…?

For several seconds, Ji Mingshu completely failed to understand what Gu Kaiyang was saying.

The name “Zhang Baoshu” barely registered in her mind, with only the homophonous character “shu” leaving a brief echoing impression.

“What? Who with Cen Sen?”

The moment she asked, Ji Mingshu remembered that Gu Kaiyang had also used a modifier—shameless woman.

Her face suddenly froze, and then wordlessly she took out her phone from her bag and opened Weibo.

The news hadn’t spread externally yet, so there was nothing related on the homepage. Besides, Zhang Baoshu was at most a fourth or fifth-tier celebrity. Without paying for a hot search, who would be bothered enough to actively care about the love life and private affairs of such an obscure little star?

Ji Mingshu stared at the search box, not knowing what to search for, momentarily falling into confusion.

When exactly had she developed the awareness that she would eventually enter into a family-arranged marriage? She suddenly couldn’t remember.

She also couldn’t recall when the sordid affairs of the wealthy families in her circle had become numb, ordinary, and commonplace to her.

There were simply too many such incidents.

In her Ji family, the uncle she had always respected had secretly kept three mistresses, one of whom was three years younger than her.

Her aunt never bothered about it, always maintaining the feudal attitude of a principal wife: “You can fly colorful flags outside, but the red flag at home must never fall.”

The parents who had left her with vague impressions had nothing to do with the loving couple she had subconsciously imagined.

After becoming an adult, she occasionally learned that the two of them seemed to have given birth to her only to prove that their reproductive functions were normal and to fulfill their obligations to both families, then abandoned responsibility after she was born.

Later, they died accidentally while pretending to show affection in public. She didn’t know if that counted as delayed retribution.

To outsiders, with both parents dead, Ji Mingshu was an orphan. Yet her uncles and aunts showered her with love and treated her like a precious pearl, as if she had accumulated good fortune from a previous life.

That was indeed the case. Her first and second uncles both doted on her like their own daughter. From childhood to adulthood, none of her male cousins had lived as luxuriously and comfortably as she had.

But she also knew early on that being treated like a daughter didn’t mean she was their daughter. These benefits came with the condition of exchanging the latter half of her life’s marriage.

So from the beginning of marrying Cen Sen, she was prepared that they would not respect each other and grow old together.

Without a lot of love, but with a lot of money—it seemed fair when put that way.

But as she stood here, suddenly learning that her husband was having an affair, she didn’t know why she first felt confused, then panicky and uncomfortable.

“Shu Shu, don’t… don’t cry, please don’t cry…”

Gu Kaiyang comforted her softly, flustered and incoherent. Seeing her about to lose balance, he hurriedly helped her to the sofa to sit down.

Ji Mingshu hadn’t intended to cry. Sitting on the sofa, she instinctively crossed her legs to the side, lightly rested her hands on her knees, straightened her back, and maintained her usual elegant posture. Only her eyes were vacant, and her hands trembled slightly.

After about a minute, she suddenly said, “Let me see what was captured.”

Gu Kaiyang didn’t move.

Ji Mingshu: “It’s okay, let me see.”

If she wanted to see it, then seeing it was only a matter of time. Gu Kaiyang was well aware of this. After a moment of silence, his fingers finally moved.

This leak consisted of a video and several photos. The title of the exposé had nothing to do with Cen Sen.. It claimed that Zhang Baoshu had a late-night secret meeting with Zhang Qi, the young master of Feng Chang Tourism Group. It described them as intimate and used phrases like “suspected dating and infatuation.”

The lengthy text inside introduced the strong background of Feng Chang Tourism and the glorious achievements of Zhang’s young master in his romantic conquests. But among the pile of evidence released, apart from blurry stolen photos where it was impossible to distinguish who was who, the rest were ten consecutive shots of Zhang Baoshu and Cen Sen in front of a car.

The paparazzi’s professional skills seemed problematic, as they couldn’t even distinguish between Zhang Qi and Cen Sen, yet they wrote thousands of words of analysis.

