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

Our love will never grow old.

I am a child who loves music…

After finishing the song, the long-haired man stood up from his small stool, raised his guitar, and shouted, "Meng Xiaohan, I love you!"

The crowd erupted in enthusiastic cheers: "Say yes! Say yes! Say yes!"

Xiao Yao was excitedly eating melon, unaware of Shen Jie's slightly furrowed brows.

Amidst a chorus of "Say yes! Say yes!", a rather shrewish voice suddenly rang out from the third floor of dormitory building 11: "Go love your mom!"

Along with these vulgar words, a large basin of water fell from the sky, drenching the long-haired man from head to toe, and almost splashing several bystanders.

The onlookers made a series of unintelligible noises and backed away, and in an instant, the small circle became a large circle.

"Who do you think you are!" Xiao Yao shouted angrily, "Is this the kind of quality college students have?"

“Let’s go, Gouzi,” Shen Jie said, taking Xiao Yao’s hand. “I’m tired, let’s go back.”

Xiao Yao didn't feel tired. Knowing Shen Jie's physical strength, he figured she shouldn't be tired either. Taking the last bus back to the city center would be perfectly feasible, but Shen Jie still said, "I'm tired."

So Xiao Yao said, "How about we go back tomorrow?"

Shen Jie replied, "That works too."

And that's how it was done.

The hotels on Qinfen Street in the University Town that say "Welcome new and old students" are probably quite affordable.

As they walked toward the entrance of T University, they passed by the university's "Net Bridge".

Although it's called a "net bridge," there's no net on it.

Its railings were very low, and Xiao Yao felt terrified just looking at them.

A river of moderate size flows beneath the bridge, and the night breeze carries the gentle sound of its flowing water.

There was nothing paved on the bridge surface, just ordinary asphalt. In the night, the "Net Bridge" was illuminated by a bright yellow street lamp, making the entire bridge surface appear soft and warm.

There were a dozen or so young people who looked like college students skateboarding on the bridge. There were both men and women, and they seemed to be members of some skateboarding club.

Dressed in loose-fitting clothes and jeans, paired with cool skateboard shoes, they sped across the bridge, laughing and joking. The skateboards raced across the bridge, making a loud, clanging sound.

They speed across the bridge from one end, turn and glide to the other end, then turn back again, shuttling back and forth repeatedly.

Xiao Yao instinctively disliked this kind of "hip-hop" sport, especially after one of the guys almost bumped into him.

"Be careful." Xiao Yao reached out and pulled Shen Jie to his side, shielding her behind him.

"I'm sorry." The girl, whose appearance and hairstyle were very androgynous, apologized to Xiao Yao expressionlessly. Before Xiao Yao could reply, she disappeared into the distance.

"Who are they!" Xiao Yao muttered, but then noticed that Shen Jie looked at the group with admiration in her eyes.

"You're not interested in skateboarding too, are you?" Xiao Yao asked her.

“I skateboard, and I also ice skate and roller skate,” Shen Jie said with a smile. “It’s all part of the same circle, and I have a bunch of friends I hang out with, but we haven’t gotten together since I moved to your place.”

"I've never heard you mention having this hobby before?" Xiao Yao scratched the back of his head.

"You," Shen Jie complained, "when have you ever cared about my affairs?"

"..."

The girl had just said she was tired and in a hurry to rest, but now she plopped down on the low railing of the "net bridge," her little feet dangling, with the dark, cold river water below.

"Be careful!" Xiao Yao warned.

"Are you even a man?! Come here." Shen Jie slapped the person next to her in a loud and casual manner.

Be careful… Xiao Yao suddenly realized that his first concern was that Shen Jie's expensive Dior shoes might fall off.

Another concern was that it might be dangerous for her to sit there.

But Shen Jie was just joking that she wasn't "manly" enough.

Xiao Yao thought for a moment, then stopped dawdling and sat down next to Shen Jie.

*Dangerous actions; readers are advised not to imitate.*

He would occasionally peek at his feet, trying to act like a clumsy child worried about falling.

"Look how scared you are," Shen Jie said reproachfully. "The water isn't rushing, and I can swim. What are you afraid of?"

Xiao Yao was happy to see Shen Jie's wet body, but...

“It’s nighttime,” Xiao Yao told Shen Jie. “You can swim, but I can’t.”

