Rose Manor: Tycoon's Relentless Chase-Chapter 286 - 268: Reciprocity

Shen Jianian slept all afternoon, and when she woke up, the sky was already dark; it was past seven in the evening.

She felt much better, her stomach didn’t hurt anymore. She went to the bathroom to wash her face and prepared to heat up the leftover vegetable porridge and chicken soup from the morning for dinner.

Just as she started the stove, there was a knock on the door outside.

Shen Jianian was startled for a moment, then turned down the heat and went out of the kitchen.

She first looked through the peephole and saw no one outside. She opened the door, and just like at noon, there was a wooden tray on the ground with an insulated clay pot on top.

This time, there was no note left behind.

Shen Jianian picked up the tray and placed it on the cabinet in the entranceway, then went to knock on the neighbor’s door.

Since the food had just been delivered, the person must be home, she needed to thank them and plan to buy some gifts to give back later. She couldn’t just eat and drink for free.

But after knocking twice, there was no response.

Shen Jianian found it odd and patiently waited outside for a while. Not knowing if they could hear her inside, she leaned against the door panel and said, "Hello, I’m your neighbor next door. Thank you so much for the food."

Still, there was no response.

Shen Jianian wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed them; the cold wind in the hallway was biting, and staying for a few more minutes made her lose any warmth. She head back inside her apartment, turning back three times before finally closing the door, taking one last look at the quiet neighbor’s door.

Inside the neighboring apartment, Fu Jichen still stood in the entryway, separated by just the door from Shen Jianian. He heard every word she said. She used the respectful "you," who did she think her neighbor was?

A kind-hearted aunt?

Fu Jichen laughed silently.

Shen Jianian brought the tray to the dining table. Inside the clay pot was a nutritious and rich noodle soup, steaming hot. On top lay a round fried egg, a few small greens, with strips of ham, corn kernels, carrot slices, black fungus shreds, and homemade braised beef, cut into large pieces and neatly arranged.

The bowl of noodles was perfectly balanced with meat and vegetables.

Guessing out of concern that she might have lost her sense of taste due to illness, there was also a side dish of radish cubes, refreshing and appetizing.

As Shen Jianian inhaled the aroma of the noodle soup, she looked once more towards the neighbor’s apartment, unable to resist wondering what kind of aunt lived next door.

The words "beautiful and kind" weren’t enough to describe her goodness.

She silently decided to buy more gifts to reciprocate her kindness!

Shen Jianian ate a few radish cubes, which whetted her appetite. With a spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, she finished the entire bowl, feeling thoroughly full.

She washed the clay pot and placed it together with the ones from the morning, then changed into clothes for going out. This time, having learned from experience, she wore a warm hat and scarf, and went downstairs to throw out the trash.

It was the same flowerbed she had visited last night. While calling "Mimi," she bent down and searched around but couldn’t find the cat that looked like a cow. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Perhaps it had run off to another place.

Just as Shen Jianian was about to head back, she suddenly heard rustling sounds coming from the cardboard box. She squatted down and tilted her head to look inside through the box’s opening, and then gave a relaxed smile.

After searching for so long, it turned out the cat was just hiding in the makeshift cat house she had made last night.

"Come out to eat." Shen Jianian had brought two plastic containers down with her, one for cat food and the other for water, placing them beside the cat’s shelter.

This cat was temperamental; as Shen Jianian approached, it bared its teeth and hissed, showing its sharp claws and waving them inside the cardboard box.

"Alright, you’re the boss here. I won’t fight you for territory." Just like the previous night, Shen Jianian stood up and walked away, observing from a distance.

Sure enough, shortly after she left, the cat poked its head out of the box, then emerged and buried its head in the food.

Reassured, Shen Jianian turned to head back.

The elevator arrived on the twenty-sixth floor. Shen Jianian took out her phone to check the time; it was 8:42. She decided to try knocking on the neighbor’s door again.

Inside, Fu Jichen was working at a black rectangular table in the living room. The light from his laptop screen illuminated his face, and a cup of freshly brewed tea sat steaming by his hand.

Hearing the knock on the door, he glanced toward the entryway, furrowing his brow.

Why would someone come knocking so late?

Fu Jichen stood up, pushed his chair back, and quietly walked to the entryway. He peeked outside through the small peephole and saw Shen Jianian wearing a white knitted hat and a red scarf, with her little face mostly covered except for her eyes visible.

From her attire, was she planning to go out, or had she just returned from outside?

Even when sick, she doesn’t know how to rest properly at home. How worrisome.

Fu Jichen thought this, and his furrowed brow didn’t loosen.

Suddenly, Shen Jianian leaned closer to the door panel, and Fu Jichen, thinking he had been discovered, hastily stepped back, almost tripping over the doormat by the door, looking somewhat awkward.

