He rubbed his hands together, then said carefully, "I really do have something I need your help with. I have a little nephew who's a little over six years old, you know? I've mentioned him to you before. He looks a lot like me, and he's incredibly cute..."
Cen Sen rubbed his brow bone.
He quickly got to the point, "My little nephew used to study in the south of the city, and then my brother and sister-in-law wanted to transfer him to the capital, so he can attend Qingxiao Primary School, which is so difficult to get into..."
Cen Sen raised his hand to interrupt, "Take Director Zhao's call for me later."
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Cen, thank you, Mr. Cen."
Zhou Jiaheng responded with delight.
Qingxiao is no ordinary primary school. Even though he has some influence with Director Zhao, he can't guarantee that things will get done. But if Cen Sen were to make the call, there wouldn't be any problems at all.
However, on ordinary days, he would be too embarrassed to bring it up with Cen Sen.
With projects worth tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions still in the pipeline, it's really strange that he would bring up such a trivial matter as transferring his child to another school in front of others.
Moreover, mentioning Cen Sen would probably earn him a look that says, "Have you made enough money and want to retire?" He wouldn't be as easy to talk to as he is now.
Zhou Jiaheng silently thanked Ji Mingshu a hundred and eighty times in his heart, and then very gratefully mentioned that there would be a private collection auction before the end of the year, in which there were several sets of jewelry that were very rare, which set was suitable to give to elders, which set was suitable to give to younger generations, and which set was suitable to give to his wife.
Cen Sen leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to rest. For some reason, his mind was filled with the image of Ji Mingshu moaning softly beneath him last night.
He unconsciously swallowed hard, his voice becoming hoarse, "Take a picture."
Thirty minutes later, the Bentley arrived at the Junyi headquarters building, and Cen Sen began another busy day of work.
Meanwhile, Ji Mingshu kept going back and forth between sleep and wakefulness until evening when she finally became fully awake.
Before this, she never imagined that she would spend her first day back home in bed.
After last night's silence, Gu Kaiyang, being a shrewd person, naturally guessed what unspeakable shameful things Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen had done. Early this morning, she acted as a hero in the group chat, completely oblivious to her feigned death and guilty conscience yesterday, which was seen as treason.
10:00 AM —
Gu Kaiyang: [Ji Mingshu, sister, when are you coming to move your luggage? Are you still moving anything? If you don't move these Hermes bags, I'll reluctantly accept them, okay?]
3 PM —
Gu Kaiyang: [Sisters??? Still not awake??? Your husband's got you so good you can't get out of bed???]
Jiang Chun: [???]
Jiang Chun: [Square-squared bewilderment.jpg]
Jiang Chun: [Gugu's babbling is terrifying!]
Jiang Chun: [Mom, I want to leave the group chat!!!]
Jiang Chun: [Waaaaah, I feel like I'm not that innocent little goose anymore!]
Gu Kaiyang grinned, looking like he had a mischievous glint in his eye, as if to say, "Mom's taking you to see the world."
Jiang Chun, this little goose, also lacked willpower. She couldn't maintain her novice discipline for more than five minutes before being completely brainwashed by the gossiping and stretching out her tentative little goose feet to explore a completely new territory.
When Ji Mingshu opened the chat in the evening, the group chat started with Jiang Chun's comment, "President Cen seems to be quite sexually apathetic," and the conversation went on and on towards the point where the group would be banned. An experienced person and a newbie actually managed to discuss more than 400 topics related to relationships.
During this period, the editor-in-chief Gu Bian also frequently uttered memorable quotes—
"A man who is overtly flirtatious is half genuinely flirtatious and the other half is actually a naive kid, but a man who is secretly flirtatious is 90% very sexually driven."
"Mr. Cen is the kind of man who is destined for great things; he's bound to be full of tricks up his sleeve."
“Ji Mingshu isn’t eating or exercising, so her stamina is probably not good. I estimate she won’t be able to get out of bed for three days and three nights.”
Ji Mingshu paused, inwardly thinking: She can get out of bed now, she just doesn't want to! Hasn't she heard the saying, "There are only oxen that die from exhaustion, not land that is over-plowed"?
However, Gu Kaiyang's first two sentences were quite right... Cen Sen is such a pervert, he's really lustful.
She and Cen Sen had been married for quite a while, and they never seemed shy about their intimacy before, because it was always in the dark and very routine—they'd just finish, wash up, and go to sleep. But last night, he actually leaned over her… and later deliberately carried her to the mirror, slowing his movements to entice her to look!
