You are my wife, don't doubt it!

Xiao Yao's scratching action slowly slowed down until it stopped.

I don’t know if it was because of the train, but I could hear dogs barking one after another from far and near.

Xiao Yao felt that his body suddenly began to itch.

...It's really annoying.

In a daze, he could also hear the sharp whistle of a train, and this sound always made him want to go to an unknown distance.

I want to go with her...with them, to an unknown faraway place.

Can the two of them ever reconcile again?

Where will Shen Jie's future road lead?

Xiao Yao fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was already daylight - oh no, it was still pitch dark, which made Xiao Yao feel a sense of unreality in the passage of time.

The girl in my arms had disappeared. I fumbled for a long time before I found my phone. It was already past two in the afternoon.

Xiao Yao used the flashlight on his cell phone to find the light switch and turned it on. He was then shocked by the interior environment that looked like it had been damaged by the Syrian war.

"She... is it that serious?" Xiao Yao sat cross-legged on the bed, talking to himself.

This girl likes to go to extremes in doing things. How much does this small hotel cost per day?

Walking through the long corridor, Xiao Yao saw Shen Jie sitting by the bar in a tank top. Her bare calves in slippers and half of her thighs were dangling under the bar. She was holding a pen in her hand, writing or fiddling with something on two pieces of letter paper.

"Who are you writing to?" Xiao Yao asked casually.

"Other men." Shen Jie answered without raising her head.

Before Xiao Yao could speak again, a hearty laugh from a girl came from the side.

The young man then realized that the other person sitting at the bar with his back to him, the woman with messy long hair, also wearing a small camisole and bare legs, looked like Meiyu.

"Beautiful jade..." Xiao Yao confirmed hesitantly.

"HI." Meiyu turned around, yawned and rubbed her eyes, and greeted him.

Xiao Yao suddenly remembered the cigarettes he bought yesterday, and quickly took them out and handed them over: "Thank you for yesterday."

"Hey, how come you know Meiyu? Do you even know what kind of cigarettes she smokes?" Shen Jie looked up when she saw Meiyu accept the cigarette generously. "He is the kind of person who always makes friends with girls wherever he goes."

"This shows that he is a charming person," Meiyu said with a smile, "In your Shanghainese dialect, it's called a good gimmick."

Xiao Yao scratched his head and said, "Forget it, I'm still good at making a gimmick - by the way, I was just about to ask you this question, how come you also know Meiyu?"

The boy didn't get the answer he wanted. The two girls just looked at each other and giggled together.

Damn, what's so funny about this, Xiao Yao thought unhappily.

Xiao Yao has long been used to Shen Jie's adaptability.

He didn't mind it, and had no intention of interfering with Shen Jie's making new friends.

In fact, his first impression of Mei Yu wasn't bad either, but when he thought of her special professional identity, it wasn't that he looked down on her... Yes, he did look down on her, and he didn't want Shen Jie to have too much contact with women who worked in this profession.

"I'm going out to buy a cell phone and a SIM card. Do you want to come with me?" Xiao Yao asked Shen Jie.

"Brush your teeth and wash your face first! - I've already bought everything for you this morning. Here," Shen Jie handed over a brand new Lenovo flip phone, "This is the model Meiyu picked for you personally. Do you like it? Oh, and I've bought the card, too."

"?" Xiao Yao took the phone with a puzzled look on his face, wondering when had the two of you gone shopping together?

"Where's the charger?" Xiao Yao fiddled with the new phone in his hand. "By the way, about the lice, are you really not planning on buying a new set of bedding?"

"If there are lice, it's no use buying new ones," Meiyu said with a smile, "Besides, it's the right time now, how can there still be lice? But it's true that Sister Jie has some skin allergies. I've already applied Perisone to her. I'll help you take out the bedding and dry it in the sun later, and spray some of that—"

"That's too embarrassing. It's too much trouble for you." Xiao Yao said to her politely: "By the way, you have lived here for quite a long time, right?"

"Not that long," Meiyu tilted her head and thought for a moment, "About two and a half years."

"There's fried rice in the kitchen, I left it for you, come and try my cooking." Shen Jie suddenly said to Xiao Yao, "It's just a little cold, try microwave again."

"You? Fried rice? What the hell?" Xiao Yao said.

"Mei Yu taught me how to make it. Try it and see how I did it?" Shen Jie urged.

Meiyu winked at Xiao Yao: "I taught her step by step. All the ingredients are rice, eggs and salt. It won't kill people."

Shen Jie went back to her room, changed into a relatively conservative skirt, put on a small backpack, wore sandals barefoot, and went out with Xiao Yao, wandering aimlessly in the direction of the northwest.

Xiao Yao touched his belly with his right hand with satisfaction: "It's delicious. Happiness is eating the rice cooked by my wife and then holding her hand and walking on the street."

"Is it delicious? Is it happy?" Shen Jie said with a smile.

"It seems like this is the first time I see you carrying this kind of backpack." Xiao Yao walked while holding Shen Jie's left hand and swinging their arms vigorously.

