With that “baby” from Cen Sen, Ji Mingshu was finally satisfied. Like she had drunk honey, she nestled obediently in Cen Sen’s arms without causing any more trouble, though the corners of her upturned lips refused to flatten.

That night, Star City experienced no aftershocks, and the two slept soundly.

Early the next morning, Cen Sen held a three-way video conference with headquarters and Star City hotel managers to learn about measures taken by each hotel in response to the earthquake.

All hotels under Junyi’s brand followed high-end standards, with earthquake resistance specifications set very high during initial construction.

The hotel had also been prepared, arranging quarterly training drills for fire, earthquake, and other emergencies, leaving the staff well-trained.

After the earthquake the previous night, the hotel had promptly and orderly conducted wall inspections and guest evacuation and comfort measures.

Learning this information reassured the headquarters executives, and Cen Sen decided not to stay longer in Star City.

Those in the capital had been extremely worried, continuously urging them to return quickly. He adjusted his work schedule and took Ji Mingshu back to the capital that afternoon.

On the return journey, Ji Mingshu kept sending safety updates to WeChat friends who had messaged with concern the day before.

Seeing her not looking up for over half an hour, Cen Sen glanced over.

By coincidence, his glance caught a familiar contact name: Li Che.

Li Che: [Mingshu, are you okay? I saw from your moments that you were in Star City?]

Ji Mingshu: [I’m fine, thanks for your concern. /cute]

Cen Sen: “Are you close with Li Che?”

Ji Mingshu didn’t look up. “Not really.”

Cen Sen pondered briefly, “If you’re not close, you shouldn’t send that emoji. The first emoji would be more appropriate.”

“The first one? The smile?” Ji Mingshu looked up, asking with slight surprise, “Don’t you know what the smile emoji means?”

Cen Sen’s gaze remained calm, as if saying, “A smile just means a smile, what else could it mean?”

Ji Mingshu paused slightly, “You probably don’t use WeChat for work, right?”

“No need. I only chat with you on WeChat.”

“That’s good.” She felt relieved and lowered her head to continue replying.

Cen Sen adjusted his tie and glanced at her phone screen while looking at his tablet.

In just this short time, she and Li Che had exchanged three or four more messages.

He instinctively said in a deep voice, “Mingshu, you’re married now. You should keep your distance from these male celebrities and the like. Don’t give people room for imagination or create unnecessary misunderstandings.”

“…?”

How could this create any room for imagination or misunderstandings? Someone seeing earthquake news and showing concern was just normal human behavior.

Suddenly, she thought of something and leaned closer with interest, “Are you jealous?”

Cen Sen: “I’m just kindly reminding you to avoid getting too close to male celebrities, preventing another situation where you trend on social media and face cyberbullying.”

“I see…”

Ji Mingshu deliberately dragged out the last syllable and nodded slowly.

Just then, Li Che sent a new WeChat message.

Ji Mingshu quickly covered her phone against her abdomen, then deliberately turned to the side, preventing Cen Sen from catching a glimpse.

Cen Sen: “…”

Whatever message came through, Ji Mingshu kept typing on her phone, smiling all the while.

Cen Sen stared at her for a moment, then couldn’t resist and expressionlessly took the phone from her hand.

Li Che’s message was: [That reassures me. You can rest well after getting home.]

Ji Mingshu hadn’t replied yet, with the message still in the input box: [You! Are! Jealous!]

Cen Sen: “…”

Ji Mingshu tilted her head proudly and gave him a victory “yeah” sign.

He calmly lowered his gaze, deleted the message in the input box, and typed a new one—

[Thank you for your concern about my wife. I will take good care of her.]

Send.

Ji Mingshu never expected him to pull such a move and hurriedly grabbed the phone to recall the message. “Are you crazy? He’ll think we’re both mentally ill!”

She recalled it a bit late because Li Che had been waiting for her reply. Seeing this sudden message, Li Che felt inexplicably guilty.

He had been somewhat interested in Ji Mingshu before, but after learning she was married and that her husband was not someone to be trifled with, he had abandoned any pursuit. Instead, he hoped to befriend Ji Mingshu as a way to establish some connection with Cen Sen. But he seemed to have tried too hard and ended up being counterproductive.

He rubbed his forehead and began thinking of remedial measures.

Whether Li Che made amends or not, neither Ji Mingshu nor Cen Sen cared much. After sending that message, they launched into an in-depth study on the topic of maintaining distance from the opposite sex.

This study continued for a long time after they returned to the capital.

Ji Mingshu gradually discovered that Cen Sen’s possessiveness was quite extreme. Though he claimed not to prevent her from contacting men, only requiring her to maintain a safe distance, in reality, he wished she would delete all male contacts from her WeChat.

Moreover, he applied a double standard—he had several female assistants, but in his case, they were simply “pure work relationships.”

Ji Mingshu was very dissatisfied but couldn’t out-argue him. She had no choice but to seek advice from Gu Kaiyang, occasionally using theories like “women should have their own private space,” “even in marriage, one should maintain their social circles,” and “gender equality means no double standards” to argue reasonably with Cen Sen.

Cen Sen neither agreed nor disagreed with these arguments.

