Cen Sen had been playing with a fortune stick tube with Ji Mingshu, but a wave of perfume unexpectedly surrounded them in an encircling attack, accompanied by soft, elegant voices offering various praises.
Standing beside Ji Mingshu, his temples began to throb. Faced with questions that occasionally required his input, he only nodded slightly, always maintaining a politely distant and safe distance from these ladies who were “friendly” with Ji Mingshu.
Yet Ji Mingshu habitually navigated among them with ease, making Cen Sen, who stood beside her, look like a silent mascot.
After about five minutes, Ji Mingshu finally noticed how out of place Cen Sen was. She sent him to get cake for her, thinking they would leave after chatting for another two minutes.
But as soon as Cen Sen left, someone amid the perfumed group timidly mentioned, “Xiaoshu, that Li Wenyin seems to be here today as well.”
The previously lively atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Li Wenyin?
She was persistent.
Someone quickly came to their senses and stood on Ji Mingshu’s side to help speak: “So what if she’s here? Hasn’t she recently hooked up with that sickly guy from the Yuan family and coaxed him into investing in her movie? Who knows what kind of garbage she’s filming and who she’s trying to irritate.”
“She’s just jealous of Mingshu, anyone can see that. It was like that back in school, and now she talks big about film art, but that small-minded pettiness in her bones really can’t be changed.” One of the girls was Ji Mingshu’s former classmate and knew a bit about Li Wenyin’s past antagonism toward Ji Mingshu.
Everyone chimed in agreement.
But Ji Mingshu suddenly lost interest in continuing the conversation with them.
She had a strange feeling of déjà vu from the Hong family reception. A similarly relaxed and casual theme, everyone similarly standing on her side helping her denounce Li Wenyin, but in the end, she had lost face so badly, so badly in front of Li Wenyin.
She looked in the direction Cen Sen had gone, hesitated for a moment, then silently followed him.
The group she left behind exchanged glances and tacitly followed from a distance.
Everyone had different thoughts—some wanted to see Li Wenyin make a fool of herself, some wanted to see Ji Mingshu embarrassed, and others were purely there for the drama.
As luck would have it, when Ji Mingshu followed, Cen Sen and Li Wenyin happened to come face to face.
Li Wenyin had just taken a glass of red wine from a waiter’s tray and turned to see Cen Sen walking toward the dessert area, somewhat surprised.
The next second, she caught sight of Ji Mingshu in her peripheral vision, as well as the group of bored rich daughters following several meters behind Ji Mingshu. The hand holding the wine glass involuntarily tightened.
It was hard for her to describe exactly what she was feeling at that moment. She knew Cen Sen was attending with Ji Mingshu, knew Cen Sen had already made things perfectly clear last time, but she just couldn’t accept it.
After so many years, Cen Sen had countless reasons not to continue their past relationship, and she could understand that. But how could he bind himself for life to a woman like Ji Mingshu, whose taste was so lowbrow and who mistook brainlessness for authenticity? He couldn’t possibly like Ji Mingshu, because Ji Mingshu simply wasn’t worthy.
This feeling was so strong that it drove her to want to do something, even if it meant using some very low tactics. As long as she could make Ji Mingshu understand that she and Cen Sen shouldn’t be forcibly bound together, it would be enough.
She called to a waiter, took another glass of wine from the tray, and then gracefully walked toward Cen Sen, slightly extending the wine glass forward. Her voice was, as always, gentle and proper: “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. I didn’t expect to meet you on such an occasion.”
Ji Mingshu stood five meters away, holding a small diamond-studded handbag, her nails turning white from the pressure of the diamonds, without any reaction.
Her mind was blank.
There was only one thought supporting her: Please don’t take it, even if it’s just out of politeness, could you please not be so polite this one time?
Because she never wanted to see the person she liked standing together with the person she hated most ever again in this lifetime.
She was the real Mrs. Cen, and she was confident when facing others, but she just couldn’t handle facing Li Wenyin. Cen Sen had never taken a stand in front of Li Wenyin, and it seemed like she would never be able to stand in front of Li Wenyin and righteously say, “Please stay away from my husband.”
It took Cen Sen only five seconds to respond, but to Ji Mingshu, those five seconds felt as long as watching an entire movie.
—She saw Cen Sen lower his eyes to look at the glass of red wine, then slowly raise his eyes to look at Li Wenyin.
His gaze probably lacked warmth because the next second, he acted as if she didn’t exist, took a piece of cake from the dessert table, and turned around directly.
And then their gazes met in mid-air.
The movement was brief and without detailed deconstruction, so when Ji Mingshu made eye contact with him, she could still see the indifference in his eyes.
Somehow, she suddenly found the courage to step forward, take the cake from his hand, and say a soft “thank you.”
Before Cen Sen could ask what she was thanking him for, she moved past him and took the glass of red wine from Li Wenyin’s hand, pouring it down without a moment’s hesitation.
The quality of the red wine provided at such an event was quite ordinary. Those who knew wine could tell just by looking at the color and smelling the aroma, but as the wine trickled to the ground, the sound was particularly loud.
Ji Mingshu didn’t bother with the flecks of stains splashed on her jumpsuit and finally said righteously the sentence that had circled in her mind countless times—
“Miss Li, please stay away from my husband in the future.”