A Young Woman's Heart

Li Wanyan, who was next to her, took out a pack of tissues from her pocket and handed it to her.

There was no 'thank you,' he just naturally accepted it, drew a card, and then there was the sound of blowing his nose.

Do you have a cold?

"A bit cold? I didn't expect it to be so cold. I was saying before that the blanket was too thick and we should change to a thinner one. It seems good that we didn't change it, otherwise we would definitely have woken up from the cold last night."

"Hmm—" Li Wanyan nodded gently, subconsciously looking towards the mountainside.

"It's still early today, why don't we go see Aunt Jiexiang first before going to school?"

Mo Xueyao's words made Li Wanyan hesitate, but after a few seconds of hesitation, she gently shook her head: "No, I'll go see it at dinner."

"Ugh, whew, it's freezing! Wanyan, are your pockets warm? Let me warm my hands." Without waiting for a reply, Yi stuffed her left hand into her pocket, looking as if she were enjoying herself by the campfire. "I feel like the weather wasn't so unpredictable last year. This year it's been so hot and cold, and there was even heavy snow and rain during the New Year. Ugh—I heard that 2008 will be the end of the world. Could this be a harbinger? Wait, no, there seems to be a magazine that says 2012..."

"That's too early. Actually, the weather is pretty much the same every year around this time." Li Wanyan then put her right hand into Mo Xueyao's pocket.

"Really? The weather seemed pretty good last year."

"It's just that it's over, so I feel very calm. In fact, looking at the whole year, it's normal to have a few days of erratic weather. It's nothing compared to 365 days, and I won't remember it very clearly."

"That's true, and maybe my memory has romanticized last year—it would be great if we could turn on the heating in the classroom today."

Li Wanyan didn't answer, but the corners of her mouth that were pursed told Mo Xueyao that it was impossible.

……

(two)

The school seemed quieter than usual this morning.

The security guard was unusually absent from the guard booth; a tattered newspaper and a cup of tea that had gone completely cold were on the table.

His little dog isn't here either; it seems it went out with him.

Perhaps they went to buy breakfast.

Mo Xueyao glanced at the cherry blossom tree, whose petals had been blown away by the strong wind, and felt a pang of heartache for some reason.

If it weren't for this strong wind, those cherry blossoms could probably have stayed there a little longer.

Its blooming period is far too short; it seems it will soon return to its ordinary appearance.

So she squatted down, picked up a cherry blossom, glanced at Li Wanyan, and then quickly stuck it into her hair, turning it into a natural hairpin.

"Stop fooling around."

"Oh, isn't it quite pretty?" Mo Xueyao blinked. "By the way, since so many have already fallen, how about we just make them into dried flowers? I wonder if they'll break..."

"Air-dry?"

"Hmm, air dry, or press them into books to make bookmarks? Although I've made leaf bookmarks before, I've never made flower bookmarks. I wonder if I can succeed..." Mo Xueyao muttered to herself, picking up a few clean and intact cherry blossoms from the ground and carefully holding them in her arms.

"Godfather should understand, right?"

"Oh, Dad? Hmm—I don't know. He sells flowers, but I don't think he's ever made something like this before. Oh well, I'll just ask him when I get back. For now, let's find something to pack it up so it doesn't get crushed..."

Drying fresh flowers will preserve them in their most beautiful form.

But that requires skill; it's not something you can just leave out in the wind. If you did that, you'd probably just end up with a bunch of curled and blackened flowers.

……

(three)

Almost half an hour has passed since Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan arrived at the classroom.

They had already finished breakfast and were leisurely doing their own things.

Logically speaking, Mr. Xue should have arrived by now, and in another ten or twenty minutes, that will be the time when a large number of students arrive at the school.

But the school showed no sign of becoming lively.

"How strange, why is no one here today?" Mo Xueyao looked up at the window. There were no boarding students doing their morning exercises on the playground today, as if they had all gone home for the holidays.

She carefully calculated the time and confirmed that today was indeed Thursday.

"Bang!" The half-closed classroom door was suddenly kicked open, but there was no one outside. It seemed that the sudden gust of wind had dried it up.

Just as Mo Xueyao was about to get up and close the door, a series of hurried footsteps came from the corridor. Then, Ye Wen, panting heavily, patted her chest and walked into the classroom.

"Phew, as expected, you guys have arrived." Ye Wen sighed helplessly. "What time did you leave? I sent text messages to all the parents this morning, and even called those particularly unreliable ones."

