You are my wife, don't doubt it!

The setting sun shone obliquely on the river and on the faces of the boy and girl. Under a golden filter, Zhao Xiaomei stood in the river, her waist down submerged in the water, holding an exaggeratedly large fish in her hands, facing him with a smile as beautiful as a flower.

Xiao Yao was woken up early by Shen Jie's call. At this time, Gao Sijun was still sleeping soundly, and Xiao Yao himself was still immersed in the melancholy brought by the beautiful dream.

"What are you doing so early?" Xiao Yao lowered his voice and said dazedly.

"Didn't you tell me yesterday to take you diving?" Shen Jie said.

"Oh, it seems like that's the case." Xiao Yao said, "But there's no need to do it so early, right?"

"Stop talking nonsense and come down quickly." Shen Jie hung up the phone after saying that.

Shen Jie also asked Yu Luying to go diving, but she said she was not interested, so they went alone. After paying the fee, they followed the diving instructor into a small boat and headed for the shallow waters near the coast.

"If I had known I should have gotten up earlier, I could have just watched the sunrise over the sea." Xiao Yao said to himself as he looked at the dawn in the east.

"It's okay," the coach comforted him, "It's cloudy today, you won't be able to see the sunrise even if you get up early."

"You are really good at talking," Xiao Yao said with a smile, "I feel better immediately after hearing that."

"You're still getting up early. I almost can't wake you up at this time." Shen Jie complained.

"Hey, if we sneak out to play at this time, we won't be able to make it back in time for the morning mass, right?" Xiao Yao suddenly thought of something.

"It's okay. Lucia came back and told me that today's mass will be moved to before the closing ceremony."

"That's great." Xiao Yao said, lowering his voice to Shen Jie, "You said there's no shore in sight. What if this guy throws us overboard? And there's no camera or anything. Does that mean it's just a missing person case? We won't be able to solve the case."

"Yes," Shen Jie said with a smile, "So, when you are at sea, you must not offend anyone, especially the captain."

At this time, the coach talked to them: "Hey, I heard you talking about mass just now, you are also Catholics?"

"Fellow seeker, fellow seeker," Xiao Yao said, "You too?"

"All the fishermen in our area are like this," the coach told them. "I am doing this as an amateur."

"I've heard people say before that in China, many fishermen along the coast are believers of Christianity. Why is that?" Shen Jie asked curiously.

"Because St. Peter was also a fisherman," the coach told them. "We fishermen all year round and are afraid of wind and waves, so we ask him to bless us."

As we were talking, we had already arrived at the snorkeling spot.

Diving is divided into snorkeling, deep diving and free diving. Xiao Yao does not have a diving certificate, so he can only experience snorkeling. Shen Jie has a certificate but does not bring it with her, and she is accompanying Xiao Yao, so the two of them snorkel together.

There is no diving helmet or fins as imagined. The only equipment is goggles and oxygen mask. It feels like running naked underwater.

After Xiao Yao was pushed into the water by the coach, he was always worried that sea water would suddenly rush into the mask and then choke him into his lungs, so he kept one hand on the mask. His swimming posture was unbalanced and he was always spinning. He had to rely on the coach to pull him to maintain this depth.

But overall, this first novel experience was still very enjoyable.

According to Shen Jie, the seabed in this area is very shallow, but I don’t know if it’s because it’s cloudy today, or if his concept of “very shallow” is too different from Shen Jie’s - looking down from here, it feels a little dark and scary not far from my feet.

No wonder the cutlassfish can be safe and sound at sea. The deep sea does not welcome light, so naturally there will be no shadows.

But he thought again, shadow is formed when light is blocked, then under the deep sea where all light is blocked by the sea water, shouldn’t the shadow of the sea, which accounts for 71% of the earth’s surface area, be formed?

The sea is already moody enough and does whatever it wants. What would it be like if it also had a palace?

Thinking of this, Xiao Yao suddenly felt a chill, and the posture he had adjusted well became messed up again.

Shen Jie was an experienced person, so she naturally didn't need the coach to hold her, so she moved to the other side of Xiao Yao and held his hand.

Xiao Yao turned his head to look at her with some surprise, and saw a little girl wearing goggles and an oxygen mask, carrying an oxygen tank on her back, and barefoot in a one-piece black tight diving suit. Her figure was so graceful, like a flexible mermaid.

