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

After all, even the rice was frozen solid...?

To put it bluntly, it was already noon on the second day.

Not so much.

The compromise was that it was 11 p.m.

Shen Jie tiptoed to the sunroom, yanked open the curtains, and confirmed that it was nighttime.

call……

"Hurry, hurry!" Shen Jie ran back to the bedside and frantically pressed the power button.

As soon as her phone was turned on, she was bombarded with text messages.

QQ shows 40+ unread messages.

Although it was expected, Shen Jie still felt a chill run down her spine.

She didn't feel particularly averse to it, but she did feel...timid?

Without having time to check the contents of text messages and QQ, the girl directly dialed Xiao Yao using speed dial.

"Beep-beep-"

The phone emitted a long waiting tone, and Xiao Yao did not answer the call immediately as she had expected.

As she waited, her fear intensified.

Shen Jie could imagine that what awaited her on the other end of the phone was either a furious outburst or a hysterical lament.

This timidity caused the girl's finger to unconsciously move towards the button to hang up the phone.

Perhaps you should think about what to say before making the call?

Just as she was about to hang up, the other end answered.

"Hello." A familiar, slightly hoarse voice came from the other end of the phone.

Shen Jie jolted awake and blurted out, "Honey, I was wrong, please don't be angry. I really, really didn't mean to. It was all an accident."

"Don't rush, tell me slowly," the boy interrupted her, his tone surprisingly calm: "What exactly happened?"

Xiao Yao's attitude calmed Shen Jie down a bit, and her fear lessened.

She realized that Xiao Yao was not Shen Hongsheng after all.

The girl composed herself and told Xiao Yao how she woke up that morning and was invited by Luo Yunxuan to taste her specially made cocktails, how the two of them talked while drinking, and how she slept until she woke up in the evening.

"Really," Shen Jie concluded, "I'm not lying to you. The first thing I did when I woke up was to call you. I was halfway through using the bathroom when I saw my phone was charging and turned on, so I rushed out—"

"..." A brief silence fell on the other end of the phone.

"Hello? What's wrong?" Shen Jie asked nervously again. "I really, really didn't lie to you."

"You just said you'd compensate me in any way you wanted?" Xiao Yao chuckled softly.

"..." Shen Jie shut her mouth tightly, beginning to regret her careless words.

Fortunately, the other party did not continue to take advantage of the situation.

"Drinking cocktails like this?" The other person changed the subject: "Did your mom drug you?"

“Haha, I think so too,” Shen Jie said. “I rarely drink this much, and I always feel like I haven’t drunk that much.”

"Then..." Xiao Yao's voice sounded very gentle: "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Shen Jie nodded, even though the other person couldn't see her movements: "My head was still a little sore when I first got up, but it's better now."

"I'm relieved that you're alright." Xiao Yao sighed.

"Thank you..." Shen Jie was both touched and guilty: "I'm so sorry for making you worry. I will try my best to avoid this happening again in the future."

"Has your period started?" Xiao Yao changed the subject.

Shen Jie lifted her nightgown and glanced at it: "Not yet."

"I see." Xiao Yao's voice sounded somewhat disappointed.

"It's okay, don't overthink it," Shen Jie comforted him.

"Why don't you go see a doctor tomorrow?" Xiao Yao suggested.

"It can't be that bad..." Shen Jie's tone was somewhat hesitant.

Logically speaking, seeing a family doctor shouldn't be a big deal for her; it's something she can arrange anytime.

However, for reasons that readers can imagine, Shen Jie did not really want Shen Hongsheng to know about this.

"I just had a dream," Xiao Yao said.

"What dream? Tell me," Shen Jie said.

……

"What Limbo Hell? And Shen Diyun? What kind of weird names are these?" Shen Jie laughed on the other end of the phone.

So Xiao Yao explained to her the concept of "Lingbo Hell" that he had just learned.

As Shen Jie listened, she felt a chill run down her spine, but said nonchalantly, "What the hell? You really overthink things."

"That's right," Xiao Yao admitted, "I also feel like I'm overthinking things. And since you've disappeared, I've become even more anxious and have even more wild thoughts—"

"Alright," Shen Jie decided to comfort him, "For the rest of my life, in the days to come, as long as it's your child, I will risk my life to give birth to it."

She felt she should be embarrassed to say those words, but for some reason, she didn't feel embarrassed at all.

