Rose Manor: Tycoon's Relentless Chase
Chapter 36 - 33: Don’t Mention Him

Chapter 36: Chapter 33: Don’t Mention Him

Just like that night, Shen Jianian was wrapped in a strong masculine aura, as if she were trapped in a fog she couldn’t escape.

Is this what’s meant by being disoriented and lovestruck?

But she didn’t even like Fu Jichen at all, in fact, she detested him, so where did the affection come from?

An unwilling affair ended, Shen Jianian hid under the blanket, overwhelmed by a huge sense of shame, she almost wanted to dig a hole in the ground to hide herself.

The phone alarm rang, it was from Fu Jichen’s phone, reminding him to get up, freshen up, and head to the airport.

He reached for the phone on the bedside table, turned off the noisy alarm, and lay flat on the bed, breathing slightly uneven. With a long arm stretch, he pulled her and the quilt into his arms: "Want to go abroad to relax? I’ll have someone book a ticket for you."

The timing should work.

However, the person under the blanket replied, "Beast."

A complete insult, hearing it, Fu Jichen wasn’t angry and could still laugh.

Shen Jianian, young and inexperienced, her face turned red immediately at such words, a surge of anger welled up in her chest, wanting to vent it out at him, wanting to curse. But she’d never cursed anyone before, only having some mild words rolling in her mind.

In this regard, she was utterly no match for Fu Jichen, neither as thick-skinned as him nor as sharp-tongued, in the end, she suffered a loss and simply kept quiet.

A phone call came through, and Fu Jichen had to get up. While taking the call, he picked up the woman’s nightgown that had fallen at the bedside, and casually threw it onto the sofa.

After the call, Fu Jichen pulled back the quilt, saw Shen Jianian’s flushed face, and suddenly chuckled, "Did that Ah Che from your mouth ever give you such an experience?"

In this situation, mentioning that person was no different from stabbing a knife into Shen Jianian’s chest, she glared at him, hair a mess: "Don’t mention him!"

The warmth in Fu Jichen’s eyes vanished instantly, he looked at her coldly. With such intense reaction, he indeed became a bit curious about who this "Ah Che" was.

*

Fu Jichen left, and it rained in Yicheng, with temperatures dropping to just a few degrees.

After breakfast at Rose Manor, Shen Jianian went upstairs to change into a suit, wrapped herself in a long trench coat, and walked a long way under an umbrella before catching a taxi, telling the driver to head to East Ke Office Building.

The rainwater meandered down the car window, Shen Jianian looked out, her vision was a blur, resembling that night when she and Yin Shuyao sat in the car heading to Yunshui Hotel.

That night, without Fu Jichen’s help, she wondered what kind of predicament she would have fallen into. Someone as perverted as Qin Zhongtian, there was no good outcome in his hands.

At least Fu Jichen was a decent person, in every aspect, he had never tormented her.

So her feelings for Fu Jichen were somewhat contradictory, gratitude was real, resentment was also real.

Shen Jianian had seriously considered it, and since she was currently under the title of "CEO Assistant", there was no harm in learning some skills at the company, which might be useful in the future, better than being an ignorant, caged bird.

The rain wasn’t heavy, and Shen Jianian made it to the company before clocking in.

After two days, she appeared in the secretary’s office once more, and her colleagues looked at her with the same curiosity as the first day they saw her.

No one knew where Shen Jianian had been these two days, or why she hadn’t come to the company. However, one thing particularly worth noting was Zhu Yilan’s attitude towards Shen Jianian. By rights, having disappeared without leave, based on Zhu Yilan’s consistent fair and stern handling, she should have given her a few words of reprimand and imposed relevant penalties as a warning. But in reality, she hadn’t said a word of blame.

Instead, Shen Jianian proactively knocked on the door of Zhu Yilan’s office.

From this, everyone had a further understanding of Shen Jianian’s identity, reaching a unanimous conclusion: in the future, she must not be provoked; not only that, she must be pampered.

To know, Zhu Yilan, as an important figure beside the boss, with the boss absent, she held authority. Even department managers were polite to her. Even Zhu Yilan didn’t dare to easily offend Shen Jianian, and they wouldn’t dare to either, even with all their combined courage.

