There might be trust between people, but Ji Mingshu felt that between her and Cen Sen, there was none.

Standing beside the dining table, she watched Cen Sen eating unhurriedly, her mind filled with the word “accept” that he had said before they went to bed.

—Accept the bribe? After accepting, you’re not allowed to mention the men’s restroom again, okay?

—I accept.

Slap, slap, slap!

After slapping her below, he then slapped her face. What a hardworking, modest, model husband who could touch the heart of China.

And the way this husband rightfully enjoyed the fruits of his labor under her gaze was truly, exquisitely beautiful 🙂

After watching Cen Sen eat for a while, Ji Mingshu closed her eyes briefly, feeling so angry that she could skip tomorrow’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Without a word, she ran back to the bedroom, locked the door, and rolled back and forth on the bed.

The air still lingered with the sweet scent after their lovemaking. The more she rolled, the more she couldn’t sleep, thinking that she had just been thoroughly deceived into a round of sex within marriage.

Several images replayed over and over in her mind. Finally, unable to sleep due to her anger, she suddenly climbed out of bed, planning to rush out and have a fierce confrontation with that selfish, sex-swindling scumbag.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she pulled open the door, she bumped right into the sex-swindling scumbag standing at the doorway with a fresh, hot bowl of pork rib noodles.

Both the noodles and small ribs looked extremely appetizing, with delicate green onions sprinkled on top, and most importantly, the aroma.

Ji Mingshu stared at the pork rib noodles, swallowed gently, and without taking her eyes off them, said: “You’re truly a good person.”

Ding! One “good person” card delivered.

She didn’t even look at what expression this “good person” had. She devoutly accepted the noodles, carried them to the dressing table, and even positioned her stool perfectly straight.

Ji Mingshu was quite pleasing to watch when eating. She took very small bites and remained completely silent throughout, not making even the slightest slurping sound.

It was hard to tell if this was due to her refined upbringing as a socialite or if she was perfectly illustrating the concept of “payment received, complaints ceased.”

That night, she slept fairly peacefully.

The next morning at eight o’clock, Zhou Jiaheng called on time to provide a wake-up service for Cen Sen.

After taking the call, Cen Sen lay in bed, slowly pinching the bridge of his nose.

He remembered that when he was studying in America, during his occasional free time, he would cook for himself in his apartment. Now, after working for many years, last night was the first time he had cooked late at night.

After coming to his senses, he turned his head to look beside him.

The summer morning light was particularly dazzling, but Ji Mingshu showed no reaction whatsoever, as quiet as a stick of dough waiting to rise.

She wasn’t very disciplined in her sleep, probably because although the Ji family had found many teachers for her, they forgot to find one to teach her how to sleep with the elegance of a socialite from a young age.

When they first got married, she would still try hard to maintain a normal sleeping posture, but it wasn’t long before she frequently revealed her true nature, especially after they had sex, when her guard was extremely low.

Just like now, she was clinging to Cen Sen’s embrace like an octopus, her bare, well-proportioned, long legs straddling his waist.

Cen Sen was a normal man. Waking up early to find such a disheveled, sexy, and alluring beauty hanging on him, it was difficult not to react.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time.

He pulled the octopus off his body, not showing much gentleness or pity in his movements.

However, just before leaving, he did pause slightly and closed the blackout curtains.

In the past, when returning from abroad, Ji Mingshu would sleep for at most half a day to adjust to the time difference, but this time, both physically and mentally exhausted, she slept straight through until six in the afternoon.

There were many missed calls and WeChat messages on her phone.

She casually scanned a few of them, including several WeChat messages from Jiang Chun, all asking if she was going to Young Master Zhang’s birthday party that evening.

The Zhang family had two young masters—the elder one called Zhang Qi, and the younger one called Zhang Lin.

Zhang Qi was about the same age as Cen Sen and had already taken over many family affairs. Their family was in tourism resource development and probably had quite a bit of business interaction with Cen Sen.

Zhang Lin was born when his parents were older, so he was cherished and spoiled by the family. Today, he was turning twenty? Ji Mingshu looked carefully, and indeed it was twenty.

