You're my wife, don't doubt it!

"No matter what, it's us now, here we are." Xiao Yao omitted the word "lying down": "Let's get along well."

"Mmm," the girl responded through her nose.

"I will treat you well, and please try your best to treat me well too... even better."

"...I will get used to it."

"Shen Jie," Xiao Yao said, dissatisfied with the ambiguous answer, "be nicer to me, okay?"

"I promise you."

Xiao Yao was satisfied.

"Wife." He called out again a few minutes later.

The only response he received was a soft snore.

Xiao Yao mustered his courage and leaned forward to peck the girl on the cheek.

So soft...

He turned around, back to back with Shen Jie, touched his lips, and sweetly gripped the corner of the blanket: "Goodnight."

In the east, the first hint of dawn appeared.

--split line--

Xiao Yao got up after lying down for a little over an hour, ran to the breakfast stall outside the "Rongfu Hotel" and bought two liang of pan-fried buns and a bowl of tofu pudding. He packed them up and put them on the bedside table next to Shen Jie.

Of course, he ate his fill at the stall first.

Xiao Yao was delighted to imagine Shen Jie's expression when she woke up and saw the breakfast he had bought.

Before leaving, Xiao Yao stole a kiss on Shen Jie's forehead.

He didn't go straight to the school, but went to the church across the street first.

Father Yu was celebrating morning Mass; Yu Luying was not present.

When Xiao Yao entered, the Mass was already halfway through. After waiting for about ten minutes, Father Yu announced, "The Mass is over."

"What's wrong?" Father Yu asked as he changed out of his vestments and came out of the changing room. "Are you going to be late for school?"

“Yes,” Xiao Yao said hurriedly, “to make a long story short, I stumbled into a new palace by accident on Saturday night.”

"Oh? Let's talk in my office." Father Yu raised his eyebrows and led Xiao Yao from the chapel to his office.

Xiao Yao briefly recounted everything that happened to him on Saturday night.

“While I can’t be sure,” Father Yu frowned, “it could be the collective unconscious.”

"Group subconscious? What's that?" Xiao Yao was completely baffled.

"This is a concept proposed by the psychologist Carl Jung, also known as the collective unconscious." Father Yu thought for a moment, "How should I explain it to you?"

"How about we make this quick?" Xiao Yao suggested, glancing at the time on his phone.

“I’m not a psychology major either, so to put it simply,” Father Yu explained, “the reason your teacher Yao’s mind has formed a temple is because her desires have become too distorted. Not everyone has a temple. The place you stumbled into the day before yesterday, if I’m not mistaken, is what is called the ‘temple of the masses.’”

"A palace for all?" Xiao Yao repeated.

"You can read a book called 'The Crowd'."

""mob"?"

“When people are in a group, they are easily swept up by the crowd, which is what is called ‘public opinion’,” Father Yu said. “In this kind of collective fanaticism, a kind and gentle person may unknowingly become bloodthirsty and cruel without realizing it, thinking that he represents justice.”

“I wouldn’t dare say I understood,” Xiao Yao said, “but I feel like I did.”

“Looking back, for example, the witch hunts in European history,” Father Yu said. “Looking closer, things like cyberbullying on the internet or group bullying in school environments are all manifestations of the subconscious of the group.”

Upon hearing "school bullying," Xiao Yao frowned.

Suddenly, the school loudspeakers across from the church began playing "The Athletes' March".

"You should go now," Father Yu reminded him upon hearing the music.

"Damn it, we're doomed!" Without saying a word, Xiao Yao rushed out of the church.

……

In the end, my name was written down by the student council officers at the school gate.

--split line--

"How was it? Did you fall asleep afterwards?" During the speech under the national flag, Daiyu asked in a sneaky low voice.

"I'm going to sleep," Xiao Yao said sleepily.

"Really?" Ribbonfish raised his voice slightly.

"Keep your voice down, I meant sleep, not sleep."

"Tch, I knew you couldn't do it," the ribbonfish said disdainfully, "worse than an animal."

"Haste makes waste. Sleeping together is enough to elevate our relationship, and I'm already very satisfied." Xiao Yao thought for a moment, then gently pinched the ribbonfish: "Don't tell anyone outside."

Although he had given him countless instructions last night, Xiao Yao was still worried.

At this moment, Zhang Jialong silently glanced at the two of them.

"Don't worry at all." Ribbonfish lowered his voice and patted his chest: "Am I that kind of person, bro?"

That's hard to say, Xiao Yao thought. Trying to outwit this guy last night might not have been a wise choice.

"The students below, stop whispering to each other!" the principal said.

Xiao Yao believed that he had fallen in love.

At least, he was relatively successful in convincing himself that he had fallen in love.

The past cannot be retrieved, so it is better to cherish what we have now and look to the future. This is Xiao Yao's philosophy of life.

How to put it? For the first time in his life, Shen Jie and he were going head to head in a two-way relationship. This was a completely new experience for him.

Xiao Yao tried her best not to look at Yu Luying—why did she cut her hair? She used to have the longest hair in the class, and in two years it would probably grow to her waist, but today it was much shorter, tied up in a high ponytail.

They seem quite energetic... but...

Xiao Yao liked her long hair.

The little figure in white paced back and forth, pondering, "When a girl suddenly changes her hairstyle, it usually means a change in her attitude towards certain things."

"If a woman suddenly cuts her long hair, it's either for money or for her life. You can decide for yourself." The little figure in red used a fork to pick up a strand of Xiao Yao's hair, rolled it up like a noodle, and then pulled hard...

Damn!

Xiao Yao suppressed the sense of disappointment in his heart.

Unfortunately, the school doesn't allow shaved heads, and Shen Jie is still waiting for me to perm her hair during the summer vacation.

Yes, Shen Jie.

During class, Xiao Yao opened his notebook and wrote those two words on it with a black ballpoint pen.

The character is composed of three dots (water radical), a radical supporting a roof, a left-falling stroke, a right-falling stroke, and a hook.

The character has the radical for "woman" on its left, and on the right is...

"Jie".

Xiao Yao opened the Modern Chinese Dictionary and found the character.

Jiejié

[~Yu]

The title of a female official in the Han Dynasty palace in China. This title was largely used from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty. [1]

The Records of the Grand Historian, "Biographies of Imperial Relatives": "During the reign of Emperor Wu, he favored Consort Yin."

The Biography of Xu Jian in the Old Book of Tang states: "Xu Jian's eldest aunt was a concubine of Emperor Taizong, and his second aunt was a concubine of Emperor Gaozong; both were accomplished in literature."

Ming Shenjing's "The Tale of Two Pearls: The Lost Pearl Enters the Palace" states: "She was skilled in demeanor and modeled after the concubines, and possessed beauty and talent that set the standard for the imperial concubines." [2]

Jieyu

In ancient times, the female official titles in the palace were titles for imperial concubines.

……

Xiao Yao stroked the character "婕" in the Modern Chinese Dictionary, feeling that it contained infinite magic.

He wrote the name over and over again.

He felt that he missed her and longed for her.

One of the writers he admired, born in the 80s, once wrote: "Holding a book in my hands is as reassuring as seeing a woman lying in my own bed."

Whether the beds in Rongfu Hotel are truly one's own is debatable; in any case, it's impossible to feel at ease.

He missed her, he loved her, he wanted to see her.

After all, if he didn't love her enough, he would be letting her down, and also letting Zhang Zhengkai down.

Why did you think of Zhang Zhengkai? What has he got to do with you now?

Xiao Yao took out his phone. It was almost lunchtime, but Shen Jie still hadn't replied to his text message.