The intimate sounds from the ceiling finally ended at three in the morning.

Gu Kaiyang had long entered dreamland, while Ji Mingshu lay on the other side of the bed, wrapped tightly in her small blanket, eyes closed, yet still unable to fall asleep.

At six o’clock, the alarm rang punctually.

Gu Kaiyang sat up in bed, yawned, then grabbed her phone to order breakfast delivery.

Today was the monthly magazine deadline day, requiring her to arrive early. No matter how sleep-deprived she was, she still needed to get up to wash and apply makeup.

After getting herself ready, Gu Kaiyang glanced upstairs and saw Ji Mingshu slowly sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard.

While wiping off excess lipstick, she asked, “Why are you up so early? Did my alarm disturb you?”

“No.”

Because she hadn’t slept at all.

Gu Kaiyang didn’t ask further, checked the time, and hurriedly instructed, “I ordered breakfast, there’s soy milk, fried dough sticks, and soup dumplings on the dining table. If they get cold, just heat them in the microwave for thirty seconds. I’ve left the door card on the table too. Remember to eat breakfast, okay? I’ve got to go to work now.”

“Mm, you go ahead.”

Ji Mingshu responded, hugging her knees and resting her chin on them, her heart beating rapidly from the sleepless night.

Hearing the door “bang” shut, she didn’t move, just quietly closed her eyes.

Two days had passed since the incident. Compared to her initial emotional turmoil, her heart had now returned to calmness.

Yet it was in this calmness that she felt an unprecedented confusion about her future life.

When she mistakenly thought Cen Sen was having an affair with Zhang Baoshu, she had already felt lost: if she got divorced, how would she live?

Later, when hesitating about whether to participate in the show, she had seriously considered Gu Kaiyang’s advice to develop a career. But having lived comfortably for over twenty years, it was difficult for her to plan far ahead while in a secure position, to live life like playing Go—thinking ten steps ahead for each move.

Although in her current situation, she was still joking with Gu Kaiyang, unwilling to face the reality that she couldn’t divorce and that she was truly helpless without Cen Sen, in the quiet of the night when she couldn’t sleep, she thought and reflected a lot.

Wondering if Cen Sen would apologize, compromise, and take her home.

Wondering if, now that she understood her feelings for Cen Sen, she could still be satisfied with maintaining their former plastic husband-and-wife lifestyle, resigned to never gaining his affection and respect;

And also wondering if the root of all this was because she wasn’t good enough.

From summer solstice to winter solstice, daylight hours grew shorter. The autumn’s end and winter’s beginning meant it stayed dark until seven-thirty in the morning.

Outside, the hustle and bustle of a new day began. Gu Kaiyang’s little Beetle had already joined the traffic flow. Ji Mingshu slowly turned to her side with her eyes closed, then curled up into a ball, falling into a drowsy sleep.

This sleep lasted until two in the afternoon. When Ji Mingshu woke up, the sun outside was already quite hot.

She went downstairs and checked her bank statement on her phone. Yesterday’s casual purchases of skincare products and household items had already consumed nearly 100,000 yuan.

She looked at the message from the “Designer Home” program producer. She hadn’t noticed before that the payment for her participation had already been processed.

The key issue was that she hadn’t cared about this small amount of money back then, and the card she’d filled in wasn’t brought with her, wasn’t linked to her phone, and she didn’t know where it was.

So now she only had the last 100,000 yuan from Jiang Chun.

She sat quietly for a while, then took the door card, changed her shoes, and went out.

The magazine where Gu Kaiyang worked wasn’t far from Star Harbor International. Ji Mingshu packed an afternoon tea from a nearby café and headed straight to “Zero Degrees.”

Today was the deadline day, and everyone at the magazine was very busy. People were rushing back and forth with their work, having no time to pay attention to her.

She spotted a familiar assistant and stopped her to ask, “Where’s your deputy editor-in-chief?”

The assistant knew Ji Mingshu was Gu Kaiyang’s close friend. She pushed her glasses up and said with difficulty, “Sister Gu… she’s now in the editor-in-chief’s office, probably getting lectured.”

She said the last part very softly, almost in a whisper.

Ji Mingshu: “Why is she being lectured?”

The assistant carefully said, “Yesterday, Sister Gu requested leave suddenly and didn’t hand over her work properly. There was an accidental issue, which made today’s deadline particularly troublesome. The entire layout had to be changed urgently, so…”

Ji Mingshu was stunned.

The assistant added, “Miss Ji, if you’re looking for Sister Gu, perhaps you should wait in her office?”

“No need,” Ji Mingshu suddenly handed the packed afternoon tea to the assistant. “You all eat this. Don’t say it’s from me, and don’t tell your deputy editor that I was here.”

“Huh?”

The assistant watched Ji Mingshu’s back as she turned and walked away, completely confused.

In the capital’s autumn and winter, daylight came late but darkness fell early. By six o’clock, the sunset was already gone.

On the way from the horse farm to the club, Zhou Jiaheng was reporting to Cen Sen about the progress of the follow-up work in Star City.

