Chapter 256: Chapter 256

When she woke up, the rain had already stopped. Shen Jianian found herself moved from the sofa to the bed and sat up with a start. Fu Jichen, who had originally been sleeping on the bed, was nowhere to be seen. She breathed a sigh of relief, relieved not to be sleeping with him. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novｅlfire.net

She patted her face, cursing herself for sleeping too deeply and not knowing that she had been carried away.

After waking up a bit, Shen Jianian slipped on her slippers and went to the bathroom to freshen up. While brushing her teeth, she looked at herself in the mirror, and her gaze fell on her lips.

A night had passed, but there seemed to still be a lingering sensation of sucking on her lips.

Shen Jianian closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to drive that memory out of her mind.

Damn Fu Jichen, does getting drunk mean he can break the promises he made himself?

Shen Jianian spat out the foam in her mouth angrily, splashed cold water on her face, and suddenly noticed the diamond ring on her left ring finger. She hadn’t looked at it carefully earlier, and now she realized it wasn’t the one she originally wore.

That one had been taken off by Fu Jichen and casually thrown away.

Shen Jianian pinched the ring with her right hand, trying to take it off, but when it reached her knuckle, it got stuck.

She was determined; if she could put it on, she was sure she could take it off.

Shen Jianian applied a pump of hand soap to her finger, lathered it up with rich foam, and used the lubrication effect to easily remove the ring.

She placed the ring in the glass used for rinsing, washed the foam off her hands, then took the ring out and placed it on the bedside table before leaving the bathroom.

Recalling in her mind the direction where Fu Jichen had thrown the ring last night, Shen Jianian bent down to search, not missing any corners, but she couldn’t find that ring.

"Jianian, are you awake?"

At this moment, Aunt Cheng’s voice came from outside the door.

Following the schedule Shen Jianian had in the past few days, Cheng Jin had prepared breakfast and, after waiting for quite some time without seeing Shen Jianian come downstairs, came up to check if she was still sleeping.

"I’m awake. Come in."

Shen Jianian knelt on the floor, her face almost touching the ground, looking into the crevice under the dressing table—it was all dark, and she couldn’t see anything clearly.

She took her phone from the bed, turned on the flashlight feature to shine light on the area.

Cheng Jin pushed open the door and immediately saw Shen Jianian sprawled on the floor. Startled, she walked over and asked her, "Jianian, what are you looking for?"

"My ring." Shen Jianian was embarrassed to admit that it had been thrown by Fu Jichen, "I accidentally dropped it."

Cheng Jin: "You go down to eat first, I’ll help you find it."

Shen Jianian got up from the floor, turned off the phone’s light, and supported her slightly sore waist with one hand. "Thank you." After a pause, she asked casually, "Is Fu Jichen in the dining room?"

"The gentleman just left not long ago." Cheng Jin said while searching, "I noticed that when he left, he didn’t look too well—his face was paler than usual, his eyes were bloodshot, and his lips were cracked. Did he drink last night?"

"Ah... yes." Shen Jianian turned her face away, responding vaguely.

Cheng Jin stood up straight, intending to search in a different place, glanced around, and spotted the diamond ring on the bedside table, pointing it out to Shen Jianian: "Isn’t that your ring? Did you take it off and forget to put it back on?"

Shen Jianian shook her head: "It’s not that ring. It’s the one I wore before."

Cheng Jin recalled that she had indeed worn a ring earlier, but she didn’t pay attention to what kind of style it was.

Shen Jianian went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. Across from her was a dining plate and a bowl, likely where Fu Jichen had just eaten, that Aunt Cheng hadn’t had time to clear.

There was quite a bit of food left on the plate and in the bowl, suggesting that Fu Jichen probably didn’t have much of an appetite.

Thinking of this, Shen Jianian immediately stopped herself, forcing herself to eat with peace of mind and not to think about irrelevant people, remembering him only gave her a headache.

The frustrating thing was, the more she tried to avoid thinking about him, the more her mind seemed to deliberately recall everything related to him, like her brain was working against her.

Last night, when Fu Jichen was drunk, for the things he did to her, she wondered if he even remembered...

Shen Jianian picked up a bun from the plate and took a big bite, just like how she had fiercely bitten Fu Jichen last night, with determination.

The breakfast was eaten absentmindedly, Shen Jianian picked up her own and the opposite dishes, and placed them in the kitchen sink. As she turned on the faucet, Cheng Jin’s somewhat urgent voice came from behind: "Don’t move, I’ll take care of it."

Shen Jianian turned her head: "Just two plates and two bowls, it’s no trouble at all, I’ll wash them."

Cheng Jin insisted that she not do it herself, pushing her shoulder aside, saying, "I searched your room for a long time and didn’t find the ring. Are you sure it fell in the room? I’ll take a closer look when I clean in the afternoon."

The room was quite large, and finding a small ring was indeed difficult. Shen Jianian didn’t trouble her: "No rush. It fell in the room, so it’ll turn up eventually."

Cheng Jin said: "The ring is a valuable item, better to find it sooner."

