This lunch ended in a flurry of activity.

After the meal, Chen Biqing cleared the dishes, while An’ning helped turn on the television, brew tea, and cut fruit. Cen Sen went to the balcony to take a phone call, leaving Ji Mingshu with no choice but to sit on the sofa and watch the local news program An’ning had tuned to.

The program featured a young couple from a town near Star City about to get married. The groom-to-be had accidentally discovered that the bride had previously had an abortion, which he couldn’t accept, so he angrily called off the wedding.

The bride first tried to win him back, but when that failed, she said it was fine not to get married, but the fifty thousand yuan betrothal gift couldn’t be returned because “you’ve slept with me too, so you should at least pay a breakup fee.”

The couple appeared on the show solely to argue about that fifty-thousand-yuan betrothal gift.

Ji Mingshu had never watched this kind of program before. At first, she couldn’t believe people would go on television for interviews and tear into each other over fifty thousand yuan.

But when she saw the scrolling announcement at the bottom of the screen that read “Middle-aged man suffers cerebral hemorrhage after dispute over ten yuan gambling stakes at mahjong table, now urgently sent to Star City People’s Hospital,” she felt that fighting over fifty thousand was quite reasonable and convincing.

She ate fruit while watching TV, becoming somewhat engrossed in the show.

Seeing An’ning standing nearby with nothing to do after finishing her chores, she invited her to sit down and watch together.

An’ning nodded with a blushing face and sat on the sofa’s edge, keeping her legs together and her hands properly placed on her knees, looking as constrained as if she were a distant relative visiting Ji Mingshu’s home.

Even while eating fruit and watching TV, Ji Mingshu maintained her socialite elegance. Although the room was ordinary and even quite old, she managed to sit with the grace and luxury of someone in the front row of a Milan fashion show.

An’ning occasionally stole glances at her, pretending to be casual about it.

She couldn’t help it—she had never seen such a beautiful woman before, even more beautiful than female celebrities on TV, like a pearl that could shine brightly even in daylight.

At first, Ji Mingshu didn’t notice An’ning’s admiring glances, but when she reached for a tissue, she caught her curious gaze. She paused slightly, then smiled warmly at her, trying to express friendliness.

But An’ning was very shy. Once caught, she immediately averted her eyes and stopped making eye contact, her face instantly turning as red as a tomato.

Ji Mingshu: “…”

What era had left behind such a pure maiden? She was much too shy…

No wonder she wasn’t Cen Sen’s biological sister—this young girl hadn’t inherited even one percent of Cen Sen’s shameless genes.

In the next moment, she naturally thought of Cen Yang.

When Cen Yang was in the compound, she had been too young, and her memories had blurred with age. She could no longer recall Cen Yang’s exact features, only remembering that he was a bright and cheerful older brother, whose personality was worlds apart from his sister An’ning’s.

During Ji Mingshu’s brief distraction, Cen Sen had finished his call and was walking back to the living room.

He walked straight to the sofa but didn’t sit down.

Ji Mingshu looked up and met his gaze, reading in his eyes the message “now that we’ve eaten, it’s time to leave.”

Wait, he especially came to eat, and all he was going to do was just eat?

It was understandable that he hadn’t cultivated a sibling relationship with An’ning and couldn’t communicate with her, but what about Chen Biqing… since arriving, mother and son hadn’t exchanged more than three sentences.

Ji Mingshu froze momentarily, unsure how to react.

Fortunately, Chen Biqing emerged from the kitchen just then. She also seemed to sense Cen Sen’s intention to leave and couldn’t help calling out, “Xiaosen.”

The air suddenly grew quiet.

For quite a while, no one spoke.

Ji Mingshu found this silence too uncomfortable. After hesitating for a long time, she finally stammered out: “Um… I’ve lost my lipstick. Ning’ning, would you come with me to buy a new one?”

An’ning was suddenly caught off guard, unable to respond immediately.

Ji Mingshu, with maximum efficiency, quickly got up, grabbed her bag, pulled An’ning to her feet, and dragged her out of the house.

The iron security door closed with a “creak,” instantly leaving only Chen Biqing and Cen Sen in the room.

The afternoon sunlight was peaceful, and the last fragrance of late summer flowers was carried in by the breeze, with a slight rusty scent, so familiar that it created an illusion of time travel.

Cen Sen remembered that on just such a pleasant, sunny afternoon, he had ended his nap early because he was eager to buy a comic book.

Before leaving for school with his backpack, he wanted to peek at his little sister in the master bedroom, but outside the door, he heard his parents talking.

Driven by curiosity, he pressed his ear against the door to eavesdrop.

His father, An Guoping, was saying: “What does it matter if the Cen family has power and influence? Can they forcibly take him from us? It’s outrageous! If they dare to use force, I’ll report it to the organization! I don’t believe it—this is a society ruled by law!”

Chen Biqing sighed, “The Cen family is indeed domineering. They want to take Asen away, but they won’t let us see that child. We don’t even know what the child is called now.”

Hearing this, An Guoping fell silent.

The couple said a few more things in very low voices that Cen Sen couldn’t hear clearly. In the end, he only heard Chen Biqing say with a tearful voice: “How could something like this happen?”

At that time, Cen Sen was still young, and he couldn’t fully understand the fragments from Chen Biqing and An Guoping, but he already vaguely sensed that something related to him was secretly happening without his knowledge.

From that time on, he began to deliberately eavesdrop on Chen Biqing and An Guoping’s conversations, and the truth was slowly pieced together through these fragments.

Later, when the Cen family’s cars and bodyguards parked outside the teachers’ apartment building, and Chen Biqing and An Guoping waited until the last moment to tell him the truth, he was surprisingly calm.

In his eavesdropping, he had heard many discussions where they firmly opposed returning him to the Cen family.

