A Young Woman's Heart

"Sweet is good!"

"It's salty!"

……

Chapter 184 Wedding Anniversary

Thursday, June 2002, 2.

An ordinary school day.

The city is peaceful with clear skies and a gentle breeze.

The warmth of spring has painted the plants with new colors, making them vibrant and colorful, unlike the monotony of winter.

A beautiful little bird perched on a telephone pole, tilting its head to preen its feathers, occasionally stopping to look at the pedestrians passing by below.

The fruit shop had just opened for business in the morning.

Yang Xiaoyu is moving the shelves out of the store so that they can better display the fruit.

The sugar-coated fish jumped off the watermelon and crawled back into the styrofoam box, where it continued its lazy nap under the gentle caress of the morning sun.

"Squeak—!" Chen Cheng, who used to drop Zhuang Lianlian off at the shop every day on his way to school, stopped his electric scooter. The sharp sound of brakes startled several sparrows that were perched on the eaves.

Zhuang Lianlian carefully got out of the car and stood by the roadside waving goodbye to him.

"Study hard, or you'll end up not getting into college while I do."

"Hmph, don't worry." Chen Cheng snorted lightly, his nose and brows furrowing together.

"I'm making you some soft and fluffy cookies today."

"Uh... okay." He rubbed his nose with his fingers. "Then I'm off."

"Good~"

The electric scooter sped away again, and if you listened carefully, you could hear that Chen Cheng was actually quietly adding a voiceover to it—the 'thump-thump-thump' sound of a motorcycle engine.

Zhuang Lianlian, carrying a small purple handbag in both hands, walked unhurriedly to the entrance of the fruit shop and greeted Yang Xiaoyu: "Good morning, Aunt Yang."

"Hmm? It's Lianlian. Good morning! Old Chen is sleeping in again, so he had you open the shop?"

"Uncle was too tired yesterday, and Auntie went to run errands today..."

"You've really gone to a lot of trouble." Yang Xiaoyu suddenly turned around and took an aluminum lunchbox from the folding table. "Have you had breakfast? I fried a lot of rice noodles this morning. Why don't you take some?"

"Eh? Mmm..."

"Don't stand on ceremony with me, Lianlian."

"Okay, thank you, Aunt Yang." Zhuang Lianlian nodded slightly, a sweet smile on her face. She hung the bag on her arm and then reached out to take the somewhat old aluminum lunchbox.

"By the way, if you have some free time today, could you go to the mall and buy me something?"

"Do you need it in a hurry?"

"It's okay, just buy it before tonight."

"Sure, you can." Zhuang Lianlian nodded gently, her smile elegant and just right.

"Go to a store that specializes in selling glass bottles and buy one with a cork stopper. It doesn't need to be very big, about half the size of a regular mineral water bottle will do."

"A glass bottle, about half the size of a mineral water bottle, right?"

"correct."

"Okay, I'll go buy it when I have time."

"Then, bring a copy of today's newspaper on the way."

"Okay."

"Thank you for your hard work, Lianlian. You have difficulty moving around and I still have to help you run errands."

"It's okay, and... I've already gotten used to it. It's actually quite enjoyable to move around more." In fact, when Zhuang Lianlian walks slowly now, it's almost impossible to tell that one of her legs is a prosthesis.

Normally, she lives like a healthy, normal person.

"Let's go."

"Open the door?"

"Yes."

"Okay, walk slowly. (Note ①)"

"Uh-huh."

Zhuang Lianlian turned and walked towards the noodle shop as if taking a stroll.

Yang Xiaoyu glanced at her departing figure a few times, then lowered her head and continued working.

The cardboard boxes left over from yesterday were flattened and stacked aside. When there are enough, we'll call the scrap collector to sell them.

Little by little, it adds up to a decent income, enough at least for Mo Xueyao's pocket money.

"Good morning, Sister Yang." The person who greeted her was Pan Jiexiang, who was carrying a bag of breakfast, which looked like tofu pudding and fried dumplings.

"Yexiang? You're here for work?"

"Yes, haha, I saw Yan Yan and Yao Yao when I was buying breakfast just now."

"They've arrived already? That's pretty early."

"Yes, the two little ones are walking hand in hand, swaying back and forth."

"Yaoyao has passed on all her childishness to Yanyan," Yang Xiaoyu teased with a smile.

