A Young Woman's Heart

Page 1169

"Uh……"

"Don't accuse people like that again next time, Qian Haibo. And don't spread rumors without any evidence. Alright, go get fifty cents from Teacher Xuan. You three, go back now."

As for whether Ren Wenkai wronged someone or deliberately bullied them...

That remains to be seen.

……

Chapter 41 tells some stories outside of class.

This Hope Primary School also has an indoor gymnasium.

However, it would be more accurate to call it an activity room rather than a gymnasium.

In reality, its size is not much different from that of a standard basketball court.

It's at the end of the corridor on the second floor.

In this increasingly scorching weather, it has finally bloomed.

Although there is no air conditioning, thanks to the good ventilation design and the ability to block out the sun, it is at least five or six degrees cooler here than outside.

The perceived temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius, which wasn't too unbearable.

There is another main reason why the students are gathered here today.

That means the school has lost power.

The electric fans in the classrooms were also out of service, so sixty students had to come here to cool off.

—To avoid getting heatstroke later.

Mo Xueyao strongly suspects that the school's lack of air conditioning may not be due to insufficient funding, but rather because the island's electricity supply cannot support so many air conditioners.

This area mainly relies on wind power for natural electricity generation, and also has a small thermal power plant.

However, the scale is not large, and there is no problem with ordinary power supply. But if there are dozens more air conditioners, it may not be able to support it.

The primary school itself installed solar water heaters in order to save electricity.

In addition, not only schools, but also most households on the island keep a certain amount of diesel fuel and a diesel generator on hand.

in case the emergency.

On summer days like this, power outages are not uncommon even in cities, let alone on islands where conditions are not so good.

It's said that repairs are still underway, and it seems that something has broken.

I don’t know if it’s a fuse—Mo Xueyao only heard about it secondhand, so she’s not sure.

Many boys were playing basketball in the middle area, while a few girls were playing badminton on the small platform on the side that could probably be used as a stage.

Others who didn't want to move should consciously step aside.

Some people brought chairs from the classroom, while others simply sat on the floor.

"Little Yaoyao~ Sit here!" Hua Yinyin, who had brought two chairs over, gestured from the corner. In front of her, seven or eight fifth and sixth grade students were sitting cross-legged.

Logically speaking, she shouldn't be familiar with them.

"What are you doing here?" Mo Xueyao, who was hesitating about whether to bring a chair over, no longer had to worry about it. She quickly walked to the empty chair, sat down comfortably, and was about to spread her legs to let in some fresh air when she thought of the students sitting directly on the ground. She quickly closed her thighs and pressed her skirt down.

"I'll tell stories to the students; they're bored during lunch break anyway."

Mo Xueyao raised her left eyelid and glanced at her sideways, as if warning her not to tell strange stories.

She casually placed her legs on Mo Xueyao's thighs and sat sideways as if she were very comfortable.

"Hey, if you sit like that, I'll get heat rash from sitting too long."

"It's okay, just for a little while." Hua Yinyin blinked and said in a coquettish tone. Then she cleared her throat and looked at the students sitting on the ground. "Next, I'll tell you a story about O. Henry. You'll learn it in junior high school. But for now, don't think about any reading notes or anything like that. Just listen to the story normally."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay!"

"Teacher, please tell us quickly!"

These students, regardless of their grades, were clearly the type who enjoyed listening to stories; there were mostly girls and only two boys.

Hua Yinyin gently stroked her sideburns and licked her teeth with her pink tongue, as if she was preparing for something.

She didn't bring a book to read, so the story is definitely not exactly the same as the original; she's just telling it from memory.

"Hmm—this story is called 'The Last Leaf'... I think that's the title, anyway, even if there are differences, they're not that different. The author is O. Henry, a foreign writer. When he wrote this work, that country was already very developed, and the city he lived in was already similar to our city now. You have to understand that this was almost a hundred years ago..."

Hua Yinyin began to explain in detail, and perhaps fearing that the children would not understand, she also gave a special introduction to the background of the creation.

"Teacher, which country is it from?" a student asked, raising their hand.

"It is a country far across the ocean, and it is also the country that is currently number one in the world."

"Oh--"

So the student sat up straight, as if he had to listen attentively because it was a story from that country.

“The story is probably set in Washington, D.C.—” Hua Yinyin glanced at Mo Xueyao, who frowned and pondered for a moment before nodding slightly. So, as if her confidence had been boosted, she continued, “At that time, the city was still developing. The streets and alleys were being expanded. They were originally quite orderly, but they became more and more chaotic as they were built. The alleys were all tangled together in a mess, like a maze.”

