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

"Birthday?" the girl questioned him.

"December 30th, what's wrong?"

"which year?"

"It was 88, are you checking household registration?"

The girl's face flushed, and her breathing quickened: "What are your parents' names?"

"Why should I tell you?" Xiao Yao protested.

"Your father's name is Xiao Tu, and your mother's name is Xu Qiuqin. They divorced when you were in the third year of junior high school. You live with your grandmother now, right?"

“Yes,” Xiao Yao stared intently at her, “What else do you know?”

"Is there any possibility..." Shen Tianyun swallowed hard, "that you are my father."

"?"

Chapter 2 Little Bear

After confirming the situation with Shen Tianyun for a long time, the two went back to their own rooms to sleep separately.

Strangely enough, Xiao Yao dreamt that he was watching himself wander around the room from an outsider's perspective, sometimes standing and sometimes sitting, and he wanted to wake up but couldn't open his eyelids no matter what he did.

He struggled to get up as dawn broke, his mind still foggy.

The rain has stopped, and the outside is filled with the chirping of birds.

Xiao Yao brushed his teeth, washed his face, put on his school uniform and trousers, and picked up his schoolbag.

"Last night's dream was so outrageous, really..." Xiao Yao chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Daughter, huh?"

As if in response to his call, the wardrobe door creaked open, and a pretty girl peeked out, staring blankly at Xiao Yao, who was carrying a backpack.

Xiao Yao stared blankly at her, and it took him a while to remember something.

"Didn't we agree last night that I should knock on the wardrobe door before I go into your room? Why didn't you knock?" Xiao Yao complained.

Shen Tianyun's short hair was messy, and she looked like she hadn't woken up yet. She stared at Xiao Yao for several seconds before blankly replying, "Oh, I just came to confirm that I'm not dreaming."

Perhaps this was a particularly long dream, Xiao Yao thought to himself: "Good morning."

"Ah, good morning," Shen Tianyun said. "You're busy, I'm going to wash up and head out."

"No need for formalities, just tell me."

"Oh." Shen Tianyun closed one eye and yawned widely.

Seeing that she showed no sign of leaving, Xiao Yao cast a questioning look at her.

“Um,” the girl seemed a little hesitant, “I told my mom about what happened last night.”

"Huh? You just..." Xiao Yao was stunned.

“Then my mom said she hoped you could go find her,” Shen Tianyun tilted her head: “the her from the past.”

"Your mother..." Xiao Yao stroked his chin, "Can I see her?"

"Sure," Shen Tianyun said hesitantly, "Oh! But she's on a business trip out of town for quite a while..."

"Oh, then, where did Daddy go?" Xiao Yao asked.

A faint hint of panic flashed across Shen Tianyun's face. Was it just her imagination?

"Dad?" the girl said, "Dad went to be with Mom!"

--split line--

"If I go to her, what can I say? If I tell her the truth, she'll think I'm crazy."

On his way to school by bike, Xiao Yao kept thinking about this.

The path was still wet after the rain, and Xiao Yao deliberately didn't avoid the puddles of all sizes on the road, his nose filled with the pleasant fragrance of moistened soil.

For the past 15 years since his birth, like most ordinary boys, he has lacked luck with the opposite sex. Admittedly, he has had some female friends at certain stages of his life, but whenever he tries to take things further, they always politely decline.

Now, a daughter has fallen from the sky, which seems very suspicious no matter how you look at it.

But he still chose to believe it was true.

Perhaps it's because he secretly hopes it's true?

According to the information provided by her daughter, her mother's name is Shen Jie, and she should be attending No. 7 Girls' High School at the moment.

The satisfying part is that, judging from the daughter's looks and considering Xiao Yao's own appearance, her mother is undoubtedly a great beauty.

However... he didn't meet her until he was thirty, and was summoned to be her son-in-law: that means he has to wait another fifteen years.

Although Shen Tianyun phrased it rather subtly, Xiao Yao still realized that he had never had a girlfriend before the age of 30.

Although it didn't seem too unexpected at first, upon reflection, fifteen years is already 1.5 times the length of my conscious life...

It didn't feel like a particularly pleasant thing.

If we could get to know each other beforehand, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing, right?

Speaking of which, where exactly is the Seventh Girls' High School in the city...?

Xiao Yao's random thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain in his left arm—someone had slapped him hard on the spot where he had been injured.

