I'll give my daughter one more second.

"What's wrong?" Wu Shen turned around and looked at the waiter.

"Sir, have you been here before? You look familiar." The waiter leaned forward and took two steps closer, seemingly wanting to observe Wu Shen's appearance more closely.

Wu Shen's heart suddenly started pounding, and he quickly turned his head to the side, pretending to observe Wu Yi playing on her phone.

"It's probably because I have a very common face. I'm often mistaken for someone else..."

"No! I think I'm right. It was this little girl last time. I remember her very well." The waitress's gaze followed Wu Shen, and when she saw the dance costume, her pupils contracted slightly, which only confirmed her suspicions.

Meanwhile, Wu Yi, who was the center of attention, was engrossed in playing with her newly bought phone while connected to the restaurant's Wi-Fi. So, unusually, she remained quiet and didn't make a sound or cause any trouble for quite some time, nor did she notice that everyone around her was watching her.

"You might have mistaken me for someone else?" Wu Shen quickly leaned forward, blocking the waiter's view of the dance costume.

"Impossible!" The waitress clenched her fist with unwavering determination. "I was deeply impressed by the cute little girl last time, and I've always wanted to try hugging her. As a seasoned lolicon, how could I possibly forget the face of my beloved little girl!?"

You're lucky you're a girl, otherwise I might have called the police!

"Oh right, I suddenly remembered! Weren't you a young couple with two daughters last time?" The waiter suddenly seemed to remember something, clapped his hands, and showed an expression of sudden realization.

"Hmm? But that's strange... Why doesn't this match the woman in my memory? I remember your partner should have been more aloof, like a cold beauty, not this seductive and charming style." The waitress looked at Shiyu with some confusion, seemingly comparing it with the discrepancy in her memory.

However, since some time had passed, the memories and impressions were rather vague. In addition, both Yukino Yukinoshita and Utaha Kasumigaoka had long, straight black hair, so the waiter racked his brains but still couldn't recognize that they were two different people.

"Little bird, don't waste too much time at the same table, hurry up and get back to work!" A person who seemed to be the shop owner popped up from backstage and urged.

"Yes, I understand!" Upon receiving the instruction, the waiter immediately bowed and apologized to Wu Shen and the others. "I'm sorry, I was too nosy. Please continue enjoying your lunch."

After bowing in apology, the waiter immediately took the ladle and headed to the next table.

"Haha, that waiter was really strange," Wu Shenqiang said with a smile, turning to Shi Yu.

"Really? A couple with two daughters? That's an interesting topic. Shall I call the waiter over to continue our discussion?" Shi Yu smiled broadly, gently tucking a strand of hair that fell over her shoulder, her face beaming.

"I confess! I really didn't mean to hide it. I wanted to explain earlier, but the waiter had already come over!"

Seeing that there was no possibility of continuing to hide it, Wu Shen's only choice was to tell the whole story.

"There's no need for that, is there? Anyway, you don't need to tell me your private matters. Right?" Shi Yu rested her elbows on the table, her fingers clasped together to support her chin, and looked at Wu Shen with a smile.

When a girl says no, she actually means yes. Wu Shen understood this.

Without much hesitation, he recounted the whole story of what happened that day and patted the dancer's dress to ask her to be his witness.

“I see…” Shiyu shook her head thoughtfully. “No wonder you didn’t answer my call that day. You were out fooling around with Yukinoshita.”

"No, no! I didn't hear the phone call, mainly because the volume buttons on my phone were broken. Right, Wuyi?" Wu Shen quickly and secretly tugged at Wuyi's left leg from below, asking her to cover for him.

“That’s right! Sister Shiyu, brother is completely devoted to you.” Mai nodded seriously in agreement.

"What do you mean by 'wholeheartedly'? I have no ulterior motives, Mai, don't talk nonsense!"

"Alright, don't be so tense. I can still tell when a child is joking," Shi Yu said with a smile. The dark aura emanating from her body seemed to have completely dissipated.

"Shiyu, are you not angry anymore?" Wu Shen asked cautiously.

"You've told me the truth now. It wasn't intentional, so why should I be angry? Wu Shenjun is really strange." Shi Yu lightly tapped the ground with her toes, looking completely indifferent.

"Besides, even if someone's going to be angry, shouldn't it be the person you're dating who's jealous and angry? We don't actually have that kind of relationship," Shiyu said.

“That’s true, just as you said.” Wu Shen shrugged, looking somewhat dejected.

Although their intimacy level has increased somewhat, he hasn't confessed to Shiyu yet, nor are they dating. To think that something like this would make her angry is an extremely arrogant and conceited idea.

