A Young Woman's Heart

We didn't do it all at once at the beginning, probably because we were afraid that the students wouldn't be able to handle it and would give up on themselves.

In theory, it should be possible to finish all the homework in two days, and if you are efficient enough, you can even free up half a day.

The problem is that once most people get home, their homework efficiency plummets, and it's considered good if they only do half as much, with some even dropping to a tenth of their usual efficiency...

Therefore, in order to improve learning efficiency and avoid leaving homework to be done on Monday, or even not finishing it on Tuesday or Wednesday, Wang Jiale suggested that everyone gather together to do it, as this would create a better learning atmosphere.

Although it was uncertain whether it would turn into a 'party' with zero efficiency, everyone still passed the proposal and decided to get together on Saturday night.

That's right, it was staying up all night to do homework.

—This was Mo Xueyao's suggestion, because the night is quiet and suitable for doing homework.

The location was set at the home of the two Mo sisters.

In fact, no one even considered what would have happened to the house if Gao Yuan had actually gone abroad to study.

Mo Xueyao decided to find some time to ask him.

Although it had nothing to do with me, I did it partly to satisfy my curiosity and partly out of concern for the two sisters' future.

Besides, it's quite nice that this house exists. When people want to have a gathering but don't want adults around, they come here.

Only girls attended this party; even Mr. Xue wasn't invited.

The wind blowing from the riverbank carried a damp chill, giving Mo Xueyao the illusion that she was completely soaked.

The gravel path has finally been paved, although it was just paved with cement. At least it's no longer uncomfortable to walk on, and bicycles can now pass through it easily.

Previously, the two sisters would get off and push the bike when they reached the small road, for fear that small stones would puncture the tires.

The low hills in the distance make the temperature here at least three or four degrees lower than in the city. You know, the temperature in Hangzhou at night is only five or six degrees.

From afar, you can see the bright and clean container villas.

Fortunately, this thing was built in the south, and the partitions are relatively thick compared to ordinary shipping containers.

The glass is also multi-layered insulated glass.

Otherwise, even if you wanted to turn on the air conditioning to get through the winter in the south, it would probably be difficult.

A few barks drifted from afar, an essential accompaniment to the rural night; without them, it felt as if something was missing.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan were both carrying schoolbags, which contained their homework and changes of clothes.

"Xiaoxiao—!" From afar, Mo Xueyao waved vigorously at the girl who was busy outside.

At that moment, another girl who looked exactly like her walked out of the house, looked in her direction for a moment, paused for a moment, and then smiled and waved vigorously.

"Xiaoyao—"

Mo Xueyao then realized that she was actually Mo Xiaoxiao.

There's no way to tell them apart quickly from that distance.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan seemed to be the first two to arrive.

"What are you doing?"

"Bring in the laundry, or it'll get dark. Last time I forgot to bring in the laundry after evening self-study, and it was all frozen solid when I woke up the next morning..." Mo Zhuyou mumbled lazily, looking like she hadn't woken up yet.

"Come inside and sit down, it's warm in there." Mo Xiaoxiao gently pushed open the door.

"You turned on the air conditioner?"

"Hehe, you'll see when you try it!" Mo Zhuyou winked mysteriously.

Even Li Wanyan seemed a little curious and followed Mo Xueyao into the small house.

The room was indeed much warmer than outside, but not the kind of warmth you get when the air conditioning is on.

Simply put, the area is not dry, but the heating is somewhat uneven.

This is something that can be clearly felt.

She glanced around the room and noticed some changes in the layout. The stove in the room had been replaced with a fireplace, and the direction it faced had also changed.

"Because we were worried about making the house full of cooking fumes, we didn't use the stove much. Xiaoxue and Gaoyuan came over a few times before and helped us replace it with a fireplace! Xiaoxue gave us the idea, and then Gaoyuan brought two workers over." Mo Zhuyou ran upstairs with a thud and then quickly darted back down, excitedly introducing, "We've already tried it a few times, and it's very warm! Just don't sit too close to the fire. If it gets too cold, we can get closer to warm ourselves by the fire. We'll rely on it when it snows."

"It doesn't snow very often in Hangzhou in winter."

"But a fireplace only truly feels right when there's snow in it."

"Too……"

So Mo Xueyao also began to look forward to snow.

However, it's still early. Even though heavy snow has already fallen in the north, the south will have to wait another month.

Even if it's going to snow, it usually won't happen until late December, around Christmas time.

The sofa next to the coffee table was moved to the side, where a large, fluffy rug was laid out.

It must be said that Mo Xiaoxiao's house was very clean; there wasn't even a hair on the carpet.

This raises serious doubts about whether they spend a significant amount of time cleaning the entire house every day.

Although it's quite possible that all of this was done by the older sister.

