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

2023-12-07

When Zhang Zhengkai saw Xiao Yao coming to find him, he frowned slightly, but still managed a smile as he greeted him: "Why didn't you call ahead—"

Before he could even utter the word "telephone," he was punched hard, and his expression instantly changed.

Xiao Yao's punch was pre-planned, but he intended to use only 20-30% of his strength. However, he inexplicably used 70% of his strength, which explains why Zhang Zhengkai's expression changed after the heavy blow.

"Didn't we get enough last time?" Zhang Zhengkai shouted, his little fists clenching unconsciously.

The old gatekeeper at Zhang Zhengkai's school also started peering over, holding a walkie-talkie.

This "overly forceful" action made Xiao Yao a little embarrassed, but he couldn't bring himself to apologize. So he reached out and hooked his arm around Zhang Zhengkai's shoulder, putting on a friendly gesture, pulling Zhang Zhengkai's small body into his arms. Then, he made a fist with his left hand and gently poked him, pulling him 180 degrees to turn him around: "You little brat! Ah! You little brat! What kind of thing did you do! You've really got me into trouble!..."

Zhang Zhengkai loosened his clenched fist, and the old gatekeeper sat back down and plugged the walkie-talkie back into its base.

"Wh...what's wrong again...?" Zhang Zhengkai asked with an embarrassed smile.

Before Xiao Yao could speak, Yu Luying had already come up again, kicking and punching him with both hands and feet.

Zhang Zhengkai: "??????"

This world is so unfair. Xiao Yao punched Zhang Zhengkai, which immediately attracted the attention of security guards and passersby. However, Yu Luying punched him several times with her hands and feet, but the people around her ignored it.

“You better tell this dog Xiao Yao right now,” Yu Luying said angrily, “that dog of yours… that dog… the person in that dream wasn’t me! I didn’t make any deal with you!”

"Wh-what?" Zhang Zhengkai clutched his head in his hands. "Isn't this torture? I don't even know what you're talking about!"

……

Three teenagers sat together on the sidewalk outside "Aunt Cao's Fried Pork Chop" shop, around a small wooden table, sitting on small plastic chairs, eating Shanghai-style fried pork chops dipped in special soy sauce.

"You said you don't like Shen Jie anymore?" Yu Luying's already large eyes widened even more, making Xiao Yao realize that she wasn't actually acting.

Is she really innocent? No, I'm not so easily fooled.

Yu Luying seemed to have caught his thoughts, and turned to glare at him resentfully.

“You’re not allowed to tell Shen Jie,” Xiao Yao warned her, “or I’ll never speak to you again.”

Yu Luying sneered: "You act like nobody cares about talking to you."

“…Why are you looking at me like that?” Zhang Zhengkai spread his hands ┓(`)┏: “I won’t tell her either.”

“I regret letting her remove you from the blacklist now,” Xiao Yao said, feigning a menacing expression. “From a self-interested perspective, you should have told her.”

"You're kidding me," Zhang Zhengkai said, covering his eyes with one hand and waving the other forward, "I don't like Shen Jie anymore either."

"Huh?" Xiao Yao was taken aback at first, but then he immediately realized what he meant: "Oh."

Out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Yao noticed that Yu Luying also had a surprised expression on her face.

“Not only that,” Zhang Zhengkai told Xiao Yao and Yu Luying, “I’m not afraid to tell you this… I’m not afraid to tell you… Now, when I think of her, I even feel a sense of disgust and aversion.”

“You’re such a bad man…” Yu Luying rebuked.

"Wait, this isn't right..." Xiao Yao said, "How long have you been in the dream? How come... Didn't you say you were going to stay for a month in the dream? I've been here for at least 19 days, and the other classmates have all been here longer than me..."

“I don’t know either,” Zhang Zhengkai said, scratching his head. “I only heard about a month from the butcher himself, so it’s probably just a rough estimate. Didn’t you get infected in 19 days?”

Xiao Yao: "..."

Zhang Zhengkai: "Either a month or it's irreversible damage, but yours is still salvageable."

"Thank you so much," Xiao Yao said irritably.

“Anyway, my situation should be different from yours—” Zhang Zhengkai said, “I speculate that I lost my feelings for Shen Jie because I faced my obsession head-on and controlled it.”

“You speculate, you estimate, you guess,” Xiao Yao said, “but how come you know nothing when I ask you anything? You don’t know anything at all?”

“I really don’t know…” Zhang Zhengkai said, “I think the one who tied the knot must untie it.”

Xiao Yao slammed his hand on the table: "Hey, isn't that why I came to find you?"

"We must find that senior monk," Zhang Zhengkai said firmly. "We must force him to give us the antidote."

Xiao Yao: "...I really got a lot out of coming to see you today! -- No, I have to beat you up again today, and you're not allowed to fight back."

"Does it really have to be this way?" Zhang Zhengkai asked pitifully.

Yu Luying was equally indifferent—Zhang Zhengkai, who knew nothing about the butcher's actions, couldn't say anything, let alone testify to Xiao Yao that "she wasn't her."

