Rose Manor: Tycoon's Relentless Chase-Chapter 282 - 264: Smells Good

The last time they met was at Bai Changxia’s wedding, almost fifty days ago, more than a month.

Every time Shen Jianian thought her life had returned to calm, Fu Jichen would appear before her in an unexpected way, forcefully asserting his presence, making her constantly recall everything related to him.

Bai Changxia sat in the row behind them, next to her husband Zhu Qisen.

She never intervened in Shen Jianian’s romantic choices, respecting Shen Jianian’s thoughts. She only helped analyze from an observer’s angle when necessary, but the final decision was Shen Jianian’s own, provided Fu Jichen doesn’t come around.

Tonight’s celebration dinner was initiated by Fu Jichen. When Fu Jichen came to find her, he spoke sincerely, not at all like the President Jun Shan who stood at the top of the pyramid, always having his way. He said he had no reason to invite Jianian, and even if he did, Jianian wouldn’t agree, so he came up with this idea to arrange the celebration dinner in her name, while he just came to join the meal.

Whoever joins a meal also provides a luxury business car and books a restaurant. Even Bai Changxia had to sigh at his heartfelt intentions.

Initially, Fu Jichen had booked a private room in a membership-only private dining restaurant, just for a few of them, but something came up on Jianian’s side. She called Fu Jichen, explaining that the orchestra also prepared a celebration dinner, and she couldn’t leave. So, he took it upon himself to invite the orchestra members to join the dinner.

When she subtly expressed that the orchestra members wanted to eat hot pot, Fu Jichen unhesitatingly canceled the previous restaurant reservation and changed it to Qingping Xuan, also arranging transportation.

Sitting foolishly with the flowers, Shen Jianian held them in her arms, her phone buzzing in the pocket of her down jacket. She placed the flowers between herself and Fu Jichen, creating an invisible distance, and took out her phone to check the messages.

There were over twenty unread messages, most from the orchestra group, with the rest from Bai Changxia and Zhao Shunyi.

Bai Changxia: "Didn’t mean to keep it from you, Qisen and I wanted to invite you for a meal, and Fu Jichen said he would arrange it."

Zhao Shunyi: "Do you have time? Let’s have dinner together tonight."

Shen Jianian first replied to Bai Changxia: "It’s okay."

Then, she opened Zhao Shunyi’s chat interface and explained: "Sorry, I have plans tonight."

Shen Jianian quickly added another message: "How long is your vacation? I’ll treat you later."

Zhao Shunyi, being straightforward, didn’t mind and sent her a GIF of a puppy nodding vigorously.

The last messages Shen Jianian looked at were the group messages. In the short span of time, the messages increased to over sixty, and she wondered how they had so much to say.

"I checked Qingping Xuan, and it’s three thousand per person! With so many of us, won’t it be too expensive?"

"For the first time in my life, I feel embarrassed to be treated because the restaurant is too pricey."

"I’m quite anxious now; are we going to have to wash dishes because it’s so expensive?"

"Is it too late to jump out of the car now?"

"Who is your friend to invite us to such an expensive restaurant? We feel uneasy about joining for free. @Shen Jianian"

"We’re like ravenous ghosts reincarnated; we’re afraid we’ll eat your friend out of house and home. How about we switch places, a revolving hot pot will do; we’re not picky! @Shen Jianian"

There were many more messages, but Shen Jianian didn’t feel like scrolling up. She opened the chat box, typed a message, thought about it, but didn’t send it, and then locked her phone, putting it back in her pocket.

The car suddenly turned, and the violin case placed beside Shen Jianian’s left hand fell. Fu Jichen, who had been paying attention to her, reached out to catch the case, preventing it from hitting Shen Jianian.

At that moment of closeness, Fu Jichen’s suit brushed across Shen Jianian’s face, and she caught a faint scent, not of perfume or detergent, hard to describe, perhaps like tea mixed with a subtle tobacco aroma and other scents, but in any case, very pleasant.

Feeling uneasy, Shen Jianian touched the strands of hair by her ear. Since she hadn’t taken off her scarf after getting on the car, she felt her face burning and her ears turning red: "Thank you, give it to me."

She firmly grasped the strap of the violin case to prevent it from falling again.

Fu Jichen took the violin case directly and placed it on his side. He had to lean closer to her, causing the flower wrapping paper between them to rustle. Fu Jichen’s gaze swept over her face, nodding with his chin toward the front passenger seat: "Won’t you say hello to your teacher?"

Shen Jianian looked up puzzled towards the front and saw at that moment, the person in the front passenger seat turning back, smiling warmly and elegantly, it turned out to be Yan Qiusheng.

She actually hadn’t noticed Yan Qiusheng was in the car!

Yan Qiusheng clearly heard the girl’s intake of breath and smiled until wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, his tone holding a hint of uncertainty: "Jianian?"

"Ah? Ah... it’s me." Shen Jianian was so excited she could hardly speak, her fingers tugging the scarf covering half her face.

Fu Jichen then saw her face so red, her big eyes fluttering like a doll’s.

Yan Qiusheng sighed: "Mr. Fu told me you were still alive, and I could hardly believe it. You left me a letter back then and disappeared. I was terribly worried, and later I heard you got into a car accident, sigh..."

