Looking back, Ji Mingshu realized that New Year’s Eve was quite ordinary.

Cen Sen held her for a while at the entrance of the alley. As the snow fell more heavily, they walked back hand in hand along the same path they had come.

After returning to the courtyard house, they watched the Spring Festival Gala with the elders in the main room. Near midnight, they shared dumplings. She couldn’t eat much and secretly transferred most of hers to Cen Sen.

Later, when the snow stopped, Cen Sen accompanied her outside to build a snowman. She wrote “I like you” with a twig in the snow and pulled Cen Sen over to see it. But after he saw it, he still wanted to hear her say it, so she said it without much resistance. They lingered in front of the snowman for a while, then went back to their room, snuggled under the blankets, played on their phones, and chatted and laughed together.

Cen Sen’s smiles were always very faint, relaxed expressions, corners of his lips slightly upturned, rarely showing his teeth. But when someone who normally doesn’t smile occasionally does so, it feels especially gentle.

Afterward, they didn’t do anything inappropriate for minors. When they grew tired of talking, they fell into a deep sleep, holding each other.

It was such an ordinary night that when Ji Mingshu woke up the next day, she sat dazed at the head of the bed, unable to distinguish between reality and dreams.

She had once thought that some people might be born without the ability to love, and that even a one-sided crush would be rare. But on New Year’s Eve, her flickering one-sided affection suddenly received a response from the other party.

While brushing her teeth, Ji Mingshu hadn’t fully spit out the white foam when she turned and asked indistinctly: “Did you say you liked me last night? Am I not dreaming?”

Cen Sen had already finished washing up, the hair on his forehead slightly damp, looking fresh and clean.

Seeing Ji Mingshu with messy hair, tilting her little face up to ask, he filled a cup of clear water and handed it to her, “Brush your teeth properly.”

Then he wrung out a towel.

Ji Mingshu stared at him intently, thinking that Cen Sen had suddenly changed after confessing, even knowing how to wring out a towel to wipe her face.

But her silent celebration lasted less than three seconds before she saw Cen Sen methodically press the towel to wipe the toothpaste foam she had accidentally sprayed on his clothes.

Ji Mingshu: “…”

If he’s so bothered by a bit of toothpaste foam, how could she believe this dog of a man truly liked her and would share joys and sorrows, never leave or abandon her, have children with her, and spend the rest of his life with her?

Before she could voice the question from the depths of her soul, Cen Sen wrung out another towel and wiped her face.

His movements weren’t particularly gentle or skilled, but they were thorough.

After wiping, he leaned slightly forward and planted a kiss on her face. “It wasn’t a dream.”

His lips were cool, with the minty taste of toothpaste.

Pink bubbles rose gradually from the bottom of her heart.

Ji Mingshu slowly nodded, then turned to face the mirror, silently rinsing her mouth quickly, and decided to push her previous doubts back into the depths of her soul.

The Cen family had the tradition of staying up all night on New Year’s Eve, so by breakfast time, most adults had just touched their beds. In the dining room, apart from Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen, there were only a few energetic little ones.

With no elders present, Ji Mingshu didn’t pay much attention to formalities and scrolled through Weibo while eating.

After the major twist in the malicious video editing incident, her Weibo followers had increased by a full 400,000. After the incident died down, she cleared all her Weibo posts, but her follower count continued to grow steadily. Her private messages were also full of people asking if she was considering making a debut, why she cleared her Weibo, when she would start building her brand…

Usually, female celebrities with fake “rich white beauty” personas could attract many fans and generate a lot of heat. So naturally, a genuine top-tier socialite with personality right before their eyes aroused considerable curiosity.

Ji Mingshu originally didn’t want to appear much in public, only hoping everyone would forget this matter soon and not bring her up from time to time.

But while things had quieted down on her end, Yan Yuexing and the show’s team continued their endless drama like a soap opera. As one of the key figures in the incident, she couldn’t completely escape the gossip and discussions for the time being.

Besides, she wanted to show off last night! The moment Cen Sen confessed to her, she wanted to announce to the whole world: the person I like also likes me, I, Ji Mingshu, must be the happiest woman in the world! No objections accepted!!!

So after flaunting in her Moments, she couldn’t resist posting a photo of them holding sparklers on Weibo with the caption: “Spending New Year’s Eve with Mr. Cen.”

Her Weibo had limited her reach, so after posting, she only saw sparse responses for a while and didn’t stay to monitor it.

But now when she looked again, her show-off post had over 5,000 reposts, likes, and comments, with a small blue “Hot” label in the upper left corner of Weibo.

Ji Mingshu hadn’t used Weibo much and didn’t know this was an indicator that someone had bought a promoted headline for her. She thought she had genuinely gone viral on her merit.

So she rested her chin on her hand, taking small spoonfuls of soup while bragging to Cen Sen, “I now have 500,000 followers on Weibo, and any post I make can go viral. Did you know that?”

Cen Sen gave an extremely perfunctory “Mm” without even looking up.

