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

"Um……"

"By the way, who exactly is this Mary?" Shen Jie looked at the "badge" on her left palm again.

"You don't even know her, so why did you summon her?" Xiao Yao asked, puzzled.

"I do not know either……"

“If I remember correctly, maybe, possibly, probably, she was a medieval English queen… I can’t remember the specifics,” Xiao Yao tried to recall. “They said she loved burning people, and was known as Bloody Mary—don’t blame me if I’ve mixed it up.”

“Eh? I remember you mentioning Bloody Mary. It’s one of my favorite cocktails,” Shen Jie said confidently. “It’s a mixture of vodka, tomato juice, lemon slices, and stuff like that. It looks a lot like blood, and it has a perfect balance of sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy flavors. It’s really exciting…”

"Does it taste better than bottled Coca-Cola?"

I don't want to talk to you.

“Speaking of which,” Xiao Yao asked another question, “why are you a queen, while I am just a knight?”

"if not?"

"If you are the queen, then I should be the king."

Shen Jie burst out laughing.

"Oh, don't start again," Xiao Yao said.

Fortunately, Shen Jie didn't start her maniacal laughter: "You only move one square per turn, are you planning to retire here?"

"What? Move one space?" Xiao Yao didn't react for a moment.

"Chess, huh? I'll teach you another day if you don't know how," the girl said proudly.

“Alright, you said it yourself,” Xiao Yao shrewdly used this as yet another excuse for a date: “Miss Shen is indeed very talented, skilled in music and chess—”

Xiao Yao was only halfway through his sentence when Shen Jie suddenly turned around and pushed him away forcefully.

"What are you—"

Something flew past Xiao Yao with a "whoosh"! When he turned around, he found that a crossbow bolt had been deeply embedded in a crack in the wall.

"What the hell—" Xiao Yao exclaimed in shock.

Before he could react, Shen Jie had already taken several steps forward, raised her left leg high, and hurled the fireball in her hand towards the direction from which the arrow had come, like a baseball pitcher.

The fireball streaked across the sky, illuminating a panicked figure. Without hesitation, Shen Jie leaped forward.

Xiao Yao quickly followed, but the two figures in front of him soon disappeared into the darkness as the small fireball went out, leaving only the echoes of fists and feet cutting through the wind and shouts of exertion in his ears.

Although Xiao Yao was very worried about Shen Jie, the dark surroundings and slippery ground forced him to slow down. At the same time, the sounds of fighting ahead abruptly stopped.

"Shen Jie!! Are you alright?"

The sudden silence made Xiao Yao nervous. He wanted to run a few steps but slipped and fell, hurting himself badly.

"Wife!" Xiao Yao's voice trembled slightly.

Suddenly, a light appeared ahead, initially just a candle-like spot, then quickly expanding into a cross-shaped flare. The ensuing heatwave, accompanied by the intense light of a supernova explosion, made Xiao Yao feel as if he were in a fiery hell.

Fortunately, everything came and went quickly. When Xiao Yao regained his sight, Shen Jie was already back in front of him.

"What are you yelling about, old man—" Shen Jie scolded playfully.

The girl held a small flame on her fingertip, and her body and face were covered with dried dirt, making her look somewhat disheveled.

"Are you alright?" Xiao Yao rushed forward and hugged the girl tightly. "I was so worried about you just now!"

Shen Jie stretched out her arms wide, neither pushing him away nor hugging him back: "Be good, what could possibly happen to me? It's good that you're alright, Your Majesty the Short-Legged King."

"Are you hurt?" Xiao Yao suddenly noticed that both of their clothes were dry and warm.

"No." Shen Jie subtly broke free from Xiao Yao's embrace, summoned the little flame again, and showed Xiao Yao the human-shaped charred mass on the ground. Not far from the charred mass lay a small hand crossbow and several scattered bolts; this appeared to be the attacker.

"How did you do that?" Xiao Yao asked Shen Jie.

"I'm not really sure either. After the light went out, it grabbed me in the dark. I couldn't see clearly, so I just hugged it back, and that's how it happened."

"Wow, this is so detailed," Xiao Yao muttered to himself, without saying it aloud.

He picked up the crossbow and checked it. It seemed to still work, but when he tried to draw the string, he couldn't get the strength out of one hand and failed several times.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Shen Jie snatched the crossbow, drew the string, and loaded a bolt.

"My wife is really capable." Xiao Yao tested the shot; it worked normally and was quite accurate.

"Can you stop calling me 'wife' all the time?!" Shen Jie was furious and embarrassed, and took the crossbow, pointing it at Xiao Yao's neck.

"Yes, Miss!" Xiao Yao failed to test the boundaries and immediately withdrew.

