Half an hour later.

Cen Sen sent Ji Mingshu a WeChat message.

Cen Sen: [Mingshu, what’s wrong?]

He had originally typed “What’s wrong again,” but today, Shu Yang and Zhao Yang happened to share advice in the group chat: never use phrases like “what’s wrong again” with women, as it makes them feel that men have absolutely no patience.

Before sending, he recalled this advice and deliberately deleted the word “again.”

Ji Mingshu had been specifically waiting for him to ask, so naturally, she saw the message immediately.

She didn’t reply and deliberately set her phone to silent mode out of spite, placing it face down on the table.

Gu Kaiyang leaned against the other side of the sofa, giving her a sidelong glance, her face clearly expressing exasperation.

When Ji Mingshu had first returned, she had denounced Cen Sen in a torrent of words.

After hearing her out, Gu Kaiyang didn’t think it was a big deal and instinctively said a few words in Cen Sen’s defense.

Later, she gave up trying because no matter what she said, Ji Mingshu could always find a new accusation from some obscure angle to nail Cen Sen to the judgment stand.

Since Ji Mingshu was determined to find fault, even if her husband simply stepped through the doorway with his left foot first or breathed in one more breath of fresh air than her, it would be an unforgivable sin.

Thinking of this, Gu Kaiyang grabbed a cushion and covered her face, her whole body radiating thick despair of “who knows when this drama-queen couple will ever stop their theatrics.”

Ji Mingshu was extremely dissatisfied with her unsupportive attitude and poked the cushion on her face with a back scratcher.

“Gu Kaiyang, get up! What kind of attitude is this? Are you, like that dog of a man, thinking that I’m being unreasonable?!”

“How many years of friendship do we have? Tell me the truth, did you take money from that dog of a man to stand on his side?”

“Fine, you don’t need to say anything, I can see through it all. You don’t love me anymore, I’m not your little princess anymore. Indeed, women whose edges have been smoothed by work are so utilitarian!”

As she spoke, she poked rhythmically to accompany her accusations.

Gu Kaiyang felt she was being tortured to the point of neurasthenia and suddenly removed the cushion, asking a question from the depths of her soul: “I’m asking you, do you like Cen Sen? He didn’t cheat on you, and he withdrew the investment, right? And you’ve put on a perfect and successful show to prove you’re not useless. Now that he’s taken you back home, why aren’t you continuing to rightfully spend his money?”

“I’ve known you for so many years, and just recently you’ve suddenly become so principled. All of a sudden, your requirements for your husband have become so high… and it’s one thing to have high standards for your husband, but why are your standards for me also so high?!”

Ji Mingshu stared at her for three seconds, then suddenly shifted her gaze and said casually, “Yeah.”

“What?” Gu Kaiyang had asked too many questions at once and wasn’t sure which one she was answering.

“I do like Cen Sen. I just realized it recently and forgot to tell you.”

Ji Mingshu said it very straightforwardly, her tone just like saying she forgot to buy Coke and asking her to make do with the Sprite at home.

Gu Kaiyang was stunned for a moment. “Wait, are you serious?”

Ji Mingshu: “Why would I lie to you?”

After secretly acknowledging it to herself and having admitted it to Cen Yang, she seemed increasingly unabashed about mentioning her feelings for Cen Sen.

She even had a subtle feeling that if she admitted it a few more times, she might even dare to confess directly to Cen Sen.

“…”

Gu Kaiyang couldn’t speak for a while.

She seriously reviewed Ji Mingshu’s series of abnormal behaviors over the past few months, living at her home. Sure enough, if the precondition “Ji Mingshu likes Cen Sen” was added, many unreasonable things suddenly became reasonable.

She had been wondering all along why Ji Mingshu, who had been content to be a freeloader for so many years, suddenly awakened and awkwardly adopted the persona of a strong, independent woman after being provoked by Li Wenyin. So the root cause was that her pride couldn’t bear being looked down upon by someone she liked, and running away from home was just waiting for someone to pamper her.

At Mingshui Mansion.

After sending the message to Ji Mingshu, Cen Sen sat in the living room at home, handling company affairs.

But he couldn’t quite concentrate, occasionally rubbing his brow bone, glancing at his phone on the tea table.

After about half an hour, the phone finally showed activity, but it was Zhou Jiaheng calling to report on Cen Yang’s small maneuvers.

After listening, Cen Sen only responded with a flat “Mm,” showing no emotional fluctuation.