“They’re all just kids, there’s no need for them to always act so mature. It’s better to be more lively.” Pan Jiexiang raised the corners of her mouth.

Yang Xiaoyu picked up a large basket and placed it with difficulty on the small shelf by the door: "The kids work hard too. Look at this senior high school student, leaving home so early and getting home so late."

This is full of oranges, which look a bit stale, so I'm planning to sell them off cheaply.

The so-called "cheaper" means making less profit. Unless it's rotten, it's generally impossible to sell it at a price lower than the cost.

"You've worked hard, and now that senior year is over, I hope you can get into a good university."

"Hey, speaking of university, Jiexiang, let's pay for Yan Yan's tuition then."

"Oh, sis, no need. I've prepared enough tuition fees for her."

"It's alright. You're already struggling to make ends meet, and you still need to see a doctor."

"It's alright, it's alright. My illness isn't getting much better. If it were just one illness, it would be convenient, but I have several. Surgery might make things worse. Let's just leave it at that and drink some Chinese medicine."

"Jiexiang, sigh, never mind, I've told you this so many times already."

"Then don't try to persuade me anymore. Anyway, I'm not worried about anything. My life is good now, and Yan Yan's future won't be too bad..."

"Ugh."

Pan Jiexiang didn't continue the conversation. She stopped talking, gently clenched her hands, and said, "I'm going to have breakfast now."

"Okay, go ahead. It's good to live happily like this."

"Yes, people live to be happy, of course. Hehe, I'm already so much happier than before."

No sooner had Pan Jiexiang left than a van drove up from a distance.

Mo Wenli has already brought back the goods.

He skillfully parked the van at the door, jumped out, and strode to the back to open the back door.

The fragrance of fruits and flowers immediately filled the air.

Yang Xiaoyu quickly went over to lend a hand, and together with Mo Wenli, they carried the boxes of fruit out.

The first thing Mo Wenli had to do was to put the flowers into plastic vases, handling each one carefully to avoid damaging them.

"Look, Ayu, tsk tsk, look at these carnations today, how beautiful they are! Look how wide they've opened, they're fully in bloom."

"Then your flowers won't last more than a few days."

"Don't worry, we'll sell them today."

Actually, we don't usually bring in many fully bloomed flowers. We usually bring in those that have just started to open or have not yet fully opened. They will bloom fully after being kept in the store for a few days.

This is also to allow these flowers to last a little longer and reduce the waste from discarding them.

Mo Wenli picked up a Liqun cigarette from the pack with one hand, skillfully put it in his mouth, lit it with a lighter shaped like a pistol that could shoot blue flames, and took a deep breath: "Tsk tsk, the yellow lilies this time are quite beautiful. Today, I can have someone buy some lily baskets, yellow, white, and pink ones, and get them all together. Then get some baby's breath early on. Tsk tsk, absolutely gorgeous."

"Ali, are you going to help with the moving? I'm exhausted from carrying it all by myself!"

"Coming, coming—" Mo Wen used his lips to stick the cigarette to his mouth and got back to work.

After unloading the fruit, he parked the car and then came back to organize it. He put the fruit on the shelves where it should be, stored the rest that didn't fit, and picked out any damaged fruit to put in the fruit basket later...

"Ayu, are you twenty-eight today?"

"I'm twenty-eight."

"It's our wedding anniversary again." Mo Wenli was carefully trimming the flower stems with large shears, then gently wrapping them up and tying them with a blue ribbon. "Here you go, your wedding anniversary gift!"

"Flowers again."

"We own a flower shop, what else would we send you flowers? Look how beautiful they are, blue roses!"

"It's just a dyed blue rose."

"The dyeing process is not simple, and look how beautiful these blue roses are. I specially picked them, look how well they bloom."

"Without any romance, I wasn't surprised at all."

"We've been married for so long, what's there to be surprised about?" Mo Wenli took a large mineral water bottle out of the cardboard box filled with empty plastic bottles, cut it open with scissors, and put the bouquet of flowers inside. "How about it, the vase is all set up."

"Okay, okay, when are you going to buy a bouquet of natural blue roses?"

“You can’t buy that. It’s only available every week or two. Next year, when the cultivation techniques are improved, I’ll buy you a bunch. Forget about the blue ones, if you want the pink ones, I’ll find a way to get them for you.”

"Pfft, I'll ask Lianlian to buy me a newspaper and a glass bottle later."

"A glass bottle?"