A Young Woman's Heart

Chapter 213 Taking shelter from the rain in a phone booth

(One)

Saturday, September 2002, 3.

This was probably the longest 'week' Mo Xueyao had ever experienced.

Perhaps because she had been attending school for ten consecutive days, she had become somewhat lax.

It's hard to imagine how some senior high school students in key high schools manage to attend school for fourteen consecutive days before taking a half-day break.

She even had trouble getting up this morning, lingering in bed for a while, and even wanted her mother to ask her to take the day off so she could sleep in.

In the end, Li Wanyan managed to pull him up.

I was feeling drowsy and half-asleep on the bus, and when we arrived at our stop, it felt like I was in a dream.

I had just stepped off the platform and walked only two or three hundred meters when the deep purple sky suddenly poured down crystal-clear, deep blue raindrops.

The icy raindrops instantly sobered Mo Xueyao up a bit.

Because the rain came so quickly, the two of them didn't have time to open an umbrella. After quickly looking around, they decided to dart into a phone booth by the roadside.

"Phew..." Mo Xueyao shook off the raindrops on her body. Although it was only a few seconds, she still felt that her whole body was soaked.

The phone booth was like a small haven, keeping out the torrential rain that seemed intent on washing the entire city clean.

"Yaoyao." Li Wanyan opened her schoolbag, took a dry towel out of the plastic bag, and handed it to her.

"Ah, there's even a towel! How thoughtful!" Mo Xueyao took the towel, vigorously rubbed her hair, and curiously tilted her body to look at Wanyan's schoolbag. "I feel like Wanyan's schoolbag has so many things in it, like a treasure bag. Is there anything else?"

So Li Wanyan handed her own schoolbag to Mo Xueyao as well. The schoolbag, upon being picked up, was unexpectedly heavy.

It contained not only various textbooks and assignments, but also all sorts of other things that might be needed.

Nail clippers, sanitary napkins, small folding knives, super glue, mirror, spare underwear...

It's hard to believe that such a backpack could contain so many things; it's as if it's fully equipped for a trip.

Do you carry this much every day?

"Ah."

"Wow, aren't you tired?"

"I'm used to it."

"Okay." Mo Xueyao dried her hair with a towel and handed it back to her, but kept the schoolbag. "Then, Wanyan, try carrying mine."

"Ok?"

"Take turns carrying it."

She muttered to herself as she slung Li Wanyan's schoolbag over her shoulder, immediately feeling as if two heavy stones were pressing down on her shoulders.

"It feels so light and gentle."

"Haha, because I leave most of my things in the classroom, and I only bring my unfinished homework home each time. If I finish it all, sometimes I don't even have anything in my bag. Maybe I should just put those things in my backpack from now on, since my backpack is always empty."

"also."

……

(two)

The torrential rain lashed against the translucent glass of the phone booth, and the carbon dioxide exhaled by the two people in the narrow space made the air seem somewhat murky.

Mo Xueyao fiddled with the number keys on the landline, remembering how her mother often went to public phone booths to make calls before she had a cell phone.

She has a phone card that she specially got from the service center. Every time she makes a call, she just inserts the card, which is much cheaper than using coins. It's like one of those special bus passes.

Mo Xueyao gestured to indicate the size of the phone booth and tried leaning back slightly.

Li Wanyan had just finished drying her hair and looked at her with some confusion.

"Well, I was testing whether I could actually lie down here... because I've heard that homeless people like to live in phone booths."

"It should be okay, but it won't be comfortable to lie on." Li Wanyan also visually estimated the width and length.

"If mobile phones become widespread in the future, will these phone booths be demolished? Those homeless people won't have such good 'housing' then."

“Useless things will eventually be eliminated.” Li Wanyan nodded gently and pushed the door open slightly to look at the rain outside.

The rain was still so heavy that even an umbrella probably couldn't protect you from the downpour.

"Is it still raining heavily?"

"Ah."

"Let's wait a bit longer, anyway, heavy rain usually doesn't last long." Mo Xueyao greedily inhaled the fresh air blowing in from outside, which seemed to be mixed with the scent of Li Wanyan's toothpaste from brushing her teeth that morning. "Hmm, Wanyan used that strawberry-flavored toothpaste this morning, right?"

"Ah."

"No wonder it smells so good, oh—is it because you can't squeeze any more out of that herbal toothpaste?"

"Correct."

After the door was closed again, the phone booth became crowded once more.

In fact, this is only suitable for one person to stand in. When two people stand in, they will inevitably be close together.

