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

……

……

……

A mouthful of cold water choked me, and mud and sand sprayed out of my nose. The stench instantly brought my mind back to normal.

"Are you awake?"

The voice came from the person hugging him from behind.

"Stand still, I really don't have the strength left." It was Shen Jie.

Xiao Yao quickly found his legs and got them into position.

To keep the unconscious Xiao Yao from drowning, Shen Jie kept holding him and keeping his face above water level.

This made her look somewhat disheveled, with a few strands of wet hair sticking to her forehead and her makeup ruined.

Xiao Yao felt both grateful and heartbroken—wait, she was actually wearing makeup? Xiao Yao hadn't noticed at all.

The girl was submerged in murky water from the chest down—in fact, the murky water was probably more of an imagination, because the room was dark and visibility was poor.

Then, Xiao Yao felt waves of pain coming from the wound on his right arm.

Where are we?

"Prison...I guess," Shen Jie replied, her teeth chattering.

Ah, yes.

The dungeon was lit by torches, with rows of iron cages, iron shackles and wooden crosses hanging on the walls... and water up to waist level.

The sounds of whipping and screams came from the neighboring house, not too far away.

Xiao Yao finally remembered what had happened: "You were too reckless...?"

Shen Jie opened her mouth as if to retort, but in the end, she said nothing.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"I...don't know," Shen Jie continued, her teeth chattering, "...It must have been...a few hours, right?"

"Have you been supporting me these past few hours?" Xiao Yao thought with a mix of emotion and disbelief.

"That's right!" he exclaimed, "Didn't the priest give us a teleportation scroll...?"

“If I put it in my pocket, it would have been soaked and ruined long ago,” Shen Jie interrupted him. “Do you think I didn’t think of that?”

"Why didn't you memorize it!"

Shen Jie's eyes widened, and she looked like she was about to explode with anger, but in the end she just said coldly, "Yes, it's all my fault."

"I'm sorry." Xiao Yao finally noticed that the girl's face was pale from the cold and her lips were purple.

Normally, it's summer in Shanghai right now, and even with the large temperature difference between day and night, it shouldn't be to the point of hypothermia.

But there is no logic in this world.

"Wear my jacket..." Xiao Yao suggested gently, looking at Shen Jie's soaked black sports vest clinging to her body.

"What's the point of wearing wet clothes..."

"So what do we do now..." Xiao Yao's question was only half-finished before he swallowed the words "what to do."

If you ask girls for advice on everything, what's the point of having me?

He tried to "walk" through the water to the entrance of the water dungeon to check the door, only to find that his left foot was locked by something.

"Is the water level constantly rising?" Xiao Yao discovered another, more serious problem.

"..." Shen Jie was speechless.

Okay, let's assume the water level doesn't rise. That way, at least we won't freeze to death by dawn. The prison should at least provide food, right? Probably...

"Hmm..." Shen Jie's expression was already a little dazed.

"Don't sleep! You can't fall asleep now!"

Xiao Yao reached out and put his arm around Shen Jie's shoulder.

The boy held the girl tightly in his arms, without a trace of wicked thought; he only wanted to share some of his body heat with her, and more of it.

"I'm sorry..." Xiao Yao said, "I'm really sorry."

The girl seemed to nod, but then again, she didn't. In the darkness, Xiao Yao could only hear her breathing.

"Talk to me too, don't fall asleep," Xiao Yao reminded him.

In fact, even he himself could feel his body temperature rapidly decreasing.

He felt very cold, his hands and feet trembled involuntarily, and it was hard to say whether he was fully conscious.

"I'm also...sorry..." Shen Jie finally spoke again.

"Huh?" Xiao Yao said.

“Some time ago… I treated you like that,” Shen Jie said, “Does it have to be told to you by someone else?”

"It's okay, it doesn't matter," Xiao Yao actually cared a lot, but pretended to be nonchalant, "You'll be my wife sooner or later anyway, why should I rush?"

The girl rested her head on Xiao Yao's chest and gave a weak laugh: "We're going to die here together, and you're still being so glib."

"It would be nice to die with you," Xiao Yao blurted out, unsure of how much of it was true and how much was false.

