"Brother." Fu Yuling no longer has her previous arrogance, tears co easily, even though the person on the other end of the call cannot see them.
Her breathing is a bit rapid, choking out: "I’m at Yunding Palace, the security guard won’t let in. And your girlfriend, she’s too much, completely ignoring , even said you’re not ho, what does she an, does she think this place is her own house? I was caught in the rain, and my illness is acting up, I just took so dicine, might need to go to the hospital."
She cried and complained about every detail, but wasn’t lying.
She thought she could get comfort from Fu Jichen, but to her surprise, the first thing he said was, "I really am not ho."
Fu Yuling’s fingers tightened around the phone, that wasn’t her main point.
"Why did you go there?" Fu Jichen asked again.
"I... I’m curious, can’t I co to see Sister-in-law?" Fu Yuling stamred, "Fei Bai said he had dinner with you all last night and saw Sister-in-law, I wanted to see her too, but what’s with her attitude."
"If you know you’re not well, don’t run around recklessly, hurry back."
There was the sound of papers rustling from Fu Jichen’s side, probably at his workplace, and after saying this he ended the call, Fu Yuling’s complaints did not stir a ripple with him.
Yuling remained frozen for a long ti, holding her phone in front of her eyes and seeing "Call Ended," feeling as if the dicine wasn’t working, her heart increasingly pained.
Furiously biting her lip, she threw her phone, luckily there was a blanket on the car seat below, so the screen didn’t break.
Seeing this, Aunt Su didn’t dare to console her, quietly staying by her side.
*
After ten at night, Shen Jianian finished her bath, took a book from the shelf to bed, and received a call from Fu Jichen.
"Hello." She leaned on the pillow, her freshly dried long hair spilling down, gently framing her clean, white face. She held the phone with one hand to her ear, the other resting on the open book.
The man’s lazy voice reached her ear through the line, "Are you asleep?"
It was very quiet on his end, making his voice clear, she could even hear the subtle breathing, slightly soft with weariness, perhaps from being tired or having had so drink.
"No, just reading a book." Shen Jianian lowered her lashes, looking at the book’s title page.
After saying this, she heard a light "click" from the phone, paused and realized it might be the sound of igniting a lighter.
He was smoking.
Shen Jianian seed to have an image of him biting a cigarette with his thin lips, black eyes slightly narrowed, slowly exhaling a puff of bluish-white smoke, enveloping his sharply defined face, imbued with an unfathomable depth and mystery.
Silence spread between the two ends of the call for a while, Fu Jichen asked softly, "Did Fu Yuling go to the villa?"
"Hmm?" Shen Jianian was montarily distracted, realized what he said and responded, "Yes."
She was montarily tense, unsure if Fu Jichen’s call was to rebuke her for keeping his sister outside the villa.
Though she hadn’t exactly blocked her, she had rely stated the fact that he wasn’t ho.
Last ti Fu Yuling called Fu Jichen, she had arrogantly insulted Shen Jianian, leaving her with a poor impression of Yuling. Plus, Fu Jichen had openly ntioned his sister’s congenital heart disease, spoiled growing up, mood swings, often hysterical and erratic.
She didn’t want to clash with Fu Yuling, just in case sothing happened that she couldn’t bear responsibility for, so she chose to avoid eting alone.
"Ignore her, she’s ill." Fu Jichen took a puff of his cigarette, his throat brushed by smoke, his voice slightly hoarse, "In more ways than one."
In more ways than one ill?
Who would say that about their own sister...
Shen Jianian suddenly chuckled, feeling slightly inexplicable, she pursed her lips, acting as if her previous lack of composure hadn’t happened.
Her brief chuckle didn’t escape Fu Jichen’s ears, he removed the cigarette from his lips, held it between two fingers and placed it into the ashtray, his voice tinged with inexplicable cheerfulness, "What’s funny?"
"You heard wrong." Shen Jianian raised her hand from the book, covering half of her face.
The book on her lap closed automatically, but wasn’t completely shut, left pointed slightly open.
*
Three days later in the afternoon, Fu Jichen returned from Yicheng.
After getting off the plane, Qu Mo drove out of the parking lot, glanced at the rearview mirror and uncertainly asked, "Mr. Chen, to the old house or..."
"Yunding Palace." Fu Jichen pinched the bridge of his nose, lit a cigarette.
The affairs left in Yicheng had been fully dealt with, without mishap, it seed he would be staying in Beicheng. Though he had not reported to the group headquarters yet, he was fully aware of internal matters.
The family mbers were each rallying support while ensuring normal operations, all competing for that position.
With his return, it was sure to cause turmoil.
"Mr. Chen, the docunts for the Minglong project..." Zhu Yilan turned her head to inquire from the passenger seat.
"They’re at ho, I’ll give them to you later." Fu Jichen extinguished the half-burnt cigarette, opened the car window a slit, letting the cold air blow in, dispersing the faint smoke sll.
"Alright."
Zhu Yilan sat back straight, holding the handles of her tote bag with both hands on her lap, gazing at the scenery outside the window.
No matter her initial intentions for following Fu Jichen, the current situation, at least proved her choice wasn’t wrong.
She left headquarters last year, followed Fu Jichen to the Yicheng subsidiary, naturally her status and treatnt couldn’t compare to before, now returning to headquarters, Fu Jichen had ntioned an intention to let her enter the marketing departnt.
A secretary at the end of her role is still just a secretary, entering the marketing departnt would be entirely different, she could rely on her skills to climb up.
The goal of working hard is to get promotions and raises, isn’t it? She seed to see her own bright and beautiful future through the sunlight outside the window, thankful she hadn’t pursued a stubborn sentint previously.
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