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

“That’s not right,” Xiao Yao turned to the side and raised his head a little, “You were sleeping soundly, were you acting the whole time?”

"No," Yu Luying whispered, "I must have fallen asleep in the middle, just a light, hazy sleep. I think I only woke up for a few minutes?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were awake? Don't tell me you were afraid of waking me up," Xiao Yao asked. "My eyes were wide open; I wasn't pretending to be asleep."

"Hmm." Yu Luying hummed again, "I just want to see if you really have any integrity."

"I've been honest, haven't I?" Xiao Yao was a little scared, thankful that he hadn't kissed her rashly just now: "Please call me Xiao Xiahui."

Xiao Yao's self-praise and attempt to claim credit were met with ruthless refutation.

“If I couldn’t sense you myself,” Yu Luying said with her eyes closed, “I would have truly believed it.”

“Uh,” Xiao Yao said somewhat awkwardly, “I’m not responsible for the parts of my brain that I can’t control.”

"Alright, I forgive you then," Yu Luying said playfully.

……

"By the way, are you hungry?" After a brief silence, Xiao Yao spoke up: "Since you're awake, why don't we get up?"

"Mmm~" Yu Luying made a nasal sound to indicate her denial: "Are you hungry?"

“If you’re not hungry, of course I’m not hungry either,” Xiao Yao laughed. “Is there even a need to ask that?”

"Then why are you asking me?" Yu Luying said, "I feel that lying together in the dark, just talking, is very... relaxing? Very easy and comfortable."

"I totally agree!" Xiao Yao said happily.

This kind of romantic experience, where both people seem to know each other inside and out, is simply wonderful, Xiao Yao thought.

"I don't necessarily think so," Yu Luying replied. "If in the end it feels like you're dating yourself, wouldn't that be meaningless? If every thought and every word the other person says is within your expectations, like looking in a mirror, what's the point of anticipation?"

“No, no,” Xiao Yao shook his head and said, “Besides, even if it’s just a reflection in the mirror, you don’t know all of its thoughts.”

“That’s true,” Yu Luying said, clearly not very interested in continuing the discussion. “However, another downside of empathy is that I know that when you’re holding me, you’re still thinking about her.”

Xiao Yao was startled and was about to subconsciously deny it three times in a row when Yu Luying placed her finger on the boy's lips: "Don't lie. I won't deliberately try to trick you into saying anything. Since I felt it, I said it's true, so it is."

"..." Xiao Yao fell silent.

“Besides, so what if you want to think about it?” Yu Luying said lightly. “If you’ve already forgotten your sister by now, then I’ll look down on you.”

These words sound noble and virtuous, but Xiao Yao didn't believe for a second that she wasn't just being sarcastic: "Since you can read my mind, you should also be able to feel how full of emotion and how real my feelings were when I said 'I love you' just now, right?"

Yu Luying didn't say anything, but simply buried her head back into Xiao Yao's chest, hugging him even tighter.

“Then,” Xiao Yao continued, prompting her like a parent to a kindergarten child, “how should a girlfriend respond when her boyfriend says ‘I love you’?”

Yu Luying still didn't make a sound.

Xiao Yao was so excited he almost jumped out of bed: "Really? Is it really the truth?"

"Are you crazy?" Yu Luying said, "You overheard what others were thinking and then asked them if it was the truth?"

Xiao Yao reached out and lifted the girl's chin, gazing at the curve of her lips in the darkness.

"Is it okay?" he asked her in his heart.

"Wouldn't it be better to find a more memorable time and occasion?" Yu Luying released Xiao Yao's arm, crossed her hands to cover her mouth, and answered him in this way.

"Isn't this a good occasion?" Xiao Yao looked around at the darkness and said, "Isn't it memorable?"

"Huh? Huh?" Yu Luying said.

“First of all, this is our home now, a private place, a space for our souls,” Xiao Yao tried to persuade Yu Luying. “Secondly, this is where I was born, and you are lying where I was born. Even she doesn’t have this honor.”

"Huh?" Yu Luying said, "So you didn't give birth in a hospital?"

“Oh, right,” Xiao Yao laughed, “This bed is where my parents made me, isn’t it very special and meaningful?”

"You're so annoying," Yu Luying said reproachfully, "Let go of me, I don't want to lie on this bed anymore."

“No, think about it,” Xiao Yao pulled her along, “when the two of us…”

He had intended to say, "When we get married, we can exchange our first time here and then have a baby. Wouldn't that be very ceremonial?" But then he realized that the premise didn't hold true, so he quickly shut his mouth.

Xiao Yao suddenly felt a pang of sadness—the small right that ordinary couples can casually make promises and enjoy the future together is something he couldn't even give to the girl in front of him.

Thinking of this, he couldn't bear to keep the other person from getting any more time.

“Don’t always talk about the future,” Yu Luying said softly. “We should focus on the present.”

"Hmm?" Xiao Yao said.

“At least for now, it’s just the two of us together, it’s just the two of us in this space,” Yu Luying said. “No matter how short it may be, it is always the ‘now’ that belongs to both of us.”

“Hmm…” Xiao Yao said.

“You still don’t understand,” Yu Luying hummed, “ten thousand beautiful futures are not worth one warm present; every real present was once your imagined future.”

"...If only the mirror in my room could allow me to go back to any point in time I wanted to relive, that would be wonderful," Xiao Yao sighed. "Hey, should we go take a look in the mirror inside?"

