A Young Woman's Heart

"How about staying up all night to do your homework like last time?"

"Xiaoyao, there's no homework for the New Year's Day holiday!"

"That's right."

"Let's play the ghost summoning game instead!"

"Lele always likes to play this..."

"So what should we play?"

Mo Zhuyou patted her chest proudly: "Of course, it's playing the paper games I wrote!"

"I'd rather stay up all night watching a movie."

"That works too. We don't use the TV much anyway, we can just rent some videotapes later..."

"Why are you still using videotapes? Aren't CDs all the rage these days?"

"Because—it's cheap!"

What movie do you want to watch?

"Terrifying!"

"A suspenseful mystery—"

Before Hua Yinyin could finish speaking, the girls all covered her mouth.

"Yinyin, don't speak!"

"I knew without even thinking that it would be a terrible comment."

"How can I possibly borrow something like that..."

"The kind with two cute boys, don't you want to see that? I—I have one!"

Wang Jiale and Mo Zhuyou seemed to hesitate for a moment.

……

Chapter 133 The shop was very busy on New Year's Day

"...This is the stop. Passengers, please take your belongings and prepare to disembark..."

In a daze, Mo Xueyao felt herself being gently woken up by Yu Shu beside her. The car door had just opened when some snowflakes swirled in, like frosting falling from the sky.

Still groggy, Mo Xueyao felt as if she had been dragged out of bed. Before she could even come to her senses, she found herself standing on a platform where the north wind was howling.

The surrounding streets were somewhat desolate, with only a few pedestrians and a few vehicles.

With no one clearing the snow, everyone standing on the platform had nowhere to put their feet.

In the end, Mr. Xue took the lead and everyone followed in his footsteps.

Arriving at the only commercial street here, which is also the liveliest place in the area, I finally felt a bit of human warmth.

There were many people coming and going at the entrance of the mall, and people were also coming and going in front of the shops next door.

Each shop plays different music.

Some were still playing Christmas songs, some were playing pop songs, and some were even playing old revolutionary songs from the 1960s. The sound quality was noticeably worse than the others, but it had a rough and unrefined feel, full of spirit.

It was as if I had suddenly returned to the human world from chaos.

The old man selling candied hawthorns held onto the stick laden with candied hawthorns, constantly exhaling white breath in the snow, as if he were using a special kind of cane.

Wang Jiale skipped over and bought a rock candy apple, which she held in her hand and gently shook, as if it were just a delicate ornament.

The sign outside the burger and fried chicken shop looks especially beautiful today; it seems they even installed colored lights, which are currently flashing with colorful lights.

The three abbreviations "YNH" were very conspicuous in the snowy night.

The store was very busy.

The receptionist was a girl hired later, probably around eighteen or nineteen years old. She didn't seem to have attended high school; perhaps she dropped out of junior high and started working.

—This is quite common in this day and age.

Duanmu Bi was busy going back and forth, sometimes helping with food delivery, sometimes helping with cashier duties, and sometimes going into the kitchen to check on things.

"Welcome!" As soon as they pushed open the glass door, they heard a shout that was both tired and excited.

Duanmu Bi looked up and saw the group of familiar faces. She was taken aback for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Coming for dinner? There are quite a few people here today."

"Yeah, I wanted to eat here, but it seems like there aren't any seats left, so I just came to say hello." Mo Zhuyou tilted her head.

"Youyou, Xiaoxiao, you've come at the perfect time! Do you have time to help out? We're paying triple today! You just need to work until around 9 PM!"

"Never mind, it's a rare holiday, my sister and I..." Mo Zhuyou gently tugged at her sister's arm, but found that she couldn't move it.

Mo Xiao smiled and pursed her lips, revealing two adorable dimples: "Hmm...Are you very busy?"

"Yes, look how busy we are!"

Just then, another customer shouted, "Waiter—!!"

"Here it comes!"

Some of the more courteous customers came to the front desk themselves and asked, "Do you have napkins? Where is the restroom? Is there a place to wash your hands?"

The receptionist gave them directions: "Go into the mall, turn left after entering from here, then turn right after you see a small goods store..."

"They seem really busy," Mo Xueyao remarked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Shouldn't we leave them alone?"

"Um—you guys go back first." Mo Xiaoxiao seemed a little too weak to walk any further.

"Hey, where's your older sister?" The younger sister is always the most perceptive of the implied meaning in a question.

"Um... I'll stay here and help."

"No need... uh, even if it's triple pay, it'll only amount to a few dozen yuan at most."

"Fifty yuan!" Duanmu Bi was like a multi-threaded computer, managing to add a sentence even after running all this way.

"Yes!" Mo Xiaoxiao nodded vigorously, having already unzipped her coat. "Sister Duanmu, do you have any work vests?"

"Yes, I'll go get it for you!"

"Hey, sis, this is a rare New Year's Day!"

"It's okay, it'll be fine during the Spring Festival."

"But……"

"It's alright, Youyou, you go back with everyone. Well, I saw that Sister Duanmu is so busy. She takes such good care of us, so we should help her out. I'll stay here."

Fifty dollars was not a small sum in those days.

A small pack of generic spicy strips costs two cents, while a well-known brand, especially the kind with a large quantity, only costs five cents.

—That pack is enough to make Wang Jiale three-tenths full, and two packs are enough to make him more than half full.

If you're buying groceries, fifty yuan can buy two large bags of groceries, which might even include meat.

If you do the math, this is one-fifth of the two sisters' monthly living expenses.

"Why don't we all help out here?" Mo Xueyao suggested.

"Huh?"

“The salary can be paid to them, we don’t need to!” Hua Yinyin immediately chimed in.

Wang Jiale's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously.

"Let's get started." Mr. Xue walked into the front desk with a smile.

"Huh? What's going on?" Now, Mo Zhuyou was even more at a loss.

"It's New Year's Day, of course we should all celebrate together!" Hua Yinyin smiled playfully and winked.

This was a rare instance where Mo Xueyao agreed with her.

A group of people started to help. Mo Zhuyou and Mo Xiaoxiao were experienced workers, so they went straight into the kitchen.

The others did waiter work, serving tea and water or clearing tables, which were all very simple tasks.

Efficiency increased instantly, and the frequency of customers coming and going also increased significantly.

Duanmu Ji was startled when he came out of the kitchen.

"Huh? A group of people..."

"Hey, little Jiji!" Mo Xueyao waved at him with a hint of mockery, while holding a plate of trash in her other hand.

“…Oh.” Duanmu Ji’s face, which had seemed about to become interesting, immediately hardened, becoming as hard as a stone. “Hello.”

"What do you mean 'hello'? We've hung out together before, even been to a tokusatsu convention. We're practically brothers, right? Hmm, so cold?"

"Pfft, it seems Duanmu Ji is disappointed in Xiaoyao after going out alone with her~"

"Hmm, why?" Yu Shu looked at Wang Jiale in confusion.

"Perhaps she didn't feel like the girl she imagined?"

"Xiao Yaoyao is very carefree and doesn't pay attention to details. Usually, once you get close to her, you won't feel anything anymore, right?"

"How dare a mere Hua Yinyin talk to me like that?"

As Mo Xueyao spoke, she dumped all the trash into the trash can with a "whoosh".

This huge trash can is almost full.

"I'm going to take out the trash." Duanmu Ji seemed not to hear anything and picked up the trash bag like a puppet.

"Does he act like this when he goes out with you?" Wang Jiale asked, somewhat curious.

"Pretty much, right? Like a wooden doll, but he looks really cool in the suit! He has that heroic vibe!"

"Oh?"

"It gives off a cool and edgy vibe."

"What kind of hero is that?"