Shen Jie let go of his hand and pointed at her chest.

Then he made a red heart with his hands.

He pointed at Xiao Yao again.

Oh, the coach is still here? Xiao Yao thought.

Is this the first time that Meow Mom has confessed to me?

Xiao Yao was so happy that all the gloom in his heart disappeared. He rushed forward and wanted to hug her, but bumped into her and then slipped away.

Through the mask, Xiao Yao couldn't see Shen Jie's expression. He only knew that she held his hand again and made a bunch of gestures to the diver uncle with her other hand. Xiao Yao only understood one thumbs-down gesture.

The diver uncle let go of Xiao Yao's arm with some hesitation, and Shen Jie took him and continued to dive down.

Until it touches the coral reefs on the seabed at a depth of eleven or twelve meters.

It’s so beautiful! Xiao Yao couldn’t see Shen Jie clearly in the coral reef, but he still thought so in his heart.

Shen Jie hugged him gently and pointed upwards with the index finger of her left hand.

Xiao Yao clung closely to Shen Jie and looked up at the "sky".

He saw the calm sea, the kind of visual effect that one would see from the bottom up.

I also saw a glimmer of light on the water.

"Follow that light!" Xiao Yao thought.

Take a break

2023-09-08

Sanyang Kaitai, I have a fever again...

Update tomorrow at the latest

2023-09-10

The fever hasn't completely subsided, but I've been writing sporadically over the past few days.

Chapter 323: The Last Memories of Blue and White Summer

2023-09-11

On the way back to the shore, Xiao Yao noticed that Shen Jie seemed absent-minded and unhappy, so he asked her what was wrong.

She just smiled and said "nothing".

However, Xiao Yao was still very sure that there was reluctance behind her smile.

After Xiao Yao's repeated questioning, the girl finally revealed her true feelings.

"Xiao Yao, do you feel that I'm like a burden now?" Shen Jie said softly.

"How could you come up with such an idea?" Xiao Yao was shocked.

"Look, this time," Shen Jie lowered her head, took Xiao Yao's arm, leaned her head on his shoulder, and said in a low voice, "In this shadow invasion, I don't seem to be of any help at all. I am just a burden. I have been rescued all the time. First it was Hairtail, then Brother Bo, then Silly Sister, and finally you... I seem to have become the princess in the fairy tale that I once hated the most. I am helpless and can only wait for others to rescue me..."

"That's not the case," Xiao Yao said quickly, "If you, our strongest fighter, weren't here, we would definitely not be able to defeat this invasion."

He didn't know whether what he said was true or not, but at the moment, "facts" were not the most important thing.

"At that time, in Teacher Yao's hall," Xiao Yao thought for a moment, and added: "If it weren't for your help, both of us... at least I would have died in there. You are also my savior."

Shen Jie smiled and said, "You saved me once, too. We have long been good brothers who have shared life and death together. That's why I decided to give you a chance at that time."

"Well, thanks." Xiao Yao said.

"Unhappy? I was talking about that time," Shen Jie said coquettishly, "It's different now. I'm completely attracted to you."

"Yeah, I know." Xiao Yao said calmly.

"As for me, I looked down on you at that time," Shen Jie seemed to have no intention of avoiding the topic: "It was mainly because I was too confident before."

"You deserve it." Xiao Yao's tone was quite sincere, without any sarcasm in his tone.

"No, I just trust myself too much." Shen Jie insisted: "I always think that I am smart, clever, capable, considerate, versatile, can handle everything, have the virtues of a lady, and have a broad mind... laugh if you want to."

"I think your self-evaluation is quite accurate. Although it is not modest, it is not exaggerated at all." Xiao Yao said sincerely: "I am your admirer."

"Do you really think so?" Shen Jie reached out and pinched the back of Xiao Yao's hand: "Thank you, Gouzi."

"Thank you." Xiao Yao moved his face closer.

"But I've realized it now," Shen Jie turned her face away and said sadly, "The me who was adored by everyone, the me who was self-righteous, the me who thought I was excellent and powerful, was actually just an illusion - that was not me, but his daughter, Shen Hongsheng. Do you understand?"

"I understand, but I don't understand." Xiao Yao answered cautiously.

