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

This made Xiao Yao feel not displeasure, but unease.

Such an unusual attitude, combined with the backdrop of the sudden disappearance of the symbiosis, made it hard for Xiao Yao not to feel anxious and troubled.

Even if you try to "relax" mentally, it won't help if you don't admit it to yourself.

Once faced with his true feelings, Xiao Yao had to admit that he actually cared a lot.

This is something that cannot be controlled.

There is no way around it.

Fortunately, Shen Jie kept him company on the phone, which distracted him.

The anxiety he had previously felt about being "deprived of love" seemed to have vanished without a trace, and Xiao Yao secretly sighed that distance was the best remedy for love.

Of course, Yu Luying's "slightly unusual" state was a topic that couldn't be discussed with Shen Jie, so she had to keep it to herself.

On December 4th, the fifth and final day of military training, Yu Luying's cold attitude softened.

Then it was Shen Jie's turn to disappear.

The events of that day can be briefly described as follows: In the morning, Shen Jie sent a message to Xiao Yao saying that it seemed she was going to Navara Wedding Dress to pick out and try on clothes the next day, and asked Xiao Yao to confirm the specific details of the itinerary.

Xiao Yao woke up late and hurriedly dressed, then replied to the message, "I'll tell you later."

When he tried to reply to Shen Jie's message during a break from military training, he received no response.

Naturally, Xiao Yao didn't take it to heart.

However, by the time lunch break ended and after the afternoon training results presentation competition, Xiao Yao still hadn't received any reply, which made him quite puzzled.

Even if he isn't so easily insecure, it's impossible for him not to think about the reasons behind it.

On the bus back to the city, Xiao Yao called Shen Jie.

"Beep—beep—beep—beep—beep—"

After a long wait for the notification tone, the other end of the receiver came a deathly silence.

"Hello?" Xiao Yao said.

"Hello, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Sorry, the..."

Xiao Yao pressed the button and continued playing.

"Beep—beep—beep—" This time it only beeped for half the time, and the last beep only sounded halfway.

"Hello?" Xiao Yao's tone was uncertain and anxious.

"Hello, please do not hang up. The number you dialed is currently busy."

???

When I called for the third time, it just beeped for half a second and then said, "Hello, please do not hang up. The number you dialed is currently busy."

A row of fine beads of sweat appeared on Xiao Yao's forehead.

In the end, something still happened.

The boy tried to calm himself down.

The surrounding noise receded from him for a moment, only to return to his face the next second.

"I thought our class was definitely going to be at the bottom this time, but I didn't expect the other classes to be even worse," said a loud male voice.

“Oh well, whatever,” another boy with a distinctly different voice said, “at least this damn military training is finally over.”

Xiao Yao turned around and looked around. Yu Luying was sitting in a group of girls a little distance away from him, chatting and laughing with other female classmates.

I don't know what they were talking about, but Yu Luying covered her mouth with her right hand and laughed so hard that she was doubled over, wishing she could recline her chair.

What could possibly be so exciting about something that existed in the past but doesn't exist now?

Xiao Yao didn't know how he got to school and then home—he wanted to drop off his luggage and rush to the West Suburbs Garden, but his daughter Shen Tianyun was sitting on his bed waiting for him.

"Nannan," Xiao Yao forced a smile and went to hug Tianyun, but the latter seemed to subconsciously turn her body away.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Yao asked as he reached out to hug her again, but this time Shen Tianyun didn't flinch.

"My mom's here." Shen Tianyun hugged her chest in Xiao Yao's arms.

"Which mother do you have?" Xiao Yao was taken aback.

Yu Luying floated lightly to the sofa in the corner of Xiao Yao's room, took off her coat and hung it up, put her schoolbag on the sofa, sat down and crossed her legs.

“Stepmother,” Shen Tianyun said, “came with Grandpa.”

"Which grandfather?" Xiao Yao was stunned, as if his brain had temporarily crashed and he couldn't react.

As they were talking, Xiao Yao's grandmother, Miao Jinfang, pushed open the door and came in, saying in her dialect, "Shen Jie and her father just came by this afternoon."

Xiao Yao then realized that Shen Jie hadn't replied to his messages that afternoon because she had brought Shen Hongsheng back to meet her in-laws.

He was somewhat excited and kept pestering Shen Tianyun and his grandmother to ask about the details of this historic meeting. However, both of them said that Shen Hongsheng did not say much of substance, but only exchanged some pleasantries before leaving without even eating, claiming that he had something to do.

“Grandpa was so young,” Shen Tianyun said, her voice filled with excitement and nostalgia. “He even trimmed my toenails, Xiao Yao, look!”

As the girl spoke, she stuck her bare feet, which weren't wearing socks, out of her slippers to show Xiao Yao.

"Why cut your toenails..." Xiao Yao said, "That's strange."

“That’s perfectly normal,” Shen Tianyun said. “When I was little, my grandpa used to trim my toenails all the time. When we talked about it, he would slap his thigh and say, ‘Okay, Grandpa will trim your toenails one more time!’”

"Warm and cozy," Xiao Yao commented casually, thinking to himself that Shen Hongsheng really showed affection for his grandparents.

