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

Unfortunately, neither "father" nor "husband" would allow it, would they?

Shen Jie opened her glasses case, gently placed the hair inside, and closed it.

Let's keep it as a memento.

She bent down and kissed her daughter's cheek, then got up and started changing her clothes.

Shen Jie woke Xiao Yao up and dragged him for a morning run, and then they participated in Mass at the Sacred Heart Church.

Yu Luying and Daiyu also arrived. After the mass, the five of them went to the mirror under the bridge and went deep into the fifth floor of the subway to begin their training for the day.

"Daiyu," Shen Jie asked Daiyu on the way, "how did your talk with Xiaoran go?"

“Great, great,” the ribbonfish said with a beaming smile. “We’ve made plans to go to the aquarium tomorrow.”

“Then you’d better do your homework beforehand and memorize some information,” Shen Jie advised him, “pretend to be knowledgeable.”

"I know!" Ribbonfish gave an "OK" sign: "Thank you, sister-in-law!"

"An aquarium," Xiao Yao thought. "For a ribbonfish to go to an aquarium would be like coming home, like a fish in water."

Without Shi Hui's support today, the pressure of the battle has increased dramatically, not to mention the burden of having Daiyu with them, so they dare not venture too deep.

Daiyu's martial arts skills are actually not bad; at least he and Zhang Jialong could beat up judo expert Wang Ming. However, in this world of consciousness, they obviously can't play much of a positive role.

Fortunately, although it was difficult, everyone gained a lot of experience from it.

After leaving the "hall of fame," Yu Luying accompanied Xiao Yao and Shen Jie home to retrieve their luggage.

After saying a formal goodbye to their daughter, Shen Jie dragged one suitcase and Xiao Yao dragged another, and the three of them walked through the narrow alleyway, which was slightly chilly.

The houses on both sides were old, with some walls showing slight mottles. Clothes drying on the roofs were bathed in sunlight and swayed gently in the breeze.

The three of them walked under their neighbor's underwear, just like always.

As the old lady Jin greeted Xiao Yao loudly, she poured the filth from the spittoon into the groove surrounding the building.

Several thin, bony old men, wearing vests, lay lazily on deck chairs in front of their homes, enjoying their leisure time.

A group of noisy children ran past the three of them, knocking the suitcase Shen Jie was carrying askew.

"I'm sorry!" the lead child shouted, and before Shen Jie could answer, he chased after his friends and ran off into the distance.

Xiao Yao returned the four "Meinianda" glass bottles to the counter and got his 2 yuan deposit back.

The three of them stood at the entrance of the alleyway waiting for a taxi, and none of them spoke.

The taxi slowly stopped at the entrance of the alley. The driver opened the trunk from the driver's seat, and Xiao Yao stuffed the two suitcases into it one by one before forcefully closing the trunk.

Xiao Yao used a bit too much force, making a loud noise, which earned him a glare from the driver. Then, the driver honked the horn, signaling the passengers to get on the bus quickly.

“Then…” Xiao Yao opened his arms.

Shen Jie hugged Yu Luying and Xiao Yao in turn.

"Call me when you get home and let me know you're safe." Xiao Yao put his thumb and little finger to his ear.

"Alright," Shen Jie said with a forced smile, "Don't make it sound like a life-or-death situation. Go back and catch up on your studies."

Shen Jie got into a taxi, and the car slowly started moving, leaving the alleyway.

Xiao Yao and Yu Luying stood silently at the entrance of the alley, watching the slogan "Be a lovely Shanghainese" pasted on the rear window of the taxi gradually disappear at the end of the road.

For some reason, that familiar melody rang in Xiao Yao's ears again.

"I gaze at you in the sunset, your sorrow flowing like water. I remember the way you waved to me; don't ask me if love will change, who can predict these things? Please give me an answer, just like the way you looked into my eyes back then..."

……

About an hour later, the taxi Shen Jie was in drove onto a quiet, tree-lined road.

There were no other vehicles, pedestrians, or shops on the road, not even fallen leaves.

Behind the roadside trees on one side of the road lies a villa area hidden by greenery.

Before this taxi appeared, the only sound here was the chirping of cicadas.

The driver turned around and asked Shen Jie, "Miss, shall I park for you at the main entrance?"

"Let's drive in," Shen Jie said, looking out the car window somewhat casually.

After being away for quite some time, this place is still just as it was when I returned every day before—full of life, yet also lifeless.

"Uh, okay." The driver seemed to want to say something, but ultimately said nothing.

The taxi stopped at the gate of the villa area. A young man in a security guard uniform came out of the guard post next to him, waving at the driver and shouting, "Hey, taxis aren't allowed in."

"See, they won't let us in." This time, the driver didn't turn around, but his tone was full of "I knew it all along."

Shen Jie ignored the driver's comment, silently rolled down her car window, took off her sunglasses, and looked expressionlessly at the smug and gesturing security guard.

