Rose manor（玫瑰庄园酒店）

Chapter 131: Bad Influence

When Shen Jiani woke up the next morning, Fu Jichen was not in bed.

She slowly opened her eyes, the unfamiliar surroundings coming into view. It took her a moment to remember that she had slept in the rest area of Fu Jichen's office last night.

After a whole night, the aftermath of the hike emerged. Shen Jiani felt sore all over, her back ached, and her legs were stiff. She had to move carefully even to turn over.

Her gaze wandered around and she found her phone charging on the nightstand, which must have been plugged in by Fu Jichen after she fell asleep.

She unplugged the charger, and the screen lit up automatically, showing the time as 9:24.

Without looking at the time, she would have thought it was still early.

Shen Jiani put a hand on her forehead, feeling overwhelmingly tired.

Suddenly, a scene from the previous night flashed through her mind. Just before falling asleep, she had asked Fu Jichen if he had a bad relationship with his mother. He hadn't answered, nor had he shown any anger. He had simply lowered his head slightly and kissed her on the forehead.

After that... she had fallen asleep and didn't know if he had said anything else.

Shen Jiani let her mind wander for a while, then dragged her aching body to the bathroom, opened a new set of toiletries, and brushed her teeth and washed her face in front of the mirror.

There were no women's skincare products, so she took a bit of men's moisturizer to use.

She changed into her own clothes, grabbed her phone, and opened the door to the rest area.

As soon as she opened the door a crack, she heard someone outside talking, seemingly reporting.

"The technical department worked through the night to fix the issue, so things should proceed smoothly now. I booked a 2:10 PM flight to Geneva, with a layover in New York. This is the earliest and fastest route..."

Song Fang, who had been speaking, paused with his mouth open, his gaze shifting to a hesitant figure at the half-open door behind Fu Jichen.

Fu Jichen guessed what was happening and turned to look at the door of the rest area with a calm expression. "You're awake?"

Shen Jiani clutched the edge of her phone case, enduring the embarrassment as she walked out slowly. She nodded slightly at Song Fang, unable to hide her awkwardness.

Song Fang nodded back with a smile.

"You can leave now," Fu Jichen said.

Song Fang left the office with his documents and happened to run into a male colleague from the secretarial office. Out of kindness, he stopped him. "Don't go in for now."

The colleague said, "I have a contract that needs Mr. Fu's signature."

"Is it urgent?"

"It's best if it can be signed before the president goes abroad."

"Come back in an hour."

The colleague, curious, asked, "Is the president meeting with a client?"

Song Fang shook his head mysteriously and, before the colleague could ask further, told him directly, "It's someone more important than a big client."

The colleague couldn't guess who it was, but hearing this, he didn't dare to disturb them and returned to the secretarial office with the contract.

In the office, Fu Jichen pulled Shen Jiani to him and picked up a paper bag from the table. "I timed it right for you to wake up now. I got you breakfast."