As mealtime approached, Cen Sen had Zhou Jiaheng reserve a nearby restaurant.
Ji Mingshu didn’t want to go. Every time she ate out with Cen Sen, her appetite suffered terribly.
Because Cen Sen didn’t like to talk while eating, and though he appeared to eat slowly and methodically, his actual eating speed was quite fast.
After finishing, he would just sit across from her watching, occasionally glancing at his watch, like those exam proctors in school who would stand in front of you saying “just write whatever, hurry up and turn in your paper, five minutes left, three minutes left, last minute remaining”—who could bear that?
But having just caused a misunderstanding and accepted the bribe of a bracelet, she couldn’t reject her convenient husband’s face, so she had to pretend to agree happily.
Cen Sen still had some work to finish, and Ji Mingshu unusually showed understanding, “Go ahead and work, it’s fine, I can look around this floor by myself.”
Cen Sen: “Then let Zhou Jiaheng guide you. If you need anything, you can ask him.”
Ji Mingshu made an “OK” gesture, then looked past Cen Sen at the desk.
The divorce agreement that she had thrown at his head was lying quietly on the desktop.
She stepped to the desk first, casually pulled it out, and hid it behind her back, then quickly and lightly left the office.
Fortunately, when she had thrown it down, Cen Sen hadn’t even glanced at the paper. Even without studying law, she could tell how informal and pathetic this downloaded divorce agreement was. If Cen Sen had seen it, who knows how he would have mocked her?
Across from Cen Sen’s office was the executive assistant office, with two walls against the building and the other two designed with transparent curved glass, all workstations facing the president’s office.
As soon as Ji Mingshu came out, several assistants in the office immediately noticed her and synchronously stood up, nodding to her.
Ji Mingshu paused slightly, turned to Zhou Jiaheng, and asked, “Are all these Director Cen’s assistants?”
She counted silently—nine in total, plus Zhou Jiaheng, made ten. Did one person need so many assistants? Was he unable to take care of himself?
“Yes,” Zhou Jiaheng nodded.
He led Ji Mingshu inside and introduced them one by one: “These two are Director Cen’s translation assistants. Assistant Luo is proficient in four languages, and Assistant Wang graduated from the top interpretation academy. Assistant Li mainly handles Director Cen’s coordination with the group’s overseas departments, and Assistant Huang is currently responsible for Director Cen’s coordination with the group’s internal departments and Jingjiang Construction…”
“…”
“Such detailed division of work.”
Ji Mingshu had no work experience and didn’t particularly understand the specific functions he described. She was almost dizzy after listening, but pretended to understand and commented, “detailed,” then said: “Please continue with your work, don’t mind me. Everyone… thank you for your hard work.”
The assistants bowed in unison again.
Ji Mingshu almost thought they were going to shout in chorus, “At the service of the President,” and instinctively took half a step back.
Come to think of it, though she had frequently visited their hotels as the president’s wife, this was actually her first time setting foot in the headquarters.
By mealtime, she and Cen Sen were lovingly arm in arm as they left the group building under the watchful eyes of the employees.
Meanwhile, gossip spread throughout the company.
“The president’s wife is quite pretty.”
“Quite? I disagree with your quantifier!”
“My observant self has already noticed that when the president’s wife came down, she had a diamond bracelet on her hand that wasn’t there before, hehe.”
“What? Sister, you’re truly a werewolf.”
“Sister, you’re so meticulous, why don’t you come to our cleaning department to dust?”
“Marital harmony verification complete.”
While Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen, the plastic couple, had reconciled, Zhang Baoshu was in big trouble because of the exposure incident.
“Please believe me, this was just a misunderstanding. I don’t know why suddenly…”
Zhang Qi impatiently interrupted, “Cut the crap with your pretending. Don’t you know your weight? You dare to play me! I’m telling you, if you dare show your face in front of me again, I’ll finish you!”
“I…”
Before Zhang Baoshu could say anything more, Zhang Qi directly hung up the phone.
She held her phone, her lips pale, sitting on the sofa, trembling all over.
It was just a momentary lapse of judgment at first. She wanted to use her relationship with Zhang Qi to promote her image as a low-key, rich, beautiful woman whose boyfriend had a powerful background.
She thought that with so much news outside, plus their casual relationship, Zhang Qi wouldn’t trouble her over an ambiguous press release.
Unexpectedly, on the night they first met for business, a reporter happened to receive inside information about the club and went there to stake out news about another female celebrity who was supposed to meet someone. The reporter didn’t catch that celebrity at all but managed to take photos of her with Cen Sen.
She had a thought and simply asked the reporter to replace the photos in the press release with Cen Sen, without changing the text content or video.
This way, she could later have someone stir up hype, creating posts exposing that the person in the photos wasn’t Zhang Qi, but rather the young master of Jingjiang Construction with an even more powerful background.
She thought that even if Cen Sen came to cause trouble, she could pretend to be ignorant and distance herself, just saying it was the reporter who made a mistake and that she had that kind of relationship with Zhang Qi.
But unexpectedly, Cen Sen couldn’t be bothered to find her. He directly caused trouble for Zhang Qi by terminating the cooperation between the two companies, which directly led to Zhang Qi coming to make things unpleasant for her.
Her mind went blank, feeling both confused and panicked.
Around noon, there were few customers at the French restaurant near the CBD. Gentle musical notes floated in the air as waiters moved silently back and forth.
Today’s main course was French roast veal steak with sautéed mushrooms. After the waiter left, Ji Mingshu continued to repeat the question she had just asked, “So why did you smile at her?”
Earlier in the office, she had been distracted and forgotten the details. Now at the restaurant, while eating, she suddenly remembered the rare smile of Cen Sen in the photo.
It was strange—he had a cold face in front of his wife and didn’t even show a tender smile after finishing in bed, yet he smiled so happily in front of that third-rate woman.
Thinking about this, Ji Mingshu lost her appetite completely. After pondering, she still asked the question.