The security guard was stunned when he saw Shen Jie's face. Then he hurriedly ran back to the guard booth, raised the barrier, adjusted his hat, ran to the car, held his breath, and stood at attention to salute.

He watched as Shen Jie looked away, rolled up the car window again, and the taxi slowly pulled in, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Shen Jie then gave the driver a few more instructions about the route ahead.

She saw in the rearview mirror that the security guard had gone back to the booth to make a phone call, but he didn't pay any attention to her.

This "Xi'an Jiaotong University Waterfront Garden" villa complex was developed and built by my father's company. It is built to a very high standard and has a location that is both secluded and beautiful. This is rare in Shanghai, where land is extremely valuable. The price is high, and the owners are naturally wealthy and powerful.

The father reserved the most central location of the plot for his own family. As a result, these wealthy clients not only had to pay him a lot of money, but also had to personally act as the Shen family's city walls and moats.

The property management, security, and all other services here are handled entirely by my father's company.

In other words, he has eyes and ears everywhere inside and outside the park, and he can know everything about everyone's every move.

The taxi slowly came to a stop in front of a courtyard.

Shen Jie looked out the front window of the car and saw that Johns was indeed standing at the door with two servants waiting.

The driver immediately got out of the car to open the trunk as soon as he stopped, but Johns politely stopped him.

Johns handed over two bills to pay the fare. At the same time, a maid opened the car door for Shen Jie and helped her out of the car, while another male servant took Shen Jie's luggage from the trunk and gently closed the trunk door.

The taxi drove away, and the servants took the two suitcases inside first, leaving only Shen Jie and Johns in front of the courtyard.

“Uncle Johns~~~” Shen Jie called out affectionately.

“Your father is waiting for you.” Johns’ voice was flat and emotionless.

"I thought he was still busy with work at the company today," Shen Jie said, adopting a nonchalant attitude.

“He should be busy with company affairs. Come with me.”

Shen Jie followed Johns through the garden in front of her house. This excessively large, classically symmetrical European-style garden had indeed amazed her when she first entered, but soon after, she began to miss her old house. Although it was relatively less spacious, noisier, and lacked this large yard, it had a more lived-in feel.

The saplings in the garden had clearly been pruned, their edges sharp and distinct, yet strangely, there were no fallen branches or leaves on the ground. The gardener, busy in the garden, saw Shen Jie return, wiped the sweat from his brow, and showed a relieved expression.

"Miss." "Miss." "Miss."...

In just one hour, it felt like traveling through a time tunnel, Shen Jie thought.

Just a moment ago it felt like I was walking through a lane in the 80s, and now I feel like I'm in a foreign country.

These two worlds, so starkly different, are separated by only a "wall" in terms of the size of this city.

The place felt familiar, as it was her home of many years, yet it also seemed somewhat strange now, because a tense atmosphere hung in the air. All the servants and hired hands were in a state of tense busyness, but it was impossible to tell what they were doing.

When the maid, Old Li, saw Shen Jie, he beamed with joy: "Miss, you're back!"

"Uncle Li, how have you been lately?"

The news that "Miss is back" quickly spread among the house's employees and throughout the entire house.

The tense and busy atmosphere from before seemed to dissipate as the news spread, and the house gradually returned to how Shen Jie remembered it.

Shen Jie pondered to herself, "Logically speaking, my father should be at the company at this time. I haven't specified when he'll be back. Has he not been to the company lately?"

It's impossible that I was being watched the moment I stepped out of Xiao Yao's place, right?

If that's the case, perhaps he would have already accepted Xiao Yao.

With this ostrich-like fantasy in mind, Shen Jie followed Johns into the main entrance of the mansion.

A Filipino maid approached them. Because she was young, not very fluent in the language, and didn't have any particularly complicated interpersonal relationships, Shen Jie got along well with her.

"Lisa!" Shen Jie greeted the maid warmly.

Lisa's eyes held a hint of worry: "Lady, the Master is waiting for you in the studio."

She saw Johns's expression and shut her mouth again.

“Uh…” Shen Jie’s heart tightened.

She sat on a chair by the door, and Lisa knelt down with practiced ease, placing Shen Jie's right foot on her knee and loosening her shoelaces.

Next, Lisa did the same thing to her, taking off her left sneaker and neatly putting it into the shoe cabinet.

Shen Jie, wearing only white lace socks, stepped onto the spotless hall floor.

The design of the house was done by the father himself, who said that he wanted to make the decisions for his own home.

The magnificent three-story atrium before him was his proud creation. While the combination of luxurious crystal chandeliers, sculptures, and other decorative elements did indeed create a palatial grandeur, Shen Jie felt that her father's greatest satisfaction lay in the fact that from the third floor, he could overlook most of the building's public areas, fully satisfying his core need for complete control.

The house only has one scenic elevator in one corner, mainly for entertaining guests. Normally, family members go up and down the stairs by taking the stairs, including the father himself.

This was a rule set by my father himself; his exact words were, "I don't welcome laziness here."