Rose Manor: Tycoon's Relentless Chase-Chapter 343 - 324: Registration Appointment

When Shen Jianian walked out of the private room, her face looked terrible. Bai Changxia, worried, had been waiting for her in the corridor outside the room. Seeing her come out, she immediately stepped forward to hold her arm, her eyes darting back and forth across her face.

"Jianian, what did Fu Jichen’s aunt say to you?" Bai Changxia waited a while but didn’t hear a response from Shen Jianian. She guessed the other party hadn’t said anything good and tried to comfort her, "No matter what she said, it doesn’t matter. The one who truly makes the decision is Fu Jichen. As long as Fu Jichen treats you well, that’s all that matters. She’s just an aunt, has her own family, and doesn’t even live with you, so you don’t need to care about her opinion."

Shen Jianian shook her head dazedly. Fu Jianfang wasn’t speaking on her own behalf; she said the elderly at home had fallen ill because of her and Fu Jichen, and she had to step in.

The only one Fu Jianfang would refer to as "elderly" was her father, Fu Jichen’s grandfather, the eldest senior of the Fu Family.

But when Fu Jichen proposed to her on New Year’s Eve, he told her he had mentioned their relationship to the senior, who told him to make his own decision.

Shen Jianian didn’t know whom to believe.

In the private room, after Shen Jianian left, only Fu Jianfang remained. She elegantly and calmly finished a cup of fruit tea, put down the teacup, picked up the phone on the table, and made a call.

"Did you make Fu Jichen suspicious? He’s always cautious."

The person on the other end said something, and Fu Jianfang’s lips curved up, "Good, as long as not."

After hanging up, Fu Jianfang put the phone back on the table, lifted the glass teapot, and continued to pour herself another cup. If she handled this matter well, she would earn significant favor with the senior, and he should grant her requests. She wanted to secure the management rights to Dongke, a subsidiary under Junshan Group.

Dongke was currently one of the top three profitable companies under Junshan. She had worked hard for the Fu Family all these years and couldn’t let Fu Jichen reap all the benefits alone. She would fight for what belonged to her.

The second and third generations lacked ambition; she would never succumb.

Fu Jianfang sipped her fruit tea, recalling Shen Jianian’s expression when she left. Though Shen Jianian pretended not to care, it was merely a paper tiger, seemingly fierce but easily shattered.

For a simple woman like Shen Jianian, it was easy to see through her; her intentions were the most predictable. She valued a lifelong, single-partner relationship and could not tolerate impurities in love, like scheming or deceit.

Forcing her to leave was pointless; it would only be correct for her to let go on her own.

Wei Ronghua had been foolish all her life.

*

After parting with Bai Changxia, Shen Jianian didn’t go back to Yunding Palace but returned to her rented apartment.

Fu Jichen ended his social engagement at ten at night, returned to Yunding Palace only to find it empty, and realized Shen Jianian hadn’t come back there. Rubbing his brow, he asked Qu Mo to change course and take him to Shen Jianian’s residential area.

As the car drove along, Fu Jichen called her, but she didn’t answer. He wondered if she was asleep.

Close to eleven, Fu Jichen stepped out of the elevator, touched his pants pocket, and realized he forgot his keys, so he had to knock on the door.

Shen Jianian was sitting on the sofa in the living room, her phone next to her. It had rung twice before, but she hadn’t picked it up. She guessed Fu Jichen would come, so she waited for him there.

When she heard the knock, she almost instinctively knew it was Fu Jichen.

Shen Jianian took a deep breath, mentally prepared herself, and went to open the door. Standing outside, Fu Jichen wore a white shirt and a dark gray suit, his tie slightly loosened. He lowered his gaze, the shadow of his eyelashes obscuring his eyes, and a few strands of hair fell over his forehead, inexplicably alluring.

Shen Jianian’s gaze locked onto the white shirt under his suit. He had left in the morning wearing a black shirt, and the tie she had helped him knot, so she remembered it clearly.

He had changed his shirt.

Her gaze traveled down and found that he had also changed his trousers.

In the photos Fu Jianfang showed her, Fu Jichen was in the same outfit as in the morning...

"Not asleep yet?" Fu Jichen closed the door, took her hand, and felt her fingers were cold. "Is the air conditioning set too low? Why are your hands so cold?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

She couldn’t smell a strong scent of alcohol on him, and his demeanor and eyes seemed normal, which suggested he hadn’t been drinking heavily. She was at a loss for how to explain those two photos. The first photo could be accounted for, but she couldn’t find a reasonable explanation for the second one.

During the hours she sat idly in the living room, she contemplated many possibilities, among them, the most likely explanation closest to the truth was Fu Jichen drank too much at the dinner. Otherwise, she couldn’t convince herself.

In fact, even if Fu Jichen had been drunk and did something out of line, she still couldn’t convince herself.