"Yeah, it looks good, right?" Shen Jie said.

"Well, it's more student-like, I like it." As Xiao Yao said this, he secretly sent a text message to Yu Luying with his right hand to let her know his new number.

Miraculously, they discovered a Xinhua Bookstore and wandered around it for an hour or two, each picking up several books to help them pass the boredom of the next few days in the dungeon.

"I suddenly feel that it's nice to go to the bookstore together like this," Xiao Yao whispered to Shen Jie while enjoying the air-conditioning in the bookstore, "It feels like a youthful campus romance."

"Art youth, don't be immature," Shen Jie said with a smile, "I will no longer be a student. I am sorry for you if I fall in love with a working person. You have to be more tolerant and don't despise me, okay?"

"I will definitely despise you. How can you not be a student?" Xiao Yao yelled, "I would rather sell my kidney than let you be a dropout girl."

"Why are you so loud in a bookstore? Is this the quality of students?" Shen Jie teased, "You, don't let your imagination run wild. Hey, Meiyu plans to quit her job and open a barbecue shop. I'm quite interested in partnering with her. I happen to have some capital, so I can start a business from scratch. What do you think?"

"You are the one with wild ideas, aren't you? Are you kidding me about China?" Xiao Yao lowered his voice, but couldn't hide the anxiety in his tone.

Chapter 277 Your Kidney is Mine

2023-07-27

"A book like 'Hand in Hand Teaching You to Be a Great Chef', are you serious about it?"

After walking out of Xinhua Bookstore, Xiao Yao curiously picked up a book bought by Shen Jie.

"What do you mean by steamed or boiled?" Shen Jie pouted.

"'Glory and Dreams', 'Mr. Toad Goes to a Psychologist', 'Confessions'... Are you going to be a literary youth now?" Xiao Yao continued to flip through the books that Shen Jie bought.

"The husband sings and the wife follows." Shen Jie said casually: "Isn't it good?"

"Saint Augustine? Wasn't the Confessions written by Rousseau?"

"Ah, this isn't written by Rousseau... ? Damn, I bought the wrong one." Shen Jie was shocked.

"The Barbecue Bible...are you serious?" Xiao Yao turned to the last book.

"What about steaming or boiling?" Shen Jie said again: "Every profession has its own top talents. How can I open a shop if I don't learn from them?"

Xiao Yao put the book back and hesitated to speak.

"By the way, let's go buy a mosquito net. Where can we buy one?" Shen Jie said.

"Hmm... um... I don't know either. Home furnishings store?" Xiao Yao said.

The two set out again on their journey to find a home furnishings store.

"Your barbecue stall...your fried rice...well, are you learning and selling it right away?" Xiao Yao brought up this topic again.

"I really don't know how to do it, but Meiyu does, and it's not like I'm just watching the furnace," Shen Jie said as a matter of course, "I'm in partnership with her, she provides the people and the technology, I provide the money, and you provide the labor."

"...Let's put aside the fact that I contributed my effort," Xiao Yao confirmed cautiously, "So you don't want to open a barbecue stall, you want to invest in a barbecue stall."

"I'm the boss's wife, so of course I opened the business - and of course, Meiyu is also a technical partner." Shen Jie told Xiao Yao.

"This is what I think," Xiao Yao said as he thought, "If you want to invest in something or do something, since we still have some capital, I don't object."

Shen Jie didn't say anything, but just looked around to see if there was a home furnishings store or a place where she could buy a mosquito net.

"But one thing, can't you be more cautious when choosing a partner? There are all kinds of people in this place, and you've only known him for less than a day..." Xiao Yao said.

"I'm generally optimistic about her, but I will continue to get along with her and observe her character," said Shen Jie.

"Another thing, you can do whatever you want, but dropping out of school is absolutely not allowed." Xiao Yao said.

"Oh? Why?" Shen Jie asked in a half-joking tone, "Is there an academic qualification requirement for applying to be your wife? Then I will transfer to another school."

"Stop talking nonsense. What educational threshold..." Xiao Yao said.

"Do you think it's that easy to transfer schools? I'm a minor, I have an ID card but no household registration, and I don't have a guardian. Do you really think St. Francis is run by your family?"

"I'll think of a solution. If it costs a little, I'll find someone to help me. If it doesn't work, I'll let you study on loan." Xiao Yao promised solemnly, "You don't have a father now. I am your father."

Shen Jie: "? If you don't know how to speak, you don't have to say anything."

"That's what I mean. You can rely on me." Xiao Yao explained quickly.

"Let me tell you this, even if you can get a temporary study permit, you can't take the college entrance examination, and you don't even have a diploma. What's the point?" Shen Jie pulled Xiao Yao into a "Friendship Store". The name and environment of this store are full of the style of the last century. "What's more, I don't have much interest in going to a domestic university, and getting a diploma doesn't mean much to me - so what's the point? Is it really just to accompany you in a campus romance?"

