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

“‘They’ are all the people living in this skyscraper,” Shen Hongsheng introduced warmly. “How many residents do you think live here in total?”

"I don't know," Shen Jie said. "Several thousand? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?"

“31785,” Shen Hongsheng told Shen Jie, “They are all the employees of the Miwei Group.”

“Like this…” Shen Jie said.

"31785 employees, do you know what that means? They are all mouths that need to eat, and I have a responsibility to ensure they have food to eat," Shen Hongsheng said with pride.

"So, you're quite the hardworking little bee," Xiao Yao teased.

“But to many rioters outside, the buzzing insects are just flies,” Shen Hongsheng said. “They infiltrate, incite, and try to hang all the imagined flies on the streetlights, not realizing that they themselves are just maggots who want to be flies but can’t.”

The scene was described in such a comical way that Xiao Yao almost burst out laughing, but thankfully he managed to hold back. After thinking about it, he felt that the topic was too far-fetched, so he didn't comment.

"Even so, you still feel that you have a mission and responsibility towards these people below, right, Dad?" Shen Jie's voice gradually softened.

"More or less," Shen Hongsheng replied. "You don't really think that holding royal power is a cushy job, or that being a member of the royal family is a cushy job, do you?"

"I...I've never thought of it that way," Shen Jie said softly.

“Wealth and glory are just appearances that the world sees,” Shen Hongsheng said, opening his arms. “But how many people can see the responsibility and sacrifice behind it? Can you see it?”

"I..." Shen Jie said hesitantly, "I've already been through all of this, haven't I?"

"If it weren't for your stubbornness, would we still be talking here?" Shen Hongsheng smiled slightly. "My dear daughter, if I hadn't been the face of this order, would you have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth? For the past ten years or so, you have enjoyed the best educational resources, living resources, material resources, and spiritual resources in the world. Everything in the world that is like the stars in the sky for your peers is readily available to you."

"Then, what's the price?" Xiao Yao couldn't help but interject.

"The price... the price is nothing more than sacrificing my love and marriage." Shen Jie murmured sadly, "I originally thought that this was a trivial price for me..."

“Those thugs always try to conflate marriage and love, only to subvert and destroy. A proper marriage is the cornerstone of maintaining order, and it has nothing to do with love. A wrong marriage causes the temple of order to lose its support and collapse, at which point everyone will lose everything because of your willfulness. Now do you know what the price is?”

Shen Hongsheng's tone gradually became impassioned. Xiao Yao was about to retort when Shen Jie had already raised the white flag: "Dad, I actually understand the reasoning..."

The man in the suit and armor sighed heavily. Seeing his daughter's tone soften, he became even more earnest: "Actually, you're already very lucky. At least Zheng Kai likes you..."

“Dad,” Shen Jie said.

"As for your relationship with Xiao Xiao, the order never interferes with personal feelings, and I don't intend to do so either," Shen Hongsheng said abruptly.

"Huh?" "Huh?" Xiao Yao and Shen Jie said in unison.

“You can speak freely, admit your mistakes, get engaged, continue to repair the garden, and continue your secret rendezvous as usual. As long as you don’t get caught, don’t be too high-profile, and keep your bottom line, what’s the problem?” Shen Hongsheng said without any hesitation.

Xiao Yao & Shen Jie: "..."

“No one needs to sacrifice love,” Shen Hongsheng continued, talking to himself. “After the marriage, you’ll have no problem getting your hands on Xiao Zhang’s child. You can continue your passionate affair with Xiao Xiao. Isn’t that how it always goes?”

"Enough!" Xiao Yao roared in a low voice.

Shen Hongsheng looked at Xiao Yao and raised his eyebrows.

“You say they’re all beautiful,” Xiao Yao sneered. “Sacrifice, cost, mission—anyone who doesn’t know better might think you’re some kind of savior of the people, or Christ on the cross—but the one who made the sacrifice and cost was Shen Jie, a little girl who wasn’t even an adult yet. What cost did you pay yourself?”