This early morning, he was wearing a loose black sweater and light gold thin-framed glasses, sitting across from Ji Mingshu, eating breakfast while looking at financial news on his tablet, casual and homey.

But this casual and homey appearance, paired with that half-hearted “Mm,” instantly transformed in Ji Mingshu’s eyes into indifference toward her, a Weibo influencer with 500,000 followers!

She suddenly stood up, moved to sit beside Cen Sen, and stuffed her half-eaten bun into his mouth, half-coquettishly and half-warningly saying: “Let me tell you, if you ever treat me badly in the future, I’ll expose you on Weibo!”

“…”

Cen Sen put down his tablet, his long-fingered hand holding the bun as he chewed slowly. Only after finishing did he lower his eyes and ask: “When have I ever treated you badly?”

Ji Mingshu tugged at his arm, reasoning confidently, “Just now, when I was talking to you, you kept looking at the news. Isn’t that treating me badly and not caring about what I say?”

Her face clearly expressing, “your little wife is very unhappy now.” Cen Sen took a sip of soup, ruffled her hair, and slowly said: “I’ll correct that in the future.”

Only then was Ji Mingshu satisfied. She began picking out comments from her Weibo that clamored, “The CEO’s wife is so beautiful” and “CEO’s wife, please make your debut” to give Cen Sen a live broadcast, hoping to put some pressure on him to properly recognize how popular his beautiful wife was.

Several kids eating breakfast nearby observed them, huddled in a corner of the round table, whispering.

Boy #1: “In the future, never marry someone like your aunt. Too scary!”

Boy #2: “Brother, you’re right. I think Dad is quite right, beautiful ones aren’t useful, we should look at what’s inside.”

Girl #1: “You talk as if you could find a wife as pretty as aunt…”

Girl #2: “Exactly, so young and already a male chauvinist!”

Boy #1: “And you’re a radical feminist!”

Girl #2: “Cen Bijiang, can’t you stop misusing words you just learned? So stupid!”

When children argue, they don’t think about consequences. Before long, these kids went from whispers to loud bickering, and they had already moved beyond the original topic to personal attacks.

At this point, Cen Sen suddenly put down his bowl, lifted his eyes for a light sweep, and said in a deep voice: “If you’re not eating, go do your winter break homework.”

With just this calm statement, the children froze as if under a spell, instantly sitting up straight and quiet as mice, even breathing carefully.

Ji Mingshu glanced at those little ones with tense faces, and a thought suddenly popped into her mind—

When she and Cen Sen have children, she probably won’t need to worry much. Cen Sen’s cold-faced, tower-boss aura would likely make any child obedient and well-behaved. As the gentle mother, she would only need to occasionally show her tenderness and care, take the children shopping, and take photos.

Thinking of this, Ji Mingshu smiled at Cen Sen, completely satisfied with his performance.

However, this satisfaction didn’t last long because his persistent ex-girlfriend was determined to ruin their happiness, starting to cause trouble on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

After announcing the film production, Li Wenyin began selling a book! It was a novel with the same name as the movie, and she had invited several well-known writers to write prefaces and recommendations!

Who knows how long Li Wenyin had been planning this move? There had been no prior promotion, and then suddenly on the first day of the New Year, she posted a long Weibo, rambling from the design concept of the cover to the gifts that came with the book. Every line emphasized her dedication and cherishment of this book, truly taking “selling sentimentality” to the extreme.

Li Wenyin’s article “My Ex Got Married” had attracted many Weibo followers years ago. During her years studying abroad, she hadn’t forgotten to occasionally post incomprehensible foreign languages on Weibo, share photos of art exhibitions, write reviews of highly-rated art films and books, and very occasionally post selfies, sharing her daily life of tea appreciation, illustrations, and attending high-end events. Her Weibo followers had gradually grown to nearly a million.

As a blogger with this artistic, pretentious style, she had many active followers. When she suddenly released this book-publishing bombshell on New Year’s Day, her fans actively responded.

Plus, she was well-prepared. Before long, her long Weibo post had thousands of reposts, likes, and comments. The hashtags #LiWenyinNewBook and her movie name also quietly climbed up the trending topics.

More dramatically, within an hour or two, her new book’s pre-orders had topped the bestseller lists on major book websites. She even posted a thank-you on Weibo, saying she hadn’t expected so many people to buy it, that her editor had just informed her they needed to increase the first print run, blah blah blah.

Ji Mingshu almost died of anger when she saw this Weibo. She unceremoniously shoved her phone in Cen Sen’s face, “This is what you meant by ‘no rush, no rush’! ‘The movie won’t be released! ‘ I don’t know if the movie will be released, but this book is about to hit the market! Does your ex-girlfriend think she’s the modern Li Qingzhao? She wants to publish a book, increase the print run, and make your earth-shattering love story immortalized for ages!!!”

Ji Mingshu was too angry. “And why does she have so many more Weibo followers than I? Her reposts, likes, and comments are more than double mine! I have absolutely no face!!!”

Cen Sen: “…”

He closed his eyes, removed the phone from his face, and for a moment didn’t know which of Ji Mingshu’s problems he should address first.