You are my wife, don't doubt it!

"You?" Xiao Yao only felt a sweetness in his throat.

"Do you have your keys?" Yu Luying said, "My mother asked me to go home for dinner. If you don't have your keys, I'll wait for you."

"........."

It's a mess! Is it a mess? It's all a mess!

When Xiao Yao returned home, Shen Jie's luggage, which had been scattered all over the floor, had disappeared.

"I've put them all there for you. The money and her phone are on the table." Yu Luying's face was a little pale. "I'm going back first."

Xiao Yao subconsciously reached out and grabbed her.

Yu Luying didn't move or turn around.

"I'm sorry, does your chin still hurt?" Xiao Yao asked her, "Do your feet... hurt?"

Yu Luying did not directly answer his question: "Wife?"

"...I wanted to tell you," Xiao Yao said, "but I just never found the opportunity."

"Okay." Yu Luying nodded with her back to him: "I made a mistake. I thought you two were breaking up... It's my fault."

"No," Xiao Yao explained, "She did reject me at first, but last Sunday, she came to my house and we... talked, agreed..."

"Last Sunday... I know, no need to say more." Yu Luying's shoulder twitched: "After all, I was a step slow, so I can't blame others."

"..."

"I'm sorry about what happened today," Yu Luying said, "I didn't know you guys... I was too willful and messed you up. Do you want me to help you find her? I just don't know if she can come out tonight--"

"Yu Luying, actually I still like you--" Xiao Yao blurted out.

"Xiao Yao, don't let me look down on you." Yu Luying stretched out her hands and pinched her upper and lower lips, breaking the void.

"We are still friends, right? You will still care about me, right?" Xiao Yao was silent for three seconds and asked to confirm.

The girl finally turned around and smiled at Xiao Yao.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone obliquely onto her face through the window between the soap slices, and Xiao Yao saw the dimple on her lips.

I looked at you in the sunset, you were filled with the sadness of flowing water, I still remember the way you waved to me...

"Let's go." Yu Luying opened the door: "See you at school the day after tomorrow."

"See you the day after tomorrow."

Xiao Yao didn't look back, but walked back to the sofa in the bedroom and sat down.

He felt two lines of hot tears streaming down his eyes, but his face was dry.

A few seconds later, two more lines of hot tears came out, and this time he felt water on his face.

Chapter 81 Searching

2023-01-09

"What's the matter with you saying you lost my mother?" Shen Tianyun asked angrily with his hands on his hips.

"She ran away." Xiao Yao briefly told his daughter what happened today.

He talked about how Shen Jie escaped from her marriage and ran away from home to come to him, and also talked about how he had a quarrel with her and made her run away in anger, but he did not mention that Yu Luying had come.

"I really want to hit you on the head with a stick!" Shen Tianyun growled, "What on earth did you quarrel about to make my mother angry and run away? She ran away from home because of you! Are you still human?"

"I'm not a human!" Xiao Yao also became anxious: "Is there any point in asking what they are arguing about now? The key is where to find it?"

"How would I know?"

"Calm down and think about it carefully!"

The two discussed it for a while and they really had no idea where a little girl without any money and cell phone could go.

"Mom likes to drink coffee. Why don't you go to a nearby cafe and look for one?" Shen Tianyun finally suggested.

"Okay." Xiao Yao started to put on his shoes: "But what if she comes back and there's no one at home?"

"Are you stupid?" Shen Tianyun almost fainted from anger: "I'm at home!"

"You can't leave the bedroom again."

Finally, Xiao Yao decided to leave the door of the soap room and the door leading to the bedroom compartment ajar, thinking that there was nothing to steal anyway.

As night falls, thousands of houses are lit with lights.

Xiao Yao pushed his bicycle out of the door, but found that the rear tire had been punctured at some point. He took it to the tire repair shop, but the old man had already gone off work early.

It's really a leak in the house that happened to rain in the night.

A surge of anger surged in Xiao Yao's heart. He threw his bicycle at the door of the repair shop and went to the nearby Madiel Café - not long ago, he had negotiated with Yu Luying's mother here.

After walking around for a long time and not seeing Shen Jie, he went out, asked passers-by along the way, and looked for two or three coffee shops in nearby blocks, but found nothing.

Where else can I find a coffee shop? For someone who can’t bear to look at a coffee shop sign, this is a difficult question.

He called Yu Luying and got information about two coffee shops that were a little further away, but still couldn't find anyone.

Shen Jie's cell phone is now in the possession of Shen Tianyun, and Xiao Yao keeps in touch with Shen Tianyun via phone.

"I've looked everywhere, but I can't find him," Xiao Yao said. "I'm at McDonald's now. This is the third one I've been to. I've also been to KFC, but I didn't see anyone there."

"Yes, I also went to Qiangui and Shuimunian Skating Rink—"

"No, Qiangui is a KTV."

After hanging up the phone, Xiao Yao once again scanned the people in this McDonald's. McDonald's is open 24 hours a day, and several unshaven homeless people have locked in their seats for tonight, including a young-looking woman.

Unfortunately, that was not Shen Jie.

Xiao Yao's heart tightened.

He looked at the people who were sitting with their legs curled up - some of them were sleeping on the table, there was an uncle rummaging through a nylon bag, as if he was checking the bottles he had picked up today, and an old man was trembling as he ate a white flour bun that was broken in half. The bun was solid, and there was some green stuff inside that didn't look like pickled mustard.