“Thank you. Wait—what are you saying?” Xiao Yaorui commented, “You want to have someone else’s child?”

Shen Jie laughed again while holding the phone, but her heart grew increasingly uneasy.

She didn't know if she really had the strength to fulfill such a heavy promise; all she knew was that she didn't want to continue this strange topic.

Shen Jie thought, "I hope everything will really be alright."

Fortunately, before she could ask to change the subject, Xiao Yao had already started talking about the "disappearance case" again.

For Shen Jie now, it's better to talk about this.

“I sent you a lot of QQ messages and text messages today,” Xiao Yao said hesitantly. “There were some… well, all kinds of messages, some of which were rather urgent and contained some emotions. You should delete them all and don’t read them.”

"Hmm...?" Shen Jie deliberately drew out her nasal tone: "Okay, then I'll delete them all."

"Mmm," Xiao Yao said.

Shen Jie secretly decided that she would read through all this information as soon as she hung up the phone.

What's meant to happen will happen, and Xiao Yao started rambling on and on about how worried, anxious, and unable to concentrate on anything else he would be if he disappeared—while Shen Jie repeatedly and solemnly promised him that it would never happen again.

"Should I write a self-criticism and send it to you?" Shen Jie said half-jokingly at the end.

"Let's skip the checkup," Xiao Yao said. "But I'd be very disappointed if this kind of problem happened again."

Xiao Yao's words reminded Shen Jie of what Shen Hongsheng had said: "I will be very, very disappointed in you." She immediately felt a bit disgusted, but she didn't show it.

The two chatted for about 20 more minutes before Shen Jie politely reminded him that she was starving. After saying goodnight to Xiao Yao, she hung up the phone, unplugged the charging cable, walked to her bedroom door, and rang the bell to call the maid.

Afterwards, she went back to the bathroom, took off her pajama bottoms, sat back on the smart toilet, and began to review Xiao Yao's text messages one by one.

--split line--

The following morning, Xiao Yao was woken up by a phone call from Yu Luying, who asked him to come to class.

Shen Jie's good morning QQ message was already in his phone, asking him if he had fun with Sha Mei at the War Park yesterday.

“I don’t see you being that anxious. You’re still running your horse and dancing as usual,” Shen Jie said.

So you're turning the tables on me?

Xiao Yao smiled wryly, knowing that the other party had not followed his request to delete or read all messages and comments.

He asked Shen Jie if her relatives had arrived, and received the same negative answer. However, Xiao Yao had decided not to keep thinking about it.

The course is still being held in the large conference room on the first floor of the Sacred Heart Church. The Creed course has been completed, and today we will officially begin the course on the Seven Sacraments and the Ten Commandments.

After class, Yu Bo did not dismiss everyone as before and take Xiao Yao, Dai Yu and others to level up. Instead, he invited everyone to have a big meal together.

“I made my own borscht,” Yu Bo said, lifting the lid of the pressure cooker in the kitchen, taking a sniff, and then putting it back on. “I also made old hen soup. How was my cooking? Everyone, please give me your feedback later.”

"It smells really good," Xiao Yao said honestly, taking a deep breath.

"I'm already looking forward to it!" Ribbonfish also looked very excited.

"Why didn't Yan Xiao come with you today?" Xiao Yao asked Daiyu.

“Her, well,” said the ribbonfish, looking somewhat embarrassed, “she—she probably isn’t very interested, is she?”

Chen Lu didn't come today either. Apart from Yu Luying, it was a group of hooligans and monks. The food was pretty good, though. In addition to the borscht and chicken soup that Yu Bo cooked himself, there were also several dishes cooked by the older aunties in the canteen. It was quite a sumptuous lunch.

At the dinner table, Yu Bo announced the arrangements for the first social practice activity the next day, requiring everyone to refrain from taking leave unless absolutely necessary.

After lunch, Xiao Yao and Yu Luying did not go to the Madier Café, but instead started doing practice problems in an empty room on the second floor of the church.

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Yu Luying frowned. “If it’s according to your—her—supposition, I feel like her stepmother deliberately got her drunk, or even drugged her.”

“When did you become a conspiracy theorist?” Xiao Yao laughed. “It can’t be. Shen Jie and her stepmother get along quite well. It’s not a fairy tale. Where do so many wicked stepmothers come from?”

Yu Luying shrugged.