That “bang” echoed in her ears, with such intensity it seemed the sound would linger for days.

In her twenty-plus years, Ji Mingshu had never had a car door slammed on her. Suddenly experiencing it, her mind first went blank, then filled with a string of question marks. Had Cen Sen gone mad? How could he treat his lawfully wedded wife like this?? Was he even human???

She quickly stepped forward and slammed the door on the other side just as thunderously.

Ji Mingshu had always been skilled at organizing her thoughts. In the mere seconds it took to get into the car, she had already prepared a long series of soul-piercing questions.

But the moment she met Cen Sen’s gaze, a strange thought flashed through her mind: Wait, could he be… jealous?

With this thought, Ji Mingshu’s eyes flickered, feeling inexplicably guilty.

Gu Kaiyang: [If this isn’t jealousy, what is it—drinking oil?]

Jiang Chun: [The embodiment of jealousy, assessment complete.]

Jiang Chun: [But isn’t this the legendary ‘friend is me’? Princess, you don’t need to be so subtle about showing off your relationship in front of us, please be more direct!]

Gu Kaiyang: [Agreed, and besides us two, what other friends do you have?]

Ji Mingshu: [?]

Gu Kaiyang: [I misspoke. What I meant was, besides us two, what other wild chicken’s love story is worth your concern?]

Ji Mingshu: […]

I’m the wild chicken.

How humbling 🙂

After returning to the hotel that day, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen fell into a very subtle standoff.

They weren’t arguing, nor could it be called a cold war. They still ate together at the hotel and slept in the same bed. They even stood side by side at the sink, brushing their teeth in the morning.

—They just weren’t speaking to each other.

Cen Sen was habitually silent, while Ji Mingshu had more complicated things on her mind and couldn’t be bothered to break the ice with him.

After a day and a half of continuous overthinking, she finally turned her suspicion about Cen Sen’s jealousy into a poorly disguised story about a “friend” that she shared in the group chat with her sisters.

Although the rainbow-flattery squad members had now confirmed the “jealousy,” Ji Mingshu still couldn’t be certain.

Since Cen family matters weren’t suitable for public discussion, she had omitted the deeper relationship between Cen Sen and Cen Yang in her retelling. But it was precisely this deeper relationship that made her inner self lean toward believing that Cen Sen wasn’t jealous, but rather didn’t want to hear anyone mention Cen Yang at all.

As Ji Mingshu kept turning this over in her mind, the filming of “Design House” finally came to an end.

Over the past month and a half, Ji Mingshu had gone through six pairs of high heels and, despite starting from a small baseline, had lost a full four pounds.

On the last day of filming, Pei Xiyan gave gifts to his teammates and the staff.

The gifts were all proper items that wouldn’t cause any controversy. Feng Yan received a razor, Yan Yuexing got skincare products—all items he endorsed himself.

Ji Mingshu’s gift was a bit special: a box of vitamins, with every kind from A to D, along with a note telling her to take good care of her nutrition to prevent fainting at any moment.

Pei Xiyan was still a minor, and his public image consistently matched his cold-boy personality, so he clearly wouldn’t be this thoughtful and considerate.

Yet Ji Mingshu saw genuine care and protection in this box of vitamins prepared by his team. Touched, she posted three consecutive Moments lavishly praising Pei Xiyan, declaring that for his next movie, she would treat everyone on her friends list to a private screening—screenshot this as proof, everyone gets a share!

All at once, her three Moments were filled with people joining her in rainbow flattery and teasing her for her generosity.

Spending someone else’s money to chase after a young boy was indeed quite generous.

Cen Sen read the posts, closed his phone with an expressionless face.

With filming over, Ji Mingshu naturally had to return to the capital. However, Cen Sen hadn’t finished his business matters in Xingcheng and couldn’t leave with her. She didn’t mind, secretly planning to return first and deal with that little white lotus Li Wenyin.

Ji Mingshu had planned to stay in Xingcheng for two more days to take photos at a certain internet-famous art museum. However, Gu Kaiyang quietly passed along some insider information that Li Wenyin would be attending a luxury brand cocktail party tomorrow with an investor.

Upon receiving this news, Ji Mingshu left without saying goodbye and flew back to the capital ahead of schedule.

The moment the plane landed at Capital T2 Airport, Ji Mingshu looked at the slanting sunset outside the window and felt a surge of emotion like someone returning home after years of working away.

Wuwuwu!

The extravagant capital—this little canary had finally returned! This was the little canary’s most dazzling home turf!

Before even leaving the airport, she had already pinned down Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun for a spa date at Water Cloud.

Soaking in the ginseng private bath that she once couldn’t access, Jiang Chun listlessly stirred the water, “There’s nothing special about this ginseng bath.”

Ji Mingshu looked her up and down, poking her rounded shoulder, “What did you expect, that it would melt away three pounds in one soak? Not to criticize, but could you have a little self-awareness as a girl? Look at your shoulders, your collarbones. Oh, wait, you don’t have collarbones.”

