Rose Manor: Tycoon's Relentless Chase-Chapter 272 - 254: Seven Weeks Pregnant

Fu Jichen returned to his room to take a hot shower; he had been taking cold showers all night long. The nights in September were still a bit chilly, and he felt his throat was a bit uncomfortable, with mild nasal congestion symptoms, a sign of a cold.

He didn’t plan to go to the company in the morning. Fu Jichen put on his loungewear and went to Shen Jianian’s room.

Shen Jianian buried herself in the blanket, feeling annoyed for a long time, constantly reflecting on her behavior last night, but ultimately couldn’t come to a conclusion, so she simply got up.

However, when she lifted the blanket, she found Fu Jichen in her room and finally couldn’t help but scream: "You... why are you still here?!"

Fu Jichen pointed to the medical box on the coffee table that was used last night and said seriously: "I came over to find some cold medicine."

To prove he wasn’t lying, Fu Jichen opened the medical box, found some cold medicine, took out a pill, and put it in his mouth. Not finding any purified water, he picked up Shen Jianian’s cup, which still had half a cup of cold water left from last night, and he drank it to swallow the medicine, then took two anti-inflammatory pills.

Shen Jianian’s eyes widened. That was her cup; how could he use it so casually!

Fu Jichen put the cup back without disturbing her further: "Get ready and come downstairs for breakfast."

It was past nine, so waiting any longer would mean having lunch instead.

Fu Jichen went downstairs first. Having not rested well all night and being tormented by medicine, he didn’t look good, and neither was his mental state.

Cheng Jin saw his "sluggish" appearance and was hesitant to speak. Understanding that he and Jianian had been apart for three years and had finally sweetened their relationship, it was possible he couldn’t control himself. He was so exhausted; surely Little Nian, with her delicate constitution, wouldn’t be any better. She probably needed a whole day to recover.

Originally intending to advise Mr. Fu to take it easy, Cheng Jin hesitated for a long time but couldn’t bring it up. Jianian had lost her memory and didn’t remember Mr. Fu. Recently, their interaction was like water and fire; he probably yearned for this day for a long time.

"Mr. Fu, would you like to have breakfast now?" Ultimately, Cheng Jin didn’t say the inappropriate things.

Fu Jichen rubbed his temples and responded with a hum, poured a glass of hot water, and took it to the dining room.

Cheng Jin went to the kitchen to heat a box of pan-fried dumplings, served a bowl of porridge, and accompanied it with a dish of pickled beans, placing them on the dining table: "Has Jianian not gotten up yet?"

Fu Jichen picked up a spoon and stirred the porridge in the bowl twice: "She’s up, she’ll come down in a bit."

Perhaps she was embarrassed to face him and chose to hide upstairs.

No matter, once he finished eating, he could also take breakfast up to her.

Fu Jichen leisurely sipped the porridge and casually said to Cheng Jin: "I don’t like century eggs, so don’t cook century egg and lean meat porridge in the future."

Cheng Jin uttered an "oh" and then said: "Jianian mentioned wanting to eat century egg and lean meat porridge yesterday."

Fu Jichen was momentarily stunned, then changed his tune: "Fine, keep cooking it in the future." He considered himself quite familiar with Shen Jianian’s tastes and had never heard her mention liking this kind of porridge.

Cheng Jin pursed her lips into a smile, agreeing to it.

The doorbell rang, and Cheng Jin left the dining room, pressed the intercom button, and the guard said there was a Mr. Pei Che wanting to visit Mr. Fu.

Cheng Jin couldn’t make the decision and said, "Please wait a moment," then went to ask Fu Jichen: "Sir, there’s a Mr. Pei Che at the door who says he’s here to visit you."

Fu Jichen paused, finished the last bite of his pan-fried dumpling, put down his chopsticks, and wiped his mouth: "Let him in."

What’s meant to come will come, sooner or later.

Fu Jichen sat in the living room and instructed Cheng Jin to brew a pot of tea. Moments later, Pei Che came over, visibly much thinner than when he saw him last month, suggesting that he hadn’t been doing well during this time.

Pei Che looked at Fu Jichen expressionlessly, holding an archive file in his hand, which he threw on the coffee table, and his first words were: "Where’s Little Nian?"

Fu Jichen glanced at the thick archive file, unable to discern what was inside, and politely said, "Please, have a seat."

Pei Che’s eyes were cold. This Fu Jichen in front of him was vastly different from the ruthless one he knew. What kind of gentleman was he playing here?

"I’m asking you, where’s Little Nian?" Pei Che sat down, and every sentence was about Shen Jianian.

"She’s doing well with me," said Fu Jichen, stating the truth.

He picked up the teapot and poured Pei Che a cup of tea, speaking gently: "It was impulsive of me to act last time without thinking it through. Actually, I should thank you for saving her."

Pei Che didn’t drink the tea poured by Fu Jichen. To him, Fu Jichen was thoroughly hypocritical: "I want to see Little Nian." He needed to see her with his own eyes to know if she was truly well.

