A Young Woman's Heart

You can buy meal tickets at the entrance. Today, it only costs one yuan per person to eat your fill inside—it's all you can eat.

The vegetarian meal was the same as before: a large pot of boiled vegetables, including Chinese cabbage, roasted gluten, peanuts, tofu, and a little bit of fresh bamboo shoots that were in season.

—There were piles of cabbages and bamboo shoots that the monks had just dug up from the nearby mountains right behind the dining hall.

"Auntie, could you add more braised gluten?" Mo Xueyao stood on tiptoe, looking longingly at the auntie serving the food, her blue eyes pleading, fully utilizing her advantages as a beautiful girl.

“Yaoyao, being all coquettish,” Li Wanyan said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, standing behind.

"Cough cough... Um!" Mo Xueyao immediately lost her composure and coughed twice, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

However, the lady serving the food still specially picked out a large spoonful of roasted gluten for her.

"Ah, less rice, I'll eat more vegetables," Mo Xueyao quickly said. Although the food at the temple was also delicious, the vegetables here were still a bit rarer, so she had to make a choice.

"Okay, you can have more if you're not full. As long as you can eat it all and don't waste any, we'll give you plenty," the server reminded her.

"Mmm." Mo Xueyao nodded gently. "I know."

Snacks can never compare to main meals. Mo Xueyao, who hadn't eaten lunch, was already starving. After putting down her food, she got a bowl of seaweed soup and couldn't wait to start eating.

"Is it delicious, Xue'er?"

"Delicious! Oh my—Mom, what are you doing? That's so cheesy!"

……

Chapter 167 A Family-Friendly Movie

(One)

The sunset on the way home is always the most beautiful scenery.

The orange-red light shone lazily on the roadside weeds and wildflowers, which seemed to bloom more vigorously than the carefully cultivated potted plants at home.

There weren't many cars on the way back, and the van slowly drove along the narrow, winding road.

Surrounded by mountains and farmland, looking back, Shangtianzhu gradually recedes into the distance.

But you can still vaguely see smoke coming out of it.

A large yellow dog was strolling leisurely on the moss-covered stone bridge.

This made Mo Xueyao miss the crispy candy from home—even though she hadn't seen it for only half a day.

The van drove forward, the scenery around us receding, but the setting sun shone on our faces, never leaving us behind.

"On such a rare day, shall we go to the movies as a family?" The father held the steering wheel with one hand, while the other hand hung comfortably on the window.

Although it didn't make his hands any easier, he liked to do it—as if it showed off his superior skills.

“Okay, let’s go to the movies. I haven’t been to the movies in ages.” It was rare for her mother not to object. Mo Xueyao had thought her mother would blurt out, “What a waste of money.”

When was the last time Mom went to the movies?

"Back when I was young, back then... when I was a young woman, a movie ticket cost two cents. It wasn't like the enclosed cinemas we have now. Back then, they were all open-air, and the middle could also be used as a stage for performances. When it was time to show a movie, they would put up a big screen, and everyone would sit in front of the screen to watch."

Were there any movies back then?

"There aren't many movies, mostly movies that are like... memories... that kind of thing."

"Documentary?"

"Yes, that's about right." The mother rolled down the window a little, letting the gentle breeze from outside caress her face.

She saw herself in the rearview mirror; her face was already covered in wrinkles.

She sighed, "Oh dear, time really flies. Sometimes I feel like my memories are still stuck on the day I was a little girl."

"Haha, we're all getting old."

"Men are better; they don't look old."

"Haha, that's because I've always looked old!" The father laughed, then steered the conversation back to the previous topic, "So, how about going to see a movie?"

"Go!" Mo Xueyao raised her hands high, grabbing Li Wanyan's as well. "Let's watch together! Are there any good movies during the Spring Festival?"

"Most of them are Lunar New Year movies or something..."

"Let's find a cheaper ticket," the mother suggested, aiming to save money.

"Ah, the cheap ones aren't very nice. I'd better choose a nice one, otherwise it'll be a waste of money."

"Xue'er's words make sense."

"Hey, why are you still calling me Xue'er?!"

Li Wanyan gently stroked Mo Xueyao's loose ponytail and pursed her lips: "Xue'er."

"Hey, hey, hey, even Wanyan is like this—!"

"Xiaoyao..."

"Ah, Dad, you're the only normal one left."

