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

Flames licked at her skin, instantly engulfing the girl's stockings and skin.

A stinging sensation spread along her legs, as if countless needles were piercing deep into every inch of her skin.

What kind of feeling was that for Shen Jie?

She was not someone who feared pain. In her memory, she had experienced the biting cold of the snow-capped mountains, the mud covering her body on the grass, and the despair of suffocating underwater multiple times.

However, the pain of the flames was almost unbearable for her, making her want to scream, but all that remained were silent groans.

Her feet were engulfed in flames, the temperature so high she felt as if she were about to be reduced to ashes. The girl could smell the burning skin, accompanied by rising smoke, as if the entire world was shrouded in the fire.

Time slowed down drastically—no, time was frozen in time, each second feeling like an eternity, plunging her into eternal agony.

"Doggy, I never want to wear stockings again in my life, okay?" Shen Jie finally said.

"Okay, okay, I won't wear it. Where are you? Is it 605? Lucia isn't here, is she?" Xiao Yao said.

Shen Jie hesitated for a moment, but in the end she did not refuse him.

Xiao Yao put on his clothes and went down to 605. As soon as he entered, he hugged Shen Jie tenderly and then they snuggled into bed together. He stroked the girl's hair and murmured words of comfort to her.

"You, you always criticize me," Xiao Yao said, "but aren't you just as reckless yourself—now you know the consequences, right? You're not allowed to be so reckless again, you hear me?"

“Hmm,” the mother cat said sweetly, like a kitten, “If it weren’t for the ribbonfish, you might never have seen me again. Maybe I would have become a vegetable, or even a charred vegetable.”

"Damn, if I see him tomorrow, I'll have to kowtow to him, no matter what," Xiao Yao said.

“And Brother Bo…” Shen Jie reminded Xiao Yao.

"I know, I know," Xiao Yao said.

Xiao Yao patted her gently, as if soothing a little child, while whispering secrets to her. Amidst the hum of the air conditioner, he wasn't sure if he had managed to lull Shen Jie to sleep, but he himself was certainly asleep.

She hadn't been half asleep for long when Shen Jie woke her up again: "You should go now. It's time for the evening activities to end. Lu Jia will be back soon."

Xiao Yao yawned and went upstairs. Not long after, Gao Sijun returned.

"I heard you said a lot of good things about me?" Xiao Yao looked at Gao Sijun and said, "Well done."

Gao Sijun hesitated, blinking, unsure whether Xiao Yao was being sarcastic or not: "Of course, we're like family—have you washed yet?"

Nightmares and strange dreams visit me alternately when I sleep at night.

He first dreamt that Shen Jie was engulfed in flames, rolling around in front of him, crying and wailing. Xiao Yao opened the fire hose to try to put out the fire, but the fire only burned more fiercely. It turned out that he had grabbed a gas station nozzle... After the girl was burned to a crisp, all that remained was a headless body, belly up, limbs facing backwards, crawling around him like a spider, looking quite terrifying.

"Why?" Xiao Yao questioned her, "I thought we were friends."

The headless "spider" just crawled around without saying a word.

"Why did you do this?" Xiao Yao continued angrily, "You almost killed both of them, almost killed me, and you even killed Teacher Song—why did you do this? From the very beginning, when you approached me and pursued me, was it all part of the organization's mission? Did you never like me at all?"

Xiao Yao couldn't remember how Zhao Xiaomei answered—in fact, the scenes and memories following the dream were very vague.

He only remembered that he and Zhao Xiaomei held hands and walked through many places, and talked a lot. The feeling in the dream was warm and a little sweet.

Zhao Xiaomei told him her troubles, which sounded reasonable in the dream, but upon waking up, the logic of which was completely illogical.

They went together to the small wonton shop where they first met. While eating wontons, Xiao Yao read her his essays and poems. Outside the wonton shop was the small river of Zhouzhuang, and Zhao Xiaomei volunteered to go down into the river to catch fish for him.

The setting sun cast its golden rays across the river, and also onto the faces of the boy and girl. Under this golden filter, Zhao Xiaomei stood in the river, her waist and below submerged, holding an enormous fish in her hands, facing him with a radiant smile.

Xiao Yao was woken up early by Shen Jie's phone call. Gao Sijun was still fast asleep, while Xiao Yao himself was still immersed in the melancholy brought about by his beautiful dream.

"Why so early?" Xiao Yao said in a low voice, still half asleep.

"Didn't you say yesterday that you wanted me to take you diving?" Shen Jie said.

"Oh, I think that's true," Xiao Yao said. "But is it really necessary to do it so soon?"

"Stop talking nonsense and come down here right now." Shen Jie hung up the phone after saying that.

Shen Jie had also invited Yu Luying to go diving, but the latter said she wasn't interested, so it was just the two of them. After paying the fee, they followed the diving instructor onto a small boat, and the three of them headed towards the shallow waters near the shore.

"If only I had gotten up earlier, I could have watched the sunrise over the sea," Xiao Yao muttered to himself as he gazed at the approaching white in the east.

