Ji Mingshu told the driver to head straight to the Junyi Group headquarters. The scenery outside the window flew by, but she had no interest in appreciating it. Whether her eyes were open or closed, many scenes from her marriage with Cen Sen kept replaying in her mind.

She had originally wanted to notify Cen Sen first.

But when she opened WeChat, she remembered she had deleted him from her friends list, and in the new friend requests section, there was no application from him.

There shouldn’t have been one anyway, and she didn’t know why she had checked with a hopeful attitude.

She thought seriously that sometimes there might truly be things that were destined, for example: she and Cen Sen were destined to be incompatible.

She remembered when Cen Sen first arrived at the compound when they were children, she thought this older brother was handsome. So, unusually for her, she actively showed him goodwill several times and even shared her favorite snacks with him, but he always remained silent and indifferent toward her.

After many attempts at warming up to his cold attitude, she lost her patience. Despite her young age, she felt something like hatred born from love, and gathered her friends from the compound to isolate him.

However, Cen Sen was one or two years older than her and her group of peers, and he didn’t care about being isolated by these immature kids.

Afterward, throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school, Cen Sen was always two grades above her. Everywhere he went, he was the model student with no flaws. Teachers praised him constantly, and eight out of ten times when someone gave a speech on stage, it was him.

She found it annoying and grew increasingly disgusted and impatient with his template-like existence. Sometimes when they met at school, she would walk past him without a glance, adding a cold snort, or blow a bubble with her chewing gum and then pop it with a “bam.”

Cen Sen became even colder, not looking at her at all, directly ignoring her existence.

So later, when they accidentally slept together and then naturally got married, Cen Sen was still like when they were young, looking down on her in every way.

The only difference was that the adult world added a layer of disguise. He would wrap himself in a gentle exterior to keep her, a golden canary he didn’t like but was willing to sleep with.

—When she joked with Gu Kaiyang about being a golden canary, thinking carefully, it was unexpectedly fitting.

On a weekend morning, the capital’s CBD was still crowded with people.

The half-month hotel inspection had just ended. After landing in the capital, Cen Sen had attended a meeting early in the morning without having breakfast. As he walked toward his office, he instructed his assistant to brew a cup of black coffee.

“What’s the situation? Which media outlet reported it?”

Back in his office, Cen Sen put on his glasses and continued reviewing the new hotel assessment materials while asking about the previous matter.

Just now on the way back, Zhou Jiaheng had briefly told him the general situation in the car, but with a meeting about to start that required his full concentration, he wasn’t in the mood to hear more.

Zhou Jiaheng explained the whole story in detail, then paused slightly and added, “During the meeting, both Miss Zhang Baoshu and Chairman Zhang called to apologize. Both said it was a misunderstanding, and the news would be taken down immediately.”

“A misunderstanding.” Cen Sen didn’t shift his gaze as he signed the bottom right corner of the document and calmly instructed, “Call Zhang Qi and tell him that Junyi has decided to stop pursuing the project in the western suburbs. When personal matters affect collaboration partners, it’s hard for me to believe they can maintain a proper attitude in their work.”

Zhou Jiaheng lowered his eyes. “Yes.”

Cen Sen abruptly changed the subject, suddenly asking, “What about my wife?”

But he seemed to think of something and continued before getting an answer, “Never mind. Cancel or postpone tonight’s arrangements. Go get the bracelet that Mr. Xie sent last time.”

Zhou Jiaheng responded with another “Yes,” and seeing that Cen Sen had nothing more to say, he quietly left the office.

The office was completely silent. Cen Sen rubbed his brow bone, then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for half a minute to rest, sensing that he would have to fight a hard battle tonight.

“Ma’am, may I ask you…”

“Move aside.”

Ji Mingshu didn’t even look at the building security as she walked in her high heels with a cold demeanor.

The bodyguard, who was usually almost invisible around Ji Mingshu, finally stepped forward to explain her identity to the security personnel.

Ji Mingshu didn’t turn back to deal with them, allowing people to clear the way while she wore sunglasses, arms crossed in front of her chest, expressionless as she walked into Cen Sen’s private elevator.

“Who is that woman? She’s so beautiful and cool. She looks like a celebrity.”

“She’s using the president’s private elevator, so she must be Director Cen’s girlfriend.”

“Isn’t Director Cen married?”

“Then that’s his wife?”

The front desk staff were discussing in low voices when the security team confirmed the answer for them.

Yes, that’s right, she was Director Cen’s wife.

So during the few minutes Ji Mingshu was in the elevator, the news that Mrs. Cen had arrived and was heading straight to the president’s office spread as quickly as if it were on a 5G network through the company’s various chat groups, big and small.

“The way the president’s wife is coming in so forcefully makes me feel like she’s here to catch someone in the act.”

“Catch someone? Does Director Cen have an affair with one of the beautiful women in his office?”

“That can’t be right. Every time he goes out, women stay at least ten feet away from him. It would make more sense to say he’s having an affair with Assistant Zhou.”

“Woman, you’ve caught my attention. Here’s a pen, arrange some fan fiction, thank you.”

Although some people noticed Ji Mingshu’s confrontational demeanor, since the small, obscure news had been suppressed before she arrived, no one gossiped about that female celebrity.