“The sacrifices and costs I paid? They were too many,” Shen Hongsheng sighed softly. “But why should I list them all for you? For me, the biggest price I paid in this matter was losing my daughter’s love. Everything else is insignificant compared to that.”

Just as Xiao Yao was about to instinctively retort to Shen Hongsheng's hypocrisy, Shen Jie paused slightly, then said, "Dad..."

The boy swallowed the words he was about to say.

Shen Hongsheng gently stroked Shen Jie's cat head, his golden eyes filled with doting affection: "My daughter mistakenly thought that I didn't love her, that I only cared about money and interests and not her happiness, and that I only treated her as a commodity and tool to be sold for money."

"Are these all just 'misconceptions'?" Xiao Yao pointed out.

"You shamelessly called me 'future father-in-law,' and then openly sowed discord between my daughter and me. Is this how you act as a live-in son-in-law?" Shen Hongsheng accused without any politeness.

"..." Xiao Yao was at a loss for words.

"Dad, don't talk about Xiao Yao like that." Shen Jie's tone was a little hard to tell whether she was complaining or being coquettish.

Shen Hongsheng sighed and said, "Alas, Dad knows that we've all been through this age. Dad was young once too, and was once blinded by so-called love."

Xiao Yao thought to himself, "You probably don't know this, but I love your daughter many times more than she loves me."

However, this was not the right thing to say in this situation, so Xiao Yao chose to remain cautiously silent.

"How long have you two known each other?" Shen Hongsheng suddenly asked abruptly.

"It's been more than two months, hasn't it?" "I don't know, three months?" Xiao Yao and Shen Jie answered in unison.

"Please forgive my bluntness, but poverty breeds cunning and wealth breeds conscience," Shen Hongsheng said, his golden eyes looking directly at Xiao Yao and then at Shen Jie. "I'm not saying that all poor people are bad and all rich people are good. However, judging from the level of risk and the overall sample, two or three months is probably not enough for you to understand him or to entrust your heart to him lightly."

“That makes sense.” Xiao Yao decided to be polite to Shen Hongsheng: “You and Shen Jie are welcome to investigate my character further.”

“No, that’s enough. Xiao Yao is sincere,” Shen Jie retorted gently but firmly.

"Whether it's true or not..." Shen Hongsheng said, "Even if it's true now, there's no guarantee for the future... Have you already forgotten your poor little aunt?"

"Here we go again, you're always so indecisive, aren't you?" Shen Jie's tone was a little impatient. "That was just an unfortunate isolated case, and Xiao Yao isn't a gambler."

"What gambler? Little auntie?" Xiao Yao asked, somewhat bewildered. "Can someone tell me what happened?"

“It’s nothing serious,” Shen Hongsheng explained. “It’s just that this child’s uncle-in-law also came from a poor background and was a gambler. He gambled in Southeast Asia and couldn’t pay back the high-interest loans. The creditors came to his aunt’s place. Later, the uncle-in-law took his aunt to Paris for a trip, and he killed her to collect insurance money. That’s all.”

“Uh…” Xiao Yao said.

“They were in a free-love relationship back then, and they forced their way into marriage despite their families’ opposition,” Shen Hongsheng sighed. “For a daughter from a wealthy family, if she’s obsessed with so-called love, being cheated out of money and her body is a minor matter, you know? As her father, how could I not be extra careful to protect her? It’s my duty.”

“Strictly speaking, you are not her father,” Xiao Yao thought for a moment and replied, “You are just a shadow.”

“Then I am also her father,” Shen Hongsheng solemnly declared.

“Yes, I agree,” Xiao Yao said. “This is your palace, and I am in it. In my mind, as the master of this palace, you can observe my soul. And I know that shadows do not lie—so, put your hand on your conscience and look at me carefully, and then tell Shen Jie, and tell yourself, am I, Xiao Yao, the kind of person my uncle is? Did I come here for your family’s money?”