But in the end, his mom and dad had abandoned him.

Perhaps too much time had passed, and now, when he recalled it, it felt like it had happened in another lifetime.

Cen Sen sat on the sofa, looking at Chen Biqing across from him, no longer young, and suddenly asked: “All these years, you never went abroad?”

Having studied abroad for many years himself, it was easy for him to tell if someone had just returned from overseas.

Chen Biqing looked at the fruit plate on the table and said softly, “No, we’ve been living in South City all along. Yang Yang… he went abroad, he… isn’t close with us.” As she said this, she lowered her head even more. “He went abroad many years ago and hasn’t come back much.”

Cen Sen remained silent.

Chen Biqing anxiously asked: “Are you… Are you doing well? You and Xiaoshu got married three years ago, right?”

“Yes.”

Chen Biqing nodded, “Xiaoshu is very nice, beautiful, and lovely. As long as you two are doing well, I can rest easy.”

After saying this, she quickly wiped the corner of her eye and smiled.

Cen Sen didn’t respond.

After a while, he suddenly asked: “What about Dad?”

At this moment, it was Chen Biqing’s turn to fall silent.

A long time passed before she slowly said, “He… passed away.”

“Passed away?” Ji Mingshu was slightly startled.

After leaving the An family home, Ji Mingshu had taken An’ning to her car, planning to go to a nearby mall to buy some things.

The closest mall was a fifteen-minute drive away, and Ji Mingshu felt it would be awkward to just sit in silence the whole time, so she started chatting with An’ning in the car.

It wasn’t so much a chat as a question-and-answer session.

An’ning was a simple and honest young girl who answered whatever Ji Mingshu asked, so Ji Mingshu couldn’t resist the temptation to inquire about the An family.

“Just recently, Dad got sick. Mom wanted to find Brother Cen Sen to come see him, but before Mom could find him, he couldn’t hold on through the treatment and passed away.”

An’ning lowered her head and said, “We returned to Star City because of Dad’s passing. Before he died, he said he wanted to go home and see it again.”

An’s father had passed away.

Though Ji Mingshu was surprised, she wasn’t particularly shocked. From the moment she hadn’t seen An’s father at their home, she had already formed various guesses in her mind.

“Then… what about Cen Yang? Oh, he should be called An Yang now, right?”

An’ning shook her head, “My brother didn’t change his name. I haven’t seen him much; he went to live abroad many years ago, probably arranged by the Cen family. He usually only comes back once every few years.”

“For Dad’s passing, he said he would come back, but he still hasn’t returned. I haven’t seen him for a very, very long time.”

“I see…”

Ji Mingshu nodded slightly, feeling something indescribable in her heart, unsure of what to say next.

Fortunately, they had arrived at the mall. While she wasn’t good at many things, shopping was her strong suit.

She composed herself, linked arms with An’ning as they walked in, and began to expound on her canary theory that women should live elegantly.

“You’re in college now, you can’t always be so plain. Look at your pretty little face, how fresh and lovely it is. If you fixed yourself up a bit, you could date someone nice while you’re young.” She turned to look at her. “You don’t have a boyfriend yet, right?”

An’ning shook her head shyly.

“College is the best time for romance. Once you’re out of school, when can you find pure love? Just standing face to face, you’ll have to consider material conditions before even exchanging a glance.”

An’ning asked curiously: “Were you and Brother Cen Sen college classmates?”

Ji Mingshu: “…”

Sorry, we’re exactly the kind of plastic couple who had to consider material conditions at first glance.

She changed the subject: “Actually, it’s not just about dating. Even if girls don’t date, they should still treat themselves well. Don’t you feel happy when you dress beautifully every day?”

An’ning agreed with this point. In her college dormitory, besides studying and dating, the girls discussed clothes, bags, skincare products, and cosmetics the most.

Through this environment, she understood a bit, but had never dared to take the first step, focusing only on her studies every day.

Ji Mingshu couldn’t bear to see such a pretty girl so plain and initially wanted to take An’ning to buy some skincare products. But suddenly she received a call from the “Design Home” program team. The signal in the mall was poor, the voice kept breaking up, so she casually pointed to a nearby brand and told An’ning to wait there while she went outside to finish the call, promising to return immediately.

An’ning naturally agreed.

The first floor of the mall had jewelry and beauty counters. An’ning rarely entered such places and was somewhat dazzled by the countless spotlights.

She wandered near the brand Ji Mingshu had indicated and inadvertently noticed a makeup brand her roommate had been talking about every day recently. This brand had a very popular lipstick.

She walked over, letting her gaze wander over the lipstick display, silently recalling the lipstick shade number her roommate had mentioned.

Finally, she found the tester for that lipstick on the second-to-last row of the display, picked it up, and tried the color on her hand. It was indeed quite pretty.

She was in her junior year of college and had never bought a lipstick before, suddenly feeling eager to try.

“Excuse me, how much is this lipstick?”

She held up the lipstick and asked the counter assistant.

The assistant looked her up and down, seeing her poor student appearance and losing interest in serving her. With a massive eye roll, she continued playing on her phone and casually replied without sincerity: “Sorry, this is one of our popular items and isn’t sold separately. It requires a 2:1 bundled purchase.”

Bundled purchase?

An’ning completely didn’t understand what this meant, thinking she was just too outdated. Her face instantly turned bright red, and she became flustered.

But in the next second, she suddenly smelled a faint, familiar fruity fragrance.

Ji Mingshu had appeared beside her at some point, snatched the tester from her hand, and threw it directly at the counter assistant.

Her voice was cold and mocking, “Bundled purchase? Bundled with your ugly face? You think you’re Hermès with your bundled sales policy?”

Even this princess had never had to deal with Hermès’ bundled purchases.