Shen Jianian wanted to kick him, to knock some sense into him, but she suddenly remembered that last time she kicked his leg, it left him limping, so she didn’t dare act rashly.
"Fu Jichen, you yourself said that a gentleman’s word is a promise no horse can chase, are you going back on your word?" Shen Jianian realized after speaking that she was reasoning with a drunk person, and regardless of the logic, he might have a hard time understanding. So she stopped the nonsense and pushed him, "Get in the car!"
Fu Jichen let go of her, sluggishly closed the back door, opened the passenger door, and staggered as he turned, getting into the car.
Shen Jianian sighed in relief, dealing with a drunk man was more exhausting than managing to lead a bull.
She walked around to the driver’s seat, adjusted the distance of the seat, cast a glance at Fu Jichen, and reminded him, "Fasten your seatbelt."
Fu Jichen leaned against the seatback, head tilted back, eyes closed. Upon hearing Shen Jianian’s words, his dark eyes half-opened as if pondering what she meant.
After a few seconds without seeing any action from Fu Jichen, Shen Jianian helplessly unbuckled her seatbelt, turned around, and reached over the armrest console to pull out his seatbelt.
For a moment, their faces were just inches apart, and Fu Jichen’s gaze stuck to her face.
With a "click," Shen Jianian fastened his seatbelt, turned back to sit upright, buckled her seatbelt again, started the car, slightly tilted her head to the left, watching the rear-view mirror as she slowly maneuvered the car out of the parking space.
Having not driven for a long time, Shen Jianian was out of practice, driving slowly, wishing to stop at the slightest situation. Meeting with a big truck, she swallowed nervously, highly tense.
Fu Jichen retained a bit of sobriety, constantly observing the person at the wheel, seeing her unfamiliar with driving, he gave timely reminders: "Turn on the right signal."
Shen Jianian complied, once the turn signal was on, she completed the right turn.
After driving a distance, he reminded her again, "Red light ahead, you can’t make it, stop."
The countdown to the green light was still five seconds, and any average driver would easily go through it, but Shen Jianian’s snail-paced driving wasn’t feasible, best to stop first to avoid suddenly reaching the zebra crossing when the light turns red, making her panic.
Shen Jianian steadily stopped the car, turned her head to glance at Fu Jichen, recalling the time when learning to drive, the fear ruled by the coach.
However, Fu Jichen was gentler than the coach.
"Don’t look at me, watch the front, start driving when the countdown is almost over." Fu Jichen never noticed he had so much patience, even while drunk with dizziness and churning insides, he could still guide someone on driving.
This patience was solely reserved for her.
He realized that in his current state, he might not make it home, pinching the side of his index finger with his thumb to stimulate himself to stay awake with pain.
Following his words, Shen Jianian started ahead of time, driving the car just out in the second second when the light turned green, or else they might have delayed several seconds.
"Don’t be nervous, drive assuredly, I’m here," Fu Jichen soothed her.
Shen Jianian surprisingly began to relax, no longer stiffening her spine, attempting to lean against the seat back and splitting her attention to speak to him, "You’re not drunk?"
Fu Jichen didn’t reply, his head throbbing severely, seemingly about to explode.
Shen Jianian didn’t receive his answer, taking advantage of the sparse traffic, quickly sidelong glanced at him, his elbow resting on the window, fingers pressed against his brow, brows twisted in apparent discomfort.
Having drunk five bottles nonstop, imagining won’t feel great, her guilt overpowered her earlier resentment toward him, suggesting, "Do you want to go to the hospital?"
Fu Jichen tightly pinched lips parted, voice husky to the extreme, "Not going to the hospital."
Shen Jianian remained silent, attempted to speed up, wanting to get home quickly, maybe lying down would be more comfortable. Discover more novels at novel⚑fire.net
The car window on the passenger side was cracked open slightly; hearing the noticeably heightened wind noise, Fu Jichen knew the person driving was accelerating. He glanced at the dashboard, numbers overlapping into several shadows, straining his eyes to try to see clearly yet couldn’t; he knew his drunkenness went deeper.
Fu Jichen’s gaze shifted to the hands gripping the steering wheel, the diamond ring on her left ring finger flashed with tiny lights, stared at it longer, becoming a halo of light.
He found it glaring, just like when he saw her in a pure white wedding dress.
