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

Immediately afterwards, she suggested that she go back to another house to retrieve her marriage certificate.

"Can you drive like this?" Xiao Yao asked, worried about her safety, and pulled her back.

“Little brother,” Shen Jie put her sunglasses back on, revealing a confident smile, “you underestimate your sister’s ability to control her emotions, don’t you?”

Hmm... it was alright when I was a kid, but now...

It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that in the few hours we met, I didn't really see it coming.

Just as Shen Jie was about to leave, Shen Tianyun returned with cigarettes. Xiao Yao then ran to the photo editing room to bake pancakes for his daughter. Just then, Yu Luying called.

"Little apple~" Xiao Yao said, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Yu Luying said, "I'm back from the western suburbs, and I can't get through to you on the phone!"

"How is it?" Xiao Yao tilted his neck to the left and tucked his phone under his left shoulder.

"Let's talk outside. I don't want to talk on the phone," Yu Luying said. "How's the situation on your end?"

"It's a long story, and the situation is getting more and more complicated," Xiao Yao flipped the sesame seed cake over again. "Let's talk about it when we meet."

“Okay,” Yu Luying said, “Come here.”

Xiao Yao was taken aback: "Now?"

"Otherwise what?" Yu Luying said.

"No, right now, I..." Xiao Yao put a sesame seed cake on a plate, desperately trying to come up with a reason why it was inconvenient for him to go out.

He wanted to spend more time with his daughter, and Shen Jie was going to get the marriage certificate. She said it would only take 30 or 40 minutes to drive there and back, so he really didn't want to leave now.

"Is there something you need?" Yu Luying asked Xiao Yao.

"No, how about we talk on the phone first?" Xiao Yao said.

"What's wrong with you?" Yu Luying said unhappily, "Fine, I've been running around for you, and now it's all turned into me being the one who's being overly enthusiastic?"

After saying that, Yu Luying hung up the phone.

This girl... really, Xiao Yao thought, both annoyed and amused: she kept saying "it's not for you," "it's for Shen Jie," and "this is a matter between the three of us," but now it's become "it's for your sake"?

Xiao Yao wiped his hands on the rag on the stove, then called Yu Luying back, intending to tell her that he would be there immediately.

The call was rejected.

Call again, and I'll reject the call again.

Too much noise! ​​Time for a good night's sleep!

Without further ado, Xiao Yao decided to take the two hot sesame cakes to Shen Tianyun and have her tell Shen Jie before heading straight out to Yu Luying's house.

Just as I picked up the plate to take it to Shen Tianyun, there was a knock on the door of the photo room.

To be precise, it was kicked.

Oh my god...

Xiao Yao opened the door, and Yu Luying immediately punched him.

Even though they were face to face, the punch landed on his back.

Then, he lifted his foot and gently kicked his calf.

"Okay, okay..." Xiao Yao tried hard to keep his balance and not let the pancake fall to the ground: "What's wrong with you today? The world is so wonderful, but you are so irritable. This is not good, not good."

Yu Luying unceremoniously reached out and grabbed a sesame seed cake, took a bite, and then widened her eyes: "Mmm—! Delicious!"

"Really?" Xiao Yao said happily, "Isn't it cooked just right?"

“Yes!” Yu Luying said, “It’s kind of fresh out of the oven—just a little bit!”

“That’s great,” Xiao Yao said with a smile. “Do you know why Dongru sesame seed cakes are so delicious? Because they’re filled with love.”

“Anyway, it’s not for my love,” Yu Luying said as she walked into the room. “I knew you were baking pancakes; I could smell it even at home.”

"No, no, no, no, no..." Xiao Yao grabbed her: "Don't go in yet."

"What are you doing?" Yu Luying asked deliberately, "Is there a woman inside?"

“It’s baseless,” Xiao Yao said with a bitter face. “What if Tian Yun suddenly appears? And you even stole her pancake—and Shen Jie too.”

"What's wrong with my sister?" Yu Luying said dismissively, "I just wanted to see my sister."

"Tsk, are you stupid?" Xiao Yao pushed Yu Luying's forehead with his index finger. "Shen Jie approved of your cheating, but the Shen Jie inside doesn't know about this. What will she think?"

"Then just go see her as a normal friend, what's wrong with that?" Yu Luying said dismissively, "And what's this 'cheating'? It sounds awful!"

Despite saying that, Yu Luying stopped and continued eating her sesame seed cake while standing among the photos, showing no intention of sharing a piece with Shen Tianyun.

"Whether it sounds harsh or not, the fact is that she cheated," Xiao Yao said. "Let me tell you, she's already remembered a little bit."

"What? You remembered something?" Yu Luying asked, puzzled. "Remembered what again?"

Xiao Yao took Yu Luying's hand and went out the door. The two strolled around casually and came to a small river.

This river shouldn't be a tributary of the Suzhou River, because it's very clear and has no odor at all. During the first semester of our first year of high school, Xiao Yao and Yu Luying often came here to play together.

It was sunset, and the soft sunlight shone on the riverbank, creating a charming scene.

The stream flows slowly, its water crystal clear, like a ribbon of mirror. A gentle breeze stirs the surface, creating ripples that shimmer with golden light in the setting sun.