"A little past five o'clock?"

"I sent the text message at 5:30."

"I think we had just left home then?" Mo Xueyao glanced at Li Wanyan. "Yeah—we had probably just gotten on the bus."

"You guys come way too early every day." Ye Wen shook her head gently. "Alright, alright, no class today, go home and study."

"Is it because of the strong winds?" Mo Xueyao suddenly realized something. "But this doesn't seem to be a typhoon, does it?"

"Although it's not a typhoon, this area is without power and water today, so the school has decided to give the students a holiday."

What about tomorrow?

"Of course, we'll have regular classes."

It's understandable that I was happy, and I didn't feel like I'd made a wasted trip, since it's quite close to my fruit shop and it wouldn't take long to get back.

But besides that, she also felt a little empty: "Is everything alright? I've missed another day of class?"

"Yes, so we have to have class this Sunday too."

"Ugh—" Now, that empty feeling disappeared, and she immediately complained as if she had been cheated out of her life, "If I had known I didn't have class today, I would have slept in! I still have to come on Sunday..."

"There's nothing we can do. The principal himself doesn't intend for you to make up the missed lessons, but the vice principal is worried that the students will fall behind and be unable to keep up with other schools, so..."

"Tch, wasn't the college entrance rate pretty good last year?"

"The college entrance rate is still acceptable, but the rate of students admitted to second-tier universities has dropped. The vice principal is probably worried about this as well."

Mo Xueyao shrugged: "Then, can we go back now?"

"Go back, go back. It's windy on the road, be careful."

"it is good--"

……

(four)

When she learned that this was not an extra holiday, but a day of rest that she had to make up for, Mo Xueyao immediately felt a little sleepy.

On her way back, she planned to either take a car to her home to sleep, or simply sleep in the small room of the fruit shop.

But the cold wind along the way made her more awake, and her drowsiness seemed to be blown away by the wind as well.

"Wanyan, are you going to see your mother?"

"Ah."

So, Yi went with her to see Pan Jiexiang.

The sudden drop in temperature didn't seem to affect her much while she was in bed; all the windows were simply closed.

The two other hospital beds that were empty yesterday are now occupied by new patients.

The young man was hospitalized for hemorrhoids and passed away a few days later. As for the girl lying in the middle, she was brought in due to a sudden heart attack.

Mo Xueyao couldn't help but glance at the girl, who looked like a little princess, a few more times because of her peaceful and lovely sleeping face.

It seems that Li Wanyan plans to stay in the hospital room with her mother all day.

But Mo Xueyao couldn't stand it.

This is only natural. She doesn't have much patience, and besides, the person lying in bed isn't her biological mother. It's normal for her to get bored after a while and want to go somewhere else.

“Wanyan, Wanyan, uh—I…” Mo Xueyao hesitated.

"Okay, I'll stay here. Yaoyao, go home."

"Well, I just thought that I'd already used up my week's rest time today, so I wanted to go out for a walk. It's windy, but that's what makes it more fun."

"it is good."

"Then I'll leave? You..."

"I'll stay here."

"Okay, I'm off then. If I'm still at the fruit shop later, I'll deliver lunch, but I might go take a nap first."

"Well, let's go."

Mo Xueyao scratched her head and smiled sheepishly, then turned and ran away in a flash.

The nurse's voice came from outside to Li Wanyan's ears: "Please don't run in the corridor, it's dangerous!"

……

Chapter 207 Memory Bias (Part 1)

Inside the fruit shop, a somewhat outdated cassette player was playing music. The hoarse, deep, and rough-sounding music came from its simple vent.

Even though the power was out in the area, my father insisted on making the shop feel lively.

Su Tang lay peacefully to the side, and some of the shelves placed by the door were moved back to prevent them from being blown away by the strong wind.

Mo Xueyao picked up the pink flip phone, seemingly looking for someone's name, but after flipping through the phone book which contained only a few names, she suddenly realized that she had never used this phone to call her old best friends.

Their phone numbers were not recorded here.

What was the number that Li Gutao called from his own mobile phone last time?

She doesn't remember anymore.

As for Shi Haiming, he had his own number since junior high school. Although it was a mobile phone, everyone used it to contact each other in the past.

That number must have been memorized very well.

At this moment, however, I couldn't remember exactly how much it was.

I only remember that it seemed to start with the number eight...