She didn't remember the exact original text, so she only gave a general outline of the story—summarizing it in her own words.

"Many artists live in these chaotic alleys, but they are generally not very famous, and most of them are quite down on their luck. They like to rent attic rooms because they feel that it is their own little world."

"So, there are two other artists—painters, let's call them painters for now, but actually they just draw illustrations for magazines. Although they are trying to become painters who can sell a painting for a lot of money, it's still a long way off..." Hua Yinyin said, suddenly hugging Mo Xueyao's neck affectionately. The latter stared at her with a 'cold' gaze. "Ahem, those two painters are two beautiful young ladies, probably around twenty years old, um... probably."

"I vaguely remember it being a mother and a daughter?" Mo Xueyao asked, somewhat puzzled.

“It’s two ladies!” Hua Yinyin’s eyes widened. “I’m absolutely sure I’m not mistaken! They got along very well and moved in together not long after they met.”

Mo Xueyao pushed her face to the side, causing the students sitting cross-legged to chuckle.

Because the description of Hua Yinyin makes it seem so much like a couple.

Or perhaps that's really what the original text meant?

She really couldn't remember this text very well.

"Two female painters who didn't earn much money rented an attic and lived together like that until the summer rainy season—it must have been around May or June, anyway, it was raining all the time. At that time, there was a pneumonia outbreak in the city, and one of them suddenly contracted the disease and fell into a hospital bed. Medical conditions weren't very good back then, so many people died as a result, and the city suddenly became somewhat desolate."

"Let's call the one lying in the hospital bed Xiao Yaoyao for now—"

"Hey, hey!" Mo Xueyao was speechless.

"Then the doctor found her roommate, Susanna."

"Why don't you use your real name too?"

“Okay, let’s assume the other person is named Hua Yinyin.”

The students in the audience listened with great interest; perhaps they preferred watching the two teachers bicker to hearing the story.

The doctor said to Hua Yinyin, "Alas, that beautiful young lady has only a 10% chance of survival... That 10% chance depends on whether she wants to live, but she seems to think she won't get better—is she worried about something?"

"Her? She hopes to one day paint the Bay of Naples."

“Drawing? Don’t be ridiculous. Can you say something reasonable, like—a man?” Hua Yinyin said, her eyes fixed on Mo Xueyao. Then, she switched to a softer voice, “A man? How could little Yaoyao possibly like men? Right?”

"...Could the characters in your stories please stop staring at me?" Mo Xueyao felt that sitting in this chair was a mistake.

Hua Yinyin chuckled to herself as she continued telling the story. When she got to certain lines, she would look at her with a very cheesy, affectionate gaze, as if she were acting.

"Oh dear, oh dear! My little Yao Yao! Don't say things like that! Even if you don't want to live anymore, you should think of me!"

Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes at her stare, which was particularly loud, attracting the attention of several people nearby.

Li Wanyan, who was tutoring students by the window not far away, couldn't help but turn her head. After seeing the expressions of the two, she seemed to know that they were joking, so she turned back and circled the mistakes on the students' homework with a red pen.

"Later, Xiaoyao stared at that leaf. It wouldn't fall no matter what, whether it was blown by the wind or rained on it. This gave her more and more confidence and filled her with a longing for life. Finally, she overcame her illness and recovered."

"Actually, that leaf was painted by the old man, but he passed away the day before she recovered because he got caught in the rain and also contracted pneumonia. He didn't survive those few days."

"Teacher! With such heavy rain, won't the paint get washed away?"

Just think of it as waterproof coating.

"Well, that old man's painting skills aren't actually as bad as he said!"

At this moment, a student jokingly remarked, "But that lady's eyesight isn't very good either. It's obviously impossible for that leaf to be completely still in the wind."

"Ahem! These are all artistic embellishments in the story."

"So, teacher, did those two female painters get married later?"

"when--"

"Slap!" Mo Xueyao slapped her on the forehead. "Don't make up plots that didn't happen in the story!"

"Hehe~" Hua Yinyin stuck out her tongue guiltily.

"Teacher Hua has already given one, so Teacher Mo, why don't you give one too?"

The students in the audience started to jeer.

"Me, talk? Uh... I wasn't prepared."

"It's okay, I just improvised, didn't I?"

"You're just making that up, okay?"

"No way! That's pretty much the story!"

"Okay, okay." Mo Xueyao rubbed her cheeks and tilted her head to think for a while.