Although the photos didn’t capture Cen Sen’s full face, his car model, the wedding ring and watch on his hand, his smiling side profile, and Zhou Jiaheng standing not far away were all strong evidence confirming his identity.

Not to mention that Ji Mingshu, who had been intimate with him, could recognize his figure at a glance.

He was smiling.

Smiling at a three-hundred-and-eightieth-tier little star whose name she had never heard before.

Was he this gentle and considerate to all other women? Did he tell other women in bed that his wife was just a boring vase?

Ji Mingshu’s mind felt like it was about to explode.

The impact of seeing the images was completely different from just hearing the news.

There was also a video of them spending eight intimate hours in Zhang Baoshu’s apartment. Ji Mingshu had completely lost the courage to click and watch it. Her hand holding the phone was trembling, and she didn’t know how she managed to control herself from throwing the phone against the wall.

In a daze, she recalled their wedding. Following the requirements of both families, they had a Chinese-style wedding that she didn’t like.

At that time, she thought: since she didn’t like the person, what did the wedding form matter? Just get through it somehow.

Back then, she was very casual and forthright, and before the wedding, she had established three rules with Cen Sen for their married life.

The first rule was that their loving couple facade could not collapse. No matter what they did outside, they could never cause incidents that would blatantly slap each other in the face.

Cen Sen’s promise then was very brief, just saying “I won’t,” and she believed him.

Unexpectedly, in just three short years, this solemn promise had been broken.

Also unexpectedly, at this moment, her heart felt a bit sour, swollen, and dull with pain. It wasn’t just the shock and anger at being slapped in the face by this dog of a man, but more like a stifling feeling similar to grievance that made it hard to breathe. Even if asked, she couldn’t explain it clearly.

Seeing her like this, Gu Kaiyang also felt very distressed.

They had met while studying abroad. He was a poor student sent overseas by his family, who had sold everything they had and couldn’t afford any slackness, while Ji Mingshu was the darling of heaven, surrounded by admirers.

When he first went abroad, he heard rumors in the international student circle that Ji Mingshu, from the interior design department, had casually bought a house just to ensure her project achieved the best effect. There were also rumors about how unattainably wealthy her family was.

As a green freshman who hadn’t seen much of the world at that time, he was thoroughly shocked. He had never imagined that the legendary figure spoken of in the international student circle would actively seek more interaction with him.

Having known each other for so many years, Ji Mingshu had always been the brightest star in the sky.

After spending time with Ji Mingshu for a long time, he would feel that it was a wonderful thing that such beauty existed in this world.

He didn’t want to see, someday, the star fall and fade.

He silently walked to Ji Mingshu’s side, wanting to offer some comfort.

But Ji Mingshu didn’t even look up, just softly saying: “Let me be alone for a while.”

Gu Kaiyang turned to look out the window, covered his forehead, then wiped his face downward, silently exhaling.

After a while, he quietly left the office.

When leaving, he kept the door gap very narrow, not wanting the people outside to see Ji Mingshu in her current state.

His little fairy should always be beautiful and vibrant.

“Hey, wasn’t your team supposed to shoot a double cover with Zhang Baoshu and EE today?”

Under Gu Kaiyang’s supervision, with the entire editorial department’s big office area in a low mood, someone suddenly barged in and inappropriately asked this question.

Then, as if remembering something, the intruder said, “Could it be that it was canceled because of Zhang Baoshu’s incident? That man isn’t the Young Master Zhang, but Mr. Cen from Junyi, right?”

She looked at Gu Kaiyang, “Oh right, isn’t Mr. Cen the husband of that white, rich, and beautiful friend of yours? You still have the mood to sit here instead of going to comfort her? Or do these white, rich, and beautiful women actually like having a bit of green on their heads?”

The malice suddenly became obvious.

“Shi Qing, I don’t want to argue with you today. You’d better get out of here right now.”

