Chapter 236: Chapter 236

Fu Jichen asked, "Why?"

Shen Jianian didn’t understand, what why?

Fu Jichen no longer hid his emotions, revealing everything on his face, his sadness and pain, his vulnerability and pitifulness, and his unknown humility, all exposed to her without reservation.

"Why did you forget me?" Fu Jichen couldn’t believe such a thing existed in the world, it was too ridiculous, "Shen Jianian, how could you forget me?"

Shen Jianian was frightened by his expression and dared not say anything further.

"Look at my face, slowly think, have you remembered anything?" Fu Jichen held her at the back of her head with his large hand, pulling her towards him, like a patient in dire straits, desperately trying anything, "Think carefully, we met in Yicheng, you were bullied, lying in the rain, grabbing my pant leg asking for help, I took you back to Rose Manor. Rose Manor, does it ring a bell? You lived there for a long time."

Shen Jianian shook her head, completely not understanding what he was talking about.

In her memory, she only went to Yicheng as a child to visit relatives, her uncle’s family lived in Yicheng. That Rose Manor, she never heard of it. She couldn’t even imagine being bullied, asking him for help.

"Mr. Fu, please let go of me first, cough cough..." Shen Jianian didn’t close contact with a strange man, "Calm down."

Fu Jichen couldn’t calm down, every nerve in his body was in pain.

There were two times in his smooth sailing life when he was at a loss, once when he found out she disappeared after a car accident, and the other was now, with her looking at him with unfamiliar eyes.

A long time passed, the expressions on Fu Jichen’s face all faded, turning into a still water-like calm.

Seeing him looking dejected and disappointed, seeming less dominant and easier to talk to, Shen Jianian decided to change her strategy, no longer opposing him, and said in a soft voice, "Mr. Fu, actually I’ve gone over what you said several times, maybe we indeed had some past interactions, even close relations, but you must have misunderstood, I don’t have that kind of feelings for you. I had a car accident, the doctor said I forgot some things, you see, since I don’t remember, why don’t you let go too, we can each move on peacefully, what do you think?"

Move on peacefully, let go of each other.

Those eight words echoed in Fu Jichen’s ears, his deep dark eyes staring at Shen Jianian’s lips opening and closing, asking, "You said you forgot some things, everything related to me, you forgot all of it?"

Shen Jianian didn’t know how to answer, honestly he’d surely get angry again, and she’d be the one to suffer in the end.

"There are other things, I don’t quite remember either." Shen Jianian expressed gently.

"You want to draw a line between us?"

Shen Jianian paused, carefully choosing her words, "There’s no point in entangling with someone who has completely forgotten you, right? Forcing me to stay here, other than increasing my resentment towards you, what other result can there be? You are the man in power at Jun Mountain, with a glorious future, what kind of woman can’t you have, why force one who doesn’t..."

Noticing Fu Jichen’s expression starting to turn awkward again, Shen Jianian wisely stopped, pursed her lips, thinking to herself, communicating with someone so unpredictable was too difficult, one had to constantly observe the other’s mood, and stop immediately if anything was amiss.

No one could understand Fu Jichen’s feelings at this moment but himself, he picked up the bowl from the bedside table, the porridge was not as hot now, he scooped a spoonful and fed it to her, "Eat something first."

Shen Jianian felt exhausted, having said so much only to return to the starting point, Fu Jichen hadn’t listened to a word, wasted her energy.

She was probably beyond hungry, didn’t feel dizzy, nor any other sensation, maybe just numb. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NovelHub(.)net

Shen Jianian refused to open her mouth, Fu Jichen withdrew his hand, ate the spoonful of porridge himself, put the spoon back in the bowl, hooked her by the nape, leaned close, his thin lips pressed against hers.

Shen Jianian was caught off guard, trembling with anger, almost without thinking, she raised her hand and slapped him.

The crisp sound echoed in the room, even the cat on the bed was startled, and jumped out of Shen Jianian’s arms.

Fu Jichen didn’t dodge, a few red finger marks gradually appeared on his fair face, with clear edges matching Shen Jianian’s fingers.

Shen Jianian’s palm went numb, her heart started pounding, realizing afterward, she had actually hit the CEO of Jun Mountain, maybe she was asking for trouble. A man like him, idolized from birth, wouldn’t allow his dignity to be trampled.

So what, should she just swallow her anger if she was kissed?

If he tried anything again, she’d hit him again.