“It’s okay,” the coach comforted him. “It’s a cloudy day, so you won’t see the sunrise even if you get up early.”

“You’re so good with words,” Xiao Yao said with a smile. “You’ve made me feel much better right now.”

"You're up so early? I almost couldn't wake you up at this hour," Shen Jie complained.

"Hey, if we sneak out to play at this hour, we won't make it back for morning Mass, will we?" Xiao Yao suddenly thought of something.

“It’s alright. Lucia came back and told me that today’s Mass has been moved to before the closing ceremony.”

"That's great!" Xiao Yao said, then lowered his voice to Shen Jie, "You know, with no shore in sight, what if this guy throws us in? There aren't any security cameras or anything, so it'll just be treated as a missing person case, right? We won't be able to solve the case."

“Yes,” Shen Jie said with a smile, “That’s why you should never offend anyone at sea, especially the captain.”

At this point, the coach struck up a conversation with them: "Hey, I heard you talking about Mass earlier, so you're Catholics too?"

"Fellow Daoist Mu, Fellow Daoist Mu," Xiao Yao said, "Are you one too?"

“All the fishermen in this area are like this,” the instructor told them. “I’m doing this as a hobby.”

"I've heard people say that many fishermen along the coast in China are Christians. Why is that?" Shen Jie asked curiously.

“Because Saint Peter (Note: the first pope, also translated as Saint Peter) was also a fisherman,” the instructor told them. “We fishermen who go out to sea all year round are afraid of the wind and waves, so we ask him to protect us.”

As we were talking, we arrived at the snorkeling spot.

Diving is divided into snorkeling, scuba diving, and freediving. Xiao Yao doesn't have a diving certificate, so he can only try snorkeling. Shen Jie has a certificate, but she didn't have it with her. In addition, she accompanied Xiao Yao, so the two of them snorkeled together.

There was no diving helmet or fins as I had imagined; the only equipment was a goggle and an oxygen mask. Underwater, it felt like I was completely naked.

After being pushed into the water by the coach, Xiao Yao was always worried that seawater would suddenly rush into his mask and choke him. Therefore, he kept one hand on the mask and his swimming posture was not balanced. He was always spinning and could only maintain this depth by being pulled by the coach.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable first experience.

According to Shen Jie, the seabed in this area is very shallow, but whether it was because it was a cloudy day or because his concept of "very shallow" differed greatly from Shen Jie's, looking down from here, it felt like it was already quite dark and frighteningly dark not far from where we were standing.

No wonder ribbonfish can survive unharmed at sea; the deep ocean doesn't welcome light, so naturally no shadows are cast.

But then he thought again, shadows are formed when light is blocked, so shouldn't the deep sea, where all the light is blocked by the seawater, be the shadow of the ocean, which makes up 71% of the Earth's surface?

What would the ocean, already so capricious and capricious, look like if it had a palace?

Thinking of this, Xiao Yao suddenly felt a chill, and his posture, which he had just managed to adjust, became chaotic again.

Shen Jie was an experienced driver, so she didn't need the coach to hold her hand. She went to Xiao Yao's other side and took his hand.

Xiao Yao turned to look at her with some surprise. He saw a small girl wearing goggles and an oxygen mask, carrying an oxygen tank, and barefoot in a black, tight-fitting wetsuit. Her figure was so graceful, like a nimble mermaid.

Shen Jie let go of his hand and pointed to her chest.

Then he made a heart shape with his hands.

He then pointed to Xiao Yao.

Oh dear, the coach is still right there? Xiao Yao thought.

Is this the first time the cat mom has confessed her love to me?

Xiao Yao was overjoyed, all his gloom vanished, and he rushed forward to hug her, but they bumped into each other and he slipped away.

Through the mask, Xiao Yao couldn't see Shen Jie's expression, but he knew that she had taken his hand again and made a series of hand gestures to the diver uncle with her other hand. Xiao Yao only understood one gesture: a thumbs-down gesture.

The diver hesitated for a moment before letting go of Xiao Yao's arm, while Shen Jie led him to continue diving downwards.

Until it reached the coral reef on the seabed, which was eleven or twelve meters deep.

"So beautiful," Xiao Yao thought, though he couldn't see Shen Jie clearly in the coral reef.

Shen Jie gently hugged him and pointed upwards with her left index finger.

Xiao Yao clung tightly to Shen Jie, looking up at the "sky".

He saw the calm sea, the kind of visual effect seen from below.

I also saw a glimmer of light on the water's surface.

"Follow that light!" Xiao Yao thought.

Take a break

2023-09-08

The three yangs bring good fortune, but I've caught a fever again...

Updates will resume no later than tomorrow.

2023-09-10

My fever hasn't completely subsided, but I've been writing on and off these past few days.

Chapter 323 The Last Memories of a Blue and White Summer

2023-09-11

On the way back to shore, Xiao Yao noticed that Shen Jie seemed absent-minded and sullen, so he asked her what was wrong.

She just smiled and said, "It's nothing."