Shen Hongsheng pondered for a long time: "That's the problem."

"Huh?" Xiao Yao was somewhat surprised to hear this after waiting for so long.

“Although it hasn’t happened yet, I can sense from your aura that you have a tendency to kill your wife, like someone like Gu Cheng,” Shen Hongsheng told Xiao Yao in a serious tone. “Although you haven’t done anything yet, perhaps in the not-too-distant future…”

"That's utter nonsense!" Xiao Yao exclaimed in shock, and Shen Jie was also speechless with astonishment.

Chapter 258 Victorious Rescue of Shen Jie

2023-07-08

*This chapter is also known as "In Your Father's House"

"Isn't this a bit too outrageous!" Xiao Yao said angrily, "Not only is it a thought trial, but also a prophetic trial..."

“I’m not judging you,” Shen Hongsheng said, looking somewhat confused as he touched his nose. “I thought you invited me to conduct a soul-searching of you?”

Xiao Yao's mind was in a mess. Faced with such an unreasonable accusation, he didn't even know where to begin in refuting it.

“Xiao Yao,” Shen Jie said with a complicated expression, “did that fat monk also claim to be able to read qi?”

Xiao Yao: "..."

If Shen Jie hadn't seemed to be affected by her "shadow father," he could have ignored her.

...No, in fact, it's not necessarily possible to completely ignore it.

When Xiao Yao heard Shen Hongsheng mention the name "Gu Cheng," he felt a chill run down his spine.

Not long after he arrived in Shanghai to study, and after Wang Ming made his love letter public, he wrote four lines of so-called modern poetry to complete his essay assignment.

"The sky is gray, the road is gray, the tall buildings are gray, and I am gray too."

Teacher Yuan's comments were: "First of all, the poem deserves no points; secondly, he should read less of Gu Cheng's works."

It was from that moment that Xiao Yao first heard the name "Gu Cheng".

Thanks to Teacher Yuan for his reverse recommendation. He admires Gu Cheng's works and laments his fate.

It was this opportunity that sparked his keen interest in the "Misty Poetry" movement, a modern poetry school, and its poets.

I still remember the first time I went on a date with Shen Jie at Gongqing Forest Park, we talked about Gu Cheng.

Unexpectedly, I was linked to this poet again here, and with the keyword "murdering his wife".

……

When Xiao Yao came to his senses, he heard Shen Jie ask her "father," "Is it because of this that you don't like him in real life?"

"Yes and no," Shen Hongsheng answered honestly. "At least it's not necessarily the main reason. The main reason is that Shen Hongsheng doesn't know how to read qi in that world. He only has intuition, the kind of intuition a man has. He can sense at a glance that this person might harm my daughter."

"You're trying to sow discord!" Xiao Yao said, unable to contain himself any longer.

"So-called intuition... isn't it just an exploration of inner shadows?" Shen Jie asked thoughtfully, "The stirrings of the subconscious?"

"Shen Jie, don't let him lead you astray!" Xiao Yao panicked.

"Don't worry, I didn't, I won't." Shen Jie had recovered from her earlier panic and was gently turning to Xiao Yao with a smile, reassuring him.

Xiao Yao suddenly realized that he had been tricked by Yu Bo and Teacher Yao. This idea of ​​"talking with his father" was absolutely lame.

The father and daughter did not stay on Gu Cheng's topic for long, but quickly moved on to other things.

Thus, Xiao Yao was once again inexplicably placed in the position of "spectator," no, "listener" by Shen Hongsheng.

"...Once you're down there, I can use a million ways to bring you back from up here. But if I go down there too, it will be as difficult as climbing to heaven to come back. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Shen Hongsheng said kindly to Shen Jie.

“I think I understand,” Shen Jie replied to her father’s shadow. “So even if I encountered danger, you could only help me with the red light from above. I understand, and I have no right to blame you for this.”

"It's good that you understand." Shen Hongsheng said, "Actually, what you said down there really moved me."