Rose Manor

Shen Jianian was picking up a piece of scalded beef from the bubbling pot when her cell phone rang, and she put the beef into a bowl.

Pei Che also saw the words "Fu Jichen" flashing on the screen and closed his eyelashes.

Shen Jianian answered the phone in his seat. Without avoiding Pei Che and Zhou Ruo at the dinner table, he turned slightly to the side of the wall and said in a softer voice, "Have you gotten off the plane?"

Fu Jichen smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile, it was speechless: "Where have you been?" It's not like she didn't know what time his flight was.

After about three seconds of silence, Shen Jia Nian wanted to understand the meaning behind his question: "Are you at my house now?"

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. It's past six o'clock now, almost dinner time. She thought that Fu Jichen would go directly back to his old house after landing in Beicheng, and then celebrate the New Year with his family tomorrow.

"I'm eating out." Shen Jianian answered honestly.

"one person?"

"No." Shen Jianian spoke slowly, paused for two seconds, and chose to tell the truth, "I will go back after eating with Pei Che and Aunt Zhou."

Fu Jichen stopped talking.

"Then I'll hang up." After Shen Jianian finished speaking, he waited for a few seconds and ended the call when he didn't hear Fu Jichen's response.

She put her phone back on the table and sat upright. Zhou Ruozheng opposite her looked at her with a searching look on her face. Zhou Ruo didn't ask who the person who called her was: "Xiao Nian, why don't you celebrate the New Year with us tomorrow?"

Shen Jia Nian was in a daze, remembering that in the past, the two families spent New Year's Eve together, and the adults chatted about business at the dinner table. She and Pei Che always left the table early and hid in the room watching anime and chatting about some wild topics.

"Xiao Nian?"

Zhou Ruo's voice brought Shen Jianian back from his thoughts.

"Mom, maybe Jia Nian has her own arrangements." Pei Che refused on behalf of Shen Jia Nian, and he could see her hesitation.

"Does Xiaonian have any arrangements?" Zhou Ruo asked Shen Jianian without looking at his son.

Zhou Ruo always felt that their family owed Xiao Nian too much, and even if she couldn't cultivate with A Che, she still wanted to make up for it as much as possible. Xiao Nian has no relatives around her and stays in a rented house, which is usually fine. But on days like New Year's Eve, she always seems too lonely.

"Not yet." Shen Jianian said, "But I bought some ingredients today to prepare my own New Year's Eve dinner."

Zhou Ruo: "Then come with us and make it more lively."

After dinner, it was only half past seven when Pei Che drove Shen Jia Nian back.

The car drove into the community and stopped downstairs. Shen Jianian unbuckled his seat belt and waved to him: "I'm getting out of the car. Please be careful on the road."

Pei Che turned around and said, "Xiao Nian."

Shen Jia Nian pushed the car door open and felt the cold wind blowing. She shrank. After hearing the words, she turned back and her eyes fell on his face, waiting for his next words.

But Pei Che said nothing and smiled: "It's okay, go back."

Shen Jia Nian got out of the car and looked back before entering the door. The car was still parked there. Through the car window, Pei Che waved her hand and watched her go in.

Meeting the property staff in the lobby, Shen Jianian was stuffed with a New Year's gift box.

While waiting for the elevator, she opened the gift box, which contained towels, candies, snacks and mascot dolls.

Arriving on the twenty-sixth floor, Shen Jianian took out the key from her bag, inserted it into the keyhole and turned it. Only then did she find that the door was unlocked. She held the door handle and pushed it open.

The room was dark. She groped on the wall and turned on the light in the living room.

"auspicious."

Shen Jianian put the gift box on the cabinet in the entrance hall, put his hand on the edge of the cabinet to change his shoes, and called the cow cat.

The cat didn't respond to her.

Shen Jianian pulled her slippers in and suddenly saw a figure in the living room. She was startled and her voice changed the tone: "Why are you still at my house?"

Fu Jichen was sitting on a single sofa chair by the floor-to-ceiling window. The cat was huddled on the back of the couch, staring at him with squinted eyes. One person and one cat had different auras, each occupying one side.

There is a small wooden round table next to the sofa chair. On it is an ashtray that Fu Jichen brought from his home before. There are several cigarette butts in it.

After he went on a business trip, Shen Jianian cleaned the ashtray, which could only mean that the cigarette butts were newly added today.

But there wasn't much smell of tobacco in the room. As Shen Jianian got closer, he found that he had opened a window and the cool breeze came in and swept away the smell of tobacco.

Seeing her coming, Fu Jichen stood up and closed the window.

"Did you have dinner?"

He seemed to be in a bad mood. When Shen Jianian spoke, his tone unconsciously became cautious.

Fu Jichen looked at her steadily for a long time, and sighed in his heart. It was something he had long wished for her to accept him again, and he couldn't ask too much of her.

He took her hand, pulled her into his arms, folded his arms and wrapped her tightly.

Shen Jianian's chin rested on his shoulder. He had just held her hand and she felt a chill. She didn't know how long he had been blowing the cold wind here. His hands were always dry and warm before.

She thought for a moment, stretched out her hands and hugged his waist. His waist was very narrow, and she crossed her hands on his back: "What's wrong with you?"