“Warm and cozy,” Yu Luying said.

That evening, after Miao Jinfang, Yu Luying, and Shen Tianyun returned to their rooms, Xiao Yao tried to contact Shen Jie again, but still failed.

He was completely baffled as to what was going on. He sat on the sofa with the landline in his arms for most of the night, glancing at his phone every now and then, until he finally drifted off to sleep.

In many people's dictionary, "dream" is a rather positive word, but in Xiao Yao's opinion, if it could be like in a game, where the screen goes black and then light up and the night is over, that would be a wonderful thing.

That night, he repeatedly dreamed of Shen Jie appearing, repeatedly dreamed of the phone ringing at home, and repeatedly dreamed of picking up his phone and seeing Shen Jie's text messages or QQ messages.

Whenever he saw Shen Jie's messages, he vaguely felt that he was just dreaming, so he wanted to open his eyes and pick up his phone in reality, but his soul could not break free from the shackles of the dream.

Tormented by such anxiety, Xiao Yao was woken up by a phone call from Navara Wedding Dress on the morning of the following day (December 5).

"Your wife...you just said she's missing?" The woman's voice on the other end of the phone exclaimed in surprise, "Another rescheduling? But you've rescheduled more than once. According to our contract, in this situation..."

Xiao Yao listened to the Navara wedding dress staff talking about things like "breach of contract," "bear the consequences yourself," and "scheduling" before they finally revealed their true intentions and he managed to catch the words "you have to pay more." He gave them a perfunctory apology, made a few perfunctory responses, and almost lost his temper.

After putting down his phone, he immediately checked his inbox and call logs, and sure enough, Shen Jie was still nowhere to be found, as if she had vanished without a trace.

It was already broad daylight, long past dawn, evidenced by the absence of birdsong outside the window. He lay half-reclined on the narrow, hard sofa, a blanket draped over him—a thoughtful gesture by some unknown woman.

After a quick wash, Xiao Yao changed his clothes and went out, taking a taxi to Xijiao Garden, where he stood at the entrance of the community for the entire afternoon.

Even though someone covered him with a blanket, Xiao Yao still felt a bit cold, and his head felt dizzy and heavy, as if it were filled with stones.

I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but the West Suburbs Garden seems to have increased its security measures, with the density of security guards increasing by 30 to 50% compared to when I went on the infiltration mission with Liang Yanan last time.

The temperature was very low that day, and freezing rain started to fall. Fortunately, Xiao Yao bought a transparent plastic umbrella for ten yuan. He huddled under the umbrella, shivering, stamping his feet, listening to the thud of the freezing rain hitting the umbrella, and lost in thought.

If this damn freezing rain had come a day or two earlier, maybe that damned "study army" could have ended sooner? Xiao Yao thought.

Seeing that no one came out and he couldn't sneak into the residential area, Xiao Yao tried the same trick again, finding a clothing store and entering the other world through the mirror in the fitting room. To his surprise, he found that the skyscraper had vanished without a trace.

He entered the "shadow side" of the West Suburbs Garden community, emerged through the mirror in Shen Jie's bedroom, and arrived at Shen Jie's bedroom in reality.

It was already dark, and compared to the brightly lit villas around them, Shen Jie's house was almost completely dark.

Xiao Yao cautiously explored the upstairs and downstairs, but he didn't encounter the Shen family father and daughter, Luo Yunxuan, or even the servants.

Until he bumped into Lisa in the kitchen.

"Who!?? How did you get in?" Lisa was startled and let out a low scream. She grabbed a kitchen knife, but after seeing Xiao Yao's face, she put down her trembling right hand holding the knife.

"What exactly is going on now?" Xiao Yao asked Lisa as he looked around the luxurious kitchen.

From Lisa, Xiao Yao learned that the Shen family had indeed temporarily moved out of the property.

It seems they moved quite thoroughly, leaving only two or three odd jobs to look after the house, including Lisa.

“I really don’t know where Miss and the others moved to,” Lisa told Xiao Yao in broken Chinese. “You should leave quickly. If someone else sees you and calls the police, it will be troublesome.”

When Xiao Yao dragged his exhausted body back to his grandmother's house, he saw Yu Luying, a much emptier room, and Yu Luying's packed luggage.

“I…I have to go home,” Yu Luying told Xiao Yao, biting her lower lip. “Now that the symbiosis is gone, I have no reason to keep bothering Grandma.”

Xiao Yao felt that Yu Luying's actions at this time were almost another betrayal, and he lost his temper with her.

"Did you come to stay with us because of symbiosis?" Xiao Yao tried to keep his voice low. "Isn't it because of your so-called father?"

“I know… but…” Yu Luying’s voice trembled with tears.

Xiao Yao sighed, stepped forward and hugged the girl, reaching out to ruffle the hair on her head.

To be considerate of Xiao Yao's feelings, Yu Luying stayed for another two or three days before returning to her own home.

Xiao Yao took her to the building where Yu Lihua lived.

"What are you doing?" Yu Luying turned around with a light smile, revealing her dimples. "It's not like we'll never see each other again."

Xiao Yao let out a gurgling sound from his throat.

“I’m fine,” he said.