Chapter 226 If We Had Been Together Already (End)
Shen Zhiyi didn't know how she got back to the bedroom. She sat there for a long time, still unable to believe that the conversation just now was true.

How, how did it get to the engagement stage?

She felt dizzy and her cell phone rang for a long time before she answered it.

"Already asleep?" Pei Yu's voice sounded no different from usual, with a slightly cold tone and a faint smile, "Are you going to bed so early today?"

"Not asleep," Shen Zhiyi was suddenly pulled back to the real world when she heard his voice. She hesitated for a moment and wanted to tell him what happened today, but she had no idea where to start.

While she was struggling, Pei Yu spoke again.

"If you're not asleep, come meet me downstairs."

Shen Zhiyi almost lost her grip on the phone. "Aren't you coming back tomorrow?"

"It's early," Pei Yu laughed softly, "If I don't explain it to you clearly tonight, I'm afraid you will suffer from insomnia."

Hearing his words, Shen Zhiyi's heart, which had been wandering for a long time, suddenly settled down.

It wasn't a dream, the engagement was real, he knew it.

When Shen Zhiyi went downstairs, Pei Yu was talking to her adoptive parents. The young man was wearing a well-fitting suit and looked much more stable than his peers. The Shen couple's attitude towards him was not like that towards an ordinary junior.

She didn't pay attention to all this, but just looked at him intently and walked towards him step by step.

Pei Yu heard the footsteps and stopped talking. He tilted his head to look at her and stretched out his hand. He smiled lightly and said to her adoptive parents, "I'll take her out for a walk."

He had just rushed back from another place and looked a little tired, but not as cold as usual. There was always a faint smile in his eyes, which made people feel that he was in a good mood at the moment.

Shen Zhiyi handed him her hand and was led dazedly to the courtyard outside.

His palms were warm and strong, and he interlocked his fingers with hers. As soon as they went out, he hugged her and bent down to kiss her forehead.

"Were you frightened?"

The weather was cold. Shen Zhiyi wrapped herself in a white down jacket and stood in the yard like a lily in bud. She nodded, looking a little dazed. "What's going on?"

"Didn't I promise you before?" Pei Yu kneaded her soft fingertips, "We will never separate. Engagement is just the first step."

A stable marriage contract is a good support for a long-term relationship, and Pei Yu prepared for it early and took great pains.

"But," Shen Zhiyi felt that he must have concealed a lot, "but how could your family agree?"

She has been in Beijing for half a year and is no longer the ignorant girl who she was when she first came here. She has a deeper understanding of the Pei family and knows that their marriage is essentially a relationship of interest. If Pei Yu wants to get married, he must choose a wife who can help him in his career.

His last rumored marriage partner was the Huo family. The Shen family's financial situation was not bad, but it was not as good as the Huo family, let alone the Pei family.

"My family is not as harmonious as you think," Pei Yu touched her soft cheek and couldn't help but bent down to kiss her. Because this action was inconsistent with the serious topic at the moment, Shen Zhiyi pushed him away complainingly. He smiled at the corners of his lips and explained slowly, "My brothers and sisters don't want my marriage partner to be too strong. My father thinks the same now. After he found out that I was in close contact with you, he decided to do this."

Fu Songzhi often said that Pei Yu was too impatient and aggressive, which not only aroused the fear of his brothers and sisters, but also made Pei's father, who had not yet planned to give up power completely, extremely unhappy. This was actually what Pei Yu intended. He did not intend to waste time with these people from the Pei family, and naturally did not care what they thought of him. In their eyes, "getting engaged to the adopted daughter of the Shen family" was to trip up Pei Yu, but they did not know that this was Pei Yu's purpose from the beginning.

Shen Zhiyi seemed to understand what he said, "So are we...really going to be together?" Not like now, but being together openly and honestly.

Pei Yu held her in his arms, looking at the crescent moon in the sky, and said softly, "Well, it's just an engagement now, and we will get married in the future."

-

The news of the engagement spread a few days later. For Shen Zhiyi, the only impact was that more people secretly watched her at school, and some people talked about her secretly, but she didn't care about these.

The bell rang for the end of get out of class. Facing the gazes of many people, Shen Zhiyi walked out of the classroom and was held by Pei Yu's hand.

It had just snowed outside. Although the snow had stopped now, there would still be occasional wind blowing, causing the fine snow to fall from the branches.

Shen Zhiyi reached out and brushed off the snowflakes on Pei Yu's shoulders. "Have you received the admission letter from the university?"

"Well," Pei Yu, wearing the same style but different color down jacket as her, squinted his eyes slightly, looking lazy and relaxed, "I'll show it to you later."

Shen Zhiyi said with some distress, "The school you applied to is too good. I don't know if I can get in."

Her grades are naturally very good, but the environment she grew up in did not give her the opportunity to participate in competitions to gain extra points. Now it is too late to prepare, and she can only rely on her academic performance to pass the exam, which is somewhat risky.

"It's okay," Pei Yu told her casually about his future plans, "We'll move out after college, so it doesn't matter if we're not in the same school."

Shen Zhiyi glanced at him, and the hand he was holding gently tickled his palm, "You seem to have planned everything for the future."

She occasionally had this feeling, as if Pei Yu had planned their future over and over again, and was certain that things would develop in that direction and nothing unexpected would happen.

"I only planned things related to you," Pei Yu did not deny it. He had an inexplicable intuition about her affairs. He was used to arranging everything in advance and would not accept any accidents. "Do you think I am too arbitrary?"

In fact, he didn't ask for her opinion on many things beforehand.

Shen Zhiyi smiled and said, "No, Pei Yu, few people think so much about me. This feeling is pretty good."

She was really getting further and further away from her previous life. Even many of her memories became blurred and she seldom thought of them. All those bad memories were covered with the shadow of "Pei Yu".

Pei Yu smiled, his brows and eyes were very gentle, "Then let's arrange the engagement date for next week. Is there any objection?"

"So fast," Shen Zhiyi was a little surprised, but felt that there was nothing wrong with this, "Okay, I have no objection."

The snow started falling again, forming a thin layer on the ground, leaving clear footprints when walking. The two of them did not hold an umbrella. Shen Zhiyi raised her head slightly and saw Pei Yu's hair turned white by the snow.

They met in the height of summer, and now it is winter.

Shen Zhiyi stopped and asked with eyes curved, "Pei Yu, do you want to kiss?"

In the heavy snow, the boy bent down and kissed her.

——end
The next extra chapter I want to write is about a parallel world where marriage comes first and love comes later