"I am actually very ordinary, very ordinary. I just happened to be born in Shen Hongsheng's family. People respect me not because Shen Jie is great or Xu Qingwei is great, but because they respect the eldest daughter of the Shen family," Shen Jie said, "What's so great about me? What is worthy of respect? All the assets are earned by my father's hard work. The environment I live in and the education I received are closely related to my family. For a long time, I felt that these were really my own things. But now, I have broken up with my father. As Shen Jie, what else do I have? I can only be a burden to everyone."

"You can't think like that—" Xiao Yao quickly counseled: "And I suspect that your loss of confidence will also weaken the power of your spiritual fortress, and then it will become a vicious cycle."

"What do I have now that I own?" Shen Jie continued to talk to herself, "I look OK - although this was given by my mother, it can still be considered mine. I am very short, the shortest in the class, and this is basically unchangeable. But other than this, do I have anything else? I also want to have something that belongs to me, something that is unique to Shen Jie -"

"You do." Xiao Yao interrupted.

"I want to be a helper to everyone, instead of being a useless person waiting for my friends to rescue me in turn," Shen Jie said, "Xiao Yao, do you know why I have always wanted to do something with Meiyu? In fact, it's not because I'm short of money. With the money we have now, we can still have no problem living -"

"I understand," Xiao Yao nodded, "I thought you wanted to help her at first, but now I know you want to prove your own strength. You want to prove that you can do well without your father."

"Yeah." Shen Jie hummed softly, nodded, and said no more.

"Even so, you are still the mountain I cannot look up to," Xiao Yao hooked his arm around Shen Jie's shoulders, "I still like you and admire you so much."

"Actually, all you need is a pretty girl, right?" Shen Jie complained.

Xiao Yao: “?”

I don't know how Zhao Xiaomei is doing, Xiao Yao thought to himself, but didn't say it out loud.

As they were talking, the boat had already reached the shore.

"To the ribs!" the fisherman shouted.

Xiao Yao helped Shen Jie get off the boat and stepped into the sea water that was not up to his knees. He secretly felt sorry that Shen Jie was not wearing socks.

He saw that the fisherman seemed to be hesitant to speak, so he politely asked him to speak.

"Little girl, let me say something." said the fisherman.

"Please go ahead, please go ahead." Shen Jie said hurriedly.

"It just so happened that our priest said this in his sermon last Sunday, so I remembered it," the fisherman said. "It's a sentence from the Bible. I don't remember the exact words, but it roughly means: I would rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may remain in me."

"Ah, I've read this too," Xiao Yao said, "Saint Paul said this, right?"

Shen Jie blushed. Although she had deliberately kept her voice down during the conversation, she still didn't know how much of it the uncle had heard.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop!" The fisherman was also a little embarrassed and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "That's why I was wondering whether I should tell you."

"It's okay, it's okay." Shen Jie bowed 90 degrees to the fisherman and said gratefully, "I will definitely keep it in my heart."

The two returned to the "Holy Love Hotel", and only leftovers were left of the breakfast buffet. Fortunately, there was still some food.

After dinner, Shen Jie, under Xiao Yao's constant persuasion, went back to 605 and put on a pair of white cotton socks with ruffles and over the ankles, and the two continued to go out and play.

"You're not taking me with you?" Yu Luying stood at the door of the Shengai Hotel, wearing a white dress, plain white cotton socks and white canvas shoes, and leaning to the right.

"Bring it, bring it," Shen Jie greeted her with a smile, and took Yu Luying's arm, "We are looking for you."

The first stop for the three-person date was the trapeze artist.

According to Shen Jie, this was not interesting, "not as fun as skydiving", but Xiao Yao and Yu Luying had never skydive and insisted on playing, so Shen Jie waited for them below.

Xiao Yao and Yu Luying each had an umbrella, which looked like a parachute and was tightly tied up by the staff. No one knew how it was tied up, but it suddenly flew up into the sky and flew straight over the beach.

The boy was as excited as a little kid: "Eh-eh! Wow-ah!"

Yu Luying didn't scream, but just pursed her lips tightly, looking a little scared.

"Don't be afraid, it's very safe!" Xiao Yao said.

The strong wind drowned out his voice, so he had to convey his words directly to Yu Luying's heart.

Xiao Yao: "Don't be afraid, it's very safe."

Yu Luying: "I'm not afraid."

Xiao Yao: "Scream with me."

Yu Luying: “Are you stupid?”

Immediately, Xiao Yao heard the girl screaming: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh——"

"Hi——————"

The two people's shouts came one after another.