There were also cushions on the carpet, which looked like they were sewn from old clothes.

It's soft yet firm when you sit on it; you can tell it's not cotton.

"What's in here?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously, pointing.

"Straw, herbs, and a few other things... there are also some roasted beans inside, all of which we picked ourselves," Mo Zhuyou said, before going out to help her sister with chores, seemingly working at the stove in the yard.

Several plates of rustic snacks, not cakes or bread, were already laid out on the coffee table.

Instead, there were barley cakes, fried rice cakes, sweet fermented rice and red bean paste buns, unskewered candied hawthorns, fried peanuts wrapped in dough, and a pot of hot yellow wine in a thermos.

Although Mo Xueyao doesn't like drinking, she is quite sensitive to alcohol. She sniffed the aroma and could tell that this was not rice wine meant for drinking, but rather rice wine used for cooking. The quality was a bit lower, but because it had ginger shreds and a little brown sugar added, it tasted sweet, which was not bad.

It has a similar feel to sweet fermented rice wine—only with a slightly higher alcohol content.

As for the difference in prescription, it made no difference to her.

The first thing I did after sitting down was to pour myself a drink.

The campfire in the fireplace crackled and popped, accompanied by the faint aroma of burning wood.

She took a sip of the warm rice wine and almost lost her desire to do her homework.

“I could just lie here all day…” she muttered.

"That won't do. Didn't Xiaoyao say she was going to stay up all night doing her homework tonight?" Mo Xiaoxiao, who was carrying a large pile of firewood, pursed her lips slightly.

Li Wanyan nodded, staring intently at Mo Xueyao.

"Hey, I was just saying. It's not like Yin Yin can just quit whenever she wants..."

"Hey~ I think I heard someone talking bad about me?"

"You came through a teleportation portal, didn't you?" Mo Xueyao teased.

"No, it's just a coincidence." Hua Yinyin winked at Mo Xueyao, then handed a paper bag she was carrying to Mo Zhuyou, who had come in with her. "Here, Youyou, Xiaoxiao, these are gifts for you."

"What's the occasion? Why did you bring a gift?"

"Of course it's a gift for visiting your family. Little Yaoyao didn't forget to bring one, did she?"

"...Is there such a custom?"

Li Wanyan touched her somewhat stiff face and said softly, "Um... it's etiquette."

"Tch, it's okay, it's okay. We're good friends with Xiaoyao, no need for gifts!"

"Hey, what do you mean by this?!" Hua Yinyin 'whoosh' took back the gift. "I'm not giving it anymore!"

"Pfft, alright, stop fooling around, Yinyin, sit down. There's rice wine in the thermos on the coffee table, you can drink some to warm yourself up."

"OK~ Here, I put this on the ground? It's a mooncake~"

"Hey, what festival is it that they're bringing mooncakes?"

"Uh... Someone gave it to me before, and I still haven't finished it, so I thought I'd take it out and eat it... Actually, it tastes pretty good, the best one is the salted egg yolk filling."

"Tch—" Mo Xueyao let out a loud hiss.

"Thank you." But Mo Xiaoxiao still offered her sincere thanks.

"Speaking of which, Xiaoxiao, what are you doing? Dinner?"

"Yes, it's dinner."

What's for dinner?

"Porridge, mixed porridge!" Mo Zhuyou wiped her mouth. "It smells so good! It has lots of different vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp..."

"Yes, I cooked a lot. We can eat as much as we want later. Each person gets a bowl, which is perfect for eating while doing homework. It's also easy to clean up afterward."

"Oh, that's great! Having porridge on a winter night sounds nice." Mo Xueyao was also looking forward to it.

Bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, Yu Shu arrived fourth. She was the only second-year high school student invited.

The main reason is that everyone is a member of the Snow Music Band and they are so close, so of course we had to invite them.

Moreover, she was part of the band when the vote was held, so she was considered one of the participants.

"Um... my mom asked me to bring this..." Having probably walked quite a distance, Yu Shu's face was flushed and she was steaming. She handed a small bag to Mo Zhuyou, "Braised beef head meat... five-spice flavor."

"Beef head meat?" Mo Xueyao's eyes lit up. This stuff was even tastier than regular braised beef. It was especially chewy but didn't require much chewing. It was just expensive and not always available.

You can usually only see elderly people selling this stuff from tricycles at the entrance of larger farmers' markets.

"Wait, what if we're the only two who didn't bring a gift in the end?" Mo Xueyao asked nervously.

"It's okay," Mo Xiaoxiao comforted her.

……

Chapter 96: Let's Fight with Homework! (Part 2)

The long, narrow rays of the setting sun pierced through the "gap" between the mountains, stretching out the last glimmer of light in an exceptionally long and narrow manner.