All the company employees knew she was coming, and Cen Sen was not so blind and deaf as to be completely unaware, especially since she was accompanied by a bodyguard, clearing the way for her was already a form of tacit consent from him.

When Ji Mingshu reached the sixty-eighth floor, the office doors were already open for her, and Cen Sen’s impressive row of assistants had all stood up to respectfully greet her.

Ji Mingshu remained expressionless, giving herself a mental pep talk, and without pausing, continued directly into Cen Sen’s office.

Cen Sen was sitting at his desk, working, wearing a pair of light gold thin-framed glasses, exuding the air of a refined scoundrel.

Ji Mingshu stopped in front of his desk, mentally counting to herself, then threw the printed but unbound divorce agreement on his head—

“Divorce.”

She had silently practiced her voice several times on the way over, striving to achieve a cold tone with a touch of disdain, and a hint of resolution in her condescension.

After speaking, she crossed her arms in front of her chest again, looking down at him with a haughty gaze.

“…”

Cen Sen closed his eyes and pressed down on the papers, remained quiet for three seconds, then pressed them onto the desk. He didn’t look up, and there was a brief silence.

In fact, the moment he knew Ji Mingshu was rushing to Junyi, he had prepared himself for a confrontation, and had even thought about how to simplify the explanation process and reduce wasted time.

But he had to admit.

He had never imagined Ji Mingshu would ask for a divorce.

During this time since returning to the country, Ji Mingshu seemed to constantly create surprises for him, and this “divorce” declaration was the most unexpected of all.

He removed his glasses, lightly pinched the bridge of his nose, then turned on the projection equipment behind Ji Mingshu.

“Turn around.”

Ji Mingshu instinctively looked back.

The screen quickly displayed footage from a car’s dashboard camera. Although the device hadn’t captured faces, Ji Mingshu quickly connected it with the photos she had seen at the magazine office.

The sound from the car recorder was somewhat noisy and not very clear, but the office was silent. As she listened carefully, she seemed to hear key phrases like “not as good as my wife” and “wash your face and sober up.”

Just then, Zhou Jiaheng knocked on the door.

Cen Sen: “Come in.”

Zhou Jiaheng walked in, and upon seeing Ji Mingshu, he didn’t seem surprised. He nodded politely, then reported to Cen Sen formally: “Director Cen, I have conveyed your message to Chairman Zhang, but he still wishes to speak with you.”

“Put the call through.”

Zhou Jiaheng acknowledged, then placed a red velvet jewelry box on his desk. “This is Madam’s bracelet.”

After speaking, he quietly withdrew.

Soon Zhang Qi’s call was connected to the office, and Cen Sen put it on speaker.

Then Ji Mingshu listened as Zhang Qi, serving as a free narrator, explained the whole situation in detail. In Zhang Qi’s words, Cen Sen was a pure, unblemished snow lotus from Tianshan Mountain who remained unmoved and untempted by beauty.

Cen Sen only occasionally responded with an “mm” while playing with the diamond bracelet in his hand. Once Ji Mingshu understood, he simply hung up the call.

“…”

Ji Mingshu stared directly at the bracelet in his hand.

She recognized it as a Van Cleef & Arpels piece previously auctioned at Christie’s. The transaction price wasn’t exorbitant, she vaguely remembered it was over a million US dollars, and she had rather liked it.

No, that shouldn’t be her focus right now.

She collected herself.

Oh, so all her suffering from the magazine office until now, reminiscing about the past, contemplating the future, imagining all sorts of things, nearly bursting into tears and ruining her image for this dog of a man—it was all just a misunderstanding.

…How marvelous.

Her melancholy emotions vanished in an instant, leaving only a faint embarrassment at the dramatic internal monologue she had been performing along the way.

“Still want a divorce?”

“…”

Silence was the little golden canary’s response.

Cen Sen loosened his tie, looking at her calmly. “If I haven’t been good enough and you really can’t stand it anymore, if you insist on a divorce, then I respect your opinion.”

“But Mingshu, you might need me to remind you of the prenuptial agreement. After divorce, you probably won’t be able to continue collecting rare skin Birkins, taking private jets to Milan for fashion shows, or blinking at fifteen-carat Sri Lankan padparadscha sapphire diamond rings…”

“Wait,” Ji Mingshu had come to her senses. “I think… I can endure a bit longer.”

The slight embarrassment deepened somewhat.

Ji Mingshu hadn’t expected this unconnected man to be so talkative, knowing that she liked collecting Birkins and various gems and diamonds, and now he was even bribing her with a rather pretty bracelet.

Of course, she was deeply moved and delighted to accept.

Hearing Ji Mingshu’s answer, Cen Sen felt an inexplicable relief in his heart.

His expression unchanged, he stood up and walked in front of Ji Mingshu, then lifted her wrist and put the diamond bracelet on her.

A faint scent of fir trees wafted over. Ji Mingshu’s ears reddened slightly, and she didn’t know why, but beyond the embarrassment, there was a small, irrepressible joy in her heart.

She hypnotized herself: It must be because she was happy about continuing to spend money lavishly. Yes, that’s right, that’s it.

She held back the corners of her lips that wanted to curl up, cleared her throat, and emphasized: “If you do cheat, I will divorce you. I’ll let it go this time and forgive you.”

“Deeply grateful.”