"You can't swim, but silly girl can."

"So what? Given the current intensity of this symbiosis..." Xiao Yao muttered, "You're much lighter than me, so rescuing me won't be easy. You could easily get yourself killed too, and besides, it's nighttime..."

"How long-winded," Shen Jie said.

Xiao Yao felt a soft body gently nestled against him.

He paused for a moment, turned his face away, then lowered his head and closed his eyes.

The girl's hands hooked around his neck, more tenderly than ivy; her breath gently brushed against his face, softer than the April breeze.

The pain in his heart was gradually soothed by this tenderness and affection, and he couldn't help but want more, like a bee greedily scrambling for nectar.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly tasted a strange flavor, both salty and bitter.

Xiao Yao opened his eyes, only to see Shen Jie quickly turn her face away and wipe her eyes with her hand.

Perhaps due to the drop in temperature at night, both of them were shivering slightly.

A strong emotion welled up in Xiao Yao's heart, and he felt that he had begun to understand Shen Jie's heart.

He held the girl tightly around the waist, wanting to pull her petite body into his arms.

The boy looked ahead in the direction the river was flowing. Not far away, not too close, was another bridge, which seemed like a gateway to the unknown.

“The Master said while standing by the river…” Xiao Yao said.

“Time flows like a river, never ceasing day or night,” Shen Jie continued.

Xiao Yao was pleased to see that Shen Jie could finally compose poems with him, oh, although these weren't poems.

He turned around and saw skateboarders speeding across the bridge, their laughter vanishing in an instant.

Looking past them, you can see a third bridge at the same distance.

A waning moon hung behind the bridge in front, and the stars were sparse, seemingly to emphasize a sense of loneliness and indifference.

He saw the smog, an endless expanse of smog, seemingly approaching step by step, preparing to envelop and bury everyone.

For some reason, Xiao Yao suddenly thought of the view outside Shen Tianyun's room window, a view that seemed to have remained unchanged since time immemorial.

Chapter 157 The Young Lady's Ball

2023-04-10

*This chapter is also known as "Dancing Out Your Blooming Youth"

To suppress his sadness, Xiao Yao started to make conversation.

"Honey, what do you think the baby is doing right now?" Xiao Yao nuzzled Shen Jie's neck with the tip of his nose.

"How would I know? At this time... people are probably doing square dancing, right?" Shen Jie said after thinking for a moment.

"How could someone so young have this hobby?"

“It can last 34 years,” Shen Jie said.

“Oh, I remember now,” Xiao Yao slapped Shen Jie’s thigh: “Back then, I saw you on your girls’ school’s online forum, where you did a solo dance at your school’s arts performance. Even though the video was a bit blurry, it was still amazing! Tianyun’s interest and talent in dancing is probably inherited from you.”

"Maybe," Shen Jie continued swinging her legs, "When did you check my background on Tieba?"

“Before I came to your school gate to find you for the first time,” Xiao Yao said, “I first searched you thoroughly at Canhua Internet Cafe.”

"Terrible." Shen Jie patted her heart with her left hand.

“Speaking of which,” Xiao Yao said, “it seems like I’ve never seen you dance since I’ve known you. You even said you wanted to go to a dance today?”

Shen Jie spun 180 degrees, her legs over the low bridge railing and onto the high sidewalk. She stood up and patted the back of her white shorts.

Xiao Yao quickly crawled a few steps on all fours, stood up, and clapped his hands.

“Ethnic dances are not easy to perform here,” Shen Jie thought for a moment and said, “How about this for you?”

The girl stood at the bridgehead, her hands behind her back, her gaze fixed straight ahead. She gently nodded her chin up and down a few times, silently counting "one, two, three" in her mind. She then extended her right foot, encased in a black leather shoe and a beige sock, and touched the ground lightly with her toes a few times.

"Am I supposed to be dancing ballet here, wearing these hard shoes?" Xiao Yao wondered.

Probably not.

Then, the girl lifted the tip of her shoe, touched the ground with her heel, and tapped it a few times.

With her left foot stepping out, the girl's two feet began to dance up and down rhythmically.

Her breasts jiggled up and down.

Tap dancing? Xiao Yao was taken aback.

Without musical accompaniment or wearing those special, loud dance shoes, the girl still managed to dance with a sense of rhythm.