A Young Woman's Heart

"Okay, bye-bye, we'll come again next time," Mo Xueyao said politely.

"Bring your instruments next time!" Hua Yinyin said eagerly. "That way, we'll have a stable underground stage!"

"Before that, you should focus on your studies. Yinyin, your subject imbalance is quite serious."

"What's wrong? I was just a little weak in math and geography!"

“If a difference of a few tens of points is only considered ‘a little’,” Mo Xueyao teased.

Li Wanyan looked up at the few stars dotting the sky, then put her left hand into Mo Xueyao's pocket: "Let's go home."

"Hmm, I'm sleepy. I need to get a good night's sleep tonight—go to bed early. I get a rare day off tomorrow, so I can't sleep in."

"Hey, shouldn't we be sleeping in when we're resting?"

"But if you sleep in, you'll miss out on precious time. You don't get up until almost 9 or 10, and it feels like the whole day is wasted."

"You can just stay up a little later tonight."

"What's the difference between that and going to bed early and waking up early?" Mo Xueyao slapped Hua Yinyin's forehead. "Yinyin, you're not on the same bus as us, are you?"

"Actually, it's not that we can't go along the same route."

"Doesn't that mean we'll have to transfer to several different buses?"

"Hmm—let me think, it's just one more transfer."

"Save your breath. Just take the bus back. Look, isn't that the bus you need?"

"Hey—!" Hua Yinyin let go of Mo Xueyao's arm and ran off with her backpack swaying back and forth. "I'm going now!"

"Be careful on the road." Mo Xueyao waved her hand and watched as Hua Yinyin ran wildly toward the platform not far away, waving and shouting.

"Master, stop for a moment—Master—!"

Although the bus doesn't go directly to her house, it's not far. If she doesn't want to transfer, she can even walk there.

The bus, which had already closed its doors, suddenly opened them again with a 'whoosh' just as Hua Yinyin was about to run up. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly darted inside. She could faintly hear the sound of a card being swiped from inside.

"drop."

"Little Yaoyao, Wanyan, bye-bye—!!"

Carried on the wind was her farewell.

Chapter 192 Tadpoles in Spring

(One)

The family's tricycle hadn't been ridden in a long time and was parked downstairs. Mo Xueyao suddenly felt like giving the good thing a workout. Right after finishing breakfast, she lay on the sofa, stretched out her arm, picked up the landline, and without even looking at the buttons, quickly dialed her father's number: "Hello?"

The sound of wind carrying the smell of smoke came from the other end of the phone, because Mo Xueyao clearly heard the 'click-click' sound of a lighter.

Then came the father's gasp: "Hello?"

"Dad!!"

"Hey, what's wrong? What happened that made you so agitated?"

"No, haha, I just wanted to ask you, where are the keys to the tricycle?"

What do you need that for?

"I want to ride it out for fun."

"It's heavy—" The father suddenly stopped talking, as if he had put a cigarette in his mouth. After a few seconds, he continued, "Yes!"

"It's nothing, it's nothing. We're not going far. Dad, focus on driving. Did you almost crash just now?"

"No, it was your Grandma Jin's husky that suddenly jumped over."

"Are you at the store?"

"We're here." The sound of the handbrake being pulled came from the father's side, accompanied by a vibration and static. "The key is in the TV cabinet, but I forgot which compartment it is. Look for it yourself."

"Ok."

Then, the mother's voice came faintly from the other end of the phone, followed by the father's reply—he seemed to be quite far from the receiver now: "Your daughter..."

Then, the call ended naturally.

……

(two)

When she came downstairs with Li Wanyan, Mo Xueyao brought an old towel and a red bucket that had been with her since birth, filled with half a bucket of water. She carried it downstairs in a swaying manner.

Li Wanyan wanted to help, but she insisted on doing it herself.

The tricycle was parked in a leaky shed, unused for a long time, with a thick layer of dust accumulated on the seat and handlebars.

This is where towels and buckets come in handy.

The most important thing, of course, was the seat. She carefully wiped the bicycle seat and the seat in the truck bed.

Li Wanyan was unusually standing aside watching, which made her feel a little uncomfortable, because usually at this time, either everyone was working together or she was doing it alone while Mo Xueyao went off to play elsewhere.

"Ah? Wanyan, wait for me a moment, it'll be ready soon." Mo Xueyao washed the black rag and then carefully wiped the other parts.

In fact, she is very meticulous when she actually gets to work.

After emptying the dirty water, the rag was thrown into the red bucket. The three wheels were naturally flat, so she and Li Wanyan pushed it to the entrance of the community. The middle-aged man at the repair shop was busy changing the wheels of a bicycle. When he saw them coming, he casually glanced at them and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's probably out of breath."

"You can do it yourself."

"Oh—" Mo Xueyao actually wanted him to help her get a ride, but fortunately, the wheels of the tricycle were no different from those of a bicycle. As the tires bulged up again, the tricycle, which had been sitting idle for a long time, finally came back to life.

