A Young Woman's Heart

"drink!"

"Wow!"

The girls leaped high into the air in unison, and the camera, shooting continuously, finally captured that precious moment when they seemed to be flying in mid-air.

Then, in reality, they fell together, laughing as they drifted down by Earth's gravity...

……

Chapter 293 Father's Father

(One)

In the simple cement warehouse, the partition has been built, but it still needs time to dry completely.

The messy shelves have been disassembled into parts and neatly piled in the corner.

Today is Sunday, and Mo Xueyao finished her homework yesterday, so she simply took her father's van to go for a stroll.

Li Wanyan didn't come along—she voluntarily stayed at the fruit shop to help out.

The days have been sunny lately, and a gentle breeze always blows in, so the warehouse, with its doors wide open, doesn't have a strong smell. Su Tang, who was brought along by Mo Xueyao, is sniffing around curiously, wandering around the warehouse as if it's something very new.

Several pieces of cardboard were laid on the ground, and on them sat an old-fashioned crystal radio that took up a lot of space; it was unclear where it had been salvaged from.

My father has been going to scrap or secondhand markets a lot lately. Maybe he sees something he likes on the way and buys it.

Its only advantage is that it doesn't need batteries; it can receive signals simply by being placed here.

If this thing weren't transported in a van, it probably wouldn't have been able to be brought here. Mo Xueyao stood next to it and gestured, feeling that it was almost as big as her school desk.

The loudspeaker could only emit a muffled sound, accompanied by a slightly hissing noise.

But the father listened with great interest, his arms swaying rhythmically to the music on the radio.

He was applying varnish to the wall, mainly to make the surface feel less rough.

In fact, if you don't absolutely need white walls, walls that have been coated with varnish are perfectly usable.

Although ordinary wall paint is not expensive, it still costs a lot of money to paint such a large space.

Next to the warehouse was a building that I couldn't tell if it was a power tower or a signal tower. It wasn't very tall, maybe six or seven meters. I didn't know if it was abandoned or not. The concrete base was cracked, and moss was growing in the shaded area. The lush green vines were climbing up the tower without any restraint, as if they were turning the metal tower green.

Mo Xueyao squatted on a gasoline drum outside the warehouse. The drum was rusted and its original color was no longer visible, but it still seemed sturdy enough.

Originally, it had been left in a corner, half of it buried in the soil. With nothing else to do, she simply dug it out and rinsed it with the tap with the rubber hose by the door, intending to use it as a stool. Unfortunately, the rust wasn't so easy to wash off, so she could only squat on it for now.

"If we dig a hole in the middle, maybe we can use it as a squat toilet..." she muttered to herself, unable to help but think of a less-than-ideal scene. She quickly shook her head and refocused her gaze on the ruins of civilization before her.

It was as if, decades after the end of World War IV, she and her father crawled out of their underground shelter. Nature had reclaimed its former territory, and the humans who had set foot on this new land were using bulky, battery-free crystal radios to search for any signals that might still exist from other humans…

She couldn't help but cup her cheeks, feeling that the imagined scene was so beautiful.

For some reason, she really enjoys fantasizing about post-apocalyptic scenarios. Is it because she has an innate destructive urge, or does she particularly like the feeling of struggling in hell and radiating vibrant life?

……

(two)

"Xiaoyao! Are you hungry?"

"A little." Mo Xueyao and her father arrived in the morning, and it was almost one o'clock now. She didn't have much of an appetite when she woke up this morning, and only drank a bowl of porridge.

"I brought some fruit. Have some fruit first. Oh, let me see, there should be some other things too." The father took off his dirty work jacket and threw it on a makeshift clothes rack made from scrap warehouse shelves. The large bunch of keys hanging from his waistband swayed and made a metallic clanging sound.

The van was usually his father's mobile base. He searched everywhere, looking as if he were looking for his hidden stash of money.

He couldn't find any food, but he did find a pack of unopened cigarettes. The look on his face was even happier than if he had found a hundred yuan hidden in a crack.

"Oh, perfect, I'm out of cigarettes..."

"Dad—"

"Haha, don't rush, don't rush, I remember it should be here... Got it! Eight Treasure Porridge!" The father pulled out half a box of eight treasure porridge from under the chair, took out a can and handed it to Mo Xueyao who was waiting outside.

Then he took a can himself, popped out of the carriage, raised the wire hanging on the water pipe outside a little higher, and tucked the ground wire into the soil. The sound from the radio became much clearer.

"Do you want to lay tiles or something?"

"No need for all that." The father quickly opened the eight-treasure porridge container, not even bothering to put the lid back on with the plastic spoon, and poured it straight into his mouth as if drinking water, downing half the container in one gulp. "Haha, we can just apply varnish to the ground and then paint it."

"Oh—just like the old house?"

"Yes! The first floor will be painted green, and the second floor will be red. I'll take a look at the bedroom later, and if it's convenient, we'll lay down some flooring."

"Lay it yourself?"

"Of course, it's a good opportunity to practice."