He could make her take off the wedding dress, but had no reason to ask her to remove this ring.
She still thought of Pei Che, thought of Pei Che, unwilling to accept the reality of him as her boyfriend.
The latter half of the journey was relatively quiet, Shen Jianian got the hang of driving, no need for Fu Jichen’s guidance, she drove the car back to Yunding Palace according to the navigation.
The security at the gate saw the familiar car from afar, opened the gate automatically, Shen Jianian didn’t need to stop at the entrance and drove in directly, parking under the villa’s porch.
She sat in the driver’s seat for quite a while, unmoving, her hands off the steering wheel, palms sweaty, arms slightly sore.
Shen Jianian looked at Fu Jichen in the passenger seat, he was sleeping with his head tilted, clearly, she heard him speaking a couple of minutes ago, reminding her they were almost at Yunding Palace, to slow down. He was like a robot with only one bar of battery left, barely finishing the last command in the program, suddenly ran out of power, and shut down.
"Fu Jichen." Shen Jianian reached out to push his shoulder, "We’re home."
She couldn’t move him out of the car alone if he couldn’t get out, calling Aunt Cheng was likely not going to work, unless calling for the security to help.
Shen Jianian unbuckled his seatbelt first, called him twice more, he finally had a bit of reaction, squinting at her, deep lines on his eyelids, eyes blurred.
This Fu Jichen had no aggressiveness at all, entirely in a weak position, she should have parked the car by the roadside and fled on foot earlier, no matter what happens to him.
However, thinking about it now is too late.
She was back in this opulent, luxurious cage.
Shen Jianian got out of the car, helped Fu Jichen out, fortunately, he could walk, though his steps were unsteady.
Not seeing Cheng Jin in the living room, presumably, she went back to sleep in her room, Shen Jianian didn’t call her, walked into the elevator, pressed for the third floor.
Cheng Jin hearing movement in her room, opened the door and peeked out, not seeing anyone, guessing from the elevator numbers jumping to 3, that the two who went out were back.
She turned off the living room lights, went back to her room to sleep.
The elevator reached the third floor, doors opened, Fu Jichen relying on memory headed straight for his bedroom, Shen Jianian couldn’t pull him back: "Your room is next door."
She reminded him, but it was ineffective, Fu Jichen still went into his bedroom, currently her room, toppled onto the bed.
Standing by the bedside pointing at the man on the bed, Shen Jianian said, "You... you... you..."
Gasping for breath, took forever to say one "you," unable to utter a complete sentence.
If Fu Jichen slept here, where would she sleep tonight?
Shen Jianian bent over and nudged Fu Jichen, attempting to wake him, "This won’t do. Fu Jichen, wake up, go sleep in your own room."
Fu Jichen grabbed her hand, tugged her close to him, "What did you say?"
Shen Jianian’s balance tilted forward, almost toppled onto Fu Jichen, luckily her reflexes were quick, one hand propped by his side, preventing herself from falling onto him. She collected her composure, "I said go sleep in your own room."
Shen Jianian had no comeback, because he was right.
Fu Jichen stroked her fingers and squeezed the diamond ring off them, eyes closed, tossing it randomly, only hearing a series of clinking sounds, the ring falling somewhere unknown.
"Hey!" Shen Jianian was stunned by his unusual action, couldn’t immediately react, "Why did you throw my ring?"
"I’ll replace it for you."
Fu Jichen said as he half propped up, pulling open the bottom drawer of the bedside table, retrieved the black velvet box hidden inside, opened it and took out a diamond ring for her.
This was the ring truly belonging to her.
Shen Jianian didn’t want it.
Fu Jichen attempted to put it on her; she clenched her fist tightly, preventing him from slipping the ring onto her finger.
"Shen Jianian, you should have married me long ago." He looked at her, drunkenness thick in his eyes, but the words were crystal clear, "You should have married me long ago."
Shen Jianian wasn’t sure she saw correctly, were the moisture in his eyes tears?
Suddenly, she felt sad, inexplicably.
She clearly didn’t person, not at all, she hated his controlling dominance, wished not to see him ever again, how could she feel sad?
Fu Jichen truly was drunk, forgot about the stipulated agreement with Shen Jianian, in her moment of distraction, pulled her into his arms, a hot kiss covered her.