After waiting for a long time, Shen Jianian didn’t get the miserable outcome she anticipated, instead heard the man beside the bed say calmly, "Either eat by yourself, or I’ll feed you like just now, choose one."

Seeing the porridge in front of her, Shen Jianian wisely chose the former, took the bowl, and ate spoonful by spoonful, before long, the bowl of porridge was empty.

Fu Jichen took the empty bowl, wiped the edge of her lips with his thumb, said nothing else, and got up to leave.

A few minutes later, Cheng Jin came in, cleaning the spilled wonton on the floor. She first roughly swept the debris with a broom, then mopped with a regular mop once, finally used a steam mop to completely remove the smell.

During the cleaning, Cheng Jin couldn’t help but secretly observe the woman on the bed, understanding why Mr. Fu had this woman wear Jianian’s clothes, there were no other women’s clothes in the house besides Jianian’s old ones, but she didn’t expect Mr. Fu would let this woman sleep in his bed.

Shen Jianian lay on the bed with a look of despair, noticing from the corner of her eye the housekeeper sneaking glances at her, she turned her head to look, and the other immediately lowered her head, pretending to sweep diligently.

"Auntie, can I borrow your phone for a moment, I’ll return it right after making a call." Shen Jianian sat up, trying her luck again, pleading, "My family doesn’t know I’m here, they must be worried, I just want to tell them I’m safe."

Cheng Jin straightened up, troubled, "Mr. Fu didn’t allow me to lend you the phone."

"Auntie, I beg you, I won’t call, just send a message, is that okay?"

She didn’t want to show weakness in front of Fu Jichen, holding onto her pride, but in front of others, she had no need to disguise, easily showing her vulnerable side.

Hearing the familiar voice, Cheng Jin was almost moved to tears, hard not to soften, "But... if Mr. Fu finds out, he will blame me."

Shen Jianian assured her, "I’ll send a text secretly, if you don’t say, I don’t say, he won’t know."

Cheng Jin reached for the phone in her pocket, she had gone back to her room to get it earlier, quickly took it out and handed it to Shen Jianian.

Shen Jianian didn’t betray her trust, she said she wouldn’t call and she didn’t, she wrote a message to Pei Che, telling him she was in Beicheng, in a villa area called Yunding Palace, asking him to think of a way to rescue her.

She originally wanted to remind Pei Che not to confront Fu Jichen head-on to avoid getting hurt, but the aunt was urging her, so she had to give up, handing the phone back.

She deleted that message record.

"Thank you." Shen Jianian said sincerely.

Cheng Jin said "You’re welcome," wanting to say her voice sounded like someone’s, but felt it was a bit offensive to mention such things upon first meeting, so she held back, carrying the mop out.

Once outside, she ran into Fu Jichen smoking in the hallway, the slap mark still on his face.

That morning, he first burned his hand, then got slapped, it was not hard to imagine who did this.

Having just disobeyed his order, seeing him inevitably made Cheng Jin feel guilty, she smiled at him, pretending nothing happened.

Passing by him, she heard him say blandly, "Don’t let it happen again."

Cheng Jin’s heart skipped a beat, she stopped walking, realizing Mr. Fu knew she secretly let that lady use the phone. She couldn’t come up with an excuse, her face looked unnatural, "My fault, it won’t happen next time." Hesitating, she voiced her thoughts, "That lady’s voice is like Jianian’s, I softened for a moment and agreed."

Really, she shouldn’t mention Jianian in front of Mr. Fu, he had a hard time forgetting the past, being with someone new, bringing up the old now was like rubbing salt in his wound, but she couldn’t help herself.

Fu Jichen flicked some ash, the light smoke drifted from his lips, his voice as ethereal as the smoke, "She is Jianian."

Cheng Jin was stunned, not knowing how to respond, how could that lady be Jianian, Mr. Fu must have missed her so much he mistook a woman whose voice resembled Jianian’s for her.

The phone rang, Fu Jichen didn’t explain to Cheng Jin, pulled it out from his pocket.

Song Fang sent him a string of numbers, found through his instructions, it was Pei Che’s contact information.

Fu Jichen stepped towards the study, dialed the number, once connected he cut to the chase, "Tell me everything about Jianian."

He could send people to investigate, in one night’s time, Qu Mo had already found a lot of information, given more time, he could find more.

But the information gathered through investigation was never as detailed and accurate as what Pei Che, someone close to her, understood.