She could never accept sharing a man with another woman. What Fu Jianfang described simply didn’t exist for her.

If, if Fu Jichen did indeed have some encounter with the Zhou Family’s daughter, she surely wouldn’t continue this relationship with him.

"What’s wrong?" Fu Jichen hooked a finger under her chin, slightly bent down to meet her gaze levelly. He looked into her eyes, sensing she was about to cry, which made his heart clench, "What happened?"

Shen Jianian wanted to ask him, but she didn’t know how to phrase the questions, her mind offered up several possibilities—

Where did you go to socialize tonight?

Who did you meet?

Why were you alone in a hotel suite with the Zhou family’s daughter?

What did you do?

Is the Zhou family’s daughter someone you’ve chosen as a suitable wife? What about me? What was the point of what you said to me last night?

No matter which question it was, Shen Jianian couldn’t voice them out, because it sounded too much like a dying grievance. What would Fu Jichen think of her? Perhaps he would think she was prying into his whereabouts, that she didn’t trust him, was being unreasonable, was having a melodramatic fit.

Yet Fu Jichen didn’t understand what was in her mind, still patiently waiting for her answer. In the end, Shen Jianian just shook her head as if nothing was wrong, holding back the bitterness in her eyes, "Nothing, I’m just too tired."

"From now on, if I’m too late at social events, don’t wait for me, just go to sleep." Fu Jichen brushed the strands of hair off her temples, carried her back to the room and placed her onto the bed, tucking her in with a gentle voice, "Sleep, I’ll go take a shower."

The lights in the bedroom were turned off, Fu Jichen went to the bathroom outside to shower, and the moment he turned on the shower head, Shen Jianian’s expression flashed in his mind from when he entered the door, unlike it was as if nothing happened.

Fu Jichen turned off the shower head and called Zheng Yi.

"Who did she meet today when she went out?"

Zheng Yi didn’t respond initially, ever since Fu Yuling died, the crisis was resolved, and more than half of the people secretly protecting Shen Jianian had been withdrawn, it had been a long time since the boss asked this.

"Miss Shen had a meal with Miss Bai at a Western restaurant, then wandered nearby for a bit before going home, didn’t encounter anyone special." Zheng Yi answered according to what he knew.

Shen Jianian was having a meal in the restaurant, it was impossible for him to enter and stand right next to her, so what happened inside the restaurant, he was not aware. However, the meal between Shen Jianian and Bai Changxia was short, so they likely didn’t encounter any unexpected situations.

But Fu Jichen didn’t let go of his suspicions, instead he further inquired, "Which restaurant?"

Zheng Yi stated the restaurant’s name and provided a detailed address.

It happened to be a Western restaurant under the Fu Family’s umbrella. Fu Jichen called Song Fang, asking him to check who the manager of that establishment was.

*

In the bedroom, Shen Jianian wasn’t sleepy, Fu Jichen finished his shower and came in, finding her lying on her side looking at her phone, the screen light reflecting on her face, "Didn’t you say you were tired, why aren’t you sleeping?"

Shen Jianian put down the phone, blinked her dry eyes, unable to find an excuse for a moment, mumbled, "Maybe I’m past tired, feeling sleepless instead."

Fu Jichen lifted the blanket to come in, a scent of the same cherry blossom shower gel she used lingered. Shen Jianian awkwardly diverted the topic, "Did you use the wrong shower gel?"

"I just grabbed one."

"Oh." During his shower, Shen Jianian had been planning a probing approach, yet when she uttered it, there was still some tension, "You... do the words you said last night still hold?"

Fu Jichen was used to lying under the same cover with her like this, talking while embracing with a kind of intimacy between couples, "Which words?"

Shen Jianian couldn’t resist pinching his waist, how could he go off script? She pursed her lips and gave him a two-word hint, "Marriage certificate."

Wasn’t this hint clear enough?

Shen Jianian felt that when she uttered those two words, the body pressed against hers stiffened for a moment, then Fu Jichen asked her, "Have you made up your mind?"

"You just need to tell me if it’s still valid."

Fu Jichen didn’t speak, picked up the phone from the bedside table, and tapped on the screen several times. Shen Jianian couldn’t see what he was doing on the phone, stretched her neck and asked, "Did you not hear what I said?"

Asked him whether it was still valid, and he didn’t respond either, just asked if she was sure or fiddled with the phone, what did he mean?

Fu Jichen finished filling in all the information with one hand, then tossed his phone to Shen Jianian, "Just press ’Submit’."

Only then did Shen Jianian see that the screen showed the "Marriage Registration Appointment" interface, Fu Jichen had booked a time slot for tomorrow morning from 9 to 10 o’clock.

With just one step, "Submit", the reservation would be successful. Since tomorrow wasn’t a day with special significance, the remaining slots showed there were still 5 places available.