"And given Wu Shenjun's destined-to-be-alone personality, he probably doesn't have a boyfriend or someone he likes, right?" After hesitating for a moment, Shi Yu said again, this time with a slightly probing tone.

"Shiyu, please stop hurting me." Wu Shen gave a wry smile.

Although somewhat helpless, Wu Shen's resolve only strengthened. Just because it's okay now doesn't mean it won't be okay in the future. With Wu Yi as a real example, he must work even harder. Neither arrogance nor inferiority complex is acceptable.

“However…” Shi Yu suddenly changed the subject, revealing a triumphant smile, “You’re my personal novel critic, and you ignored my calls and texts that day, instead going on a date with another woman. You have to be punished!”

"W-what punishment?" Wu Shen swallowed hard, his expression becoming wary. Based on past experience, whenever Shi Yu showed such an expression, it was never anything good.

This is the expression you'd make when you're about to trick someone. And who you're tricking is obvious.

"Don't panic, I'm not going to eat you."

You won't eat me, but whether you'll trick me is another matter.

“Every time you make that face, it’s never a good sign. Tell me, what punishment do you want?” Wu Shen had kept this a secret from her, so he accepted whatever Shi Yu asked for.

"I haven't decided on the specific punishment yet. I'll tell you when I've thought it through." As Shi Yu was speaking, the waiter had already brought out all the food that the three of them had ordered.

They began to enjoy their lunch, but Wu Shen ate with a somewhat listless appetite. He was still worried about Shi Yu's proposed punishment. Not having decided yet, and leaving it for later, was like a ticking time bomb.

Wu Shen was nervous, not knowing what prank Shi Yu would play on him.

After a while, the three of them finished their meal. Wu Shen looked at the leftover food on Wu Yi's plate and said, "You've finished eating. Don't leave any."

"This isn't as good as my brother's. I have no appetite." Wu Yi stuck out her tongue. Wu Shen had completely spoiled her.

Wu Shen always felt that in the future, as Wu Yi grew up, she would definitely want to learn cooking skills from him and inherit his craft. Otherwise, when he wasn't around, getting food would be a huge problem. Since her palate had become so discerning, he had no choice but to learn the skills himself and satisfy himself.

"Huh? Wu Shenjun can cook?" Upon hearing Mai's words, Shiyu and Yukino reacted with similar surprise.

Wu Shen then realized that he had never shown any cooking skills to Shi Yu. It seemed that Shi Yu was unaware that he could cook.

However, the main reason was that he hadn't proactively mentioned this to Shiyu. He had initially thought that learning to cook would be helpful for picking up girls after watching anime, but reality proved to be harsh.

He's equally at home in a formal setting and a domestic kitchen, yet he's been single for eighteen years—that's the most frustrating evidence!

It turns out that whether you have a girlfriend or not has absolutely nothing to do with whether you can cook!

Author's Note:

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(??????)?? The golden monkey rises with might, its might clearing the jade sky of dust for ten thousand miles~~~

[Starting today, I'll continue with two updates a day, at 10 AM and 17 PM, 8000 words daily!! Please vote, subscribe, auto-subscribe, and donate!]

Chapter 115 Exemplary Mother Yukino

Saturday night was a quiet and still night.

Wu Shen, clutching his dance costume, lay peacefully asleep on the bed. In the opposite room, Yukino's sleep was far from peaceful. Her eyes were tightly shut, seemingly lost in a nightmare.

In the dream, when Yukino woke up in the morning, she found that all traces of Yukino had vanished without a trace. Under the sunlight, countless dust particles floating in the air appeared, giving the scene a hazy and blurred feel.

"Rain?" Yukino tried calling softly, but only eternal silence answered her. Even after searching the entire room, she couldn't find a trace of her.

"Wu Shen, have you seen Yu Yin? I can't find her." Knocking on the door of the room opposite, Yukino tried her best to keep a cold expression, but she still couldn't hide the anxiety on her face.

"Yuyin? Who is that? Why have I never heard you mention her before?" Wu Shen had just woken up, rubbing his sleepy eyes, and asked in confusion.

"Have you forgotten? My sister, didn't I tell you?" Yukino frowned, feeling an emptiness in her heart, and an involuntary sense of foreboding arose within her.

"Yukino, are you still half asleep? Don't you only have one older sister, Haruno? When did you get a younger sister?" Wu Shen looked bewildered, scratching his head and staring at Yukino in surprise.

"You don't remember?" Yukino took two steps back, suddenly feeling that Wu Shen in front of her was a complete stranger.

