In Cen Yuanchao’s eyes, his daughter-in-law Ji Mingshu’s appearance on a show and trending online were just children’s trifling matters, and so-called public opinion could be resolved with the lift of a finger.

He never thought that Cen Sen would return home directly for such a small matter, without even finalizing the cooperation to one hundred percent certainty. In his eyes, Cen Sen was not the type of person who would act impulsively and be unable to distinguish between urgent and non-urgent matters.

So he was quite puzzled by Cen Sen’s behavior this time.

Yet the older Cen Sen grew, the less willing he became to explain things to him.

Ji Mingshu also felt that Cen Sen wasn’t this type of person, but this time he had indeed rushed back overnight, seemingly just for her small matter.

Although the direction of online opinion had already changed by the time he rushed back, hadn’t he also personally comforted her wounded heart and gifted her an island where she could see the aurora?

In the brief moment Ji Mingshu was lost in thought, the conversation in the study had already moved on to topics unrelated to Cen Sen. She held her breath and tiptoed away.

Back in her room, Ji Mingshu was somewhat absent-minded. After sitting at her desk and spacing out for a while, she pushed open half of the window to admire the snow.

Heavy winter snow fell as thick and dense as goose feathers. Through the half-zhang of winding corridor, clear, cold wind blew in. With her chin in her hands, she didn’t know what she was thinking, her thoughts seeming to wander very far away.

“…Borui’s asset restructuring will take until after the New Year at the earliest to complete. It’s hard to say whether they can return to the A-shares in the first half of the year. Even after the restructuring and share reform, their relationship with Haichuan might not be closer than it is now. Aren’t there several companies with synergistic effects interested in capital injection?”

“That may be so, but if Haichuan isn’t close with them, can they be close with us? Now that they’ve intercepted this investment, there’s no possibility of cooperation with our side. Even if there is an intention to cooperate, the likelihood of them opening their lion’s mouth wide is very high,” another person rebutted.

The South Bay Development Company headquarters were located on the eleventh floor of Huadian Tower.

The project investment from Vincent, a French Chinese, had been intercepted by Haichuan Capital, where Cen Yang worked, to be used for new energy business development after Borui’s restructuring. This created a large hole in the budget for the construction of the roundabout interchange for South Bay Phase Two. For several consecutive days, the responsible persons for relevant projects had gathered here to discuss it.

It wasn’t that there were no Plan Bs or Plan Cs for the roundabout interchange construction in South Bay Phase Two, but compared to Plan A, which could be smoothly executed once this investment was secured, the remaining options were not optimal.

Moreover, squeezing money from money would inevitably have some ripple effects on the interests of everyone present. The negotiations these past few days had mainly revolved around the distribution of interests in the remaining plans.

Actually, the development prospects and return potential of South Bay were more than a level above Borui’s new energy project, but in terms of investment cycle and short-term return rate, the latter had obvious advantages.

Someone suggested negotiating cooperation with Haichuan Capital, but the responsible persons from the Cen and Ji families who were present didn’t seem to approve of this idea.

—They were all too familiar with the person in charge of Haichuan Capital’s Greater China region. Today’s incident was deliberately orchestrated by Cen Yang, so there was no need to speak of “cooperation.”

After the meeting ended, Cen Sen checked the time, still planning to return to Junyi to sign some documents that needed to be issued before the New Year.

But Zhou Jiaheng suddenly called out to him from half a step behind, “Boss, there’s a phone call.”

Cen Sen paused and slightly turned his head.

Zhou Jiaheng stepped forward to hand the phone to Cen Sen, then discreetly retreated to his original position, coughing lightly before saying: “It’s from Haichuan… Mr. Cen Yang.”

Cen Sen lowered his eyes to look at the caller ID and calmly pressed answer.

On the other end of the phone, Cen Yang didn’t bother with pleasantries, getting straight to the point: “The New Year is approaching. I’ve prepared some gifts for Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Xiao Shu, which I’ll send to South Bridge Alley in a couple of days. I hope CEO Cen doesn’t mind.”

Cen Sen didn’t respond.

“But CEO Cen probably isn’t in the mood to mind now. Regarding Vincent’s matter, I’m truly sorry.”

Cen Yang’s voice was clear and warm. Some words, when spoken in his gold-striking-jade voice, always confused people, making it hard to distinguish between sarcasm and a genuine apology.

“South Bridge Alley won’t be necessary. Just send them directly to the cemetery, all to Mom,” Cen Sen said in a casual tone, as if discussing tomorrow’s weather, then added with a slight mockery, “Thank you, Mr. An Yang.”

Zhou Jiaheng’s survival instinct had been off the charts lately. Sitting in the passenger seat, he silently noted this new knowledge point: in the future, don’t call him Cen Yang, call him An Yang. Yes, CEO Cen calls him An Yang.

After Cen Sen said this, the other end of the phone was silent for a while. It wasn’t clear whether the phrase “send to the cemetery” had stirred up memories or if the name “An Yang” had hurt him.

Cen Sen didn’t seem to care much, only adding: “I originally thought you wouldn’t go so far as to use women as pawns. I overestimated you.”

His voice grew colder towards the end, the final tone curling up slightly, full of contempt and coldness. Before Cen Yang could respond, he promptly hung up.

People who battle in the business world don’t believe anything is accidental or coincidental. As soon as there was an unexpected change with Vincent, Cen Sen had already investigated Cen Yang’s involvement.