"Alright, now you have a weapon even if something happens." Shen Jie teased Xiao Yao as she rewinded the gun: "Your Majesty, who moves one step per turn and fires one shot per game, protect me."

Xiao Yao wanted to say "My beloved concubine, rise," but then thought better of it.

After this encounter, the two became more cautious as they advanced, to prevent any further ambushes.

Fortunately, they didn't run into any more trouble.

"Could this be the exit?" Shen Jie stood on tiptoe, but still couldn't reach the wooden board on her head.

Xiao Yao waved his hand, jumped, but still couldn't reach it, so he squatted down on his own.

Shen Jie rode up with practiced ease and pushed the wooden plank aside.

Xiao Yao shouted and pushed her up.

Shen Jie reached out and grabbed a ceramic-shaped ring. Upon closer inspection, she was dumbfounded.

The place where I crawled out was actually a huge, dry... toilet?

too disgusting!

Shen Jie got off the bed and then reached out to pull Xiao Yao out of the toilet. The two stood in the toilet stall, looking at each other.

This was a toilet stall at St. Francis Middle School. The light was so bright that Xiao Yao couldn't help but squint.

The girl's hair was completely messed up, and there were several mud marks on her face. Her clothes, pants, shoes, and socks were all unrecognizable in their original color, and her wide-leg pants even had two rips, revealing her no longer snow-white skin underneath.

Even so, she's still very beautiful, Xiao Yao thought.

Shen Jie reached out and unlocked the cubicle door, opening it a crack. Seeing no one was there, she came out, with Xiao Yao following closely behind.

Just as the two were about to walk towards the restroom door, a man named "Zhou Qi" rushed in in a panic.

"Damn it." Shen Jie didn't hesitate at all, and took the initiative, rushing straight ahead with flames, but she passed right through "Zhou Qi" without touching anything - "Zhou Qi" just flashed by.

Then, "Zhou Qi" passed straight through Xiao Yao's body, flashed again, ran to a corner, squatted down, and covered his head.

“It seems to be an illusion…” Xiao Yao said.

Upon closer inspection, this "Zhou Qi" was not dressed as Saiker, but rather wearing a uniform of a middle school student in Shanghai—a white T-shirt, a red scarf, and black shorts.

Before the two could react to what was happening, several more girls in the same uniform walked in and walked past them as if they were no longer there.

Xiao Yao stared in disbelief as four or five girls surrounded Zhou Qi in a corner. One of the girls, who looked like the "big sister," filled a bucket with tap water and poured it over Zhou Qi's head.

"Stop looking, let's go." Shen Jie pulled Xiao Yao, and he couldn't help but look back one last time as he left.

Emerging from the restroom, I found myself not in a hallway, but in an unfamiliar classroom.

Xiao Yao and Shen Jie were already used to this illogical spatial structure.

“This doesn’t seem to be a classroom at your school,” Shen Jie said.

"Indeed not."

The classroom was filled with students who ignored them. There was no teacher around, and it was noisy, so it must have been a self-study period.

Zhou Qi, wearing a junior high school uniform, walked in from the classroom door and slowly moved back to his seat.

Her schoolbag was thrown on the ground, there was a suspiciously colored liquid on the chair, and textbooks and workbooks were scattered all over the floor.

Zhou Qi pursed her lips but said nothing. She simply squatted down and began picking up her homework.

It wasn't until she lifted the lid of her desk that she discovered it was filled with trash.

Zhou Qi finally looked around angrily, but all his classmates remained indifferent.

"This, this is..." Xiao Yao, who was watching the farce, exclaimed.

"It seems like some kind of fragment of memory, or something like that, reappearing?" Shen Jie calmly assessed. "So, this world is constructed entirely from Zhou Qi's inner world?"

“It’s entirely possible,” Xiao Yao nodded. “This Zhou Qi always bullies people, but I never thought she was once the one who was bullied.”

Shen Jie shook her head: "I've seen enough, let's go."

The third room was still a classroom, but this time it was a classroom from St. Francis Secondary School.

Xiao Yao spotted Zhou Qi at a glance, along with Wang Ming, who had a pointed face and monkey-like features, and several girls, who were all surrounding her.

"Is she being bullied here too?" Xiao Yao muttered to himself.

"Stay away from Xiao Yao, unless you want to be isolated together," Wang Ming said.

“Wang Ming…” Xiao Yao clenched his fists.

“I understand,” Zhou Qi said softly, “Actually, I’m not familiar with Xiao Yao at all. He’s the one who keeps… pestering me.”

Xiao Yao laughed out loud, filled with grief and indignation.

Shen Jie reached out and squeezed Xiao Yao's hand, squeezing it twice to comfort him: "Stop looking, let's go."