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

"Zhou Qi said she doesn't remember anything about her experiences during that period. Is she telling the truth?"

Xiao Yao sat up straight: "I guess so—I can't really say for sure."

"Do you know why Teacher Yao became like that?"

"I can't really say what triggered it," Xiao Yao replied cautiously.

At this moment, Xiao Yao's steak was also served.

He imitated Liang Yanan and used a large napkin to cover his front.

“Xiao Yao, then what do you think,” Liang Yanan picked up her chopsticks again and took a few strands of spaghetti, “since we’re not close, why would I give you the address you wanted?”

"Because you are Father Yu's friend?" Xiao Yao thought for a moment and deliberately answered, "Also because you are a kind and righteous person."

"I don't know if anyone has told you, but you're quite good at lying." Although Liang Yanan was wearing tinted glasses and Xiao Yao couldn't see her eyes, he could still tell from the way she put down her chopsticks and the tension in the other muscles of her face that she was not happy.

These words made the boy feel like he was being pricked by thorns.

"At least, for the next question, I hope you tell the truth." Liang Yanan softened her tone.

"..." Xiao Yao remained respectfully silent and picked up his knife and fork.

First, I held the fork in my right hand, then realized it wasn't right, so I switched to my left hand, and then to my right hand.

"What do you plan to do now that you know where Shen Jie is?" Liang Yanan asked.

Xiao Yao opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Liang Yanan wasn't in a hurry and waited patiently for him to speak.

"No matter what we plan to do, the ultimate goal is to find a way to restore her freedom." Xiao Yao said this vaguely at the end.

"Yu Bo said you two have broken up?" Liang Yanan said, "Aren't you dating Yu Bo's niece now?"

Xiao Yao remained silent, feeling that he was about to reach his limit.

Fortunately, Liang Yanan did not dwell on the issue: "What do you plan to do?"

"I……"

“Let me put it this way,” Liang Yanan said, “In my opinion, that place is no different from a heavily guarded fortress for you.”

"How tight can the security be?" Xiao Yao asked Liang Yanan.

“I have the address, why don’t you go check it out yourself?” Liang Yanan smiled. “How will you know it can’t be done if you don’t try?”

“…Okay.” Xiao Yao nodded and said, “Thank you anyway, Sister Liang.”

“By the way,” Liang Yanan raised her eyebrows, “you can try, but I hope you’ll be as careful as possible. If you alert them… be careful not to ruin the possibility of trying again after you fail.”

"Are you so sure I'll fail?" Xiao Yao retorted stubbornly.

“I don’t mind if you prove me wrong.” Liang Yanan shrugged.

……

Xiao Yao silently began to eat the steak in front of him, which was getting a little cold.

“Oh, right,” the boy suddenly remembered something and looked up again, “You said you’d try again? You mean you have a way? You’ll help me?”

“Don’t forget, we’re not close,” Liang Yanan said. “I’m a police officer—illegally breaking into someone’s home and kidnapping a minor will not only cost me my job, but I could also end up in jail. You can get a lighter sentence because you’re a minor, but I can’t.”

"Uh... there's no need to make it so serious, you've even brought up kidnapping..." Xiao Yao said this, but in his heart he had indeed given up on persuading the other party to help further.

Let alone the fact that he and Liang Yanan were "not very familiar" with each other, even if they were really good friends, there was no reason to use morality and personal feelings to coerce the other party into taking such a big risk.

Moreover, strictly speaking, from Liang Yanan's perspective as an outsider, there wasn't really any morally justifiable reason for her to help Xiao Yao.

After all, on one side is the legal father and guardian. While it is wrong to force his daughter into an engagement, it doesn't mean he'll tie her up and send her to someone else's bed tomorrow.

On the other hand, there's a scoundrel with practically no legal status who brings someone out. If something happens, who's responsible? If she gets pregnant, who's responsible?

This is my war, and I will face it myself.

A person, strong, faces it, like a true man, bearing everything.

“I understand,” Xiao Yao silently chewed the beef in his mouth. “Sister Liang, I’m already very grateful that you’ve helped me this much—by the way, how did you get the address?”

Liang Yanan didn't answer his question. She simply put a cigarette in her mouth, glanced at the waiter who was eager to come up and dissuade her, and didn't take out a lighter: "But after all, Yu Bo and I are old classmates. With this favor between us, I think it's not absolutely impossible for me to help you a little more."

"Hmm?" Xiao Yao looked up.

"At least, I'm about 80-90% sure I can get you to meet her."

"Really? Is it possible?" Xiao Yao was overjoyed.

"Zhou Qi's matter...and Yao Qi's matter..." Liang Yanan leaned forward, took off her glasses, and looked the boy up and down with great interest through her squinted eyes, as if she were a drunk girl in a bar.