So young.

Ji Mingshu scrolled down, found Young Master Zhang’s invitation message, and sent an “OK” gesture.

Young Master Zhang quickly replied: “Thank you, Sister Shu, for gracing us with your presence!”

For this birthday party, Young Master Zhang had been preparing for a long time. He was also clever, holding the birthday party at his pub that was about to open, essentially giving himself a live advertisement.

By the time Ji Mingshu arrived, the atmosphere in the pub was already heated up. Zhang Lin had quite a lot of face; basically all the acquaintances from the “Four-Nine City” had arrived, plus a bunch of internet celebrities and minor stars whose names she couldn’t recall.

Ji Mingshu was personally escorted in by Young Master Zhang.

This Young Master Zhang, at his young age, hadn’t learned much else, but he had mastered the skill of flattery to perfection. Standing at the door to welcome Ji Mingshu, he showered her with compliments, affectionately calling her “sister” left and right. Fortunately, he didn’t have a real sister; otherwise, seeing his sweet-talking ways would probably have sent her back to her mother’s womb in anger.

In these social situations, the host’s attitude basically represented the guest’s status. Among the people present tonight, there were only a few who received Young Master Zhang’s personal welcome.

Those who didn’t know Ji Mingshu, seeing how attentive Young Master Zhang was, naturally formed an impression of her status.

After being seated at the front, a group of professional bootlickers—her plastic sisters—took over the relay baton from Young Master Zhang and started their performance, each one speaking eloquently with compliments ringing to the heavens.

Ji Mingshu was also very accommodating to them. She said she arrived late and proactively drank a beverage, then chatted with them about the haute couture week from a few days ago.

This was the world of decadence, extravagance, and superficial pleasures that Ji Mingshu was most familiar with, and she naturally handled it with ease and skill.

Zhang Baoshu also came tonight. It had been over a month since she had accompanied the elder Zhang brother, Zhang Qi, on a business engagement.

In just this short month, Zhang Baoshu felt like she had experienced more ups and downs than in her previous nineteen years combined.

The youth campus web drama she filmed before graduation had already been released and had been streaming on video websites for more than twenty episodes. The reviews and data couldn’t be called explosive, but she wasn’t completely unknown either.

At least through the female lead’s fresh and natural image, she had easily attracted more than 500,000 fans.

Add in the data traffic the company bought for her, and now she was a new-generation starlet with a million followers, whose Weibo posts would get thousands of likes, shares, and comments.

To outsiders, all this seemed like she was just lucky, easily gaining prominence upon entering the entertainment industry.

But she knew that for every moment of public glamour, there was always a corresponding price to be paid behind the scenes.

That night, being ruthlessly rejected by Cen Sen, her self-esteem was shattered into pieces. She didn’t know what she was thinking, but she turned around and foolishly ended up in Young Master Zhang’s bed.

Young Master Zhang verbally disparaged and looked down on her, but when in bed, his body was quite honest.

After accompanying him for three consecutive nights, her web drama got the green light to air; the senior artists under the same manager who knew she was with Young Master Zhang finally were willing to look at her properly; and a TV drama where she couldn’t even audition for the fourth female lead before now actively extended an olive branch inviting her to play the second female lead.

Once a person has taken shortcuts and tasted the flavor of easy fame and fortune, it becomes difficult to step back and climb up steadily, step by step. Zhang Baoshu was no exception.

She welcomed the rumors about her and Young Master Zhang, but unfortunately, Young Master Zhang didn’t even leave her with any contact information. After those three days, the two never met again.

It had only been a month, so others wouldn’t suspect anything, but if more time passed, people would naturally notice that her relationship with Young Master Zhang was far from being close enough to use the word “with.”

Without Young Master Zhang, whether she could gain more was another matter, but even what she currently had, she didn’t know if she would have to give it all back.

Today, managing to get in here through her agent, Zhang Baoshu, she wanted to see if she could run into Young Master Zhang, reminisce about their past, and relive their dreams.

Zhang Baoshu had arrived early, her gaze intentionally or unintentionally following Young Master Zhang, thinking that since it was his brother’s birthday, the elder brother would at least make an appearance. But all she encountered was one disappointment after another.

