them to return as soon as possible. He adjusted his work schedule and took Ji Mingshu back to the capital that afternoon.
On the way back, Ji Mingshu kept letting her WeChat friends who had sent her messages of concern yesterday know that she was safe.
Seeing that she hadn't looked up for more than half an hour, Cen Sen glanced at her.
As luck would have it, his glance landed on a familiar contact name: Li Che.
Li Che: [Ming Shu, are you alright? I saw on your WeChat Moments a couple of days ago that you were in Changsha?]
Ji Mingshu: [I'm fine, thanks for your concern. /Cute]
Cen Sen: "Are you very familiar with Li Che?"
Ji Mingshu didn't even look up. "Not familiar with you."
Cen Sen hesitated for a moment, "If you're not familiar with each other, you shouldn't reply with this emoji. The first emoji would be more appropriate."
"The first one? A smile?" Ji Mingshu looked up, slightly surprised, and asked, "Don't you know what a smile means?"
Cen Sen's eyes were calm, as if to say, "A smile is just a smile, what else could it mean?"
Ji Mingshu paused for a moment, "You don't usually use WeChat to discuss work, do you?"
"No need, I basically only chat with you on WeChat."
"That's good." She felt relieved and lowered her head to continue replying.
Cen Sen adjusted his bow tie, glancing at her phone screen out of the corner of his eye while looking at his tablet.
In that short time, she and Li Che exchanged three or four more sentences.
He subconsciously said in a deep voice, "Ming Shu, you are already married. You should keep your distance from these male celebrities and the like. Don't leave room for imagination and cause unnecessary misunderstandings."
"...?"
What room for speculation or misunderstanding could there be? It's only natural for people to show concern when they see news about the earthquake.
Suddenly remembering something, she leaned closer with interest and asked, "Are you jealous?"
Cen Sen: "I'm just kindly reminding you to avoid getting too close to male celebrities and ending up trending on social media again, where you'll be subjected to cyberbullying."
"I see..."
Ji Mingshu deliberately dragged out the last syllable and nodded slowly.
Just then, Li Che sent a new WeChat message.
Ji Mingshu reacted quickly, covering her phone slightly with her lower abdomen and then deliberately turning it to the side to prevent Cen Sen from seeing it.
Cen Sen: "..."
I don't know what message came in, but Ji Mingshu kept typing on his phone with a smile on his face.
Cen Sen stared at her for a while, but couldn't resist and expressionlessly snatched the phone from her hand.
Li Che's message read: "That puts my mind at ease. You can get some rest when you get home."
Ji Mingshu didn't reply; the message remained in the input box: 【You! Are! Jealous!】
Cen Sen: "..."
Ji Mingshu tilted her head smugly and gave him a victory sign.
He calmly lowered his eyes, deleted the message in the input box, and typed a new one—
Thank you for your concern for my wife. I will take good care of her.
send.
Ji Mingshu never expected him to pull this stunt, and quickly snatched the phone back, saying, "Are you crazy? People will think we're both insane!"
She withdrew her message a little late because Li Che had been waiting for her reply. Upon suddenly seeing the message, Li Che felt inexplicably guilty.
Actually, he did have some feelings for Ji Mingshu before, but after learning that Ji Mingshu was already married and that her husband was not to be underestimated, he gave up the idea of pursuing her. Instead, he wanted to get in touch with Cen Sen by befriending Ji Mingshu, but it seems that he went too far and made things worse.
He rubbed his forehead and began to think of ways to remedy the situation.
Whether Li Che made amends or not, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen didn't care much. After replying to that message, the two began to study the issue of keeping their distance from the opposite sex in depth.
This research continued for a long time after we returned to the capital.
Ji Mingshu gradually discovered that Cen Sen's possessiveness was quite abnormal. Although he said he wouldn't stop her from contacting men as long as she kept a safe distance, he actually wished she would delete all male contacts in her WeChat.
Moreover, he has double standards. He has several female assistants, but to him, they are just simple working relationships.
Ji Mingshu was very dissatisfied, but she couldn't argue with herself, so she had to seek advice from Gu Kaiyang. She would often use Gu Kaiyang's theories such as "women should have their own private space", "even after marriage, they should have their own social circles", and "gender equality should not be double-standard" to argue with Cen Sen.
Cen Sen neither confirmed nor denied this.
Aside from this research, after returning to the capital, Ji Mingshu focused his efforts on the guest room design drafts for Junyi Yaji.