"Why do you keep saying this?" Xiao Yao was angry. "I'm obviously thinking about you and your future. Why do you always think it's for my own good?"

Shen Jie glanced at him and stopped talking. She just stood on tiptoe and gently stroked the back of Xiao Yao's head.

"Yes, you can't get a diploma if you're studying on a temporary basis, and you can't take the college entrance examination," Xiao Yao said, "but you must have started in the second year of high school, right? Two years is plenty of time for us to find a way to solve the problem. It's better than you just hanging around doing nothing, right?"

Shen Jie hesitated to speak.

"And you said that a domestic university diploma is meaningless - how can it be meaningless? Now that you have dropped out of school, you only have a junior high school diploma and you can't even find a decent job, right?" Xiao Yao continued.

"Ha," Shen Jie Le said, "So that's what you think. It's as if I can become a general or a prime minister just by getting a high school diploma - and who said I want to find a job?"

"Well, with your family background, you can indeed not work for the rest of your life," Xiao Yao nodded in agreement, "but aren't we making bad plans now? Suppose we rely on ourselves——"

"Gouzi, listen to me," Shen Jie said earnestly, reaching out to hold Xiao Yao's shoulders. "Now I know you are doing this for my own good. I wronged you before. I apologize."

"Okay." Xiao Yao nodded.

"I'm telling you, it's impossible for me to work. I will never work in my life." Shen Jie said: "Since I got out, I don't plan to rely on my father anymore, and I can't rely on you either--"

As soon as she said this, Shen Jie became worried about Xiao Yao's self-esteem and changed her words: "In the short term, I can't rely on you for the time being. My father also started from scratch. He graduated from junior high school and later got a gilded university diploma. If he can do it, I can do it too."

"I don't object to you starting a business," Xiao Yao emphasized, "I still hold the same view. In this society, a college diploma is still needed. It is at least a stepping stone and something that improves one's level—"

"So you know so much, then why didn't you study hard before?" Shen Jie teased.

"I've turned over a new leaf, don't interrupt me," Xiao Yao said impatiently, "If you drop out of school, who can I explain to? I can't even explain to myself. Do you remember what Yan Xiao said to me that day?..."

"Remember, remember, Yan Xiao's mindset is essentially that of a petty bourgeois, or in other words, a worker. Don't mind, you are the same," Shen Jie told Xiao Yao. "You have been taught since childhood that the only way out is to study hard, go to college, and find a decent job."

"Don't say it's the only way out," Xiao Yao sighed, "your new friend Meiyu, she just doesn't study hard, she's out there at a young age, how is she doing? I really don't know why you'd go to such extremes to rent a place like this, but we're only staying for a few days, and she's——"

"Why should I rent a place like this?" Shen Jie was unhappy: "I sent you the address and asked you to come over to look at houses with me, but you were too busy accompanying your mistress to come over, leaving me alone - if I don't settle down here, how are you going to find me when the time comes? You didn't have a phone at the time, and your mistress blocked my phone number, so I couldn't contact you..."

After hearing this talk about the "concubine", the clerk at the Friendship Store curiously stretched his head to take a look.

"Well, once you've settled down, you can use a pay phone to call her and get in touch with me," Xiao Yao pointed out.

"Yes, so I deserve to carry so many bags and run around the city to find a house by myself." Shen Jie deliberately concealed the existence of Daiyu, the coolie.

Xiao Yao: "..."

Shen Jie slowed down her tone and redirected the topic back on track: "Why doesn't Ren Meiyu study hard? Don't just say that. She has always been an excellent student in her primary school and junior high school for children of migrant workers. If she takes the Shanghai High School Entrance Examination, she may not be worse than you - but she can't take the exam, she is not qualified."

"Then why did she..." Xiao Yao was shocked.

"I dropped out of school because my family had no money and wouldn't let me continue studying. I started working before finishing the second year of junior high school to support the family." Shen Jie told Xiao Yao.

"So now she has fallen into this state, Chunchun's birth parents." Xiao Yao said with grief and hatred: "Her parents' short-sightedness ruined her future and ruined her. Can't you see that I am trying to avoid you, and you also..."

The young man was racking his brains to find the right words, when Shen Jie opened her mouth and asked, "How did you become like this? What kind of person is this?"

Xiao Yao: "..."

As the girl spoke, she stepped forward and put her arm around the boy's waist: "Didn't I tell you that I know you are doing this for my own good, but you still don't understand."

"I can't just watch you play like this." Xiao Yao muttered, continuing to use the future terms he learned from Shen Tianyun.

"I'm not giving up," Shen Jie told him gently, "I'm seriously planning my own future, a future with you."

These words sounded quite pleasant, and Xiao Yao was stunned for a moment.

"It's impossible for me to work," Shen Jie repeated. "Let others work for me, and I will work and earn money by myself. My grades are not good, and I will go to an ordinary high school. Even if I can get into a third-rate university, do you know what the admission rate of St. Francis is?"

"How many?"

"20%." Shen Jie held up two fingers: "You don't care about your own school?"

Xiao Yao: "..."