His mother advised him to look after himself first, saying Little Nian wouldn’t be in danger with Fu Jichen. He had been tormented for so many days, and as soon as he had recovered adequately, he rushed to see her without wanting to wait any longer.

"Why see her?" Fu Jichen asked, "I made it very clear that day, she is mine, I can’t let her go. It doesn’t matter if she has forgotten me now, I am confident I can make her fall in love with me again. As for you, it ended between you two long ago. I thought you understood that three years ago."

Pei Che clenched his fist and picked up the file bag from the coffee table, throwing it at Fu Jichen: "Don’t you want to know her medical records? Every treatment she went through in the past three years is in here." He let out a cold laugh, "You really ought to know."

The brief conversation on the phone before was far from enough to encapsulate the suffering Shen Jianian endured in the past three years. He hadn’t intended to reveal so much to Fu Jichen, but later realized that the more clearly Fu Jichen knew about things, the better he would understand whether he brought Shen Jianian more joy than pain, or more pain than joy.

The file bag contained hospital records, surgical consent forms, anesthesia consent forms, surgery records, anesthesia records, pathology reports, test reports, and even temperature charts and blood transfusion consent forms. Everything was meticulously detailed.

He had signed all those consent forms that required signatures himself; it was easy for him to get those.

Fu Jichen pressed a hand on the file bag, his breathing suddenly grew heavier.

When Pei Che threw the file bag over just now, he felt its heavy weight. He hadn’t looked yet, but he knew that every piece of paper inside documented the injuries Shen Jianian had suffered. Such a thick stack, and all of it she experienced personally.

It was Pei Che who stayed by her side through it all.

Pei Che asked one last time, "Where is she?"

"Resting upstairs." Fu Jichen never intended to stop Pei Che from seeing Shen Jianian, "Aunt Cheng, go see if she’s awake and tell her truthfully, Mr. Pei wants to see her."

Pei Che dry swallowed, he came here today, ready to lay everything bare and decided to tell Little Nian everything.

No matter the consequences, he was willing to bear them.

On the third floor, after Fu Jichen left, Shen Jianian went to the bathroom to take a shower, changed into a comfortable cotton dress, and didn’t go downstairs for breakfast. Just as Fu Jichen had guessed, Shen Jianian didn’t want to face him, so she was hiding in her room, staring blankly at the scenery outside the window.

A knock on the door pulled Shen Jianian’s gaze back.

Cheng Jin pushed the door open, always wearing a kind smile: "Jianian, you’re awake, I thought you were still sleeping. There’s a Mr. Pei downstairs to see you, Mr. Fu asked me to come get you."

Shen Jianian was slightly stunned, murmuring softly, "Mr. Pei?"

Cheng Jin said, "Yes, Mr. Pei Che."

Shen Jianian’s expression was complex, her face a mix of surprise, joy, panic, guilt, and even some bewilderment.

"Jianian?" Cheng Jin thought her demeanor was a bit odd.

Shen Jianian shook her head, wanted to say it was nothing but didn’t. Her heart was chaotic, unsure how she made it downstairs, and in the moment she saw Pei Che in the living room, it felt like a lifetime had passed.

Pei Che stood up to look at her, tugging his lips slightly into a faint smile, a hard-to-notice bitterness mixed in it.

Just like when Bai Changxia came to find Shen Jianian that day and Fu Jichen chose to avoid it, today was the same. Holding that weighty file bag, he got up, passed by Shen Jianian, pausing his steps slightly: "Have breakfast first."

Before Shen Jianian could respond, Fu Jichen moved aside and headed upstairs.

Cheng Jin went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Shen Jianian.

The aroma of tea lingered in the living room, Shen Jianian walked step by step towards Pei Che, the fear of facing home emerged in her heart inexplicably.

"I’m sorry I came to you so late," Pei Che began the conversation, "Are you alright, Little Nian?"

Shen Jianian’s eyes reddened, unable to tell if it was grievance or something else, in short, her heart ached deeply, like it was pulled and tangled, leaving her speechless for a long time.

Pei Che had eyes to see; her face seemed a bit fuller than before, his gaze paused when it swept across her neck, where two deep marks stood out against her fair skin, like...

Pei Che couldn’t deceive himself into thinking they were mosquito bites; he was an adult, not a three-year-old child.

*

Fu Jichen took the file bag to the study, unraveling the white cotton string around the seal, taking out the thick stack of documents, all photocopies. Where it required a signature, Pei Che’s name was signed, and where it needed a stamp, there was a red seal.

He looked through them one by one when suddenly a paper fluttered to the ground.

Fu Jichen bent down to pick it up, seeing the words clearly—Informed Consent for Induced Abortion. It was like a bolt of lightning struck his head, and he frantically searched through the rest of the papers.

Soon, he found what he was looking for, the report from when Shen Jianian was admitted to the hospital for the first checkup after her car accident, stating she was seven weeks pregnant.