Actually, from the day Cen Yang returned to the country, he had received the news. This news had been told to him directly by Cen Yuanchao.

The Cen family, mindful of past relationships, had given Cen Yang many green lights during his years abroad. Cen Yang had lived up to their nurturing, steadily progressing toward becoming an industry elite.

It could be said that as long as he was willing to let go of the past, the future laid out before his feet would also be a golden path.

But stubbornly, he couldn’t let go of the past.

Cen Sen had no interest in any of his plans. He had been away from the Cen family for too long and seemed unaware of how far this seemingly affectionate but cold-blooded surname had now grown.

Even the once equally matched Huadian Ji family could only bow to Jingjan now. Everything Cen Yang was doing couldn’t even be called an egg hitting a stone.

Compared to appreciating his meaningless struggle, Cen Sen was more interested in making pork ribs at this moment.

After hanging up the phone, he walked to the island counter, rolled up his sleeves unhurriedly, and began preparing the small ribs.

After chattering aimlessly for an entire afternoon, Ji Mingshu finally stopped talking by evening.

Both she and Gu Kaiyang were hungry, their stomachs growling. They were holding their phones, discussing whether to order “braised chicken with rice” or “boneless sour cabbage fish” tonight, when the doorbell abruptly rang.

Ji Mingshu extended her little foot to kick Gu Kaiyang, who was accustomed to being ordered around, and got up quite automatically.

“Who is it?” Gu Kaiyang asked while looking through the peephole.

A very polite male voice sounded from outside the door, “Hello, is this Ms. Gu’s home? I’m from the food service department of Junyi Huazhang Hotel, here to deliver food for you and Ms. Ji.”

Hearing “Junyi Huazhang,” Gu Kaiyang opened the door without hesitation.

The delivery person outside bowed slightly and smiled as he handed the thermal food box forward, “Hello, inside there are two bento boxes prepared by our hotel, and there’s also a small box of braised pork ribs for Ms. Ji.”

Gu Kaiyang smiled back, “Alright, thank you.”

After sending him off, Gu Kaiyang carried the food box back to the living room at top speed.

She was about to ask what the deal was with the braised pork ribs specifically for Ms. Ji, when Ji Mingshu opened the food box, took out the small ribs, stared at them for a few seconds, and suddenly cursed softly, “Shameless!”

—When cursing, Ji Mingshu’s face involuntarily flushed red.

Gu Kaiyang was completely out of the loop, her mind full of question marks: She’s not cursing me, right? Wait, why is she blushing while cursing?

“Um, if you don’t want to eat it, maybe I could…”

“How wishful you are!” Ji Mingshu interrupted before Gu Kaiyang could finish.

Ji Mingshu clutched the small ribs vigilantly, placed a magazine horizontally on the tea table to forcibly draw a boundary line, using practical action to show that plastic sisters could only share hardships, not pork ribs.

Imperceptibly, the capital had entered deep winter.

The little goldfinch who had briefly returned to the cage and then flown out again had been free for half a month.

The last time she returned to the cage, she cleverly took her passport with her. With the year-end approaching, Gu Kaiyang was busy and had no time to accompany her. Bored out of her mind, she invited Jiang Chun to spend a week’s vacation on an island.

She updated her Moments daily with nine-grid layouts and short videos, her hot bikini photos pleasing to the eye. Each update received hundreds or thousands of likes and comments, making her Moments look like an internet celebrity’s Weibo.

In comparison, Jiang Chun posted more conservatively, because she often saw people complaining online: Some people in Moments go on a trip and post selfies and videos every day, flooding the feed, which is annoying to look at.

But after seeing Ji Mingshu’s wildly popular Moments, Jiang Chun finally realized: people weren’t annoyed by the flooding, but by the fact that the person flooding wasn’t enough of a natural beauty 🙂

On the other side, Cen Sen had been pondering why Ji Mingshu suddenly got angry and left home again after returning, but he never found the root cause. He wanted to find an opportunity to have a good talk with Ji Mingshu to thoroughly resolve the problem, but Ji Mingshu wasn’t cooperating, neither answering his calls nor replying to his messages. With his busy work schedule, he was also somewhat overwhelmed.

Junyi had hundreds of subsidiaries, plus companies he had personally invested in, and Cen Yuanchao’s gradually becoming an authority from Jingjan. His 24 hours were utilized precisely down to the minute and second. Project data and social engagements were flipping through his mind, and even Zhou Jiaheng, the know-it-all, couldn’t recall that he had deeply offended Ji Mingshu over the program sponsorship issue.

