A Young Woman's Heart

(One)

The gentle sunlight shining on her made Yu Shu feel as if she had returned to a late Saturday night.

The firewood was burning in the fireplace, and you could faintly smell the fragrance of pine needle tea.

A sudden gust of wind blew in from the window and brushed against her neck, bringing her back to her senses; it wasn't a weekend.

She looked up and saw a handsome young man with red lips and white teeth smiling at her. Steam rose from the teacup in front of him, and a few pine needles floated up and down in the freshly boiled tea.

"morning."

"Good morning...Mr. Xue."

Everyone in the band called him Xiaoxue, except for Yu Shude, who was a year younger than him, who called him by his full name.

Actually, if someone as shameless as Hua Yinyin were to just call someone Xiaoxue, it wouldn't be a problem, and he probably wouldn't mind.

But that was clearly not something Yu Shu could do.

"Has the others... not arrived yet?" She shrank back, feeling as if the sunlight that seemed to be watching her had moved away.

The sun certainly wasn't moving that fast; it was probably just some clouds drifting in and blocking its view.

"They've all gone back to the classroom."

"Huh?"

Although we might not practice in the morning, the senior female band members always make a lot of noise when they come to the classroom.

"They're all quite quiet today."

"No wonder I wasn't woken up..."

"It's about time the bell rang," Mr. Xue said without looking at his watch.

It seems like it was just something said casually.

But the next second, the bell rang.

The Monday morning assembly, which is the same for the whole grade, is about to begin.

The athletes' march, which they'd heard countless times before, blared from the loudspeaker.

"Let's go?"

Although we're not going to the same class, at least we're going down the same way.

Mr. Xue stood up first, turned his back to her, turned his head slightly, and asked with a smile.

"Hmm, um!"

She hurriedly stood up, and the cold wind blowing in from outside gradually brought her to her senses, making her realize what she needed to do.

They both quickly went downstairs and then parted ways on the playground.

The distance between Class 2 of Senior Three and Class 3 of Senior Two is still quite far.

Even if Yu Shu looked in that direction, she couldn't see anything.

"Yu Shu, the morning meeting has started. Don't look around." The homeroom teacher walked past her with her hands behind her back and reminded her sternly.

She quickly averted her gaze and turned to look at the podium.

At Yukong High School, the student representative usually gives the longest speech, while the principal has the fewest words to say.

However, if everyone could deliver their morning meeting speeches as concisely and efficiently as the principal, then Monday morning meetings would probably only take five minutes to complete.

—This may be even shorter than the time it takes for the entire school's teachers and students to assemble and form ranks.

……

(two)

"This semester is coming to an end, and with the New Year approaching, our final exams are just around the corner. Academic work may become exceptionally busy—especially for senior high school students. While studying is important, balancing work and rest is even more crucial. I hope that teachers in each class will not take away from students' physical education class time. Let them go to the playground for free activities instead of staying cooped up in the classroom all the time. Alright, that's all for Monday morning meeting. Meeting adjourned!"

As Mo Kong finished speaking, the athletes' march, which had been silent for a long time, started playing again.

The students' lines were much more disorganized than when they arrived, and they walked into the classroom in a scattered manner.

A large crowd gathered in front of the vending machine, and some people even ran wildly toward the convenience store.

Some people took the opportunity to chat across classes, while others deliberately stood downstairs in the wind, waiting for the bell to ring before running back up.

Of course, there are also groups of boys going to the toilet together.

Don't be surprised, most of them are not actually going to the toilet, but more likely going to the toilet to smoke.

Even if it's just one cigarette, they can 'enjoy' it immensely, taking turns smoking it.

At this time, homeroom teachers and school leaders are at their busiest.

The teachers and students began a battle of wits, like cats and mice.

—There's only a ten-minute break after the morning meeting.

Yu Shu also saw Mo Xueyao and the others, but before she could greet them, she saw them hurriedly run upstairs.

Senior high school students live on the top floor, and it takes several minutes just to get up there. Sometimes classes start early, so there's naturally not much time to linger downstairs.

Amidst the bustling crowd, Yu Shu walked slowly forward and finally returned to her classroom.

She sat in the second row of the second group, which was a fairly conspicuous position.

However, when she sat down, she seemed rather lonely.

Everyone else around her had someone to chat with, but she looked around and silently took the textbook for the first lesson out of her drawer and put it on the table.

It was rare for people around to talk about Yu Shu, and then a girl with a lot of freckles on her face turned around excitedly: "Hey, Yu Shu, are you having fun in that band?"

"Hmm...? It's alright?" Yu Shu didn't know how to describe it. She probably just felt that a place like a band couldn't be described as fun, but at the very least, it should be said that it was 'interesting' or 'uninteresting'.

How are the senior students doing?

"Hmm—are you alright?"

"Pfft, never mind, Yu Shu, you're probably just a marginal figure in there, you probably don't feel like you're really involved."

The girl waved her hand and didn't ask any further questions.

Yu Shu thought of several rebuttals in her mind, but by the time she was about to speak, the other person had already started talking about another topic with someone else.

She had no choice but to swallow back what she was about to say.

Actually, she also wanted to share some interesting stories from her time in the band with her friends.

But looking around, it seemed there was no one to share stories with.

……

(three)

The wind was very strong today; the clouds were blown away from above the school.

Even with the windows closed, the unobstructed sunlight is still quite warm.

—Although Yu Shu doesn't get any sun at all.

Of course, she didn't mind, because when she went to the band room later, she could choose to sit by the window and slowly bask in the sun.

Whether you want to be lazy, practice, sleep, or chat, it's all fine.

—Although most of the time she was just listening to what others were saying.

She bent down and stuffed the spoon into her schoolbag.

Her short, somewhat chubby deskmate suddenly looked at her and asked, "Are you going to the band room again?"

"Huh? Um... what's wrong?"

Although they were deskmates, they didn't chat much. At most, they would chat casually for a few minutes during particularly boring classes.

"Oh, it's nothing, it's just that it seems like you're always hanging out with the senior girls in high school."

Yu Shu was speechless for a moment. In fact, even if everyone else didn't go to the band room, she would go there and sit alone.

I guess I feel more comfortable there.

The second year of high school at Yukong High School is easy.

There were hardly any people in the classroom, especially the boys, who had almost all run to the playground.

"Um...because I have to practice."

"Is it just practice every day? That must be quite tiring."

"Well, not entirely... um..."

"Is the Snow Band fun?"

"That's interesting... Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"It's nothing, I just saw a recruitment notice on the club bulletin board downstairs."

"Huh? When was that?"

"It was just posted recently, right..."

Yu Shu felt that the band should not be short of people.

Is it so that the name Yukine can be preserved even after they graduate?

"So...you want to add..."

"No, no," she quickly waved her hands in denial. "I'll be a senior in high school soon, it's too late to join a band now."

"Actually, it's not that late..."

"Well, I'm just interested. What's it like inside a band? Is it tough practicing all day? Do you get to rest occasionally?"

Yu Shu remained silent for a full minute.

Her face stiffened slightly as she replied, "Um...um...I've been resting most of the time, so I haven't had much time to practice..."

"Huh? That can't be right. I always feel like I'm doing really well when I perform. You must put in a lot of hard work to be that good, right?"

“At least in the band room, people don’t practice much…” Yu Shu said helplessly. Although she was telling the truth, others didn’t seem to believe her.