Besides this ongoing debate, after returning to the capital, Ji Mingshu’s main work focused on the guestroom design proposal for Junyi Elegance.

To create a satisfactory design plan, she barely left home for half a month, cooped up at home every day.

She also had a strong sense of fair competition. Though somewhat tempted to see other designers’ guestroom proposals for Junyi Elegance, she felt it would be like cheating if she looked at them in advance.

After much internal struggle, she still didn’t ask Cen Sen for this favor; instead silently collected and studied these designers’ publicly available design works.

The more she studied, the more she realized that there were truly many talented people with fresh ideas in this world, and she, Ji Mingshu, wasn’t so unique or irreplaceable.

However, while learning how outstanding her competitors were, she also developed an unprecedented interest and enthusiasm for this hotel design project.

Jiang Chun had never seen Ji Mingshu working seriously, always assuming that Ji Mingshu’s designs merely involved sketching on paper, then directing others to decorate according to her ideas.

So when Ji Mingshu refused to go out for half a month, she constantly suspected Ji Mingshu was secretly doing something big behind her back.

Most suspicious was that Gu Kaiyang also refused to go out lately. She worked frantically during the day and made various excuses when invited out at night.

Jiang Chun’s imagination ran wild, making her increasingly sad.

Half a month later, she solemnly posted a notice in the group chat announcing that “Little Mud Goose” would be leaving the group. Though the notice accidentally contained several typos, it could be described as sincere.

She concluded with “if you don’t want to play with me anymore, just say so, I’ll leave the group voluntarily,” followed by a heartbroken emoji, then quietly left the group chat.

Ji Mingshu had just finished her work when she saw this scene, finding it both puzzling and amusing. She directly pulled Jiang Chun back into the group.

Ji Mingshu: […]

Ji Mingshu: [Acting in a tragedy?]

Jiang Chun: [None of you talk to me, TvT!]

Ji Mingshu couldn’t be bothered arguing and directly sent an unrendered concept model video to the group.

Ji Mingshu: [It took me half a month to barely get this far, who has time for you.]

Jiang Chun opened it and was instantly impressed by the high-end video.

Jiang Chun: [You made all this?]

Ji Mingshu: [Who else, you?]

Jiang Chun was speechless, only able to express her shock with screens full of exclamation marks and ellipses.

Just then, Gu Kaiyang suddenly appeared to explain.

Gu Kaiyang: [I’ve been recording a show recently, and signed a confidentiality agreement.]

Jiang Chun: […]

Jiang Chun: [What show are you, an editor, recording?]

Jiang Chun: [Wouldn’t it be better to spend that time dating?]

Gu Kaiyang: […]

Gu Kaiyang: [It’s a dating show.]

Gu Kaiyang said it casually, but Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun simultaneously sent rows of question marks in shock: Our Gugu is dating!!!

Jiang Chun: [When did you go?]

Ji Mingshu: [What’s the show called?]

Jiang Chun: [How exactly are you dating?]

Ji Mingshu: [Real dating or fake dating?]

The two coordinated perfectly, concentrating their firepower on the key contradictions.

Gu Kaiyang: […]

Gu Kaiyang: [Can’t explain it in a few words.]

Ji Mingshu: [Then use more words!]

Jiang Chun: [Right! You have a mouth, are you afraid you can’t explain? Is it that you can’t explain or don’t want to explain? Gu Kaiyang, this goose solemnly warns you that you’ve already developed ideological problems!]

Bombarded by the two, Gu Kaiyang couldn’t withstand the pressure and honestly reported the situation to the “organization.”

After the New Year, she had participated in a dating reality show for ordinary people, produced by a video website that collaborated with their magazine.

It happened at a dinner party where a video website executive praised her for achieving the position of deputy editor-in-chief at such a young age. Their editor-in-chief, May, with her big mouth, added, “Little Gu is young, beautiful, and capable, so focused on work that she hasn’t even found a boyfriend.”

Hearing this, the executive’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he insisted on introducing her to this show. He went on about how high their standards were for participants, how excellent she was, and how perfect she would be for the show. Finally, due to business cooperation, she had to reluctantly agree.

Various TV stations and video platforms had been producing similar shows, and Gu Kaiyang understood them somewhat.

Even if not for real dating, at least participating would let her meet some elites. Besides, May had approved, so it wouldn’t interfere too much with work. There were no downsides for her, so she went.

Recently, she worked normally during the day and only returned to the villa at night to live with other participants. After getting used to it, it was quite nice.

Jiang Chun asked the most critical question: [Have you found anyone you like?]

Gu Kaiyang: [No.]

Gu Kaiyang: [But today, an old acquaintance moved in as Male Number Four.]

Jiang Chun: [Who?]

Gu Kaiyang: [Zhou Jiaheng.]

Ji Mingshu: [????]

When Cen Sen returned home that evening, Ji Mingshu bombarded him with questions like a hundred thousand whys.

“Zhou Jiaheng went on a dating show? He seems quite free.”

“Could this be something you specially arranged? Did you know Gu Kaiyang was participating in that show?”

Cen Sen answered irrelevantly: “Gu Kaiyang? She should indeed be more concerned about her relationship issues, rather than being single herself while constantly feeding strange theories she’s never practiced to married people, disrupting the harmony of others’ marriages.”