Recalling the details, Ji Mingshu suddenly grabbed the blanket and covered her head again, her whole body turning red with embarrassment.
Because last night had left Ji Mingshu with a severe physical and mental shock, she had no mood to care about the latest developments after Li Xiaolian's salon, nor did she have any mood to deal with Gu Kaiyang.
The producer of the show "The Designer" sent her a message asking her to forward the Weibo post announcing the show's premiere tonight. She responded with a nonchalant "okay," radiating a sense of peace and love both in person and on WeChat.
Ji Mingshu doesn't usually use Weibo much; she just reads the news and likes some posts, and occasionally gets involved in online arguments to help Pei Xiyan.
It was only after the production team kept sending messages that she reluctantly got verified as an interior designer with a yellow V badge, and her name was changed from a string of characters she used to type on the keyboard to the proper three characters "Ji Mingshu".
Her account originally had only a few hundred followers, half of whom were fake followers who advertised, and the other half were fake followers from her circle who insisted on following each other on Weibo.
After her account was verified, the production team bought her 30,000 followers and even notified her in a "you're welcome" tone. She was speechless at the time and didn't even reply to the message.
Right now, she logged onto Weibo and followed the show's official Weibo account, retweeted a post, and then logged off immediately. She didn't even bother to check her new followers or private messages. All she could think about was whether Cen Sen would continue to torment her when he came back tonight, whether he had taken some kind of drug, and how she could face him naturally...
Unexpectedly, the result was quite as she wished—Cen Sen had to meet with a real estate boss with whom he had a long-term business relationship tonight. The boss had come all the way from afar to visit, so it was neither polite nor reasonable to refuse. As for what time he would be home, it was still hard to say.
After reading Cen Sen's message, Ji Mingshu simply replied "Okay" and then exited the chat. But three seconds later, she suddenly clicked back in and scrolled through the chat history for a while.
Strange, when did this jerk develop the habit of reporting his whereabouts to her? But it's a good habit, hmm, it's worth keeping.
So, on this night when Ji Shi Shu Shu was alone in her room, she simply admired the newly expanded walk-in closet. At eight o'clock, she turned on the TV to watch the premiere of "The Designer".
She guessed that Cen Sen must have contacted the production team again, and that she hadn't been cut from the show; she even had screen time in the opening lottery and the selection process.
Although there weren't many shots, every single one was beautiful, as if she had her own built-in glow. She was stunningly beautiful and stood out, making the flashy teenage idol Yan Yuexing next to her look like a nobody.
She had no idea that there was a gossip forum discussing this—she used to think there was a barrier between actors and idols, but she never imagined there was a barrier between ordinary people and idols as well.
Ji Mingshu was quite satisfied with the on-screen effect, eating grapes while watching, but the more she watched, the more she felt something was wrong.
It seems like the broadcast content doesn't match the original recording in many ways; the order of the segments and even the order of the words spoken don't seem to match up.
Chapter 58
After about thirty minutes of broadcasting, the program entered commercial break. Ji Mingshu sat cross-legged on the bed, pressing the remote control to rewind.
She remembered that when she first went to the convention center to record, Yan Yuexing was quite unlikable. She was dramatic, talked a lot, and had terrible taste.
However, in the half-hour episode that just aired, Yan Yuexing seemed fine except for being completely outshone in terms of looks and temperament when she was in the same frame as her. She appeared quite gentle, cute, and understanding, and even a little adorable.
On the contrary, she seemed to feel that, whether she was being overly sensitive or not, the camera seemed to pan to her in several shots after Yan Yuexing finished speaking, and her expression was somewhat unfriendly. While everyone else was listening attentively and supportively, she seemed distracted and didn't smile.
And the key point is that she remembers pretending to be very supportive when she recorded the video.
After all, Ji Shi Shu Shu has been a socialite for many years, how could she not even be able to manage her facial expressions well in front of the camera?
Ji Mingshu felt slightly annoyed, but when she picked up her phone, she saw that all the messages she received were full of praise, saying things like, "Even just a few shots can show that our Shu Bao is radiant, has a high-class temperament, and is flawlessly beautiful."
After thanking them one by one, she talked to Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun about the parts that she found a little strange.
Jiang Chun closed his eyes and launched into a tirade of nonsense.
Jiang Chun: [You're overthinking it. It doesn't look like it at all; it's simply beautiful!]
