Sheng Jiaoyang had just finished taking her bath, and she walked out of the bathroom dressed only in a bathrobe. She was about to look for a change of clothes when she suddenly saw that someone was leaning against the wall right outside the bathroom, and she was so shocked that she jumped back in fright, and almost ended up slipping and falling.

Shen Zhining immediately reached his hand out and held onto her to stop her from falling. Then, he saw how dazed she looked, and he decided to just pick her up in a princess carry and bring her to her bed.

“W-why are you in my room?” Sheng Jiaoyang stared at him in surprise.

“I"m your fiance, so why can"t I be in your room? In the future, this would also be my room.”

Fiance???

Sheng Jiaoyang"s eyes grew wide with shock. It was only after she recollected herself that she remembered that he had asked her about a ring when he brought her to the hotel.

They were already wearing engagement rings, and he even lived right next door, and had free access to her room. So, Shen Zhining and I were really a couple?

But… how"s that possible?

She had liked Lin Yan for so many years, whereas she had always tried to avoid Shen Zhining. How could I just suddenly fall in love with Shen Zhining in just two short years, and even become engaged to him?

“Why didn"t you tell me that you lost your memory.”

His voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and brought her back to the present. She replied, “I tried to tell you, but you interrupted me.”

“When?” Shen Zhining furrowed his brows, as he tried hard to remember when he cut her off, but he couldn"t.

“When you said that I threw the ring away, I wanted to tell you, but I didn"t have a chance to. When I finally found an opportunity to speak, you interrupted me and told me to leave.”

“You left just because I told you to leave? Don"t you know how to stay and clarify things?”

Sheng Jiaoyang blinked at him innocently, “I didn"t know our relations.h.i.+p at the time. I only remember liking Lin Yan.”

Shen Zhining narrowed his eyes, and an indescribably stifling feeling occupied his heart.

“Can you tell me about what happened between us in the past two years? How did we…”

“How did we get together?”

Shen Zhining stood up, “Go and change your clothes first. Then, we"ll chat in your studio.”

Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t move, and she just kept staring at Shen Zhining, until finally she said, “You… are you not going to leave the room?”

Shen Zhining stared deep into her eyes and said, “There"s nothing that I haven"t seen before.”

“…” Sheng Jiaoyang turned stiff, and blood rushed to her face.

Shen Zhining laughed and pinched her cheek, “I"ll go out first, come out after you are done changing your clothes.”

Sheng Jiaoyang covered her face with her hands, but she left a gap between her fingers that she used to glare at Shen Zhining"s back as he walked out of the room.

After she took her own sweet time to change her clothes, she opened the door and saw that Shen Zhining was leaning on the wall beside her. His slender figure made him look like a model. When he saw her come out, he glanced at her, and warmth suddenly filled his eyes. He straightened his back and took her wrist as he led her to her studio.

“Why do you want to talk in the studio instead of the bedroom?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked curiously while she was being pulled along.

Shen Zhining didn"t hurry to reply to her question. Instead, he walked over the place where a set of picture frames were carefully arranged, and he took off the protective layer covering the portraits.

When Sheng Jiaoyang saw the portraits, amazement filled her eyes, and she stared at them in wonder.

Apart from one or two landscape paintings, the remaining paintings were all portraits of the same person. Moreover, the subject of the portraits wasn"t the person she spent her whole life pining after, Lin Yan. It was Shen Zhining.

For a painter, the greatest reflections of their mood were their paintings. The lines, colours, and details of the painting were all indicators of the painter"s mood.

Sheng Jiaoyang could clearly tell these were her own paintings, and she could feel that they were drawn with delight and love. She could even imagine herself, focused and immersed, as she moved her brush, stroke by stroke.

When she saw the paintings, she knew that she got together with Shen Zhining willingly and sincerely. It wasn"t like Lin Yan said. Shen Zhining definitely didn"t get in between her and Lin Yan and force her to be with him. With her nature, there was absolutely no way that she would accept being forced to be together with somebody she didn"t like.

“I didn"t throw the ring away. When I woke up, the ring was already gone.” Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t know why, but she suddenly felt the urge to bring up the ring again.

Shen Zhining turned around and stared at her deeply, “Now, I know.”

“Then, can you tell me what happened during the past two years?”

Shen Zhining reached out to her.

Sheng Jiaoyang looked at his outstretched hand, and she paused for a moment before slowly putting her hand in his. Then, he closed his hand around hers.

After finding a place to sit, Shen Zhining didn"t doodle, and he jumped straight into narrating their story.

“After you had your car accident, I felt that it might"ve been a premeditated attack, so I personally came back to investigate the matter. To create a justifiable reason for me to stay here, I opened a new company. Before the company was even opened for business, I ran into you, but at that time, I didn"t realize that it was you, as you had just turned into Xu Jiaojiao, and you were forced to sell paintings to earn money.”

As she listened to the story that Shen Zhining narrated, Sheng Jiaoyang really felt like she was actually listening to the plot of a novel. To think that such marvelous things could happen in real life.

“What happened next?” she asked curiously.

Shen Zhining looked at her with a smile in his eyes, “The style of your painting and your signature caught my attention.”

“You recognized me then?”

“Of course not. Do you think that I"d believe you changed into somebody else so easily? Even if, at that time, you told me that you were Sheng Jiaoyang, I still wouldn"t have believed it. I just thought that it was somebody who was pretending to be you.”

Shen Zhining laughed, “And so, because of your unique painting style and signature, as well as the fact that you kept showing up around me, I thought that you had ulterior motives.”

Sheng Jiaoyang"s jaw dropped in disbelief. “You thought I had ulterior motives, and I actually survived?”

Shen Zhining"s face turned stiff for a moment before he shot back, “Do you think that I will get rid of somebody just because I think they"re suspicious? Am I really that brutal?”

But that"s my impression of you! Sheng Jiaoyang silently shouted in her heart.

“At that time, your grandfather wanted to arrange a blind date for me, so we signed an agreement. I would give you money, and you would pretend to be my girlfriend,” Shen Zhining continued.

Sheng Jiaoyang couldn"t help but interrupt, “Zhining, you aren"t using some book"s plot to try and fool me, right?”

The look on Shen Zhining"s face completely collapsed.

He turned around and trapped Sheng Jiaoyang between him and the sofa. With a hint of danger in his voice, he said, “You don"t want to listen? Fine. Let"s do something else then…”

“I"ll listen. Please continue, I won"t interrupt you anymore,” Sheng Jiaoyang spoke as if she was placating her emperor.

The threatening expression on Shen Zhining"s face quickly disappeared, and he continued narrating the story, “So just like that, we started living together.”

Sheng Jiaoyang was about to ask another question, when she remembered what she had just said. So, she covered her mouth, and blinked at Shen Zhining innocently.

Shen Zhining glanced at her, and a dark look flashed through his eyes as a suggestive smile appeared on his face. “Oh yeah. There was a day when you got drunk, and you forced a kiss on me. Then, you said you liked me.”

Sheng Jiaoyang was stunned.

1. Here, Sheng Jiaoyang uses the formal form of you which she normally doesn"t use.