A Young Woman's Heart

For many people, supermarkets are still a novelty.

After crossing the road, there is a long stretch of road.

The road wasn't in great condition. There was a sidewalk in the first half, but as you walked further on, the sidewalk became narrower and narrower, and eventually disappeared altogether.

The sun finally rose fully, illuminating the entire city.

The girls wearing knitted hats and those with their hair in buns strolled along the uneven, dilapidated path, adding a touch of charm to the place.

A cold breeze lifted Yu Shu's short skirt slightly, and blew a withered leaf onto Mo Xueyao's woolen dress, where it seemed to be 'stuck' as if glued on.

She patted her skirt, and the withered leaves made a crisp sound, breaking into several pieces that rustled to the ground.

The two walked forward against the wind, their fried dough sticks and sesame seed cakes growing cold rapidly.

The shops on the side gradually decreased, and in their place were vast stretches of farmland.

This is already in the suburbs of Hangzhou.

Highways intertwine with rural areas, and the uniform urban-style apartment buildings are interspersed with rural buildings of varying shapes, creating a constantly changing landscape.

The farmland is not completely barren; there are still crops that can be planted in winter, although most of them have just sprouted and look quite fragile.

The sky gradually turned the same blue as Mo Xueyao's pupils. She squinted slightly and savored the slightly cooled meat pie.

The bells on her ankles jingled crisply, echoing across the empty road.

If there were a camera at that moment, it would surely have captured the most beautiful scene.

Of course, the experience of enjoying the scenery was limited to the first half. By the end, Mo Xueyao's legs were already a little sore.

I used to be able to run from home to the fruit shop in the summer.

It seems that my body is not used to exercising after not exercising for so long.

"Yu Shu, are you tired?"

"Hmm... a little." Yu Shu was already walking with a limp, which meant that she probably felt a lot of pain in the soles of her feet.

Acidity alone wouldn't cause uneven force distribution in the legs.

"How about we take the bus?"

"But... I still want to try and finish it. I've never done it before, it wouldn't be good to give up halfway, would it?"

"Uh...actually, the scenery in the back is just so-so. There are a lot of factories. The best part is the part near the end. I don't know if we can still see the yellow leaves on the ground these days—we probably won't. I guess all the leaves have fallen."

"Hang in there."

"Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Mmm!" Yu Shu nodded vigorously, trying to stand up straight. Mo Xueyao slowed her pace so that she could conserve her energy.

"Woof woof—!" Accompanied by an unusually loud bell ringing, a bulldog darted past the two like the wind, its owner chasing after it, panting just like his dog.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a bulldog run so fast..." Mo Xueyao dodged to the side and said in surprise.

"so cute."

"Ugh, how can such an ugly dog ​​be cute?" Mo Xueyao muttered softly, not daring to let the dog owner running ahead hear her.

The person and the dog chased each other away, and the noisy bell sound faded away. Mo Xueyao felt that the whole world had suddenly become quiet, and even quieter than usual.

"Strange, it feels like something's missing?" Mo Xueyao looked at Yu Shu with a puzzled expression.

"Hmm...it seems so, it suddenly feels really quiet..."

"Never mind, they were probably just too noisy." Mo Xueyao waved her hand.

Until she and Yu Shu finally reached the street lined with many maple trees.

The trees were all bare, with not a single leaf on their branches.

There were only a few withered leaves on the ground, which had been swept into a pile.

"It's all bare, it doesn't look good... Ah... Eh?" Mo Xueyao suddenly seemed to remember something, and looked down at herself. "Where's my bell!?"

……

Chapter 80 Getting Angry at Myself

Under the bright sunshine, there was a patch of gray cloud.

Looking into the distance, there are rows and rows of telephone poles.

They were not arranged neatly, but rather intertwined like weeds, and some were not even straight.

The power lines also wove together into a complex web under the sky.

There were many electrical wires tangled together like a ball of yarn messed up by a cat.

The sunlight was so bright, but Mo Xueyao couldn't see any gold in it; she only felt that it was blindingly white.

At that moment, the world seemed to her to be black and white.

Su Tang was idly fiddling with the red string on her ankle.

The black stockings made it appear even more vibrant.

She kicked it away impatiently and rested her chin on the cardboard box next to her with one hand.