"Xiao Yao!" the murderer shouted loudly as he rode his bicycle.

Xiao Yao lost his balance on the bicycle. He gritted his teeth, the handlebars wobbled, and he fell to the ground with the bicycle without a sound.

Instinctively, I braced myself with my knees and elbows, preventing my face from kissing the damp earth. However, my body and mind were still severely injured…

The guy who took the picture was a sturdy little fat man with bronze skin, naturally curly hair, and a round face.

This person's name is "Xiong Ji", but most people call him Little Bear.

Little Bear was shocked to see this and hurriedly stopped the car. He rushed over to help Xiao Yao, asking, "What's wrong, Xiao Yao? I haven't even used any force and you've already fallen?"

"Damn it..." Xiao Yao grimaced, "No, no, no, no, don't touch my left hand, don't touch my wrist."

With Xiao Xiong's help, Xiao Yao stood up and examined the scraped skin on his knee.

"I'm sorry, Lao Xiao..." Little Bear said apologetically.

Xiao Yao gave him a deliberately fierce glare, then sighed.

Although Little Bear is a bit unreliable, he's considered one of the best friends at this school.

Therefore, of course I chose to forgive him.

Fortunately, the place was not far from the school. Xiao Xiong pushed two bicycles with both hands, while Xiao Yao walked beside him with a limp.

"Old Xiao, what happened to your hand? Did your grandma hit you?" Little Bear asked with concern.

“Your niece did it,” Xiao Yao replied expressionlessly.

The little bear scoffed, and seeing that he was unwilling to answer, didn't press further: "Why are you still wearing your school uniform? It's Friday today."

High schools in Shanghai usually require students to wear school uniforms from Monday to Thursday, with no special requirements on Fridays. As a result, every Friday, the school is a vibrant and diverse place.

Xiao Yao would never admit that ever since his only jacket was ruined in the wash, his school uniform had become his most presentable garment: "Look, I wore my school uniform from Monday to Thursday as required, and I did that. On Fridays, everyone wanted to be different, and I did that too. What's the problem?"

After crossing a bridge, you'll see a triangular pavilion. Turn left onto a narrow path, and you'll reach the entrance of St. Francis' School. Diagonally opposite the school is a low, drab church, its main and side doors tightly shut.

St. Francis Secondary School is very small and has no parking shed. Students' bicycles are parked in a row at the school gate, blocking the already crowded road.

Little Bear pushed two carts to find a spot, while Xiao Yao bought a lottery ticket with the last two coins in his pocket at the convenience store next to the church.

"Xiao Yao, why are you buying lottery tickets now?" Little Bear parked the car, jogged over, and hooked his arm around Xiao Yao's shoulder.

"On a whim, I just bought one randomly," Xiao Yao said, but his heart was pounding.

This winning number was found by Shen Tianyun last night when she searched for it online using her white, large-screen phone.

But what attracted Xiao Yao even more was her cell phone.

Xiao Yao also had an old flip phone, which his mother had given him after she discarded it. It could only send and receive text messages and make calls. To access the internet, he had to go to "Canhua Internet Cafe".

In a mere thirty years, it's actually possible to integrate computers into mobile phones. As a long-time reader of "Science Fiction Emperor," Xiao Yao can already envision a beautiful new world sixty years from now, where mobile phones are integrated into our heads and floppy disks are inserted behind our ears.

As usual, before entering the school gate, Xiao Yao habitually turned his head to look at the side door of the chapel.

"Stop looking, stop looking, we're going to be late," Little Bear nudged Xiao Yao's back. "Do you want to get beaten up by Lao Yao again?"

Chapter 3 Poetry and Distance

For the entire morning, there were no classes taught by their homeroom teacher, Lao Yao, so Xiao Yao was mostly lost in thought.

This wasn't because he was thinking about the lottery ticket in his pocket, his daughter in the mirror, or his wife who was far away at the No. 7 Girls' High School in the city; after all, he hadn't paid much attention in class before.

For subjects like Chinese, history, and politics, you can get high scores even without listening to lectures; but for subjects like English, math, physics, and chemistry, you won't understand them even if you listen.

Therefore, when Xiao Yao was awake, he spent most of his time reading "Ripples on the Dirac Sea," which he had borrowed from the library.

...I still can't concentrate on reading today.