Jiang Chun: [Oh right, my cousin came to visit. I was watching TV just now, and he was watching with me in the living room. He pointed at you on TV and asked in surprise, "Hey, which celebrity is that? I've never seen you before!"]
Jiang Chun: [I told him he's not a celebrity, he's my friend, hahaha! Before he could ask me any more questions, I told him I'm married :)]
Jiang Chun: [Sigh, but this also proves that our little princess's enviable beauty can no longer be hidden :)]
Gu Kaiyang was holding something and couldn't type, but he replied with a voice message: "The post-production editing of the program is definitely a bit different from when you recorded it. It's quite normal. Just think, if it were really broadcast according to when you recorded it, wouldn't those girl group girls blow up the Xingcheng Broadcasting Building?"
That's true.
Ji Mingshu nodded to herself, and soon discovered that Cen Yang had also sent her a message.
Cen Yang: [Xiao Shu, I'm watching your show, it's beautiful.]
Ji Mingshu: [Thank you~]
Ji Mingshu: [bowing.jpg]
Cen Yang: [By the way, are you free tomorrow? There's a space-themed art installation exhibition by Kiosk at the Shuanghuan Building. Tomorrow's the last day, and I happen to have two tickets.]
Ji Mingshu paused slightly.
Since they went out for dinner on Christmas Eve, Cen Yang has been sending her messages every now and then to say hello. He has also made a few invitations, such as inviting her to an art exhibition or to a newly opened restaurant.
Once, she couldn't keep their appointment because she went on vacation abroad without telling him. The other times, she made excuses to refuse, because she always felt it was inappropriate for a married woman like herself to go out alone with an unmarried young man like him.
Thinking it over, she realized she'd already refused three or four times; continuing to refuse seemed a bit hurtful. Ji Mingshu considered it for a moment, then picked up her phone and started typing.
Ji Mingshu: [I left a lot of luggage at my best friend's house before, but I've already gone home these past two days. I might have to go back tomorrow to move my luggage, so I won't be able to go see the exhibition.]
Ji Mingshu: [However, my friend is hosting a masquerade ball in western Beijing in a few days. It should be quite interesting. If you're interested, remember to go and have some fun. It's a good way to relax after work.]
After sending the invitation, Ji Mingshu silently read it over. "Hmm, sending another invitation after declining it won't seem so impolite."
Moreover, Cen Yang and Cen Sen are essentially the same kind of people; they have never liked joining in the fun of a group of people having a blast.
Even if he wanted to join in the fun this time, with dozens or even hundreds of people at the ball, it would be perfectly acceptable and there would be nothing inappropriate about it.
Just then, familiar footsteps came from outside the room, heading upstairs.
Ji Mingshu straightened his back unconsciously and typed on his phone faster.
Ji Mingshu: [I have some things to take care of, so I'll have to go now. If you're going, just mention my name; you don't need an invitation.]
Cen Yang's eyes darkened slightly, and his typing paused. As if thinking of something, he pressed and held down the delete key, clearing the content with one click.
Actually, he didn't want to start with Ji Mingshu at all.
Ji Mingshu is a girl who appears fierce and willful, but is actually very innocent and kind-hearted, and has been so since she was a child.
But apart from Ji Mingshu, he couldn't find any way to get close to him.
He turned to look out the window at the glittering lights of the capital city in the winter night, and suddenly felt that the city was very unfamiliar, completely different from the city he had longed for for many years.
When Cen Sen entered the room, he reeked of alcohol. Ji Mingshu covered her mouth and nose as she got out of bed, her voice muffled by the covering, "How much did you drink? You smell awful."
Whether Cen Sen didn't hear clearly or not, he not only didn't open the door to let in some fresh air, but he also closed the door and locked it.
Ji Mingshu got out of bed with her back to him and didn't notice his sneaky, flirtatious actions.
She adjusted the ventilation mode at the main control switch and turned back to open the door. But before she could even touch the doorknob, Cen Sen suddenly pulled her into his arms.
A kiss, reeking of alcohol, landed on her lips, then lingered and moved inward, prying open her teeth and penetrating her deeply.
Ji Mingshu tried to push him away a few times at first, but Cen Sen quickly twisted her two slender wrists behind her back and held them tightly. The kiss became more domineering and even a little erotic as punishment.
Ji Mingshu felt weak and dizzy. But when Cen Sen tried to take further action, her bodily memory suddenly returned, and she subconsciously began to resist.