There was a knock on the door outside, Zhu Yilan casually said "Come in", raising her head from behind the computer screen.

Seeing Shen Jianian, Zhu Yilan couldn’t help but think of the awkward situation she was caught in by her last night. A trace of unnaturalness flashed across her face, she got up and took her cup to the water dispenser, turning her back to Shen Jianian: "What do you want?"

Shen Jianian wasn’t sure what attitude to have towards her initially, but then she thought, why bother considering so much, she was already living precariously, the more she considered, the more tired her body and mind became.

She needed to preserve her energy to reclaim everything that belonged to her, the rest was all transient.

"I’m very sorry, I wasn’t feeling well these past two days and didn’t come to the company." Shen Jianian took a deep breath, speaking calmly, "I came to ask if there’s anything I can do."

Zhu Yilan was slightly stupefied, holding the cup filled with hot water, straightened up and glanced at her, she wasn’t even curious about what happened last night. After all, her demeanor when she left was rather embarrassing.

"Secretary Zhu?" Seeing Zhu Yilan in a daze, Shen Jianian spoke hesitantly, "Feel free to assign any tasks to me, anything I don’t know I can learn."

"Oh." Zhu Yilan returned to her senses a bit, put down the cup, and picked up several file folders with various colored labels from the desk, "I’ve extracted the important information once, you go over it again, see if there’s anything missing, organize everything into a document and print it out, submit it here before the end of work. Can you manage that?"

She spoke in detail, and her attitude wasn’t as unapproachable as before, Shen Jianian nodded and said, "I can."

She held the files in one hand, pushed the door open with the other, went to her workstation, tied her hair with a hairband, and flipped through the files reading them carefully from start to finish.

Zhu Yilan sat down, took a sip of water, the black screen of the computer reflected her face, and her complex expression was fully revealed.

After what happened last night, she woke up from her long-cherished fantasies, completely lost hope, confirming that there was not the slightest possibility between herself and that person, and no matter how much time passed, it would be the same. He never really regarded her, let alone in his heart. If she played the fool once again, she knew what kind of outcome she’d face. She dared not and would not cross the line again.

As for how Shen Jianian and he would turn out in the future, it had nothing to do with her.

*

After a rain, winter really arrived.

This was Shen Jianian’s first winter in Yicheng, different from the dry Beicheng, Yicheng, located in the Central Plains area, was more leaning towards the south. The wind blew with dampness, piercing straight into the bones.

Fortunately, she commuted between Rose Manor and the company every day, not having much time lingering outside.

Lately, with Fu Jichen not around, Shen Jianian felt incredibly relaxed and free. After work, she often played with the stray cats and dogs in the manor, and there were moments when she forgot the heavy burdens on her shoulders.

Such happy days hadn’t lasted long before Shen Jianian received a call from Fu Jichen.

"Be at the airport at five in the afternoon, come over to pick me up."

Fu Jichen casually dropped a sentence and hung up.

Holding the phone, Shen Jianian’s expression became rather indescribable. When Fu Jichen left, he said his return was indefinite, she thought it would be at least half a month.

Had he been gone for a week?

Before leaving work, Shen Jianian went to Zhu Yilan’s office to inform her: "I’m going to the airport to pick up Mr. Chen, have to leave early, I’ve finished the remaining work, I’ll email it to you later in the evening."

Zhu Yilan paused her typing, looking at her thoughtfully.

She knew Fu Jichen was returning to the country today, and according to usual practice, Qu Mo would arrange something like airport pickup, it wouldn’t be up to a secretary or assistant to worry. Unless there was another work schedule right after landing, requiring an assistant to follow.

But she was well aware that Fu Jichen was returning a day earlier than planned, and there were no work arrangements for tonight or tomorrow at all.

"You can go." Zhu Yilan slightly nodded, indicating she understood.

The reason Shen Jianian was going to pick him up, was nothing but because that person wanted her to. Wasn’t that clear enough? Zhu Yilan smiled self-mockingly, with a slight bitterness in her eyes.