"No, please..." Yu Luying said, "Don't make trouble out of nothing."

"Yu Dayang," Xiao Yao asked, drawing out his words, "when does your church summer camp start? Have you decided where it's going? What kind of activities do you do at the church summer camp?"

“It’s settled, we’re going to Dongqi, which is also in your Suzhou,” Yu Luying said. “Didn’t you always want to go to the seaside? It seems like the place we’ve chosen this time is right by the sea.”

"So, what do you do every day at summer camp?" Xiao Yao asked. "It certainly isn't just playing at the beach every day, right?"

"You're so annoying," Yu Luying said reproachfully, "Do we have to talk about faith in this kind of setting?"

"?" Xiao Yao looked at their intact outer garments and trousers: "What kind of occasion is this?"

"Anyway..." Yu Luying turned around, leaving Xiao Yao with her back to her, "It's not a very appropriate occasion."

"Zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz..." The sound of the phone vibrating made a loud noise on the glass tabletop.

"Ouch, who is it?" Xiao Yao muttered, rolled out of bed, and picked up his phone.

"My dear wife"?

My wife usually doesn't call at this time. What happened?

"Hello, Shen Jie?" Xiao Yao answered the phone.

"Damn it, Xiao Yao, what are you doing?" Shen Jie shouted on the other end of the phone, "I'm telling you, I'm really annoyed with you."

Although there was no accidental activation of the speakerphone, Shen Jie's voice was still very loud in this environment, and Xiao Yao suspected that Yu Luying could hear it.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Xiao Yao could feel Yu Luying's gaze. Without even looking for slippers, he groped his way out of his parents' bedroom barefoot in the dark. "What's wrong with me now?"

“You’re not really anything,” Shen Jie said on the other end of the phone, making a crisp, fruit-biting sound, “I’m just really annoyed.”

"?" Xiao Yao was completely confused.

"Why didn't you reply to my messages all afternoon?" Shen Jie said indignantly, "Six hours! A full six—six and a half hours!"

Xiao Yao said, both amused and annoyed, "Can you stop mimicking me on purpose? Besides, didn't I just take a picture of stir-fried clams for you at noon?"

"You know it's noon!" Shen Jie said, "What do you mean by deliberately mimicking your speech? Isn't this a double standard? You're setting standards for me to follow, but you don't follow them yourself?"

Xiao Yao thought for a moment and agreed with what the other party said: "My wife is right to criticize me. I will humbly admit my mistake and resolutely repent."

"Write a 500-word self-criticism and send it to me," Shen Jie said angrily.

"Five hundred words is too insincere, let's make it a thousand words." Anyway, I don't have her home address.

“Tell me,” Shen Jie said, taking another bite of something, “what have you been doing all afternoon? I sent you so many messages, and even sent you pictures of my dinner, and you didn’t reply at all.”

"Did all four of your tutors take leave?" Xiao Yao laughed. "I had lunch, took a picture of you, then took a rickshaw home, then found someone to fix the water pipes, and after that I did a big clean-up. I was so tired after the clean-up that I just fell asleep for a while. That's why I just woke up when I got your call."

"Hustlers still existed in 2004?" Shen Jie asked incredulously. "Wait, that's not important. The important thing is that something's wrong with you!"

"Ah, what did I do wrong—"

“Normally, if you take a rickshaw, get home, fix the pipes, do a thorough cleaning, and then go to sleep, you’d be constantly messaging me on QQ, sending lots of MMS messages. But this afternoon, there hasn’t been a single thing?”

"Didn't I already admit my mistake?" Xiao Yao said with a wry smile, "You said you hate me like this the most, so why are you acting like this today... today?"

“I’m going to get excited,” Shen Jie said. “I’m going to let you experience this awful feeling too, otherwise you won’t even know it.”

“I suddenly don’t find you annoying at all,” Xiao Yao quickly said. “Check my writing of 2000 words.”

"Don't avoid the question! You can do a big clean? You must have made that silly girl do the hard work for you again, right?" Shen Jie said, "Tell me, did you go to Dongru with her and have too much fun to bother texting me? You only answered my call after a long time—were you two sleeping together?"

Are you there? Can you remove my security camera?

Xiao Yao paced back and forth in front of the antique shelf in the living room: "What are you thinking? She was indeed with me when we were fixing the water pipes and doing the big cleaning. Then she went back to the hotel her mother booked to drop off her luggage. Now, we're just looking for a place to meet up so we can go eat at a street food stall."

"Didn't you say you were just woken up by my phone call?" Shen Jie said.

“Tsk,” Xiao Yao said, “Then you must have planned the itinerary before going to bed.”

"Fine," Shen Jie muttered, "I still think you're just trying to fool me."

"Oh, honey..." Xiao Yao became more and more guilty as he spoke, "She's such a conservative person, right? Don't you know her family background?"

“I don’t really know you, I haven’t known you for as long as you two,” Shen Jie retorted. “Alright, I won’t say any more to you. My tutor is coming, and I don’t have time to deal with your affairs. Anyway, Xiao Yao, remember this: I can turn a blind eye to some things, but remember what you promised me on the day I left.”

Which thing? The thing about "saving my first time for you"?

"I will never forget," Xiao Yao promised.

"Oh, by the way, remember to check the message I sent this afternoon and remember to reply to me—"

There was a knock on the door, and Uncle Zhou's voice rang out: "Xiao Xiao? Xiao Yao? Come to Uncle's house for dinner, the food is ready."