A Young Woman's Heart

—That's probably the idea behind it.

"Does your chest hurt? Are you dizzy? Does your stomach hurt?" Hua Yinyin asked, placing her hand on her chest. "Does it hurt?"

Mo Xueyao strongly suspected that she was taking the opportunity to grope her, so she pretended to be disgusted and said, "What are you doing? Why are you taking the opportunity to touch me? I said it's nothing, I'm just a little tired. Besides, I just accidentally fell down. I didn't faint. I just fell down and was too lazy to move."

“Little Yaoyao, you must not underestimate heart disease... Although your symptoms may not be serious..." Hua Yinyin bit her lip, and for the first time did not refute her, but gently withdrew her hand and said with a serious expression.

"I know—" Mo Xueyao, who didn't have a heart condition at all, replied perfunctorily.

This excuse of 'heart disease' was actually because he had just undergone surgery in his first year and couldn't participate in sports.

However, this reason is backed by his parents, so it is highly credible to others.

Among everyone present, perhaps only Li Wanyan could understand her helpless feelings at this moment.

—This is something that simply cannot be explained!

Mo Xueyao tilted her head slightly and glanced at Li Wanyan. Their eyes met in perfect unison, and they both blinked softly in unison.

"Didn't Xiaoyao say she was cured last time?" Wang Jiale asked curiously.

"Ah, yes, he's cured."

"Heart disease cannot be completely cured... it can only be said to be under control."

"How does Yinyin know so much?" Mo Xueyao used the question to cover up her ignorance in this area.

Hua Yinyin pursed her lips, as if she wanted to say something, but didn't know where to begin.

"Alright, alright, I haven't been unconscious for long, only a few minutes have passed."

"It will take about... um... five minutes to carry you up here." Lu Chengyuan, who was sitting a little further away, glanced at her watch.

“Exactly.” Mo Xueyao got out of bed, squatted down and put on her shoes. She noticed that Hua Yinyin’s expression was still a little tense. Thinking of the helplessness and confusion she had shown in her in the past, she patted her shoulder helplessly. “Come on, Yinyin, want to buy some Coke? Hmm, I think I’ve been drinking too many beverages today, haven’t I?”

"If you have a heart condition, it's better to avoid drinking these kinds of stimulating carbonated drinks," Hua Yinyin muttered as she jumped off the chair. "Shall I take you back to your classroom?"

"Pfft, it seems Yinyin has really fallen for Xiaoyao. She's showing way too much concern!" Mo Zhuyou teased playfully.

However, Hua Yinyin had no intention of joking today: "What do you know? This is really serious!"

"Okay, okay." Mo Xueyao wasn't an idiot with no emotional intelligence. Seeing how serious she was, she went along with her and said, "Let's go back to the classroom."

"Let's go outside too, class monitor, wanna play badminton?" Wang Jiale made a swinging motion. "We still have... half a class period left!"

Li Wanyan watched Mo Xueyao being helped out by Hua Yinyin, her gaze flickering slightly. In the end, she didn't follow, but simply smiled slightly and nodded gently.

"Hey, Mo Xueyao, I was just about to come see you!" Leng Feng, covered in sweat, greeted her from the doorway. "Are you alright?"

"No problem."

"Oh, I heard from Aya Akimoto that when she carried you back, you weren't moving much. Did you faint at the time?"

"I'm just too tired to move." Mo Xueyao covered her forehead somewhat embarrassedly, feeling awkward every time someone showed her concern.

"Oh, it's good that you're alright. I heard you have a heart condition?"

"That's all better now, and my illness wasn't serious."

"That's good. Everyone else has come out, so I won't go in either?"

"Why go in? It's so crowded inside." Mo Xueyao fanned herself, as if complaining about the poor air quality in the infirmary.

Mo Xueyao walked silently with Hua Yinyin for a long distance, but when she turned around, she found that Li Wanyan had not followed, which made her a little strange.

Generally speaking, she would be a little worried at this point, right?

Does that mean he knew he didn't have heart disease, so he went off to do other things?

