You are my wife, don't doubt it!

He was as stubborn as most ignorant teenagers, clinging to that illusory status. Many times, he wanted to ask Shen Jie "what is our relationship now", but he couldn't ask it out loud.

After all, if you don’t ask, you won’t hear the heartbreaking answer of “friend.”

……Bar?

For this engagement more than ten years later, it was inevitable that he would miss out on his beloved again. As for Shen Jie...

Am I too greedy? Should I take it slow and be content?

By the way, there’s also Shen Jie’s father. How is he going to help her get through that difficult time?

The kettle made a sharp buzzing sound, interrupting Xiao Yao's wandering thoughts.

"Old Xiao." Xiao Yao heard a familiar voice.

Hmm? I'm glad to see you again today, Comrade Lover.

"Why are you following Shen Tianyun's lead and calling me Lao Xiao? I'm younger than you, okay?" Xiao Yao poured the boiling water from the kettle into the thermos: "Do you want to use boiling water? Be careful of the burns."

"Where is your public toilet? I can't get through to Tianyun's bathroom." Shen Jie said in annoyance.

Xiao Yao walked back to the bedroom from the soap bar, squatted down, and pulled out an enamel spittoon from under the bed: "Use this."

“No, no, no…” Shen Jie waved her hands repeatedly: “I don’t need this.”

"Oh, my lady," Xiao Yao said helplessly, "Public toilets are very smelly, and you can't stand it. Besides, it's dark now, and there's no light."

"...Then I'll go to Canhua Internet Cafe. Even though it's dirty and messy, at least..." Shen Jie muttered, took out a pair of sky blue canvas shoes, and put them on bare feet.

"I go with you."

"No need, I know Canhua." Shen Jie said.

"You're going out wearing these pajamas?"

Shen Jie found a small shawl and put it on. The two of them went out and walked side by side towards Canhua Internet Cafe.

Under the moonlight, Shen Jie's snow-white silk long nightgown looked a bit creepy from a distance.

"You slept in Canhua Internet Cafe, why didn't I find you?"

"Hey, stop squeezing me," Shen Jie gently pushed him, "I saw you coming to find me, I hid under the table."

"You are so smart..."

"I just couldn't fall asleep," Shen Jie complained. "I couldn't lie flat and there was no pillow. There was someone typing away on the keyboard. It made me nervous. I could have played games, but there was someone yelling and swearing, as if they were talking to someone on the phone... I felt insecure in that place..."

"It was you who insisted on sleeping in the internet cafe... Hey, stop hitting me!"

"I just saw you were looking for me, so I went to the cinema to wait for you today." Shen Jie said angrily, "Otherwise you will never see me again."

"No... Where did you get the money to go to the Internet cafe?" Xiao Yao coughed, "Didn't you leave all your money at my house? Did you go to the cinema?"

"I still have some in my pocket," Shen Jie told him.

"Let me tell you something. When I came to see you last night..."

Xiao Yao and Shen Jie talked about their adventures in the mirror world under the bridge last night.

"Whose palace is this?" Shen Jie thought: "That little girl selling flowers asked you to wait for me in the cinema?"

"Should we talk to Father Yu about this?"

"Yes, of course. How about I go in with you later? Fighting with shadows can help you master how to use the mental fortress more skillfully."

"Stop messing around. It's such a dangerous place... Do you really think you're playing a game to kill monsters and level up?"

As they were talking, the two of them arrived at Canhua Internet Cafe, but were turned away. It turned out that someone from above came for an emergency inspection today, and minors were not even allowed in.

"What's wrong with just going to the bathroom? And you don't even turn on the phone!" The veins on Xiao Yao's forehead bulged.

"Sorry, we too..." the waiter explained with a smile.

"Forget it, let's go and don't make things difficult for others." Shen Jie poked Xiao Yao.

When the two were walking back, Shen Jie bent down at one point because she couldn't hold it anymore.

"How about..." Xiao Yao said in embarrassment: "It's quite dark here, and there's no one around. I'll watch over it for you?"

"Go away." Shen Jie refused in a low voice, and after thinking for a while, she explained, "Big one."

After a lot of trouble, Shen Jie returned home and reluctantly had her first experience of using a spittoon.

"Are you ready?" Xiao Yao knocked on his door.

"No! Wait a minute—it's done!"

Hearing the bolt being released with a "click", Xiao Yao pushed the door open and walked in.

He fanned his nose and deliberately opened the window, teasing her, "It stinks..."

After saying this, he prepared himself for a tactical dodge, but the pink fist did not come.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Xiao Yao turned his head and saw Shen Jie's eyes were red: "I was just kidding you."

Seeing him reaching out to pick up the double-layered enamel spittoon, Shen Jie hurriedly asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'll pour it for you..." Xiao Yao walked out holding it.

"I'll go by myself!" Shen Jie chased after him: "You're not our servant..."

"A son-in-law is almost like a servant. Isn't that how it's written in novels?" Xiao Yao said self-deprecatingly.

"Stop talking nonsense, what's the matter with being a son-in-law or not," Shen Jie said seriously, "A husband is a husband, even if he lives with his wife."

"..."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Shen Jie's face flushed: "I didn't say anything about you!"

"...So you can blush too." Xiao Yao laughed.

"It's hard for me to keep my agreement not to hit you when you're like this."