“…” Jiang Chun didn’t know what she’d done wrong. “After not seeing you for over a month, couldn’t you be a little gentler?”

Ji Mingshu pressed her shoulder and smiled gently, “I’m sorry, I misspoke. You do have collarbones, they’re just… more subtle.”

Jiang Chun pushed her hand away, wearing a constipated expression that said, “Please shut up.”

Gu Kaiyang had been hanging out with Jiang Chun for over a month, and the two had secretly betrayed the princess, joining their weak forces together.

Seeing Jiang Chun being bullied, Gu Kaiyang patted her shoulder in comfort, “She only bullies her people. Let’s see if she dares to be this tough when she meets Li Wenyin tomorrow.”

Ji Mingshu kicked her, “What wouldn’t I dare? I’ve noticed you’re quite good at building others up while putting yourself down. What a premium fence-sitter, switching sides so quickly.”

While Ji Mingshu was busy dealing with the “weak” Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun, she didn’t notice the string of new messages coming in on her phone at the poolside.

These new messages were from the staff of the “Design House” program.

Ji Mingshu’s group had finished recording yesterday morning, and the professional production team was efficient, with the contract clearly stating terms that weren’t delayed by a single day.

Other groups recording simultaneously had also basically completed their renovation projects at the same time. The latest was Li Che’s group, which had some unexpected situations and had to reshoot a segment today.

Just as movies have wrap parties when filming is complete, the program team had organized a wrap party after the show’s recording finished—firstly to thank everyone for their hard work over many days, and secondly to wish the program success in advance.

But when the director mentioned this yesterday after recording, Ji Mingshu had gone to the restroom and hadn’t heard.

The director had asked a staff member familiar with Ji Mingshu to relay the message. The staff member had agreed, but once the busy post-production work began, they completely forgot about it.

Now, at the wrap party, the staff member finally remembered she hadn’t notified Ji Mingshu.

She panicked and hurriedly called and texted Ji Mingshu, but received no response.

Unfortunately, the producer cornered her and asked, “Are all the designers here?”

She gritted her teeth and nervously replied, “Y-yes, they’re all here, except Group C’s Ji Mingshu, Designer Ji. She had something urgent come up and couldn’t make it.”

The producer frowned, “What urgent matter?”

“I don’t know…”

The producer was about to scold her when someone ran over to announce that people from the sponsor had arrived. He couldn’t be bothered with this matter now and hurried outside to greet them.

The person from the sponsor’s side was quite extraordinary—reportedly the crown prince of the Jun Yi Group, truly a rare figure to meet.

This young master had come to attend only because he valued the development of the “Yaji” project under his jurisdiction and happened to be handling business in Xingcheng.

If they could make this VIP look favorably on their program, wouldn’t they secure a wealthy patron for the second and third seasons?

Thinking of this, the producer’s eyes curved into a smile, looking at Cen Sen as if he were a walking God of Wealth.

Cen Sen and Ji Mingshu hadn’t communicated for days. Their relationship, which had just begun to thaw slightly, had reverted overnight to how it was when they first returned to China. Moreover, Ji Mingshu had been acting strangely lately, occasionally staring at him, but without pursuing the car door incident or giving him angry looks or rolling her eyes—very unlike her personality.

As the producer led him into the main hall, Zhou Jiaheng came forward to help Cen Sen remove his coat.

Cen Sen raised his hand to adjust his shirt collar, seemingly casually glancing at the large round table.

Taking his seat in the place of honor, Cen Sen slightly raised his head and asked the producer, “Is everyone here?”

The producer quickly replied, “Yes, yes, everyone’s here except young Pei, who had to attend class and couldn’t come.”

“Oh, is that so?”

The producer paused, then added, “Oh, and Designer Ji hasn’t arrived either. She had some personal matters today and couldn’t make it at the last minute.”

Remembering that the sponsor had initially shown little regard for Ji Mingshu, he chuckled, “This Designer Ji… still a bit young, typical girl. Speaking of maturity and steadiness, Designer Wu and Designer Yang are truly remarkable. Their performance this time was exceptionally good.”

The two he praised happened to be the ones Jun Yi had identified and inserted into the show.

After his praise, he observed Cen Sen’s expression, which showed no particular change.

Not only the head producer but others in the program team knew that early on, the sponsor had explicitly refused to focus filming on Ji Mingshu. Now that Ji Mingshu wasn’t present, they all followed the head producer’s lead, making veiled criticisms of Ji Mingshu while praising the designers favored by Jun Yi.

Hearing this trend, Yan Yuexing suddenly laughed, “Designer Ji knows how to exhaust people. I spent over a month with her and I’m completely worn out. Maybe she just lacks experience. I envy Groups D and E…”

Before she could finish her pointed remarks, someone at the head table abruptly set down a wine glass with a heavy thud.

The entire room suddenly fell silent, everyone turning to look.