Damn it, I knew it, Xiao Yao thought.

Seeing Xiao Yao's troubled expression, Liang Yanan thought he was already wavering and it was not advisable to press him further: "You only need to give me the correct answer to at least one of these two questions—you don't need to rush to answer me. Once you've thought it through, you'll have my number."

After saying this, Liang Yanan reached out and picked up the piece of paper with the address on it on the table, tore it into eight pieces, put it back in her shirt pocket, and stood up: "I'm leaving first. You can pay the bill after you finish eating, and then we'll be even for today."

“Ah…ah,” Xiao Yao said.

As Liang Yanan passed by Xiao Yao, she gave him a couple of firm squeezes on the shoulder, put on her sunglasses, and walked away.

"Ouch—that hurts!" Xiao Yao muttered to himself, rubbing his shoulder. "Waiter, the bill, please!"

"Hello sir, the total is 678 yuan. Do you need a receipt?"

"What's going on? The steak set meal costs over 300 yuan a serving. They know I'm a middle school student and they're still ripping me off like this. Sigh..." Xiao Yao pulled out his China Construction Bank Zodiac Card with a pained expression: "I should have just ordered a glass of water instead of my own."

Xiao Yao walked out of the "Wang Steakhouse".

The address Liang Yanan gave was in the western suburbs.

The boy wished he could sprout wings and fly straight to the western suburbs.

He flew to her side immediately.

However, upon closer consideration, at this time, by the time I get to the western suburbs by taxi, it will probably be close to 10 o'clock.

Going to scout out the location at night... tsk, that seems like a pretty difficult task.

But if I'm blind at night, will the security guard be blind too?

Hmm, maybe they have night vision equipment?

There's no such thing!

Xiao Yao spun around in place three or four times, but decided to be more cautious.

He took a taxi and went straight to Yu Luying's house.

"Hey? Ping, I'm downstairs at your place. It's too late for me to go up. Could you come down for a bit?"

With a creak, the small wooden door downstairs from Yu Luying's house opened, and a barefoot girl in slippers and a nightgown walked out.

"Here you go." Xiao Yao shoved the two bottles of red wine he was holding into Yu Luying's arms.

"What's going on?" Yu Luying asked, taken aback.

“Take it up to your mom and tell her it’s a gift from me,” Xiao Yao said.

"You have a lot of money?" Yu Luying said.

“No, it’s included in the damn steak set meal,” Xiao Yao said.

"You ate at Wang Steakhouse today, right?" Yu Luying asked.

"Oh my, Miss, you're amazing! You can even tell the difference by taste," Xiao Yao said.

"How did your talk with Sister Liang go? Did she give you the address? I have a feeling you two got into a fight again?" Yu Luying asked.

“No, no,” Xiao Yao said, “he just patted my shoulder twice when he left.”

Xiao Yao dictated to Yu Luying the entire conversation he had with Liang Yanan at "Wang Steakhouse" that day.

“You need to discuss this with my uncle first; you can’t just do anything reckless,” Yu Luying said after listening.

“I can handle it,” Xiao Yao said. “Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything to her.”

“Uncle should be asleep by now,” Yu Luying said. “We’ll go there first thing tomorrow morning, and then I’ll go with you to the western suburbs.”

“I can go by myself,” Xiao Yao said.

“No, I’ll go with you,” Yu Luying objected after a moment’s thought. “Johns and Shen Jie’s father have both met you. If they find you loitering around there, things might change. You just wait at a distance while I go closer to investigate.”

“Well… okay,” Xiao Yao said, “but it’ll be hard on you again.”

"Mmm." Yu Luying made a denial sound through her nose: "Let's not say such things now. You, me, and Shen Jie, we are all partners, aren't we?"

Partners...that's great.

“Yes,” Xiao Yao said, “I suddenly remembered that someone told me yesterday that my mother-in-law—Shen Jie’s father—is going out tomorrow. Would it be better if he wasn’t there?”

Yu Luying shook her head and said, "I don't know—I don't think so. If the housekeeper is at home, it's the same whether Shen Jie's father is there or not, right?"

"That's true." Xiao Yao thought to himself, "No one would bring a butler when going abroad for business... right?"

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now," Yu Luying said, holding the wine bottles in one hand and reaching behind her with the other to magically hand over a black package in a transparent plastic bag: "Go back and get some rest tonight, conserve your energy, and fight again tomorrow."

"Uh." Xiao Yao took the package and recognized it as the black socks Yu Luying was wearing today. They were neatly folded in a transparent plastic bag, and he was a little stunned.

“Wash those gray shoes clean and give them back to me tomorrow,” Yu Luying said. “And there’s one more thing.”