"No more joking, seriously, thank you." Xiao Yao said.

In the end, the two of them went to empty the spittoon together.

Shen Jie held her spittoon in both hands and moved forward step by step, as if she was afraid that if she moved a little more, the spittoon would spill out.

Before she even reached the spittoon, a foul odor hit her and made this pampered young lady stop in her tracks.

"I'll do it..."

Shen Jie hesitated for a moment and did not insist: "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"sorry."

"It's ok."

The two returned home, Xiao Yao flushed the spittoon, and Shen Jie stood three steps behind him and watched.

"Do you have to do this every day?" Shen Jie's tone carried a hint of despair towards life.

"What else?" Xiao Yao shrugged and turned off the faucet: "Life is nothing but shit and piss."

"Why can't you install a flush toilet? I think there's still room."

"Because the old public housing did not have sewage pipes when it was designed," Xiao Yao explained.

"You...do you think I'm special..." Shen Jie felt embarrassed.

"No way," Xiao Yao walked back to the bedroom and stuffed the spittoon under his bed. "You know I went to elementary and junior high school in Jiangbei, right? I also grew up using a flush toilet. I also asked my grandmother the same question you asked me."

"Is that so..." Shen Jie nodded.

"Countless working people at the bottom of the society have come through this way." Xiao Yao went out to wash his hands again.

"So our group has to build more high-rise residential buildings so that everyone can live in houses with flush toilets. This is also a kind of social mission." Shen Jie said this in the tone of a serious elementary school student, but Xiao Yao was embarrassed to laugh at her.

"It's useless. We can't afford it at 6,000 to 7,000 yuan per square meter."

"Six or seven thousand...is that a lot?" Shen Jie blurted out.

"Six or seven thousand?" Shen Tianyun came out of the closet again without knowing when. "So cheap? Hurry up and buy up. Do you two know what the current housing prices are?"

"Ten thousand? It can't be twenty thousand, right?" Xiao Yao seriously guessed: "Thirty thousand is outrageous, right?"

"Ha!" Shen Tianyun almost laughed out loud: "Oh my God, tell our grandmother to use all the spare money on hand to buy a house."

"Stop joking." Xiao Yao said.

"Oh my God, do I look that frivolous?" Shen Tianyun was anxious.

“We don’t have money and can’t afford it.”

"Why aren't you sleeping yet?" Shen Jie asked.

"See, this is why I don't want you to live here." Shen Tianyun shrugged: "Please be a little more aware of living under someone else's roof... It hurts, it hurts, it hurts."

"I haven't taken a shower yet." Shen Jie said after pinching Shen Tianyun.

"Do you want to take a shower?" Xiao Yao said, and dragged out a red plastic bathtub that was more than one meter long from under the bed.

"What is this?" Shen Jie's eyes widened: "Is there Doraemon's treasure bag under your bed?"

"You two take your time, 886." Shen Tianyun opened the closet door and went in.

"This is called a bath-basin, a bathtub." Xiao Yao introduced enthusiastically.

"Xiao Yao," Shen Jie calmed herself down and pushed the bathtub back under the bed: "Take your ID card and follow me."

"Where are you going?" Xiao Yao was stunned.

"Let's get a room." Shen Jie announced her decision.

"what?!"

--split line--

It started to drizzle outside the window again, bringing a hint of coolness.

Shen Jie went back to Tian Yun's room and greeted her, then changed out of her pajamas and came out wearing a sweatshirt and tight jeans.

Her eyes fell on the small box next to the sofa handle and saw the three pairs of socks she had given to Xiao Yao: "You didn't use them for anything weird, did you?"

"How is that possible!" Xiao Yao denied it flatly: "I just washed it and put it here."

Shen Jie picked up the pair of naphthyl women's sports socks, sniffed them suspiciously, and seeing there was no peculiar smell, she put them on her feet.

"Uh……"

"Let's go." Shen Jie walked to the door of the soap room and put on her blue canvas shoes.

Xiao Yao held a big umbrella and walked out of the alley with Shen Jie.

"Oh, do you know how to hold an umbrella..." Shen Jie couldn't help complaining when she walked to the side of the road.

"Uh?"

Shen Jie touched her wet hair and left shoulder, and snatched the umbrella away: "Let me do it."

"Oh……"

The girl held an umbrella for the two of them, and she had to raise her arms hard to barely accommodate Xiao Yao's height.

Then, under the bright moonlight, she stepped into the pool again, and her right shoe and sock were immediately half wet.

Xiao Yao listened to Shen Jie's loud complaints and felt like there was an active volcano around him that was about to erupt.

The signs of this volcanic eruption reached a new climax after hearing what the Home Inn front desk staff said.

"Sorry..." The smiling receptionist returned the ID card to Xiao Yao: "You are not yet 16 years old. You cannot register alone without a guardian."

The two sat on the sofa in the lobby of Home Inn, and Shen Jie buried her head in her knees.

Her body is so flexible.

"Or..." Xiao Yao also felt sleepy.

"Why are you under 16 years old?" Shen Jie suddenly raised her head.

"???" Xiao Yao scratched the back of his head: "I'm growing slowly, I'm sorry."

"You little men..." Shen Jie stopped talking halfway: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you."

"It's okay." Xiao Yao reached out his hand hesitantly and touched the girl's back.