A Young Woman's Heart

"Are you going to sleep in tomorrow?" Li Wanyan casually grabbed the horizontal bar on the handrail and let Mo Xueyao grab the next handrail.

"Hmm, I'll sleep in tomorrow! But I have to finish my homework first, then sleep until noon, and then go perform at Yue Tingfeng's bar in the afternoon. Perfect!"

"Ugh—I still have so much homework!" Wang Jiale said with a pained expression. "I don't want to do it..."

……

Chapter 229 The Performance at the Underground Bar! (Part 1)

The afternoon sun shines brightly beside the graffiti-covered wall.

A crow swaggered across the ground, not even bothering to avoid people passing by, strolling leisurely as if it were in its own backyard.

The bar always opens close to evening.

Of course, all the preparations still need to be made in advance, and that's when the backdoor is used.

The heavy back door fits almost perfectly against the wall; if you don't look closely, you probably won't even realize it's an entrance.

Compared to the street where the front gate is located, the back gate area is scattered like the edge of the city.

—They're not even separated by a street.

Mo Xueyao pushed open the broken iron mesh door and entered the small open space surrounded by green wire mesh.

There were many beer bottles and adult products covered in dust piled up in the corner.

It seems that occasionally someone will engage in a fierce battle here in the dead of night when most people are asleep.

The dark green trash can looked like it had been emptied, otherwise it would have been overflowing long ago.

There was a broken basketball hoop in the middle of the open space. It shouldn't have been placed here originally—after all, who puts their basketball hoop in the middle of the court?

Not to mention the net, even the rim was rotten, leaving only a lonely backboard. Someone had strung a wire here, connecting it to the wire mesh next to it, turning it into a makeshift clothesline, but nothing was drying on it at the moment.

Le Tingfeng lay on the base under the basketball hoop, where there was a torn sponge pad, which was quite comfortable to lie on when the sun was shining.

Judging from his contented appearance, it was clearly not the first time he had ever sunbathed here.

"Hey—Le Tingfeng?" Mo Xueyao held the shoulder strap of her violin case in one hand and waved her other hand lightly. "You seem to be lying down quite comfortably."

Le Tingfeng squinted and turned his head slightly, and saw Mo Xueyao, wearing casual pants and graffiti-style canvas shoes, walking over.

He squinted again, put one hand behind his head, chewed on the thin stick of a lollipop like he was chewing grass, and crossed his legs to the side to adjust to a more comfortable position: "The most wonderful thing is to bask in the sun on such a bright spring day."

"Isn't it hot?"

"Wearing less makes you less hot," Le Tingfeng said casually. "Want to lie down and see?"

"Ugh, it's covered in dust."

"I wipe it clean every time I lie down, okay? Where would the dust come from?"

"real or fake?"

“Really—” Yue Tingfeng pointed to the dishcloth hanging on the shelf, then leisurely rolled over. “See it?”

"...You're really something."

"Alright, alright, shall we wait until everyone else arrives before going in, or shall I lead you in first?"

"No rush, right?" Mo Xueyao always made sure to arrive at her destination early, so it was only two o'clock, the time of day when the sun was at its brightest.

"Why don't you sit here and rest for a while?" Le Tingfeng sat up, made room for him, and took out two packs of Alpenliebe lollipops from his pocket. "Look, it's such a nice day, it would be a waste not to eat something."

"That's strange. I thought you would go out to play. Aren't you bored here alone?"

"Is it alright? Unless someone specifically asks me to, I rarely go out. Isn't it quite comfortable to lie in this little open space?"

"Just lying there doing nothing?"

“No, it’s not that—” Yue Tingfeng lifted half of his buttocks and pulled out a book from underneath.

"Oh, you can read..." Mo Xueyao was about to praise him for reading literary works to cultivate his inner qualities, but after seeing the title on the cover, she swallowed the rest of her sentence. "What are you reading?"

"Huh? Hahaha, a romance novel." Le Tingfeng patted the cover, the words "Get Under Your Skirt" on it were particularly eye-catching.

"...What kind of frivolous novel?"

"Don't let the title fool you, it's actually quite serious! It's about—" Le Tingfeng suddenly stopped speaking, glancing left and right at Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan, who were already seated, "a love story between girls?"

"Alas--"

"Don't get me wrong, I just like reading stories about girls dating each other, I have absolutely no interest in stories about boys dating each other."

"I haven't said anything yet." Mo Xueyao tilted her chin up. "Isn't this a self-incriminating confession?"

"Ahem, I was just afraid you'd misunderstand."

"In a sense, there's nothing wrong with a guy liking to look at girls, right?"

“Yes, yes, yes!” Le Tingfeng had a look of great understanding. Li Wanyan glanced at the two of them and then looked back at the milky white clouds in the sky.

Mo Xueyao kept the chocolate lollipop, handed the strawberry one to Li Wanyan, then quickly unwrapped it, stuffed the candy into her mouth, and squeezed it with one hand, making a 'gurgling' sound as it rubbed against her teeth.

