A Young Woman's Heart

He never returned to his country and instead joined the Eighth Route Army. He contributed to the reconstruction of Yukong High School and died of organ failure. He was buried here in 1998.

He was also the last person to be buried here.

This probably proves that Yukong High School treats him as a 'senior'.

Regardless of which side one initially stands on, a person filled with a sense of justice will always seek true justice.

……

Chapter 220 Four-Wheel Drive Vehicle

To everyone's surprise, the movie screening took place on the way home in the car.

The television hanging in the car was playing a black-and-white documentary, recounting that tragic period of history.

Of course, in reality, very few people actually watch it; most just listen to the audio.

Even people who don't get motion sickness would probably get dizzy watching TV in a swaying car.

Not to mention that the journey was quite long, and some of the smaller roads were particularly bumpy. Li Wanyan, who had originally planned to eat a red bean paste glutinous rice ball on the way, only ate a small portion of it before putting it away.

It's not that I can't eat, but the long journey has made eating uncomfortable.

By the time the senior high school students returned to school, students from other grades had already left.

They went to the city's martyrs' cemetery, which wasn't far away. After lunch, they could go home, unlike the senior high school students who had to drive back from T County, which was more than 100 kilometers away.

"Phew—" Mo Xueyao even stretched her arms out in a big yawn, feeling that she had spent most of the day in the car, and only when she got out of the car could she get enough stretching and relaxation.

Although students in other grades got out of school later today, it was only a little past 3 p.m., which is much earlier than usual.

On this rare good day, many students made plans to go somewhere together. The boys might go to the arcade, while the girls might go to a friend's house.

Of course, there are also those like Li Wanyan and Mo Xueyao who don't go anywhere and go straight home after getting off the bus.

This place is very close to the hillside cemetery. Although it was already afternoon, you could still see people selling small white flowers on the ground along the way.

This flower is so beautiful it looks unreal, fully blooming with every petal outstretched.

"The fruit shop must be doing well today," Mo Xueyao said, walking leisurely with her hands in her skirt pockets and her body slightly leaning back.

In the midst of a hectic life, having such a relaxed time occasionally, even if you do nothing but watch the cars and pedestrians passing by on the street, seems to be a blissful enjoyment, and it always makes you feel the beauty of life from the bottom of your heart.

This country has been developing, and it looks like it will continue to develop indefinitely.

As development progresses, living standards will always rise, and the positive aspects will be continuously revealed. Even if one occasionally thinks about what would happen if development stopped in the future, one will just smile and let it pass by – such a thing is still a long way off.

Just like watching the rising sun, people often don't think about what happens after the sunset.

"Does Yaoyao want some?" Li Wanyan took out a well-sealed Qingming Festival dumpling from her pocket and turned her head slightly to look at her.

"Eh—no need, I'm not hungry at all right now. Besides, you bit into this, there are still teeth marks on it!"

“There are still some that haven’t been bitten yet.”

"Cough...no need."

The Qingming dumplings were the after-dinner snacks distributed by the school today. Each person received two: one filled with red bean paste and the other with bamboo shoot and pork filling.

As a meat lover, Mo Xueyao naturally preferred the bamboo shoot and pork filling, so she swapped with Li Wanyan. She ate two bamboo shoot and pork fillings, while Li Wanyan had two red bean paste fillings.

"Hmm, this road is finally repaired." Mo Xueyao was about to take a detour when she suddenly saw that the road ahead was clear and unobstructed. The road that had been under repair from before the Lunar New Year to after the Lunar New Year had finally reopened.

There were also several abandoned roadblocks by the roadside.

What was originally a two-lane road has now become a four-lane road, making it quite spacious.

The road was originally paved with white cement, but now it is paved with black asphalt, and the small pebbles make the asphalt road look rougher.

The paving stones on the sidewalk are brand new, unlike before when you had to be careful when it rained, otherwise you would get splashed with water if you stepped on a loose one.

"Yes, it's become much more spacious."

"Wow, life is getting better and better." Mo Xueyao opened her arms wide. "When I was a child, I often didn't have enough to eat. Now, if I want, I can have meat almost every meal."

"Mmm."

"Wanyan, what do you think life will be like in ten or twenty years? It's already pretty good now, it'll definitely be even better then, right? Maybe poverty will really be completely eliminated." Mo Xueyao was having a wonderful daydream. "There won't be any poor people in the whole country, everyone will have food and shelter, life will be very prosperous, people won't have to work, they can live well even if they do what they want, prices will be very low, and every family will be able to afford air conditioning and washing machines..."

“Things will definitely be better in ten years than they are now,” Li Wanyan nodded gently, “but things might be different in twenty years.”

"Huh? Why?"

"Times don't always progress; they can also regress."

"It won't regress within twenty years. It will take at least forty or fifty years to reach its bottleneck. After all, isn't it said that we are fifty years behind the United States? We should only reach our peak when the United States declines."