Mo Xueyao jumped onto the vehicle and tested the brakes—one on the handlebars and the other on the frame. The latter was usually engaged when the vehicle stopped to prevent it from rolling downhill.

"OK, Wanyan, everything's fine. Let's get in the car!"

"Where to?"

Let's just wander around!

……

(three)

Ponds were common in Hangzhou during that era.

They are especially common in those urban villages.

Apart from the city center, urban villages are everywhere in Hangzhou, giving the impression that they are encircling urban residential areas.

The smooth asphalt road, the somewhat uneven cement road, and the soft dirt road are connected to each other. In just a few steps, you can go from the city to the countryside, as magical as if you have undergone a spatial leap.

The not-so-large tricycle wobbled out from around a corner and drove into the urban village.

This village is quite peculiar. It is surrounded by houses on the outside, while farmland is enclosed in the middle. This makes it appear to cover a large area from the outside, as if many people live there. However, once inside, it is a vast, empty space.

After riding a few steps, I left the surrounding farmers' houses behind, and in the middle was a large, spacious farmland.

It's probably about 30 or 40 acres. There's a harvester parked in the middle of the farmland, a small portion of it is abandoned, and most of it is planted with rapeseed.

Although the roads are all dirt roads, they are interconnected and can take you anywhere. They are also quite wide, perhaps because they were widened to make it easier for harvesters to operate. Anyway, it's no problem for two tricycles to drive side by side.

In the middle of one field ridge after another, there is always a fruit tree planted, but it is still early spring, and their branches are bare and the leaves have not yet grown.

Sitting in the back of the tricycle, Li Wanyan bounced along with the tricycle on the dirt road, but Mo Xueyao was having a great time riding—sweat was dripping from her chin.

Clean water is flowing in the irrigation ditches of the farmland, and wind-powered waterwheels are slowly turning all around.

In the very middle of the farmland was a pond, whether naturally formed or dug out, it looked quite rough, like a large, stagnant puddle, and it was unclear where the water came from—except for rain. The tricycle stopped in front of this shallow pond, which was only about a meter deep.

The weeds on the bank have grown to waist height, and there are no children playing here, making it seem rather desolate.

"Let's rest here for a while, Wanyan!" Mo Xueyao jumped off the car, stepped onto the soft mud, and darted to the shore in a few steps, placing one foot on the large rock.

The jagged weeds gently scratched her thighs, but luckily she was wearing long pants today, so there was no need to worry about them scratching her skin.

Although it is still early spring, the pond already shows signs of life.

In the pond, which wasn't crystal clear but was at least clean, a few fish could be seen swimming back and forth. A grasshopper perched on a half-yellow, half-green lotus leaf, and when it sensed someone watching it, it turned its compound eyes and flew high into the air.

The wings vibrated faster than an electric fan, leaving only afterimages.

"Yaoyao also likes to look at the scenery."

“Of course! After spending all day in the classroom studying, I still want to come out and see the world, to see nature, to see the scenery. Especially now that it’s spring, the greenery looks really beautiful—well, but you can’t get too close, otherwise you’ll feel like there are weeds and bugs everywhere.” Mo Xueyao opened her arms as if to embrace nature. “Ah—it’s a pity I didn’t bring any food, otherwise I could have eaten while enjoying the scenery.”

Li Wanyan was somewhat amused and exasperated: "Where did this scenery come from?"

"Huh, doesn't this count? It's a pond."

"...Perhaps it's because I grew up in such an environment that I'm used to it."

"You have to learn to appreciate beauty, Wanyan, appreciate beauty!" Mo Xueyao emphasized twice, then suddenly pointed excitedly at the pond and shouted, "Those are tadpoles, aren't they? They're tadpoles!"

"Ah."

Let's catch some tadpoles and take them home!

"Does Yaoyao want to raise frogs?"

"I don't know, but let's catch some first. By the way, didn't we say we wanted to get an ecosystem tank? It wouldn't be a problem to raise some frogs, right?"

"That is, they live long enough to become frogs."

"No problem, right? Just ask Xiaoxue what to do. Let's catch it first—hmm, I just happened to bring a bucket!"

The plastic red bucket was instantly transformed into a tool for catching tadpoles, but catching them wasn't so easy. You could only use the bucket to scoop water, and whether you could catch them or not was up to fate.

"Ee-ha-hey-ha!" After several attempts, Mo Xueyao finally scooped up half a bucket of water, which contained three or four unlucky tadpoles that were swirling around like ants on a hot bed.

"They look like tadpoles that have just been born." Mo Xueyao observed them curiously. Each one was pitch black, like ink drops in water. Their long, nimble tails swayed back and forth, occasionally bumping into the bucket before quickly turning their heads away.

"It doesn't seem like much."

"They're so agile! If only I had a Coke bottle, I could grab them more accurately..." Mo Xueyao wanted to try again, but unfortunately, she didn't have any suitable tools at hand. If she emptied the water out of the bucket and started scooping again, she might not be able to catch as many as she had now.

……