To create a satisfactory design, she didn't leave the house for almost half a month, staying cooped up at home every day.
Moreover, she has a strong sense of fair competition. Although she wanted to see the guest room design plans that others had made for Junyi Yaji, she felt guilty for looking at them in advance, thinking that she would be cheating.
After much struggle, she still didn't bring it up with Cen Sen, but instead silently collected and studied the designers' publicly available work.
The more she pondered and studied, the more she felt that there were many intelligent and thoughtful people in the world, and that she, Ji Mingshu, was not so unique and irreplaceable.
However, as she learned how outstanding her competitors were, she also developed an unprecedented interest and enthusiasm for the hotel design.
Jiang Chun had never seen Ji Mingshu work seriously. She always thought that Ji Mingshu's designs were just drawing sketches on paper and then directing people to decorate and furnish the place according to his own ideas, and that was considered a great success.
So this time, Ji Mingshu refused to go out for almost half a month, and she always suspected that Ji Mingshu was secretly doing something big behind her back.
The most suspicious thing is that Gu Kaiyang has been refusing to go out lately. She works frantically during the day and makes all sorts of excuses when she tries to meet people at night.
Jiang Chun's mind wandered, and the more she thought about it, the sadder she became.
Two weeks later, she solemnly posted a notice in the group that Little Goose was about to leave the group chat. Although there were a few typos in the notice, it was full of heartfelt emotions and every word was written with great emotion.
She ended the chat with the words, "If you don't want to play with me anymore, you can just say so, and I will leave the group on my own initiative," along with a heartbroken emoji, before quietly leaving the group chat.
Ji Mingshu saw this as soon as he came out of seclusion, and found it both inexplicable and funny, so he immediately pulled him back.
Ji Mingshu: [...]
Ji Mingshu: [Acting in a melodrama?]
Jiang Chun: [You're all ignoring me on TVT!]
Ji Mingshu was too lazy to argue with her, so he directly sent a video of the unrendered concept model to the group.
Ji Mingshu: [I spent half a month barely managing to get this done, who has time to pay attention to you?]
Jiang Chun clicked on it and was instantly stunned by the high-end video.
Jiang Chun: [Did you do all of this?]
Ji Mingshu: [Otherwise, you did it?]
Jiang Chun was speechless, and could only express her shock with a screen full of exclamation marks and ellipses.
Just then, Gu Kaiyang suddenly chimed in to explain.
Gu Kaiyang: [I'm currently recording a program and have signed a confidentiality agreement.]
Jiang Chun: [...]?
Jiang Chun: [As an editor, what kind of programs do you record?]
Jiang Chun: [Wouldn't it be better to use this time to date?]
Gu Kaiyang: [...]
Gu Kaiyang: [It's just a dating show.]
Gu Kaiyang spoke casually, but Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun simultaneously exclaimed in shock: "Our Gu Gu is in a relationship?!"
Jiang Chun: [When did you go?]
Ji Mingshu: [What's the name of the program?]
Jiang Chun: [How exactly were the talks conducted?]
Ji Mingshu: [Is this a genuine negotiation or just a charade?]
The two worked together seamlessly, focusing their efforts on questioning and pursuing the source of the conflict.
Gu Kaiyang: [...]
Gu Kaiyang: [It can't be explained in just a few words.]
Ji Mingshu: [Then you can use five, four, eight, or seven characters!]
Jiang Chun: [Right! If you have a mouth, why are you afraid of not being able to explain yourself? Is it that you can't explain yourself, or that you don't want to explain yourself? Gu Kaiyang, this goose solemnly warns you, you've already developed a problem with your thinking!]
Gu Kaiyang was bombarded with questions by the two men and couldn't take it anymore. In the end, he honestly confessed his problems to the organization.
After the New Year, she participated in a dating reality show featuring ordinary people. The show was produced by a video website that had a partnership with their magazine.
It happened to be a dinner party, and a person in charge of the video website praised her for becoming the deputy editor-in-chief at such a young age, saying it was not easy. Their editor-in-chief, Sister May, who had a big mouth, casually chimed in, "Xiao Gu is young, beautiful, and capable. She is so focused on her work that she hasn't even found a boyfriend yet."
Upon hearing this, the person in charge's eyes lit up, and he insisted on introducing the program to her. The introduction was nothing more than how high their requirements were for the quality of ordinary people, how excellent she was, and how suitable she was for the program. In the end, due to business cooperation, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.