Li Wanyan simply smiled faintly: "We don't know what kind of challenges the future holds."

"Unless there's another war, I don't think our country's economy can possibly get worse. Hmph, we're the world's factory!" Mo Xueyao said with quite a bit of pride. "Without us, many countries would lose a huge amount of revenue!"

Mo Xueyao does indeed have the mindset of a liberal arts student and is not sensitive to economic matters.

Of course, Li Wanyan couldn't point out too many things that were wrong, but she felt that things couldn't possibly develop in the best possible direction.

But no matter what, it can't be any worse than before, right?

The wheels of history keep turning forward, just as feudal society was better than slave society, and modern society is better than feudal society.

Her thoughts drifted away for a moment, and she couldn't help but think about life twenty years from now.

If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have been married and had children by then, living a repetitive but stable life.

By then, I was probably approaching middle age.

This made Li Wanyan's heart flutter suddenly.

Perhaps it's because I can't imagine what I'll become back then.

She frowned slightly and gently bit her lip.

Of course, Mo Xueyao didn't notice anything; at that moment, her attention was drawn to the small shops on the roadside.

The fruit shop is very close here. Since I haven't walked this new road for a long time, I was surprised to find a small shop that I had never seen before on the side of the road.

Its spacious floor-to-ceiling windows make it look quite different from other small shops.

—In this era, most small shops were not well-decorated, and the light bulbs inside were always ordinary incandescent bulbs, making the place seem rather dim, whether it was day or night.

This is actually a toy store that specializes in selling four-wheel drive cars.

The beautifully packaged boxes inside looked expensive, and there was even a three-story four-wheel drive racetrack at the entrance of the store, where seven or eight elementary school students were gathered, competing with their respective race cars.

It seems like you can use this track without buying toys.

If she were still in elementary school, Mo Xueyao would definitely linger at the door for a long time, or shamelessly pick up her cheap, assembled race car to join in the fun.

But nowadays—

Okay, she went straight into the store.

My mind was still calculating how much pocket money I had in my wallet that I could use at will.

Even the cheapest assembled race cars on the shelves cost at least fifty dollars, which is quite expensive. It's a far cry from the ones you could buy as a child for two dollars and fifty cents, which even came with batteries.

But people can't help but wonder, with such a high price, is there something particularly good about it...?

At the very least, I now have the courage to enter the market. I may not necessarily buy, but I can definitely afford it.

Speaking of which, the Four-Wheel Drive Brothers has been airing on local TV recently. Mo Xueyao remembers that she had to buy DVDs to watch the Taiwanese version back then. Her godfather also had a pirated DVD, which was the original Japanese version with Chinese subtitles.

Many people may not have watched the entire animated series, but the toys are available everywhere.

From the cheapest ones at 2.5 yuan, to the more expensive 10 yuan boxes, and then to the 20 yuan transparent box ones...

Mo Xueyao had seen all of these before, but they ultimately fell into the category of toys.

This shop is much more professional. Apart from the parts being a bit smaller, it's like a real race car, with all sorts of modification parts, just like in a game, and can adapt to all kinds of tracks.

The race car's shell also has a more premium feel than cheap plastic.

“Yaoyao.” Li Wanyan shook her head helplessly.

"Ahem... I just came in to take a look..." she lowered her voice. Although she had money in her pocket, she ultimately didn't buy anything.

After all, it's not a necessity for her, and if you think about it carefully, buying a remote-controlled car would be more engaging than buying a four-wheel drive car.

After all, this thing isn't voice-controlled like in cartoons...

The shop owner didn't come to greet her, which lessened her embarrassment somewhat. By the time she left, the sudden surge of enthusiasm had cooled considerably.

Thinking about it carefully, it's rather childish and funny to see a large group of children gathered around the track watching the race cars go by.

"Charge! Charge, warriors of war!"

"The Charge God is no match for my Whirlwind Charge, behold my Whirlwind Charge Tornado!"

The children's shouts were filled with excitement.

Even though they couldn't actually control these four-wheel drive vehicles that were speeding around on the track, they still had a great time.

Would you consider this a horse racing game for children?

Compared to players, they're definitely more like spectators.

"If I were a kid, I could probably play here all day."

"Isn't it about the same now?" Li Wanyan raised the corners of her mouth slightly.

"Cough cough... Alright, alright, let's go home." Mo Xueyao put her hands back into her pockets. The fruit shop was already not far away. She could see the red flag on the roof and her mother tending to the potted vegetables.

She used her own hands to create a vegetable garden on the roof of the fruit shop.

The bright and gentle afternoon sunlight shone on the platform on the roof of the bungalow, casting a long shadow of her.

"Hey—Mom!" Mo Xueyao waved vigorously, her tone cheerful and hearty.

……

Chapter 221 A Long-Awaited Review