Shen Jianian nodded and made a sound of agreement, standing aside watching her wash the dishes.

Cheng Jin noticed she was bored at home, sighed, and smiled, "I don’t know much, you young people probably won’t find much in common with me to talk about. If you’re bored, you can practice playing the cello. I remember you used to play it often at home; I could hear it while cleaning downstairs, and it always brightened my mood."

"Is there a cello in the villa?" Shen Jianian hadn’t seen it.

"Why not?" Cheng Jin gestured upwards, "It’s in the room where you used to stay, two cellos. No one has touched them since you left. Sir instructed to keep everything in the room exactly as it was."

"The room I used to stay in?"

Cheng Jin realized that Jianian had amnesia and didn’t remember which room she used to stay in: "It’s right next to the bedroom you’re staying in now."

Shen Jianian muttered a silent "No wonder."

A few days ago, she had wandered through every nook and cranny of this villa out of boredom, and hadn’t found any cellos, it turned out to be in the next room. That room is now where Fu Jichen stays, and she hadn’t been inside.

Cheng Jin’s words piqued Shen Jianian’s curiosity, so she sneaked up to the third floor and pushed open the door to the next room.

Compared to the bedroom she stayed in, this place indeed seemed more like it belonged to a woman. The dressing table was filled with bottles and jars, an array of skincare and makeup products. She casually picked up a bottle and checked the expiration date, to her surprise, it was expired. Why was it still here? Weren’t they afraid of ruining their face by using it?

Immediately, Aunt Cheng’s words echoed in her ears: Sir instructed to keep everything in the room exactly as it was.

So these things have been here for three years?

She picked up a few more bottles to look at; the ones in the back were generally expired, while the ones in the front were newly purchased. She pulled open the drawer below, where jewelry and hairpins were arranged by category. The styles were quite vintage and elegant, with a silver cloud-patterned one inlaid with a jade carved into a peace lock in the middle.

Shen Jianian picked up the hairpin, and a memory fragment suddenly flashed in her mind of a man in a black suit standing by her side, gently and carefully putting pearl earrings on her.

Her heart began to race, and Shen Jianian bent over to search in the jewelry box, and indeed found a pair of pearl earrings.

She bent at the waist, one hand supporting on the dressing table, calming her chaotic heartbeat.

Previously, some inexplicable images would always appear in her mind unexpectedly, for this she had consulted a doctor, and Doctor Zhang from neurology told her that those fragments were parts of her lost memory.

In those fragmented scenes, she could never clearly see the man’s face, nor could she imagine his appearance. Even now, she still couldn’t see it clearly, but she knew who that person was.

All the evidence was laid in front of her, revealing to her that the person was Fu Jichen, not Pei Che as she had thought.

She realized, once the people in those vague fragments had a concrete face, the feeling was different. It was no longer groping blindly in a thick fog, but rather having someone gently holding her hand and walking slowly.

Why was it Fu Jichen?

Shen Jianian rubbed her forehead, closed the drawer, as if shutting off the valve to her wild thoughts.

She found the two cellos Cheng Jin mentioned, opened one case but couldn’t stay calm; it was the cello she used before, bearing deep significance for her.

When Pei Che told her that the Shen Family went bankrupt, she thought this cello, along with other valuables, had been auctioned. Unexpectedly, it was here.

Shen Jianian stroked the strings back and forth, the joy of regaining what was lost filled her heart.

She opened another cello case, and was stunned; this was... if she wasn’t mistaken, this was Yan Qiusheng’s old cello.

How could such a collection-level cello be here?

Shen Jianian immediately thought of the fact that she was Yan Qiusheng’s student, and couldn’t help but wonder, could it have been a gift from Yan Qiusheng?

At eleven in the morning, Fu Yuling stepped into the Junshan Group Building carrying two kraft paper bags.

Before leaving, she changed from the dress she wore in the morning to a more plain white long dress, with a French-style square neckline adorned with lace embroidery, tied with a belt at the waist, outlining a slender physique. Her black hair was braided to the side, with the ends secured by a pale beige hair tie.

The makeup on her face needed no mention, as she had invited a professional makeup artist to her home, specially requesting a "barely-there makeup look". She even found a photo from a past investigation of Shen Jianian she had saved, subtly suggesting to the makeup artist that it should resemble her as closely as possible.

Isn’t imitation makeup quite popular online? Some amateurs look almost like celebrities after makeup.

Skilled makeup artists indeed have that capability.

After the makeup was done, Fu Yuling looked in the mirror and could even see traces of Shen Jianian in that face, not to mention Fu Jichen who had long yearned for Shen Jianian.

Fu Yuling composed herself, didn’t recklessly head upstairs, and asked the reception first: "Is Mr. Chen in the office today?"

The receptionist looked up, failed to recognize her at first glance, and was stunned for a full five seconds before hastily standing up, "Miss, you’re here, Mr. Chen is in."

"Thank you, I’ll go find him."

Fu Yuling, unlike her previous conceited self, gently smiled at the receptionist.