So, in the end, only the two of them returned to the classroom early.

I felt a little uncomfortable while lying in bed, but after walking around for a while, I felt much more comfortable.

"Little Yaoyao, sit down." Hua Yinyin first straightened the chair for her, and then helped her sit down slowly, just like she was taking care of a patient who had been hit by a car and stayed in the ward for three months before she could get out of bed. This made Mo Xueyao feel both amused and exasperated.

"Alright, alright, I'm really fine." Mo Xueyao lay on the table and stretched like a cat. "Yinyin, don't worry about me."

Hua Yinyin sat down next to Mo Xueyao, resting her chin on her hand. After a full three minutes of preparation, she whispered, "When I was little, I had an older sister who also had a heart condition..."

"Huh? Sister? I didn't see her last time?"

"He's dead."

Mo Xueyao scratched her head sheepishly: "Ah...oh...sorry..."

"Do you know how she died?" Hua Yinyin looked down the corridor. Her braids, which had become a little frizzy from running, had some strands of hair sticking out from them, which were blown about by the wind.

"Hmm, what...? Heart disease?"

"Hmm." Hua Yinyin's tone was somewhat heavy, completely unlike her usual carefree self. "Although my memory is a bit hazy, I still remember a little bit. That day... um... she and I went out to play together. Mom and Dad weren't home, and my sister insisted on swinging on the swing. Sigh... I didn't stop her."

"After all, you're still young..."

"Hmm... She was very happy because she had never swung on a swing before. You might think it's ridiculous, Xiaoyao. When she swung the swing to its highest point, she fainted and fell off... Later, she died."

"what……"

“So…” Hua Yinyin turned her head, her almond-shaped eyes blinking, her gaze rippling like pebbles thrown into a stream, “You’ve never been like this before, I, I didn’t take it seriously… But… um… Xiao Yaoyao, are we friends?”

Normally, Mo Xueyao would have jokingly said, "Who said you're my friend?" But now, she swallowed hard and nodded slightly: "Of course, and... we're very good friends, right?"

“Yes, so I don’t want...that kind of thing to happen again…” Her eyes were downcast. “I was young then, but now…now I…I’m old enough to understand…so…”

For a moment, Mo Xueyao really felt like she had a heart attack.

"Cough, it's nothing, it's nothing, my illness is very minor..."

"But you must be careful, in short, you must be careful, Yaoyao—you must be careful! You can't do anything too stimulating, it's best not to even swing on the swings, and you can't drink anything too stimulating, eat anything stimulating, and you can't get too emotional..."

"Hey, hey, that's too much! Does that mean I can't do anything? Don't worry, I'm strictly following the doctor's orders..." Mo Xueyao felt she couldn't keep up the act any longer and even wanted to tell her the secret, but she swallowed it back in the end. "Besides, doesn't pushing me to the ground this morning count as strenuous exercise?"

"I... I won't do it again next time...!" Hua Yinyin looked up at the distant sky with a guilty conscience.

……

Chapter Ten Homework Distribution Machine

After the afternoon geography class, it's time for the last home economics class of the day.

However, as soon as get out of class ended, Ye Wen walked into the classroom carrying a large paper bag. She nodded to Yin Ling, the head teacher who had just finished teaching geography, and then stood on the podium and said, "Today's last class is a self-study period because your home economics teacher has something come up and can't come. It was supposed to be Chinese class, but I have a class later, so I can't teach it. Class monitor, vice class monitor, come up here. These are cookies that your home economics teacher, Ms. Shui, made for you. Each of you will receive a small bag, which is exactly forty cookies. During the self-study period, the class officers will be responsible for maintaining order. If there are any problems, the class monitor's decision will prevail."

"Aww—" Although they missed a pleasant home economics class, it was not bad to have a more relaxed self-study class instead. Many students cheered and started thinking about what they should do next.

A class period is very short if it's on a holiday, but it feels quite long if it's during the school year.

"Hey, can we go downstairs to play badminton later?" Leng Feng raised his hand.