Shen Jianian was at a loss, instinctively looking at Fu Jichen.

"Let’s not talk about the past; she doesn’t remember." Fu Jichen spoke on her behalf.

"Sigh." Yan Qiusheng sighed again, "I finally took on a disciple, and she ended up forgetting me."

Fu Jichen wanted to laugh but couldn’t. Shen Jianian didn’t even remember him; it wasn’t surprising she’d forgotten her mentor too.

It was too rare a chance to meet Yan Qiusheng, so Shen Jianian didn’t want to miss this opportunity to acknowledge him as her mentor and immediately declared, "You’ll still be my mentor in the future."

Hearing this, Fu Jichen felt extremely unsettled. He tried to calm himself down, having decided to let Shen Jianian know him again in a different way, but he just couldn’t tolerate the scene before him.

"Why?" Fu Jichen spoke abruptly, and there was a trace of grievance and reluctance in his voice.

In the backseat, Bai Changxia and Zhu Qisen perked up their ears, curious about what Fu Jichen would say next.

Shen Jianian pulled her attention away from Yan Qiusheng and turned to Fu Jichen, pressing her lips together without speaking, but her eyes asked him: Why what?

Fu Jichen couldn’t care less that there were others in the car. His chest was filled with unresolved frustration, and if it didn’t come out, he might be depressed all night: "Why is it that with no transition, you easily accepted your mentor-student relationship with Yan Qiusheng, yet you refuse to accept our relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Shen Jianian’s mouth hung open, unable to retort.

The car was silent. Qu Mo, who was driving, pretended not to hear anything, his nose in the air, avoiding looking at his boss’ hurt expression. The couple in the back continued to act invisible, even breathing lightly. Only Yan Qiusheng, who could somewhat be considered an elder, smiled.

The car stopped at the Qingping Xuan parking lot, and Fu Jichen’s "Why" remained unanswered.

Shen Jianian got out of the car, avoiding looking at Fu Jichen’s face, imagining it must be quite unsightly.

Bai Changxia got out, having just laughed and choked herself, coughed a bit, and walked with small steps to Shen Jianian’s side, secretly giving her a thumbs up and whispering so only the two could hear, "I was wrong. I thought it was Boss Fu who was pressing you, turns out it was you pressing him."

Snowflakes fell gently, landing on her hair and shoulders. Shen Jianian rolled her eyes at her, pulled her scarf higher, and waited for the other cars to park sequentially.

The band members jumped out of the car, unable to stay quiet for a moment, chattering like sparrows along the way.

"Luxury travel is so comfortable, I almost fell asleep."

"Do I believe you? With you being the chattiest."

"Are we really at Qingping Xuan? Aren’t we eating revolving hot pot?"

"Oh my, when did Yan Qiusheng come? And the man in the black coat... I remember seeing him on trending news, the Junshan Group’s Fu... Fu..."

"Fu Jichen." Someone beside them quietly supplied.

Even Yan Hong, who had seen much in life, was stunned and asked Shen Jianian, the only one with ties to these people, "How did Yan Qiusheng and the President of Junshan come?"

Yan Hong’s husband was a renowned businessman in Jiang City, so she wasn’t just learning about Fu Jichen from online news, which is why she was surprised a person of such status showed up.

Shen Jianian didn’t know how to explain, simply saying, "I didn’t know in advance that they would come."

With mixed feelings, the group entered the luxurious private room at Qingping Xuan, where three large round tables were set up, and the broth and appetizer platters were already laid out.

Fu Jichen came over and proactively asked Yan Hong, "Is everyone here?"

Yan Hong was flattered and almost bit her tongue, "Ev... everyone’s here."

"Tell them not to be restrained, take it easy, and order whatever they like. The specialty here is fresh ingredients."

Yan Hong had no doubt that Fu Jichen was the one actually footing the bill for tonight’s celebration feast, but she didn’t understand his intentions.

Until Fu Jichen sat next to Shen Jianian, Yan Hong finally understood—it was all to win a beauty’s smile.

The band members sat at two tables, and the previously noisy young crowd turned as quiet as quails, communicating with their eyes instead of words.

Yan Hong sat down and conveyed Fu Jichen’s message, "Mr. Fu said to eat as you please, don’t be polite."

Someone exclaimed in a small voice, realizing it was inappropriate, immediately covered their mouth.

As various fresh Wagyu beef and crab larger than their heads were served in unlimited quantities, they stopped being restrained, opened their stomachs to enjoy the feast, and once satisfied, they couldn’t hold back their chatter, returning to their lively selves, talking and laughing.

The table beside them was much quieter. Shen Jianian ate a few pieces of boiled beef, occasionally chatting with Yan Qiusheng. It might have been the excitement of seeing her idol, as her eyes stayed bright and sparkling.

Fu Jichen remembered when he took Shen Jianian to meet Yan Qiusheng for apprenticeship; she had the same stars-in-her-eyes look, which made him jealous.

He placed a cooked crab leg on her plate; the fresh and plump crab meat steamed as he leaned over to whisper, "You still owe me an answer to a question. When do you plan to answer me?"

Fu Jichen was referring to the unanswered "Why."