Although Ji Mingshu didn’t reply, Cen Sen still sent her messages every few days, all short and neutral greetings and updates.

Cen Sen: [Are you asleep?]

Cen Sen: [Have you eaten?]

Cen Sen: [On a business trip today.]

Cen Sen: [Back in the capital.]

Seeing the bikini videos and nine-grid layouts Ji Mingshu posted on Moments, he only had four words.

Cen Sen: [Revealing, post less.]

Ji Mingshu laughed in anger and finally replied to him with an expression-packed saying, “The Qing Dynasty fell over a hundred years ago.”

But for other messages, she still adopted the three major strategies of ignoring: “not answering, not replying, I didn’t see it.”

Ji Mingshu returned to the capital from her vacation in mid-January.

Teasers for “Design Home” had already begun airing on Xingcheng Satellite TV. Probably to stir up topics for a good start, the producer said their group’s filming would be arranged for broadcast in the first two episodes.

After all, Pei Xiyan’s popularity was exploding now, and the drama with Yan Yuexing’s team also had certain topical value.

But the closer it got to the program’s broadcast, the colder Ji Mingshu became toward Cen Sen.

Because she hadn’t seen her frontal shots in the preview! That pig’s trotter!!!

Gu Kaiyang’s magazine was holding a media appreciation salon at the year-end, with the theme “Stress Relief Day,” meaning that with a busy year coming to an end, why not relax during the holiday.

Ji Mingshu was asked to be a consultant for the interior design of this salon event. She didn’t follow up on the actual setup, only providing some opinions on color matching and spatial layout for their reference.

Naturally, Ji Mingshu received an invitation to the “Zero Degrees” salon, but she was unenthusiastic and didn’t want to attend. To be precise, she hadn’t planned to attend any social activities since leaving home.

First, the failed battle with Li Wenyin at the reception had left her with a lingering shadow, and second, she didn’t want to be asked about her marriage.

Her marriage to Cen Sen was quite a focus for people in their circle, but now no one could clearly say what their situation was.

It was true that recently Cen Sen had hit someone for her, and she had secretly shown off their late-night movie ticket stub. It was also undeniably true that earlier Cen Sen had planned to invest in his first love’s movie, causing Ji Mingshu to leave home and not return to this day.

Moreover, Li Wenyin’s movie was recently casting roles. She was quite capable; after Junyi announced the withdrawal of investment, she had obtained a large investment from a film company under Yuan and had even invited Huang Baili, who had won the Best Director award at the Berlin Film Festival, to be the executive producer for her little movie.

Ji Mingshu felt particularly depressed just thinking about appearing at events where everyone would smile at her face but point fingers at her behind her back. Better not to attend, out of sight, out of mind.

But Gu Kaiyang, the clever little thing, actually glimpsed an opportunity to send off the goddess from Ji Mingshu’s series of troubles and entanglements.

When Zhou Jiaheng took time out of his busy schedule to come to the magazine office to ask her to help pass on gifts, she didn’t even raise her eyelids and coldly said: “Assistant Zhou, I’m tired even if you’re not. Do you think passing on gifts like this makes sense? Go back and ask your boss if he’s sincere, if he still wants his wife or not.”

Zhou Jiaheng was also clever; after a slight pause, he put on a humbly receptive demeanor, said a basketful of nice words, and promised many benefits if things worked out.

Gu Kaiyang kept her head down, frantically signing documents, forcibly maintaining her cool, powerful woman persona, speaking very quickly.

“Don’t flatter me here, I don’t buy into that. Anyway, Xiaoshu has suffered for so long, don’t expect me to give you a nice face.”

“Your boss is wealthy and invests in shows without blinking an eye, but Xiaoshu worked hard for over a month, and he wants to cut her scenes with just one word and without explanation, do you think that’s appropriate?”

“Your boss’s messy love affairs are still flying all over the place, flying so much that our Xiaoshu doesn’t even dare to attend a salon event for fear of people pointing fingers behind her back, do you think that’s appropriate?”

“Your boss stabs people in the back with momentary verbal cruelty for momentary pleasure, without even an apology, do you think that’s appropriate?”

Zhou Jiaheng didn’t dare to breathe.

Gu Kaiyang didn’t even look up, directly throwing an invitation to the salon event at him, “Figure it out!”