"I just don't like people like you," Shen Jie said quietly.

"What?" Xiao Yao was taken aback.

"It's nothing," Shen Jie said, closing her eyes.

“We won’t die,” Xiao Yao encouraged her. “We’ll get out of here, live to our thirties, and... watch Shen Tianyun grow from a baby into a young woman, and then…”

"Tianyun, Shen Tianyun..." Shen Jie murmured the name, as if it held some kind of magic: "If we die here, history will be changed, and there will be no more Shen Tianyun, right?"

"Varied--"

“…You’re right, we won’t die.” Shen Jie’s voice suddenly rose a little.

"Um……?"

"This is... the world of ideals, the world of the mind, right?" Shen Jie's eyes brightened. "If that's the case, why should we be dominated by the perceptions and wills of others?"

“That’s right!” Xiao Yao exclaimed.

“We will survive. The daughter of the Shen family will not die in a place like this,” Shen Jie announced. “We will leave this place, rescue all your classmates, and then…”

Before Xiao Yao could hear what she was going to say next, the girl in his arms broke free.

He heard the sound of the anklet breaking, and then he saw Shen Jie walking towards the entrance of the water dungeon.

"Be careful..." Xiao Yao tried his shackles, but they still wouldn't budge.

“Ay, Ay, Thou art we, we art thou.” Another voice suddenly rang out in the air, which was clearly not Shen Jie’s voice.

Xiao Yao felt that her English had the accent of an ancient English nobleman. Then the owner of the voice revealed her true form: a semi-transparent phantom, wearing a blood-red robe, a crown covered with twelve colored gems and inlaid with a golden cross, and a colorful rose, red on the outside and white on the inside, held tightly to her chin.

“This is…” Xiao Yao murmured.

Shen Jie looked up and saw that the phantom was surrounded by a layer of light, illuminating the dim water prison.

A small badge appeared in her palm, floating in mid-air. The front of the badge featured a portrait that was identical to the translucent phantom, with the words "Mary Tudor" written below it.

“Mary…what?” Shen Jie grasped the badge and turned it over. On the back of the badge was a white marble carving of the queen in chess, the queen sculpture on the piece lifelike, with a strong Renaissance feel.

“My bloodline and pride are all embodied in the crown,” Shen Jie said.

"What did you say?" Xiao Yao shouted.

The reason they had to shout was because the entire water dungeon was shaking and making a rumbling sound.

The phantom in the blood-red robe spoke in ancient English that Xiao Yao couldn't understand as it lit a flame, causing the wooden door of the water prison to catch fire. However, Xiao Yao didn't feel any burning sensation, only a warm feeling.

Then, his shackles began to loosen, and the wooden door crashed down.

The afterimage and the flames vanished, and he saw Shen Jie climbing onto the "shore" on her own, her wide-legged trousers, soaked with water, cascading down like a waterfall. The water flowed into her dad shoes, overflowed, and sank to the surface. In the dim light of the extinguished fire, her wet white shoes and socks reflected a shimmering light.

"Wait for me! Hey!"

Chapter 60 Fragments of Memory

2022-12-31

Xiao Yao tried several times but failed to climb up, and in the end, Shen Jie helped him up.

When the two left the water dungeon and began searching for a way out, they discovered that it was a dark maze.

The narrow passage was dark and damp, the walls were slippery to the touch, the iron railings and chains were rusty, and the smell of iron and blood mixed with the odor of tetanus in the air. There were still puddles of water on the ground, some deep and some shallow. Xiao Yao could hear Shen Jie walking ahead of him, making a "plop" "plop" sound from her shoes with each step.

"Try to go up as high as possible, it should be good, right?" A cold drop of water landed on Xiao Yao's forehead, making him shiver.

"Probably." Shen Jie held a small, suspended flame in her right hand, using it as a torch to illuminate the path ahead.

"So, you're a Grand Mage now?" Xiao Yao exclaimed. "It really feels like a game. It's a pity I still don't know how to utilize my knightly abilities?"

“I can’t tell you, I don’t even know myself…” Shen Jie felt uncomfortable with her wet clothes sticking to her body, but there was nothing she could do about it now: “Didn’t you get Don Quixote’s badge before me?”