When the birthday party was about to start, Young Master Zhang especially attentively escorted someone in from outside. The lighting in the pub wasn’t very bright, and at first glance, she thought he was so attentive because he was escorting his brother. But when she looked more carefully, she found it was a graceful woman, which inevitably brought another wave of disappointment.

Amid the noise, she heard nearby people discussing:

“Who is that woman? Zhang the Second is so attentive.”

“Don’t know, but the bag she’s carrying seems to be… a Himalaya BK?”

Someone added, “It’s the diamond-encrusted version.”

Zhang Baoshu then looked more carefully.

However, the distance was too far, and she couldn’t see the features. She could only sense that the woman had a very special aura, looking strikingly beautiful even from afar, the kind of striking beauty that you couldn’t take your eyes off. Even just casually flipping her hair looked like she was filming a shampoo commercial.

“Stop looking, she’s not in our league,” someone who knew Ji Mingshu said, casually pointing at the red sofa. “That’s her background.”

Everyone instantly understood.

The person continued: “You know Junyi Huazhang? Her husband is the boss of the entire Junyi Group, and her background goes even deeper. Otherwise, why do you think Zhang the Second is being so attentive?”

Junyi?

Zhang Baoshu suddenly froze.

A memory flashed in her mind of what Cen Sen had said that night: “In looks, temperament, education, and background, you can’t compare to my wife in any way. You might as well wash your face and sober up.”

So this was his wife?

Zhang Baoshu didn’t even notice that her cat-eye nails had dug deeply into the sofa cushion.

The pub was naturally lively at night. When everyone had arrived, Young Master Zhang, wearing a birthday hat, took the microphone and spoke on stage, followed by a tone-deaf song, which was met with a wave of supportive laughter from below.

Jiang Chun arrived only when they were about to cut the cake. She originally didn’t know whether she should approach Ji Mingshu, but unexpectedly, Ji Mingshu saw her and proactively nodded at her, so Jiang Chun naturally scurried over.

The group of plastic sisters had just finished a round of mockery about Jiang Chun being dumped by Yan, and were wondering why Ji Mingshu didn’t say anything or even smile. Now seeing her proactively call Jiang Chun over, their expressions became even more strange.

Ji Mingshu, however, was very composed and even asked people to move aside a bit to make room for Jiang Chun.

Jiang Chun felt a kind of inexplicable pride. She privately tugged at Ji Mingshu’s skirt and asked in a low voice: “Yesterday, from the restroom…”

Ji Mingshu gave her a “please shut up and immediately forget it” look.

Jiang Chun promptly stopped and asked instead: “How’s my outfit today?”

Ji Mingshu looked her up and down, and whether out of revenge or not, she stabbed straight into her heart.

“You’d better not dress up in the future, little country bumpkin.”

Jiang Chun: “…”

Why had she come looking for humiliation?

People paid attention when Ji Mingshu arrived, and naturally, they also paid attention when Jiang Chun arrived.

Near Zhang Baoshu sat many minor stars and internet celebrities, one of whom was the little white flower that Yan had cheated with.

When she saw Jiang Chun come in, she acted as if nothing had happened and remarked to her friend about how small the circle in Beijing really was, and affectedly said: “What should I do? That’s his ex-girlfriend, it’s so awkward.”

Her friend comforted her, “What’s there to be awkward about? It’s Yan who likes you. She can’t be so unsportsmanlike, can she?”

Soon, several others joined the topic.

With the little white flower’s status, being able to hook up with Yan was something to boast about, and these people were all openly or subtly flattering her.

The little white flower mostly maintained her public image, timidly not speaking, only softly adding at key moments, “Yan and her were engaged just because of family relations. She also knew Yan had a girlfriend outside. Wanting to maintain this formal engagement, it takes two hands to make a clap…”

Before she finished, she suddenly noticed a pair of shiny high heels entering her field of vision.

Before she could react, “Slap!” A crisp, loud slap came across, and her ear seemed to have a momentary ringing.

“Listen now, does one hand make a sound when it slaps?”