Gu Kaiyang’s gaze moved from the screen and coldly fell on the intruder. His words were equally cold.

Wherever people work, there’s always office politics. The feud between Gu Kaiyang and Shi Qing had started from the moment they joined the company, and it had evolved from subtle to obvious, vowing never to rest, with quite a bit of “entangled to the end of the world” intensity.

Usually, when Gu Kaiyang and Ji Mingshu hung out together, he would curse Shi Qing a few times whenever work was mentioned. Over time, Ji Mingshu had also registered this character.

On a few occasions when they met at the magazine office, Ji Mingshu had casually dissed Shi Qing’s outdated fashion, saying she could only ever work for men’s magazines, causing Shi Qing to be secretly mocked in the magazine office for quite some time.

Although Shi Qing didn’t dare to openly do anything to Ji Mingshu, she privately remembered every slight clearly, hoping that someday she could make this pair of sister flowers, Gu Kaiyang and Ji Mingshu, pay back with interest.

Now it was obvious that “someday.”

“Can’t I tell the truth? She’s not even here. Why are you fawning? Just because she’s rich and you want to cling to her? Speaking of which, why don’t you let her introduce you to a rich and handsome man so you can marry and become a wealthy wife? How easy would that be? So what if you grow some grass on your head? What can’t be sacrificed for money?”

Shi Qing was speaking with gusto, her expression particularly ugly.

Gu Kaiyang slammed the keyboard with a “bang,” looking as if he was about to rush over and hit her. The junior editor beside him hurriedly held him back, saying, “Brother Gu, forget it, forget it.”

This year, Shi Qing had been constantly suppressed by Gu Kaiyang at the magazine. Finally having an opportunity to vent her anger, she naturally became increasingly excessive.

“You want to hit me, huh? Hit me! Come on, come hit me.”

“What did I say wrong? Isn’t Ji Mingshu usually very arrogant? Looking down on everyone and being overbearing just because her husband has some stinking money? Don’t think I don’t know what she amounts to in the Ji family! The Ji family raising her is no different from raising a Yangzhou skinny horse in ancient times. At most, her identity just seems more proper. What’s there to be so high and mighty about? Does she dare to divorce? She doesn’t even dare to fart!”

Gu Kaiyang’s eyes were red with anger. “Get out of my way! Don’t any of you fucking hold me back! If I don’t tear this bitch apart today, my name isn’t Gu!!”

Before Gu Kaiyang finished speaking, the door of the deputy editor-in-chief’s office was pushed open with a “bang”!

Ji Mingshu was wearing a pair of strappy high heels today, with the heels carefully shaped into the brand’s letter design. They made tick-tock sounds on the marble floor. The ribbons were slightly glossy, wrapping around her slender white ankles and tied into a knot, creating a cold and exquisite beauty.

She walked in these shoes, tick-tock all the way to Shi Qing, her gaze slowly moving from top to bottom, then stretched out her hand to slightly lift Shi Qing’s chin.

“Who do you think you are?”

She had applied lipstick, a matte true red, her lip shape perfect and exquisite. Her words were light, slow, and cold.

Just as Shi Qing had said, standing before her was natural and innate arrogance.

Ji Mingshu: “Your bag is fake, your ring is a replica of T family’s classic style, found by a designer with photos, you have no respect for design, so how are you qualified to work at a magazine?”

The moment she was exposed, Shi Qing’s mind went “buzz,” flushing with embarrassment from the back of her ears to her neck.

“You can’t stand me, right? So as soon as I’m slightly disadvantaged, you jump out to humiliate me, right? But remember this: no matter how down and out I, Ji Mingshu, become, it will never be your turn to comment on me.”

Her hand that was lifting Shi Qing’s chin suddenly released, as if disgusted, and she randomly grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby desk to wipe her hand.

The office area was dead silent.

After wiping her hands, Ji Mingshu put on her sunglasses, picked up what she had just printed in Gu Kaiyang’s office, and walked out without leaving a trace of expression.