What could he do? He was disappointed when he didn't see her at the airport. He called her and heard that she was having dinner with Pei Che. He was jealous. Fu Jichen was already hugging her very tightly, and he was still tightening his strength, trying to embed her into his body: "I miss you." His tone revealed a hint of grievance, "We haven't seen each other for so many days, you didn't miss me. ?”

Shen Jianian felt that he was strangling her so much that she could hardly breathe, and her brain couldn't think. She patted his back: "Relax first, I'm going to suffocate."

"..." Fu Jichen relaxed his hold on his hand and still held her without letting go.

Shen Jia Nian breathed out.

"I'm asking you, have you missed me?" Fu Jichen was so stubborn that he didn't look like himself.

Shen Jia Nian lay on his shoulder and blinked. They hadn't seen each other for a long time, like seven or eight days?

The person in his arms remained silent, and Fu Jichen's eyes dimmed. He hated and loved her temperament at the same time. He hated that she was not even willing to lie to him, and love was also true love.

Shen Jianian grabbed his strong arm, and when he lowered his head to look over, he stood on tiptoes and kissed the corner of his lips.

There are some things she can't say, but she can express them in other ways.

Fu Jichen still had his eyes open. The moment her lips touched her, his pupils shrank and his eyebrows were raised, which was enough to show how unexpected and pleasantly surprised he was.

The most Shen Jia Nian could do was to take the initiative to kiss him.

She would be embarrassed if she did anything more.

Sensing that she wanted to retreat, Fu Jichen recovered from the shock, held the back of her neck with one hand, and deepened the kiss without giving her a chance to retreat.

In the end, Shen Jianian was really out of breath, and she clenched her hands into fists and punched Fu Jichen on the shoulder. Fu Jichen's sanity was on the verge of collapse. The fist that landed on his body was soft and felt no pain at all. Instead, it was as if a fire had been lit.

Shen Jianian still used the old method of biting his lip, and he calmed down a little and let her go.

"Shen Jianian, you are here to treat me specifically." Fu Jichen pressed his forehead against hers, his voice was as low as sleep, mixed with slightly heavy breathing.

Shen Jia Nian blushed when she heard that. When she found out that a few buttons of her cotton shirt were unbuttoned, her face became even redder. She was so fascinated by his kiss that she had no idea when it was unbuttoned...

She raised her eyes and looked at the instigator.

The instigator covered her eyes with his palms, her beautiful misty eyes, if she looked at him one more time, he might not be able to help unbuttoning more buttons.

Shen Jianian pulled his hand down: "Why are you covering my eyes?"

Fu Jichen buttoned her buttons, hugged her again, and sat in the sofa chair. She sat on his lap and felt something, making her whole body motionless.

"Is that okay?" he asked.

Shen Jia Nian's head buzzed. She knew what he was asking. She felt it was too fast. They confirmed that their relationship hadn't lasted long. It had only been a month. During that time, he had gone on two business trips.

Not being able to refuse directly, she hesitated and said: "I don't have... protective measures at home."

Fu Jichen stood up with her in his arms and put her in the sofa chair. He opened the suitcase he brought back from the business trip, took out a few boxes from the mezzanine, and threw them to Shen Jianian.

Shen Jia Nian was dumbfounded.

Why would he put such a thing in his suitcase?

The way she looked at him gradually changed. Could it be that he was abroad...

"Don't think blindly." As soon as she rolled her eyes, Fu Jichen guessed what she was thinking, and she was probably slandering his character, "I'm not talking to anyone else."

He said it calmly, but Shen Jia Nian believed it. Just now she said that there were no protective measures at home was an excuse. Now that there are protective measures, what else can she say.

Fu Jichen closed the suitcase and looked at her for a moment, waiting for her to speak.

Shen Jianian's ears turned red, she covered her face, and told him the truth in a sullen voice: "I...I'm not ready."

Fu Jichen pursed his lips and smiled. Although he really wanted to, he was not so beastly as to ignore her wishes. Seeing her like this, he felt even more affectionate for her. He sighed softly: "We used to..."

Knowing what he was going to say, Shen Jianian interrupted hastily: "The past was before, and now is now. I'm just not ready now."

According to his previous description, they should have done that kind of thing before, more than once.

*

Both of them calmed down. Fu Jichen hadn't eaten yet, so Shen Jianian went to the kitchen to cook dinner for him. She had a lot of ingredients in the refrigerator.

Seeing how unskilled she was at chopping tomatoes, Fu Jichen frowned, pulled her aside, and started doing it himself.

He looked so gentle now, Shen Jianian had the courage to ask: "Were you angry just now?"

Fu Jichen: "Why are you angry?"

"No?" Shen Jianian tilted his head, "When I came back, you were sitting there alone blowing the wind and smoking so many cigarettes. What else could you do if you weren't angry?"

Fu Jichen didn't want to answer, so he picked up a tomato from the cutting board and stuffed it into her mouth: "If you say another word, I will block your mouth in other ways."

Shen Jianian's mouth was filled with the sweet and sour taste of tomatoes, which reminded her of the extremely sour lemon that night.

acid?

"Fu Jichen, are you jealous?"

Shen Jia Nian found it strange that someone like Fu Jichen could be jealous and behave so awkwardly, which was different from the Fu Jichen she imagined.