"What's wrong? Why are you so down? There's nothing you can do about it now that it's gone. Maybe it was the one that saved you from a calamity, so the immortal took it away." For once, her mother didn't scold her. Instead, she comforted her and brought over a fruit platter, inviting Yu Shu to eat with her.

"Sigh..." Mo Xueyao sighed heavily, as if she had countless worries that she could not express.

The mother couldn't help but chuckle: "What's the big deal? It's just a lost silver bell. It's hollow inside, the outer layer isn't worth much."

"How many?"

"At most a hundred or so yuan."

"Ugh……"

"Alright, alright, why are you so emotionally fragile now? It's just a lost bell."

"I know, it's just that you feel guilty for losing it... Besides, you've worn it for so long, you must have some attachment to it, right?"

“There used to be a legend in my hometown, where your maternal grandmother lived.” My mother knitted, her eyes lowered as she smiled. “It was said that if an old object could not be found or repaired one day, it meant that it was tired and wanted to retire, so it was taken behind the clouds.”

Mo Xueyao pursed her lips, then glanced out of the corner of her eye at a piece of fruit held up with a toothpick and offered to her mouth. She instinctively opened her mouth, took a bite, and then suddenly turned her head to look at the person next to her.

Li Wanyan is still at home, so it is Yu Shu who is feeding her fruit now.

Her face flushed slightly with excitement as she stared at Mo Xueyao as if she had discovered something new, making one feel a little uneasy.

"W-what's wrong?"

"Hmm? It's nothing!" Yu Shu nodded first, then quickly shook her head, her smile stretching almost to the sky.

In fact, after discovering that the bell was missing, Mo Xueyao and Yu Shu had already gone back to look for it.

They even went back to their home.

Yu Shu's legs were almost too sore to walk.

The two rode their bicycle out and searched the road again, but they couldn't find even a trace of a bell.

The bell is so small that it would be difficult to spot even if it fell into a sewer or a field.

In fact, even if one had noticed the bell had fallen at the time, it would probably have taken half a day to search for it.

Besides, she herself didn't even know where the bell had fallen.

In the end, of course, nothing came of it.

Mo Xueyao subconsciously shook her leg slightly, but the familiar bell sound didn't come. She immediately felt an emptiness in her heart, as if something very important was missing.

Su Tang rolled over on the ground, knocking over several cardboard boxes, and ran off happily.

It turned out that a calico female cat was sitting obediently waiting for it at the door.

"Tsk, I'll sterilize you sooner or later..." Mo Xueyao muttered under her breath as if venting her frustration, while Yu Shu next to her fed her another piece of fruit.

She seems to have become somewhat addicted to feeding Mo Xueyao...

Su Tang twitched her ears, completely ignoring her 'vicious' words, and walked side by side with the little female cat, before darting up the wall and disappearing from sight.

There's absolutely no need to worry about it running away; it will come back on its own when the time comes.

It doesn't need to catch mice during the day; it only needs to be there at night.

The parents didn't restrict it at all; although it lived in the city, the way it was raised was no different from that in the countryside.

"Tsk...sigh..." Mo Xueyao felt listless all day.

The key point is that this matter is entirely her own problem.

After all, the bell was hanging on her foot, and when it fell, there should have been a sound of it hitting the ground, but she didn't notice it at all.

Now you can't blame anyone but yourself; you can only be angry with yourself.

She puffed out her cheeks angrily, wishing she could slap herself twice.

She felt a nagging, cat-like pain in her heart, making her want to go crazy.

But I couldn't be so unreasonable, so in the end I could only hold it in and look at the scenery outside the shop.

As for going out for a walk to clear your head?

Let's skip that then.

Even after all those trips back and forth, and even with bicycles available later, she was still exhausted.

Yu Shu couldn't even walk, and she wasn't much better off. Every time she put her foot on the ground, it felt like she was being pierced, just like the princess in the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid."

Going out for a walk under these circumstances wouldn't be a way to relax; it would be adding insult to injury.

Mo Xueyao tugged at her black stockings, stared down at the red string, and hesitated whether to take it off.

Anyway, there aren't any bells hanging anymore...

Yu Shu, who was standing nearby, handed her another banana.

Mo Xueyao mechanically opened her mouth, but instead of chewing, she held the fruit in her mouth, letting it slowly melt like ice cream, until the next piece of fruit arrived, at which point she swallowed it.