Mo Xueyao seemed to be getting tired of standing, so she simply leaned against Li Wanyan, using her soft body as a pillow, as if she were leaning against the most comfortable sofa in the world.

"Yaoyao—" she drawled, her tone tinged with helplessness, "Do you think the glass in a phone booth is clean?"

"Ah, cough cough." Mo Xueyao quickly stood up straight again. "Phew, I feel especially sleepy today."

"Then let's rest in the band room when we get to school."

"Well, I can skip class today anyway." This is a privilege reserved for outstanding students.

However, perhaps because Mo Xueyao didn't have time to check her work during these small tests, and because she wasn't particularly serious, her rankings in these tests were not in the top three, but rather hovered around the top ten, with her worst result even dropping to tenth place.

She's gotten used to it; after all, there are exams every week and then every month, which inevitably makes people a bit numb to them.

Just like driving, when you first start driving, you are always fully focused and attentive, but after you become more skilled, you get sleepy and more careless the more you drive. Otherwise, why are experienced drivers the ones who cause major car accidents?

……

(three)

The rain finally subsided a little, and Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan took out umbrellas from their bags, pushed open the door, and went out.

The air was filled with the damp smell of earth, the rain was still falling, and the puddles on the ground were flowing down the slope into the drain.

In some steeper areas, the water flows like a shallow stream.

Fortunately, the heels of the leather shoes are higher than those of the sneakers, and the uppers don't absorb water easily, so my feet didn't get all wet.

In the past, when I wore sneakers on rainy days, my feet would always get wet because the rain always fell at an angle and seeped directly into the shoes.

Perhaps because of the rain, it was still dark when I arrived at school.

Despite the dark rain, the cherry blossoms at school were still in full bloom, and the buds that were developing a little slower finally unfolded their petals.

When passing by it, Mo Xueyao couldn't help but look up and glance at it a few more times.

When she was little, she thought pink was a color that only girls liked, and that it had a kind of cheesy, deliberately coquettish feel to it.

But now she feels that pink is a gentle and lovely color that always makes people feel relaxed and happy.

She wasn't sure, but perhaps subtle influences really can change a person, or perhaps hormones in the body really do affect a person's personality.

But she rarely wonders anymore whether she is still herself.

Just like an item will become old and yellow over time, you can say it has changed, but you can't say it's not the same item it used to be.

So no matter how things change, she is still herself, and this self is just one of the countless possibilities in life.

Aside from a few passive choices, isn't it often her active choices that have shaped her into who she is today?

……

(four)

"Hey, Xiaoxue! You're at school so early?" Pushing open the door to the band room, Mr. Xue was sitting in his seat drinking pine needle tea.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan both put their schoolbags down on the foam mat in the corner.

Since they didn't have to go to the classroom, the two of them simply left their schoolbags here, and they would likely spend the whole day here.

Compared to the study rooms provided by the school, this place is definitely less crowded and quieter.

"Well, because the weather forecast said it would rain after five o'clock, I decided to get to school before five o'clock."

What time did you go to sleep yesterday?

"It's not even twelve o'clock yet."

What time did you get up?

"It's not even four o'clock yet."

"Aren't you sleepy...?"

“That’s right.” Mr. Xue seemed to have been reminded of something, opened his mouth and yawned widely, then put the teacup on the windowsill and slumped onto the desk. “I’m going to take a nap.”

"Hey, don't you feel sleepy if I don't tell you?" Mo Xueyao shook her head helplessly, took out her teacup from the desk drawer that was being used as a cabinet, rinsed it with boiling water, and started brewing tea.

"What kind of tea would Wanyan like?" Mo Xueyao asked, first putting a small handful of Longjing tea that Mr. Xue had brought into her cup.

"Tieguanyin".

"Okay, I'll make it for you..."

Besides the band members' cups, there are also cups from other students who come here often.

Although there were no labels on them, different stickers were put on them according to the different personalities of the different people—this was done by Wang Jiale, who always likes to buy some shiny and pretty stickers.

I don't know where they bought them, but these things are even waterproof.

Cha Li's is a towering tree, Li Wanyan's is covered with several large, furry wolfhounds, and Mo Xiaoxiao's is covered with a bunch of delicious snacks.

When Mo Xueyao picked up Li Wanyan's cup today, she noticed a new picture of a large wolfhound with upright ears stuck to the bottom. She couldn't help but chuckle, "Tsk, Lele, just like a little kid..."