"What are you talking about? Hahaha—what I meant was, back in the day, we could watch movies for free. They would show them in the village square, and there would be people who would show them. At first, they were hand-cranked, and later they were powered by electricity. But for a long time, the movies were just pictures, not sound. On rare occasions, someone from the village who was well-educated would bring a megaphone and dub the script from the side."

"Haha, it's better than no sound at all, but what's the point of watching if there's no sound?"

"That's not how it works. There weren't many entertainment options back then. Just looking at those scenes was enough to make people feel novel. There were far more scenes than in photographs."

“While there’s some truth to that…” Mo Xueyao hadn’t experienced that era, “No matter what, things are better now.”

"Of course, life is getting better and better."

"That's not necessarily true."

"Why not? The best is yet to come, haha, we can witness it together then!"

"Hey Dad, focus on driving!"

The father suddenly turned the steering wheel, and the van narrowly avoided a utility pole standing in the middle of the road.

"Who's so inconsiderate as to put a utility pole in the middle of the road?"

"Watch where you're going, stop chatting."

"I'm watching, don't worry."

"whispering sound--"

"Ali, look so good."

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything anymore."

The father acted like a sulking child, making everyone else burst into laughter.

……

(two)

During the Spring Festival, the entrance to the movie theater was bustling with people.

However, most of the moviegoers were young couples or families.

Very few people come alone or in groups of elderly people.

There were more than a dozen posters displayed at the entrance, all of which were for movies released during the Spring Festival. The domestic ones were mostly New Year's films, the kind that are meant to be family-friendly, while the foreign ones were big productions, the kind that you could tell were full of special effects just by looking at the posters.

Mo Xueyao likes foreign special effects movies. Even if the plot isn't great, the sheer spectacle of fighting, comparable to a war, is enough to get your blood pumping.

However, her mother didn't like it. She thought it was too noisy, just a lot of "boom boom boom" explosions, and there was nothing to see.

Moreover, she felt that she should at least support domestic products, otherwise foreigners would make all the money.

How about watching a comedy?

"Ugh, that feeling is so silly," Mo Xueyao said with a look of disgust. "I want to watch something sci-fi."

"Then you should go and exchange opinions with your mother. Now you don't know who to listen to," the father said irritably.

Li Wanyan walked a few steps forward and stopped in front of a huge poster.

This is also a domestic film.

There's only one person on the poster, and she looks quite pretty, but judging from the name, she's probably not a famous actress.

The movie's title, a four-character phrase with a touch of elegance, is "Unmanned Travel".

If it weren't for the synopsis below, one might mistake it for a documentary.

The story tells of how, after all the civilizations in the galaxy perished, the last life form in the galaxy, the will of the galaxy itself, awakens from its slumber, travels across the stars to collect mementos of other vanished civilizations, and finally displays them in the Galactic Museum, awaiting the final collapse of the universe.

"Wanyan, which one do you want to see?" Mo Xueyao, who disagreed with her mother, tilted her head and looked at Li Wanyan.

Li Wanyan glanced back at her, her gaze fixed on the poster in front of her, and then nodded slightly: "This one."

"What's this? Let me see..." Mo Xueyao walked over hesitantly and read the labels on the poster, "Comedy, Road Movie, Absurd, Nonsensical, Sci-Fi..."

She always felt that mixing all these elements together wouldn't make for a good sci-fi film, nor a good comedy...

But that's not necessarily true.

"Mom—you've got it! A hilarious movie! And it's also the kind of sci-fi I wanted to watch!"

So the four of them finally made a decision and bought the tickets.

A ticket costs ten yuan, which is neither cheap nor expensive. Buying four tickets also gets you a big bucket of popcorn.

There weren't many people in the screening room; it seems that most people aren't very interested in domestically produced science fiction.

In fact, the quality of this movie is indeed somewhat poor.

The set design and special effects look fake at first glance; at best, it's on par with Super Transformation.

However, the plot was alright, which somewhat made up for the poor production quality.

Although it's called an unmanned journey, you still encounter people along the way, but none of them are Earthlings; they're all aliens.

For example, there are mermaids with fish tails who reproduce in the same way as fish; aliens with large heads who can reproduce from the void through brain-to-brain intercourse; strange planets with only female life forms and filled with columnar objects; aliens who loved peace so much that they eventually unified and destroyed themselves by modifying their genes to eliminate their reproductive abilities; and aliens who were obsessed with war but eventually lost their direction and perished because there were no other civilizations to attack...

The themes are all so simple and direct, nothing more than war and sex.

The Milky Way, in its incarnation, selected souvenirs that best represented each civilization, and finally returned to Earth.