"No—everyone must stay in the classroom and not go out." Ye Wen put her hands on her hips and looked around at everyone. "Don't be so noisy. The class next door still has to have a regular lesson, understand?"

"We know!" The students' answers always become uniform at times like this.

It was still break time, but everyone was noticeably more excited than usual. Ye Wen had barely stepped out of the classroom when it erupted into a commotion.

Mo Xueyao looked through the homework assigned by the teachers and found that only the geography assignment was left unfinished.

—For liberal arts students, geography is also considered a core subject.

However, she had already done half of her homework in class, and she could finish it by writing a little more during the ten-minute break.

But sometimes doing homework too fast can be a problem – you might find yourself with nothing to kill time.

Especially during 'boring' self-study periods.

"Oh, right, I haven't built the Lego bricks that Teacher Qianyu gave me yet... I'll try to build them during self-study period." Mo Xueyao muttered to herself, putting all the homework on the table into her schoolbag, and then taking out the big Lego brick box.

This thing is really big; it has more building blocks than all the ones Mo Xueyao has ever bought. It's about the size of an English textbook.

Judging from the picture on the cover, the completed puzzle looks like a modern-style bookstore, and there are some other pictures on the back.

The main image's design comes with an instruction manual, but other images may not.

For example, transforming it into a coffee shop or a glass house seems to require figuring out the solution yourself.

The weather today was unpredictable, with rain coming and going intermittently, but it was all light rain. Even with the wind blowing and the rain falling obliquely on my body, I didn't feel cold at all; instead, I felt a sense of warmth.

However, the people around are too noisy right now, and people are constantly running around. If they bump into the table and break a few parts, that would be a real problem.

So Mo Xueyao wasn't in a hurry to build with blocks. Instead, she looked around, trying to find someone to chat with. In the past, as soon as get out of class ended, other people would gather around her, but now that she didn't have many familiar friends sitting next to her, she felt a little lonely.

Perhaps the area around the podium is more spacious, so the girls now prefer to gather around Hua Yinyin and Mo Zhuyou.

Fortunately, there was an acquaintance ahead of her—Huang Yuxi. Mo Xueyao squinted and straightened up slightly, discovering that he was secretly playing on his phone.

I don't think he ever had a cell phone before?

Judging from the phone's pink color and the fluffy case, one could probably guess that Sanhua Tongjue bought it for him, or perhaps she simply gave him her old phone.

Huang Yuxi was unaware that someone was watching her from behind, and continued to look at her phone intently, opening her text messages.

It was sent by Sanhua Tongjue. This is an international text message, and it might cost a dollar per message—Mo Xueyao guessed, and couldn't help but click her tongue in her heart. She felt a little envious of Sanhua Tongjue, who was so rich.

He buried his head even lower, his ears burning. The text message was written in Chinese, interspersed with a bunch of emoticons: "Xiao Xi (*'?`*), are your classes over for today (⌒_⌒;)? Did you miss me? (..>?<..), even though you only just left (。-＿-。), it feels like you've been gone for ages (ノ?｀)! Will I sleep without you tonight...?"

One text message seemed insufficient to contain the entire message. After finishing this one, Huang Yuxi quickly opened the next one.

This continues from the previous post: "Hey! /(//o/ω/o//)/ I miss your little Xi so much! *licks* o(*////▽////*)q!"

Huang Yuxi felt like she was being pricked by a thorn in her side. She suddenly raised her head and bumped right into Mo Xueyao's forehead.

"Ugh—"

"Mmm...hug, hug...hug..."

"Ah, no need to say 'sorry'."

"Uh, um..." He hurriedly hid his phone in the drawer, secretly observing Mo Xueyao's expression, wondering if she had seen it.

Mo Xueyao pretended to be nonchalant and turned to look out the window: "Xiao Xi, have you finished your... homework?"

"not yet……"

"Okay, keep it up!"

"Homework?" Leng Feng, who had just returned from someone else's place, immediately reacted. "By the way, Mo Xueyao, um, what was that, homework? Can I borrow it...?"