There's a fairly steep slope from the riverbank to the roadside; looking back from the river, all you see is a small earthen mound. There's no one else in sight, making it feel like a private outdoor space.

Xiao Yao always felt it was a great blessing to find such a secluded paradise in the heart of the city; all that was missing was a beautiful woman.

Of course, we don't lack them now.

This side of the riverbank is covered with a variety of lush green plants, from weeping willows to delicate flowers, adding vitality and color to the entire scene. The willow branches droop low to the water's surface, swaying gently, as if playing a soft melody for the river.

In the distance, the skyscrapers were gradually tinged with an orange-red glow by the setting sun. The sky softened, with pink and pale blue hues blending together, like a magnificent watercolor painting.

Xiao Yao and Yu Luying sat quietly on the rocks by the river, a gentle breeze caressing their cheeks. Yu Luying was wearing a pair of large, thick slippers, barefoot without socks. At this moment, she put the slippers aside and gently splashed the water with her little feet.

Xiao Yao picked up a few small stones nearby, aimed at the center of the river, and started skipping them across the water.

The pebble whistled away from his fingertips and flew quickly toward the river.

It drew a graceful arc in the air, and time seemed to slow down. Xiao Yao could clearly see its trajectory—as if it were dancing in slow motion.

Finally, the pebble met the water's surface. In that instant, water splashed everywhere, droplets leaping in the air and releasing fine mist. The splash spread outwards, forming a circular ripple that spread outwards like waves.

The pebble didn't stop; it continued to leap at high speed, leaving a thin trail of water in its wake. With each leap, it created a new ripple, a new wave that spread outwards, while the old and new ripples collided and scattered into more fragmented and complex shapes.

“Time is a long river, and we are these pebbles,” Xiao Yao said, pointing to the water.

"I knew you'd say that." Yu Luying hugged her knees and leaned back.

“That Shen Jie’s memory… I spent about half an hour, maybe an hour, with her. My feeling is that her memory is like these ripples colliding with each other,” Xiao Yao explained to Yu Luying.

"It's very chaotic? Is it?" Yu Luying asked Xiao Yao.

“Well, to exaggerate a bit, it’s a bit like fragmented memories are being reassembled, yes, fragments, or like an amnesiac patient recovering their memories…” Xiao Yao frowned: “It’s hard to describe in words. I even feel that new memories are ‘rewriting’ old memories—of course, this is just my feeling.”

"Is it like a rewritable CD?" Yu Luying frowned as well.

"It's somewhat similar, but not exactly the same," Xiao Yao said after thinking for a moment. "Old memories won't be truly erased, at least not yet, but they will be slowly... 'denied'?"

"'Negation'?" Yu Luying twitched her little nostrils in confusion. "Could you give me an example?"

“The example right now is,” Xiao Yao said as he thought, “Well, actually Shen Jie and I got married when we were 30, right?”

"How would I know you? Pretty much," Yu Luying said, pouting.

"But when I showed her the marriage certificate that I got married when I was 22, she immediately became confused."

"A marriage certificate for someone who got married at 22?" Yu Luying said.

Xiao Yao was suddenly startled, and a sweet taste rose in his throat.

He suddenly realized that he had not told anyone other than himself and Shen Tianyun about the marriage certificate.

Chun Chun accidentally let it slip.

It's like when I was a child, I put my feet into a basin full of hot water to wash my feet, and only when I saw my mother's angry face did I realize that I had forgotten to take off my socks.

Since you've already let it slip, the best course of action is to downplay it and quickly move on.

“In her memory, she does remember that we got married when we were 30, and she can remember the circumstances at the time—which road, which civil affairs bureau, it was a snowy day, what kind of clothes she carefully chose, what clothes I was wearing, that’s the whole scene, she can remember it all vividly,” Xiao Yao said.

"Mmm." Yu Luying simply hummed in response and didn't press him about the marriage certificate.

“But when she saw that… a little earlier, marriage certificate,” Xiao Yao continued, “another scene of getting the certificate appeared in her mind. It was on a different street, at a different civil affairs bureau, and it was summer, and we were younger… a completely different memory entered her mind.”

"In other words, she remembers that you got your marriage certificate twice," Yu Luying said quietly.

“No, she remembers we only got our marriage certificate once, but both of these times were the first time we got it,” Xiao Yao explained.

“This condition is generally referred to as ‘Alzheimer’s disease’,” Yu Luying said.

“That’s right,” Xiao Yao nodded, “but you know Shen Jie doesn’t have Alzheimer’s, we’re the ones who made her like this.”

“…” Yu Luying remained silent.

“At first, when that memory entered her mind, she instinctively resisted it,” Xiao Yao continued to explain. “If I understand correctly, she felt as if she were watching a film reel in complete darkness, as if she were an observer watching someone else’s fragment of memory, which did not belong to her… That’s what she told me.”

"Isn't it a bit like... that kind of hallucination?" Yu Luying said, "The day I went to Dongru with you, I inexplicably felt that Dongru was very familiar, even though I knew it was my first time there; when I went to your junior high school with you, it also felt very familiar, I even remembered that there was a chess set in one place, even though it was my first time there too..."

"Hmm..." Xiao Yao pondered for a moment, "It should be a little different."