"By the way, since your family owns a bar, do you often run into gangsters or something?"

"Haha, there must be quite a few, but they're usually just small-time thugs. There aren't that many real gangsters." Le Tingfeng, with a thin stick in his mouth, bent down and scratched the soles of his feet before putting his feet back into his slippers. "Someone was killed in this open space, uh, in that corner."

"Huh? It's so chaotic?" Mo Xueyao's heart jumped. Although she had been to bars before, those bars were at least much more organized than this one, and they were in the city center, a place with particularly good public security.

"Haha, that must have been several years ago, right? They've been cracking down on it a lot lately, so it's unlikely to happen again. At most, there might be a few troublemakers." Le Tingfeng crossed his legs. "Don't worry, we have security guards at home, and my mom studied Taekwondo for three years, haha."

“Taekwondo…” Li Wanyan nodded thoughtfully.

"Does the class monitor want to learn? I can have my mom teach you, haha, but there will be tuition fees."

"Why are you so eager?" Mo Xueyao glanced at him sideways.

"Haha... I can earn a commission, right?"

"Ok?"

"The tuition is 500 yuan for 15 lessons, and I can get 100 yuan as a commission. Haha, I introduced one to my mom before, but that person only came twice and then stopped."

"Is he going to be a greasy middle-aged man?"

"Huh? How did you know?"

Mo Xueyao stroked her chin: "Then I can roughly guess what happened."

"Hi!" A familiar voice came from outside the iron gate. Mo Xueyao knew without turning her head that Hua Yinyin had arrived.

Her home is quite far from here, so she came early to avoid traffic jams on the way.

After all, she's the team leader; she can't afford to mess things up in this kind of situation.

"Little Yaoyao is here so early!"

"Yes, the weather is quite nice today, so Wanyan and I took the bus here. The breeze on the way is quite pleasant."

“Yes, yes, that’s what I think too!” Hua Yinyin hopped around like a rabbit and sat down next to Le Tingfeng without him having to say anything.

Unlike Zhou Yong, even with girls sitting on both sides, Le Tingfeng showed no unease or nervousness, appearing completely at ease as if it were all commonplace.

That makes sense, considering he grew up in that kind of environment...

"Oh, there are exactly four of us. We're bored waiting anyway, let's go..."

"Play poker?" Mo Xueyao tried to guess what he was going to say next.

"Huh? I'm not interested in that stuff."

"That's... rolling dice?"

"There's nothing left."

"Are you really the bar owner's son?!"

“Cough…” Le Tingfeng rubbed his nose helplessly. “That’s prejudice of yours… What I mean is, let’s play hopscotch. It’s more fun with lots of people. Wait… um, we can draw it with this stone.”

"Are you a primary school student...?" Mo Xueyao pulled up her eyelids.

"This is a great game that can both exercise your body and make you feel good," Yue Tingfeng stood up. "Don't be so prejudiced."

"Alas--"

"Let's play around." Hua Yinyin put down the pipa bag behind her. "I used to play with this all the time when I was little! What about Xiao Yaoyao?"

"Me...? I'm fine..."

Then Hua Yinyin looked at Li Wanyan and asked, "Does Wanyan know how to play?"

"of course."

The rules of hopscotch are actually very simple. The core point is that only one foot can be placed in each square.

As for the number of squares, that can be modified depending on the different ways to play. The most common are six or nine squares.

But in any case, this is the first time I've seen someone as outrageous as Yue Tingfeng.

"Hey, what is this? This isn't hopscotch, it's a train race!"

That's right, the squares drawn by Letingfeng circled the entire open space, but they didn't become a complete circle. Instead, a gap was left to distinguish the starting point from the ending point.

The overall shape is roughly like a 'C'.

"Haha, never seen this before, have you? This is my own creation, an upgraded version of hopscotch—hopping on a train!"

"You might as well just jump off a building." Mo Xueyao glanced at him sideways. "Hmm, that seems a bit too difficult..."

"It's more fun when it's difficult!" Yue Tingfeng stepped up to demonstrate, "Watch closely, hop on one foot, then step on both feet, then hop on one foot again..."

His body was as light as a monkey darting about in a tree. Even though there was nothing in front of him, Mo Xueyao always had the illusion that he had grabbed a branch.

"The finish line! See? It wasn't that hard, was it?"

"I'll give it a try." Li Wanyan stood in front of the starting line and jumped at a moderate pace, but she still made a mistake in the middle - she hopped across the place where she should have stood with both feet on one foot.

This is another rule of hopscotch—you have to stand on the same number of squares as there are squares.

Of course, there will only be one or two squares, and each square can only hold one foot; more or less than that is not allowed.

"Haha, wait a minute, that's not how it's played. When you really start playing, you have to throw stones, and they have to all be on the grid. It's a race to see who can throw the farthest and most accurately. If you hit a stone, you have to jump. The one who jumps the farthest gets the highest score. If it's a round-based game, you can say you've won."