"What do you not remember? Yukino, are you sick? Are you delirious from the fever? Do you need to go to the hospital?" Wu Shen worriedly reached out to check her forehead temperature to see if she had a fever.

“No need…” Yukino shook her head, slapped away Wu Shen’s outstretched hand, and said in a chillingly cold tone.

Immediately afterward, Yukino tried to find someone to prove Amane's existence. However, apart from herself, she couldn't find any evidence that Amane had ever existed. Aside from Wu Shen and Mai, no one else seemed to know of her existence. But Wu Shen and Mai had long forgotten about Amane, as if she had never existed at all.

Was it all just a dream? Yukino was stunned. She dared not think any further.

"I...it seems like I'm all alone again. But it doesn't matter...I've always been like this before, haven't I? It's just like going back to the way things were before." Looking at her empty rented room, Yukino said with a self-deprecating smile.

She moved out of her house because of Yuyin. But Yuyin disappeared, and she couldn't tell her sister or her family. Yuyin was like boundless water, existing for a time before naturally disappearing without leaving a trace in the world.

"Now is not the time to give up." Just when Yukino was about to give up and decide to treat it all as a dream, a clear voice suddenly echoed in her mind.

In the dim light, Yukino seemed to see a sphere, like an egg of light, radiating a dazzling brilliance amidst the darkness. And under the illumination of the light, countless blurry images emerged from the dark background.

In one of the images, Yukino saw the figure of Amane, so she desperately reached out in that direction. The moment she touched it, she suddenly opened her eyes and woke up from the nightmare.

"Was it a dream?" Yukino's chest heaved violently, her pajamas soaked with cold sweat. Although it was indeed a dream, she felt a profound sense of reality, as if she had truly seen a ball of light, witnessed that mysterious scene.

As soon as Yukino woke up, she instinctively looked for Ame, only to find that Ame hadn't been sleeping at all, but was sitting on the edge of the bed, stubbornly staying awake. Her small body swayed like a sapling in a storm.

"Rain? It's so late, why aren't you asleep?" Yukino breathed a sigh of relief the moment she touched Rain, but a hint of worry rose in her heart when she saw Rain's unusual behavior.

"I'm sorry, Mother, I didn't mean to." Yu Yin drooped her little head, looking listless from staying up all night.

"I won't blame you for this. What happened?" Yukino's voice was rather cold, so she spoke softly, deliberately making her tone gentler.

"I...I can't sleep." Yuyin lowered her head, her little hands circling, her face slightly flushed.

"Why can't you sleep?" Yukino asked patiently, patting her head.

“Every time I fall asleep, I dream of the scene when I disappeared, and then I am startled awake. I am afraid of having nightmares again, so I dare not continue to sleep. I am also afraid of disturbing my mother’s rest, so I do not wake her up.”

As it turns out, although Yuyin is very obedient and sensible, and makes people feel at ease, she is still a young child after all.

“You silly child…” Yukino sighed. “If you don’t tell me about this, it will only make me more worried.”

"Didn't I say that I myself am a dispensable substitute, so I don't want anyone else to have the same experience?"

Don't do that again next time.

"Okay, I understand." Yu Yin nodded awkwardly.

"Come on." Yukino knelt on the bed and patted her thigh towards Amane.

"Mother?" Yu Yin paused slightly, tilting her head, wondering what Yukino wanted to do.

"Aren't you having trouble sleeping? Come here." Yukino's voice was indifferent, but at this moment it carried a special kind of gentleness, and there was a faint smile on her face.

Yuu-on seemed to understand what her mother wanted to do. After hesitating for a moment, she crawled forward a few steps and finally rested her little head on Yukino's lap as a pillow, shaking her head a few times.

"Don't worry, I'll keep watch for you. The nightmare will definitely not dare to come again." Yukino held Ayane's small hand, her voice incredibly firm. "If the disappearance happens again, I'll go knock on Wu Shen's door directly."

"Mmm..." Yu Yin nodded slightly, resting her head against Yukino's soft, warm thigh. Her heart, which had been pounding, immediately relaxed, and drowsiness washed over her in an instant. Gradually, Yu Yin closed her eyes.

"Mother...Father...Shumai...Delicious!" In her sleep, Yuyin's breathing was even, no longer troubled by nightmares. Instead, she showed a happy smile and murmured in her sleep.

"Umaru...wheat? What is that? It looks like food?" Yukino imitated Ayane's pronunciation, lowered her head and looked at Ayane's happy face, lost in thought, seemingly pondering something.

Because she was afraid that moving would wake Amane, Yukino remained motionless in that position.