However, Shen Jianian just turned her face aside, pressed her ear against the door, and tried to hear if there was any movement inside.

She didn’t hear anything and returned to her home, feeling slightly embarrassed.

While taking off her scarf, Shen Jianian thought, she’s not just staying here for a few days before leaving, she’ll have plenty of chances to meet that kind-hearted neighbor in the future.

The neighbor might be too busy with work, have little spare time, and not often stay at home.

Her phone chimed once, and Shen Jianian hung up the scarf, took the phone out from her down jacket pocket; it was a WeChat message from Fu Jichen.

Fu Jichen: "It’s below ten degrees at night, you’re weak and prone to catching a cold, don’t go out without reason, stay at home and rest obediently."

Shen Jianian frowned slightly, feeling inexplicably bewildered.

Although she saw he was concerned about her, the tone was too strange.

Also, is he a jinx? She’s just caught a cold...

Shen Jianian habitually ignored his message, locked the phone, and tossed it aside.

*

For several days in a row, various kinds of food appeared outside Shen Jianian’s door, packed in insulated casserole pots, leading to her home piling up over a dozen casseroles of different sizes.

Whenever she tried to return them, there was no response when knocking on the door.

Having no choice, Shen Jianian learned from the neighbor, put the washed dishes outside the neighbor’s door, and handwrote a thank-you letter to express her gratitude.

In the evening, Shen Jianian went down as usual to throw out the garbage and feed the cat, discovering the dishes outside the neighbor’s door had disappeared, probably taken back by the neighbor.

Meanwhile, there was a letter outside her door; she picked it up and opened it. It was again neat, upright characters, a reply to the thank-you letter.

The neighbor aunt told her not to be polite, also saying she usually has a busy job and isn’t generally at home, leaving the food at her door after cooking and then leaving.

Shen Jianian folded the letter and put it in her pocket, her lips curled slightly. She was right; the neighbor was a busy aunt, hard to see all day.

She felt relieved, grabbed the trash to throw it away, and fed that fierce cat by the way.

Shen Jianian fully recovered, bought several boxes of fruit online, along with some local specialties, placed them at the neighbor’s door, and wrote a note on top.

It was always quiet next door; she didn’t hear any child sounds, so there probably weren’t any children, hence she didn’t buy anything meant for kids.

At ten thirty in the evening, Fu Jichen returned from the company, leaned in the elevator, massaged his brow, the black coat accentuating his upright shoulders and back, his demeanor calm and steady.

As the elevator doors were closing, they opened again.

A female resident from the same building was stunned upon seeing such a man when the elevator opened.

The female resident thought, having lived here for so long, how come she never noticed such a high-quality male in the building before? He must be a recent mover.

As the elevator doors were about to close, the female resident came to her senses and squeezed in.

She tucked her hair behind her ears, adjusted her coat, and lowered her head to see the fluffy slippers on her feet, secretly regretting not dressing up before going out.

In a not-so-spacious elevator, there were only two people. The female resident sneakily glanced at the man beside her; he was so tall, more than 185 cm, exuding luxury from head to toe, especially the face, truly handsome from every angle, she couldn’t discern the price of the watch on his wrist, but it must be quite expensive.

Fu Jichen sensed the unabashedly scrutinizing gaze falling on him, his brow furrowed slightly, barely noticeable.

The elevator reached the 26th floor, and Fu Jichen stepped out without looking at the woman once.

The female resident suddenly realized she forgot to press the floor button, yet she found out where the man lived, so it wasn’t a total waste.

Fu Jichen stopped in front of the door, looking down at several big boxes that blocked the entrance, then glanced at the neighbor’s door, his lips twitching.

He opened the door, moved the boxes inside, and took out a courier knife to open them one by one: a box of oranges, a box of strawberries, a box of cherries, and some local specialties like eggs and morel mushrooms.

Fu Jichen found it amusing in a helpless way, was she engaging with him in some kind of ’courtesy reciprocity’ or ’give and take’?

He took his phone out, planning to send Shen Jianian a message, but glanced at the time, unsure if she was asleep yet, so he gave up the idea.

In the section of Moments, there was Shen Jianian’s profile picture, Fu Jichen stood at the entrance amidst a bunch of opened courier boxes, and opened Moments; Shen Jianian had posted an update an hour ago.

[Met a super-kind neighbor auntie, happy forever!]

The photo was of a hideous black-and-white cat, unrelated to the text.

Fu Jichen gave a like to the post and clicked into Shen Jianian’s Moments to scroll down.

Her Moments were set to visible for only three days, nothing else could be refreshed, so he left it at that.

Taking another look at the single post, Fu Jichen repeatedly murmured the words "neighbor auntie," feeling only helplessness without other emotions for now.