Cen Sen leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, pretending to doze, not responding.

After finishing his report, Zhou Jiaheng paused slightly, then changed the subject without any change in tone: “Today, Madam left at two-thirty in the afternoon, bought some snacks at a café. At three, she arrived at ‘Zero Degrees’ magazine and left at three-ten. She walked along Huainan Third Road to Lusende Supermarket at the intersection of Huainan Second Road and East Scenery Street, and bought a bag of groceries. At four-thirty, she returned to Star Harbor International and hasn’t come out since.”

Cen Sen still didn’t respond, only changing the position of his lowly folded arms.

The Bentley drove to the Yong Club. Today, Jiang Che returned to the capital to meet a professor from a chip research and development team, and had arranged to meet Cen Sen there.

Jiang Che was currently in the midst of a passionate romance, feeling proud and somewhat eager to give advice.

Seeing that Cen Sen, who rarely drank during private meetings, had ordered a bottle of whiskey, he suddenly said, “Have you noticed you have a problem?”

Cen Sen slightly raised his eyes.

Jiang Che’s arm stretched along the back of the sofa, his head slightly tilted, looking casual and informal.

The cigarette between his fingers revealed tiny crimson sparks, the smoke curling upward, making his voice sound hoarse and lazy, “You’re particularly bad at handling matters involving emotional factors. You don’t know how to face the An family, and you don’t know what to do with your wife.”

Cen Sen lowered his eyes again. Though he usually never touched cigarettes, today he lit one using Jiang Che’s fire, holding it low between his fingers, letting it flicker.

“Do you remember when you first arrived at South Bridge Hutong as a child? Ji Mingshu liked you, bringing small snacks every day to play with you.”

“Did she?”

He only remembered that Ji Mingshu had a severe princess syndrome and was extremely childish, seemingly having ganged up with a few children to isolate him.

“How could she not? At that time, Shu Yang used to laugh at her for giving you the cold shoulder daily, saying she had so quickly forgotten Cen Yang and sent him to the clouds, that she had no conscience.”

When Jiang Che mentioned Cen Yang, Cen Sen had a bit of recollection.

Because Shu Yang and Cen Yang shared a homophonic character in their names, they had always been close. Because of this, Shu Yang initially didn’t like him much. These childhood friends only played together later.

Jiang Che tapped off some ash, “Let me be objective, I quite admire Ji Mingshu’s personality—she’s rather pure, straightforward…”

Cen Sen glanced at him.

“I don’t mean anything else. I just want to say that when dealing with someone like your wife, you should be more direct. The fact that such a small matter with Li Wenyin could cause such an uproar, you should take a large part of the responsibility.”

Neither Shu Yang nor Zhao Yang understood Cen Sen as well as Jiang Che. When Cen Sen and Li Wenyin had their relationship, Jiang Che had witnessed the whole process.

If you were to suggest that Cen Sen would disregard the friendship between the Cen and Ji families for Li Wenyin, insisting on divorce and remarriage, he would be the first to disbelieve it. First, Cen Sen wasn’t the romantic type, and second, Li Wenyin didn’t have that kind of influence.

Thinking of something, he lazily teased, “Let me say something I probably shouldn’t. Do you know that your current behavior—running back whenever Ji Mingshu has a problem, drowning your sorrows in alcohol, even smoking when something happens—is exactly what I would do when Zhou You and I fight.”

Cen Sen paused briefly, put out the cigarette in the ashtray, and said faintly, “If you shouldn’t say it, then shut up.”

Jiang Che chuckled lightly.

Of course, they hadn’t met just to chat. Jiang Che wasn’t the type to meddle in others’ love lives like a busybody. After just a few sentences, the topic quickly returned to business matters regarding their cooperative project.

At nine in the evening, the starry night sky enveloped this extravagant city.

While Cen Sen and Jiang Che were conversing in a private room at Yong Club, Gu Kaiyang had finally finished her overtime work and returned to Star Harbor International.

She was worried that Ji Mingshu hadn’t eaten properly. When she got home, she saw Ji Mingshu with a bleeding finger, crouching in front of the coffee table, looking for the first aid kit.

“Ji Mingshu, what have you done? What happened to your hand?!” Gu Kaiyang was so anxious she didn’t even change her shoes before rushing forward, staring intently at the finger that was dripping blood. “Does it hurt?”

“What a silly question, of course it hurts!” Ji Mingshu wrinkled her face pitifully. Seeing Gu Kaiyang fully focused on helping her apply a bandage, she restrained herself and casually said, “But it’s not too bad, just a small cut. It won’t hurt after a while.”

Gu Kaiyang’s raised concern subsided slightly, and she continued to question, “How did this happen? What did you touch? Are you trying to scare me to death?”

“I was just thinking that you work so hard, so I wanted to cook a few dishes for you.”

“…?” Gu Kaiyang’s face showed complete confusion. “You? Cooking?”

She turned to look at the kitchen, and indeed, the pots and pans showed signs of use. “Then where’s the food?”