Xiao Yao has always felt that he is quite unfortunate - abandoned by his parents, isolated in class, troubled by teachers, no pocket money, unable to access the Internet, his novels are always rejected, he has few friends, can't find a girlfriend, and so on and so forth.

At this moment, he realized that at least he had a warm or cool nest - depending on the season - with no wind, and it was dark when the lights were turned off, so he could stretch his legs and sleep peacefully. Every day, every meal, he could have meat to eat -

Fortunately, even swearing, the song is ambiguous.

A wild cat sneaked in quietly, but was quickly discovered by the clerk and kicked out.

If it were me, I might be able to be a stray cat for two days, but Shen Jie was a big ragdoll cat that even had different cat food for morning, noon and night. How could she, who was pampered, endure sleeping in the open?

Xiao Yao felt his heart aching.

At around nine o'clock, he received a call from Yu Luying.

"I just went to a small hotel nearby and looked for it, but there was no progress," said Yu Luying.

"Have you checked every hotel? What about the hotel chains?"

"There are so many small hotels, it's impossible to find them all." Yu Luying's tone was a little tired: "It's even more impossible to find a chain hotel. Her ID card is still on your desk, and big hotels do a better job of keeping guests' information confidential."

"I see." Xiao Yao wiped his eyes weakly, "Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for helping me."

"I'm not helping you. I'm just concerned about my sister who saved my life." Yu Luying paused. "And after all, I am also responsible for this, right?"

"Oh, whatever. Thanks anyway."

"Xiao Yao." Yu Luying called out.

"Ah."

"I have to go back. It's nine o'clock. Otherwise my mom will go crazy again."

"it is good."

"You should go back earlier, too. Shanghai is very big." Yu Luying advised, "She is an adult - well, she is not a child anymore. She is capable of taking care of herself."

"Probably." Xiao Yao said.

"If she doesn't want you to find her, then you won't be able to find her. When she calms down, she will naturally come back."

"But what if she doesn't have any money?"

"So she can't go far, she will come back to find you," Yu Luying said patiently, "You might as well go home and wait for her. She might have been standing at the door waiting for you to open it for a long time."

Xiao Yao thought, that’s strange.

After exchanging a few casual words, he hung up the phone and walked out of the McDonald's.

I don't know when it started, but it started raining again, not heavily.

Xiao Yao ignored him and walked down the street.

This city has spread out her lonely map. How can I find the place where you are waiting for me? Like every child in love, I am growing up in loneliness on the street.

The freezing wind, the cold rain, and the leaves on both sides of Dongdaming Road fell on the sidewalk.

There is a big temperature difference between day and night in Shanghai, there is no way Shen Jie doesn't know this.

In Teacher Yao's water dungeon, he and Shen Jie were almost frozen to death.

Where is she? Is she cold?

Sancta maria sancta maria, let this lost lamb come home.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Yu Luying sent a message to complain. Xiao Yao then spent ten yuan to buy a transparent plastic umbrella and stood under the eaves of a closed shop to avoid the rain.

Just as he was shaking the water off his hair, his phone vibrated again. The familiar caller ID showed that it was Shen Jie.

Xiao Yao was a little excited. When he answered the phone, his fingers trembled twice, and he pressed the button on the third time. When he picked up the phone and heard Shen Tianyun's voice again... Although he was mentally prepared, he still felt a sense of loss.

Whatever, whatever, Xiao Yao said to himself.

My daughter is still alive, which means that the relationship between me and Shen Jie has not yet taken an irreversible turn for the worse. In other words, in essence, things are not as bad as I worried.

No matter how difficult the current situation is, as long as I can see my daughter and hear her voice, I will see the future and hear hope, and I will be able to face it all calmly.

"You mean her friends? I called Zhou Xiaoying early in the morning, but she didn't know anything and just scolded me."

"What do you mean by you contacted your mother? Oh, the future Shen Jie?"

"She asked me to go to the Internet cafe to look for it? Why? She is not me."

"...I see. I'll go look for it then."

"No, which internet cafe is it?"

By the time Xiao Yao had visited four or five Internet cafes including "Canhua", it was already past twelve o'clock.

He dragged his exhausted body and exhausted soul along the wet road towards his home.

The rain had stopped. He put away the plastic umbrella in his hand and used it as a crutch, poking the ground again and again.

When passing by a bridge tunnel, he stopped and looked at three or five homeless people wrapped in blankets.

Although he thought it was unlikely, Xiao Yao still checked the bodies one by one.

He didn't find Shen Jie inside, and just as he was about to leave, he looked up and saw a pile of debris stacked next to the bridge.

Among the pile of junk, there was a large dressing mirror full of cracks.

Xiao Yao took a glance and was about to walk away, then took another glance.

There, I could only see the homeless man sleeping behind me, but not myself.

--split line--

Xiao Yao thought that he had fallen into a pure blind spot in thinking.

He should have thought of it long ago that as a human who also possessed the ability to see through mirrors, Shen Jie was very likely hiding in another world.

……Bar?

After thinking for a while, he dived into the mirror.

Then, the first reaction is, it’s so green…

He observed his surroundings vigilantly - this was a world covered by an emerald green filter.

It was still under the bridge, and there were still those homeless people, but there were a few more warm bonfires, and... storm doors on both sides of the bridge?

The homeless people gathered around the fire and warmed themselves. On the tablecloth beside them were fat turkeys and suckling pigs, which made Xiao Yao feel a little hungry.

Suddenly, he realized that everyone was looking at him.