The malicious editing incident involving Ji Mingshu appeared on the surface to be just Yan Yuexing and the program team picking a good day to make a grave error.

But earlier, when Ji Mingshu met with Cen Yang, she had inadvertently mentioned some things that happened when she participated in the program, including occasional mistreatment from the program team and the unpleasantness with Yan Yuexing.

Cen Yang was attentive, and following these inadvertently mentioned things, he had looked deeper. Before the program aired, he had used some tactics to stir things up. In the end, the program team and Yan Yuexing shared the blame clearly, while he left no trace, his hands clean.

His original intention was merely to cause another conflict between Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen.. Like Cen Yuanchao, he hadn’t expected Cen Sen would return to the country early because of this.

But since Cen Sen had handed over the mistake himself, he had no reason not to take advantage of it.

—He had never thought about returning to the Cen family, nor had he wanted to get anything more from them, but such a cold-blooded family didn’t deserve a moment of peace, never deserved it.

Starting from that year when Cen Sen said it’s either you or me; starting from that year when Cen Yuanchao sent him away without giving half an explanation; starting from when Cen Yuanchao knew his bones didn’t flow with Cen family blood and was unwilling to save him.

As much as he had once loved this family, he now hated them just as much.

Whether Cen Yang’s gifts were ultimately sent to the cemetery or South Bridge Alley, Cen Sen didn’t care, as long as Ji Mingshu didn’t receive them.

Before New Year’s Eve, Cen Sen and Ji Mingshu returned to Mingshui Mansion from the suburban villa.

However, Cen Sen was still busy every day. Ji Mingshu tried several times to ask him about the project investment being intercepted by Cen Yang, but either he would suddenly receive a phone call and be interrupted, or she would inexplicably lose courage and change the subject.

Because no matter from which angle she asked him, it seemed to always come down to one question—why did you do this?

He could have finished handling everything before returning… If Cen Sen had acted impulsively for her sake, she would feel a bit guilty. But if Cen Sen had other arrangements and wasn’t acting impulsively for her, she wouldn’t be happy with that answer either. So she was conflicted, going around in circles, and never managed to ask.

During the New Year period, many socialites and young gentlemen developing abroad would make time to return to the capital. The city was livelier than usual, with parties following one after another without interruption.

The twenty-ninth happened to be Vivian’s birthday, and Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun both brought gifts to attend her birthday party.

This young lady, Vivian, was passionate about following celebrities. Ten years ago, she had already achieved the feat of lying to have her driver take her to the airport to greet Korean oppas. These past few years, she had followed stars both domestically and internationally, and was quite diverse in her interests, following painters, pianists, and athletes. If not for objective conditions limiting her, she probably would have followed not only Chinese and foreign celebrities but also those from ancient and modern times.

This led to a very eclectic birthday party scene. One moment a rock singer would perform a wild song, the next a pianist would play a world-famous piece. There were also boy bands dancing and athletes performing freestyle football and such, making the scene lively yet fragmented.

Seeing Ji Mingshu distracted, Jiang Chun asked while eating a small cake, “What’s wrong with you?”

Ji Mingshu rested her chin on her hand, sighed, and replied listlessly, “Nothing.”

Jiang Chun casually guessed, “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“What nonsense are you talking…” Ji Mingshu gave her a look as if she were looking at an idiot.

Jiang Chun still felt her guess was quite reasonable and gave Ji Mingshu examples of her recently pregnant sister-in-law’s various symptoms of poor appetite and lethargy.

Ji Mingshu promptly stopped her and changed the subject, “Wait, let’s not talk about this. Let me ask you something. Do you ever prepare any gifts for Tang Zhizhou? For instance, if you did something wrong to Tang Zhizhou, or when Tang Zhizhou is particularly hardworking or tired, would you give him something or comfort him in some way…”

“What could I possibly do to wrong Tang Zhizhou? Wait, you haven’t done something to wrong Cen Sen, have you? Did you cheat? With that childhood sweetheart brother of yours?”

Jiang Chun was noisy and excitable, her eyes wide, cake smeared on the corner of her mouth without her even realizing it.

Ji Mingshu closed her eyes briefly, then grabbed a napkin to cover Jiang Chun’s face, waving her hand to indicate that this little earth goose who was completely out of sync with her should now immediately enter silent mode, asking her to be quiet for a moment.

Jiang Chun was silent, but the eclectic performances at the venue wouldn’t be. Noticing many people recording videos of the stage, Ji Mingshu, for whatever reason, also took out her phone and recorded several short videos to send to Cen Sen.

After sending them, she carefully considered what to write.

Ji Mingshu: [I’m attending a friend’s birthday party. Are you working hard at the company? Do you want to watch some performances to relax?]

Soon after, Cen Sen replied: [The performance’s extent needs to be tightened.]

She looked back at the video she had recorded. Oh, it happened to capture a male idol lifting his shirt.

Ji Mingshu: [I can leave after the cake is cut. Are you at the company? Would you like me to bring you a piece of cake? Or if you want something else, there’s a soup restaurant nearby that I saw was still open when I arrived.]

The top of the chat interface showed “the other party is typing” several times, but no content was ever sent. Ji Mingshu was a bit puzzled.

Cen Sen was even more puzzled. For an adult man, perhaps what he feared most was his wife’s sudden concern.

After pondering for a while, he finally replied: [Did you want to buy something that exceeds the limit?]