“You’re so annoying.”

Ji Mingshu pushed her hand away disdainfully, stood up by herself, and sat on the sofa, righteous but with a hint of guilt in her voice, “It’s just that I lack practical experience, I’m still exploring on the road of socialist construction, aren’t I?”

That no dishes were successfully prepared was within Gu Kaiyang’s expectations. What shocked her more was that Ji Mingshu, this pampered young lady who had never lifted a finger, suddenly thought about cooking.

Ji Mingshu wanted to turn the page on this black history, so she sat up straight and seriously told Gu Kaiyang, “Yangyang, I’ve thought seriously today, and I think you’re very right. I can’t keep relying on others to support me. Jiang Chun specifically got some inside information for me today, saying that for Li Wenyin’s movie, Junyi withdrew their investment two days ago.”

Gu Kaiyang couldn’t quite follow her train of thought. “Isn’t that good news? I told you there must be a misunderstanding between you and Cen Sen.. Wait, why are you suddenly thinking about not relying on others…?”

“Whether he handled Li Wenyin’s case professionally, making her go through normal procedures, or whether he simply didn’t know the content of the film, he didn’t consider my feelings at all initially, and didn’t respect me. That’s a fact.”

“He doesn’t respect me because he sees me as just a canary he keeps, not worth respecting. It’s all my fault. I want both money and respect, asking for too much. And my second uncle and the others, aren’t they just counting on the fact that I can’t survive without Cen Sen?”

Gu Kaiyang was shocked by Ji Mingshu’s serious face, hesitantly asking, “Are you trying to transform into Niohuru Shushu?”

“Be serious, I’m talking seriously. Isn’t everyone working hard to live? Although Cen Sen is somewhat difficult to describe, his work attitude is still commendable. I heard from his assistant that he once worked on an acquisition case, sleeping only three hours a day for half a month straight. And you, working so hard and diligently every day, even getting scolded by the editor-in-chief because of me, a burden, I should also…”

Gu Kaiyang: “Wait, how do you know I was scolded by the editor-in-chief?”

Ji Mingshu paused, quickly deflecting, “How can you be like this? It’s all your fault for interrupting my train of thought. I’ve completely forgotten what I was going to say.”

She looked at the time, “It’s almost ten o’clock, aren’t you going to bed? Gu Kaiyang, are you going to work tomorrow or not?”

Gu Kaiyang remembered the box of her favorite snacks that the assistant had brought in the afternoon, and suddenly understood something.

That night, both Ji Mingshu and Gu Kaiyang went to bed early. Ji Mingshu closed her eyes, thinking about what she had heard at the magazine office in the afternoon, remembering the street vendors she had encountered on her dazed walk back, and tightened her blanket.

In this world, everyone was working hard to live on their own. Why couldn’t she, Ji Mingshu, do the same?

She had to admit that when she received the message from Jiang Chun today, there was a small bit of secret joy in her heart. But if she went back like this, without any dignity, wouldn’t Cen Sen look down on her for the rest of his life?

She was so greedy. Now she not only wanted Cen Sen’s money, but also his respect, wanted him to like her, wanted his heart.

While Ji Mingshu and Gu Kaiyang had gone to bed early, the nightlife in the capital was just beginning.

Cen Sen was usually a restrained person. Apart from business engagements, he rarely participated in entertainment activities and didn’t go to nightclubs.

But today Jiang Che had come, and Shu Yang kept calling both of them, asking them to go to a pub, saying he wanted to buy them drinks to apologize. So the two of them decided to go.

This pub was the one where Ji Mingshu had stood up for Jiang Chun before. Promoted through Zhang’s second son’s birthday party, it had become a new favorite entertainment venue for party animals in the capital. Those who loved to play often ran into each other there.

When Cen Sen and Jiang Che arrived, the nightclub was at its most lively, with men and women swaying on the dance floor, as colored lights crisscrossed.

As the two walked along the row of booths, amid the music and noise, Cen Sen suddenly heard someone mention “Ji Mingshu.” He turned his head slightly, following the sound.

“Just a Yangzhou thin horse, I don’t know what she’s so arrogant about all day, and still wants to divorce her husband. I’m going to die laughing. If she gets divorced, I’ll write my name backwards!”

“Writing backwards is nothing special. I could even take her surname, hahahahaha.”

“No wonder she wants a divorce. Her husband is investing in his first love’s movie. Damn, I’ve never seen such a novel and elegant way of slapping someone in the face. Her husband is something.”

“I heard the movie they’re filming is to commemorate their romance? It would be a miracle if Ji Mingshu could tolerate that. Haven’t you seen how noble and cold she usually is?”

“But you know, Ji Mingshu is beautiful. If she gets divorced, that’s not bad. I’ll get her too, see what this princess…”

Before the man could finish his vulgar words, there was suddenly a flash of white light before his eyes, and he felt something warm slowly flowing down from his temple.

“Ahh—!”

The women in the booth screamed in shock, hurriedly standing up to avoid the shards of the broken bottle.