"What exactly did you subdue?" Yu Luying said indignantly.

After persuading Zhang Zhengkai to voluntarily pay for the pork chops for the three of them, Xiao Yao and Yu Luying walked home.

The atmosphere between the two of them had eased a bit (compared to the past week), at least they could chat about the weather, the street scenes at night, and the singing competition tomorrow.

"Xiao Yao," Yu Luying called out to him as they walked into the alleyway of her grandmother's house.

"Ah." Xiao Yao turned around.

“That really wasn’t me, I really, really know nothing about it,” Yu Luying said sincerely.

Looking into the girl's large, watery eyes in the night, Xiao Yao really couldn't bring himself to say, "Tch, I don't believe you." But if he said, "I believe you," it would obviously be lying against his conscience. So he could only reach out and pat Yu Luying's head: "Let's go."

"You have to believe me!" In a moment of impulse, Yu Luying took two quick steps and hugged Xiao Yao's waist with both hands: "We are symbiotic, can't you read my memories?"

“I can’t read it,” Xiao Yao shook his head and told Yu Luying, “I can’t read anything about that dream. It’s like there’s a barrier blocking me.”

Just as Yu Luying was about to say something more, she suddenly saw the curtains in Xiao Yao's bedroom window move slightly, and quickly let go of her hand.

After going upstairs, Shen Jie was clearly in a bad mood and kept asking where the two of them had gone.

"You two went to the park on Monday and again on Thursday. You've made it a habit, haven't you?" Shen Jie said. "Grandma and I cooked dinner at home and waited for you. You two ate until your bellies were round and full, but you didn't even send a text message."

"You, you cooked too?" Xiao Yao was surprised.

"Don't change the subject!"

"No, it's Thursday today, Yu Luying..." Xiao Yao stammered.

"Don't talk nonsense! The campus's top ten singers competition is tomorrow, and all school clubs have suspended operations today!" Shen Jie said.

"Let's stop talking now and eat first," Grandma said weakly.

“They’ve all eaten their fill outside!” Shen Jie said.

“The two of us went to see Zhang Zhengkai,” Xiao Yao said, “to discuss the pursuit of Shi Hui.”

"A pursuit?" Grandma asked, puzzled.

"Oh, then why didn't you take me—" Shen Jie paused, then realized what she meant: "Oh, okay, let's eat then. Did Brother Bo take you there?"

Under pressure from their grandmother and Shen Jie, Xiao Yao and Yu Luying ate another dinner, and the three children went downstairs for their final rehearsal.

At night, Xiao Yao tossed and turned, unable to sleep, which also affected Shen Jie.

I don't know why, but the argument I had with Yu Luying on Monday night keeps replaying in my mind.

“That really wasn’t me, I really, really know nothing about it.” The image of Yu Luying saying this kept playing in my mind’s eye.

At that time, I reminded Yu Luying: "When have you ever been a class monitor? I remember your mother saying that you have never liked to manage people."

"No, I misremembered." Yu Luying shook her head gently and turned to leave.

"The Yu Luying in my dream is clearly you, do you admit it?" Xiao Yao grabbed her and questioned her.

"The person you dreamed about was me?" Yu Luying frowned. "Do you want to listen to what you're saying?"

“I know what I’m saying,” Xiao Yao continued aggressively, “I met you in that long dream, but you told me you had a completely different dream, and you don’t admit that you and I were in the same dream.”

"What do you mean by denying it? What I'm telling you is what I know. Or do you think there's a difference between reality and fiction in dreams? Are you crazy?"

"I'm going crazy! Because I want to know all the time whether the Yu Luying I met in my dreams, that two-faced and ruthless bad woman, is the same Yu Luying standing in front of me now!"

"Two-faced? Unscrupulous?" Yu Luying's eyes widened: "You didn't use such a vicious description when you told me about your dream last time."

"If that wasn't you, then what does it have to do with you? Besides, I was just trying to be as objective as possible in my statement."

"You're talking nonsense! There's no such thing as an objective dream! And the woman in your dream has nothing to do with me, but she does to you! Because that's the version of me in your mind—two-faced and ruthless!"

Are you trying to turn the tables on me?

"You were the one who started by making baseless accusations and smearing me!"

"You're clearly lying, is it so hard to admit it?"

"You weren't telling the truth either!"

"I said that at the time to give an objective account!"

"I already said I remembered it wrong!"

……

"You believe me!" Then, the scene before their eyes jumped back to a few hours earlier—the girl took two quick steps and hugged her waist with both hands.

Xiao Yao closed his eyes tightly and shook his head violently.

"What's wrong?" The person next to Xiao Yao suddenly reached out and covered Xiao Yao's arm: "You can tell me anything that's on your mind."

"Do you think," Xiao Yao was slightly startled, and asked in a bitter voice, "that Yu Luying who cooperated with the butcher in the dream, is she really Yu Luying?"

Shen Jie was slightly taken aback.

Chapter 403 Xiao Yao Makes a Big Splash (Part 1)