"It's not like you're changing careers."

"It's never a bad thing to learn more, haha, what if I really have to change careers someday?" The father patted the dust off his pants, took out a sausage from his pocket and patted Su Tang a few times. The latter meowed twice, moved its chubby limbs, and ran quickly towards them.

"That will be so convenient. You can fish here and catch something to eat right away." The father bit open the sausage with his teeth, squeezed it hard, and piled it in front of the candy. To be honest, the shape really looked a bit like fleshy mud.

"It might get tired of it in just a few days."

"Haha, how could that be? How could a cat ever get tired of eating fish?" The father laughed and patted its head, which made meowing noises and ate even more happily.

"Alright, this wall is finished. Let's rest for a bit and then head back."

"Was this the last time we saw each other?"

"Yes, it's all done. We'll fix the ground tomorrow." The father finished the rest of the eight-treasure porridge in one gulp, squinted, lit a cigarette, looked up at the sparrows on the horizon, and took one puff after another. "I'll get a slingshot sometime and shoot them all down to eat."

"Ugh, what meat could there be in such a small piece? Besides, it's illegal."

"What law did I break? I was a bird thief back then!"

Back then, science education wasn't widespread enough, and people didn't know that sparrows also play a vital role in the ecosystem.

"Ha, but hunting sparrows is really not that interesting, there's not much meat to be had. Hunting some big birds is much better."

"...You should just stick to fishing."

"Yeah, I'll ask your godfather for some good fishing rods later. He has so many that he doesn't need anyway."

Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes at him but didn't say anything more. After all, they were just close friends, so she only said that.

……

(three)

The van bounced back again, and Mo Xueyao seriously suspected that the vehicle's shock absorbers were broken. Several times her head almost hit the roof of the van, which was even more thrilling than the bumper cars at an amusement park.

Of course, it's also possible that the father was driving too aggressively.

The drive to the fruit shop wasn't too far, but Mo Xueyao still felt a sense of relief when she got out.

It felt like a week-long voyage finally ending up back on land.

"Phew..." She walked quickly into the fruit shop with her legs feeling a little weak, only to find an old man with hair in his fifties sitting on the small stool she often sat on.

She felt that this person looked familiar, and was hesitating whether to greet him when she saw him smile and nod at her: "Yao".

"what?"

"Dad, what brings you here?" The father had just parked the van, which was covered in mud, and walked up the steps. "Why didn't you tell me beforehand?"

“Your brother asked me to come to the cancer hospital in Zhejiang for treatment and to visit you while I was there.”

"Dad, what's wrong?" The father skillfully handed him a cigarette, which the latter skillfully took, put in his mouth and lit. "Nothing much, your mother has a polyp on her gallbladder, she'll probably have to come here for surgery."

"Oh... then you can stay at my place."

"no need."

"Hey...it's been so many years."

"I'm not angry." Grandpa glared at him. "Living here is getting in the way of your business. I'll stay at your brother's place; he has a spare room."

"That's okay too."

Grandpa ignored Father and turned to Mo Xueyao, a kind and gentle smile on his face: "Come here, Yao, come to Grandpa. You're about to take the college entrance exam, right? How are your results?"

"My grades?" Mo Xueyao scratched her head and looked at Li Wanyan. "Well—just average, about the top ten in the whole school."

"That's good. You're better than your dad. You're a good kid who loves to study and didn't inherit his bad habits."

"...Cough cough!"

Grandpa still looked quite energetic. He had a cigarette in his mouth and slowly unzipped his fanny pack: "He didn't want to study after junior high. He barely managed to graduate and then immediately ran away from home. That brat! I beat him up because he didn't study hard. If he didn't want to study, he could just run away from home and become an educated person. What's wrong with that?"

"Cough cough cough!" This time, it was the father who started coughing violently.

"Study hard in college. Have you decided what major you want to study? Our family has all kinds of engineers."

"Ah, Grandpa, I think... I'm studying humanities."

"Liberal arts? Liberal arts is fine too."

Mo Xueyao could clearly sense the regret in her grandfather's tone.

Just as she was about to say something to explain, her grandfather took out two beautifully wrapped gift boxes from his bag: "This is for you, a graduation gift, and also a coming-of-age gift. This is from your grandmother, a Russian nesting doll she made herself, with fifteen layers. And this... is for you."

"What's inside this?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously, pointing to the smaller gift box next to her.

"Inside here is a gold pendant engraved with your zodiac animal."

"Pure gold?" the father asked casually.

"Nonsense." Grandpa glared at him again. "So, keep it safe. You're the last of my grandchildren to receive this. From now on, it's your lucky charm."

"oh oh……"

"Cough cough!" The father coughed twice immediately.

Mo Xueyao paused for half a second, then quickly accepted the gift and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Grandpa!"

"Yes, a daughter is a daughter, much more well-behaved and sensible than your father."

Mo Xueyao turned around and met her father's gaze. The two of them simultaneously gave awkward smiles.

……