A Young Woman's Heart

"You're such a waste, you eat like crazy whenever there's food available."

"Everyone needs to indulge in a little luxury now and then, right?"

"No!" Mo Xueyao, unusually, didn't side with her father this time. She took small bites of cauliflower. "Damn it, I should have known better than to drink so much cola today..."

"What's there to be afraid of? Eat to your heart's content today, and you'll lose the weight by running ten kilometers tomorrow."

"Dad, you make it sound so easy. It's not that simple!" Mo Xueyao looked pitifully at the bamboo skewer she had just finished eating, while Li Wanyan handed her the beef skewer she had just taken a bite of.

"I...don't want to..." Mo Xueyao said, having already taken a bite. She covered her mouth, enjoying the delicious meal with a mixture of happiness and pain.

This made all three of them burst into laughter.

……

Chapter 309 Summer Rainstorm

(One)

The sound of heavy raindrops pounding against the metal roof of the warehouse could be heard continuously.

This was a torrential rain that started in the latter half of the night.

The crackling continued until dawn, but Mo Xueyao felt that her sleep quality had actually improved.

She woke up around 6 a.m. and sat up abruptly, feeling incredibly awake.

Li Wanyan seemed to have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar beds. She even slid off the mattress and lay down on the floor covered with foam mats, her brows furrowed, as if she had a nightmare.

"Wanyan? Wanyan?"

"Um……"

"Why are you sweating so much? Are you okay? Did you catch a cold?"

"It's nothing..." Li Wanyan's eyes seemed glued shut, and she couldn't open them no matter what she did. She just mumbled something under her breath, turned over and lay back down on the mattress, and fell asleep again.

It was still early, so Mo Xueyao wasn't in a hurry to wake her up. She sat down on the edge of the mattress, reached for the red string with bells on it on the low cabinet next to her, and tied it around her ankle.

Then he put the clothes on and sauntered downstairs.

There are no stairs in the treehouse; you can only go down by climbing a ladder. Of course, this experience is quite novel for Mo Xueyao.

She washed up at the sink on the first floor, looked at her eyes in the mirror, carefully picked out the eye boogers from the corners of her eyes, and flicked them into the sink.

Her blue eyes, which were still a little blurry when she first woke up, became much clearer after washing up.

I went downstairs and found the place deserted. There was a pot on the stove and the rice cooker was on the keep-warm setting.

Mo Xueyao walked to the door and glanced outside. The van had already driven away, leaving only two shallow tire tracks on the damp dirt road outside the iron gate.

"Mom should have gone to the fruit shop with Dad, um... after all, she can't go alone, and it's raining so hard." Mo Xueyao then returned to the stove and lifted the lid of the pot to take a look.

It seems they just left not long ago; the fried rice in the pot is still steaming.

The rice cooker next to it contained egg porridge, which looked a bit thicker than usual.

Mo Xueyao rubbed her stomach, which wasn't hungry yet, and decided to eat later.

Pushing open the back door, I saw that the river, which had been perfectly calm yesterday, was now unusually turbulent, and the water level had risen considerably. Many branches and pieces of trash had been washed down from upstream and were heading downstream.

The sound of the water was like a waterfall. Standing on the bank, Mo Xueyao even had the illusion that her whole body was being washed clean from the inside out.

In fact, it was pretty much the same, because she was soaked to the bone after standing in the downpour for only a dozen seconds.

Experiencing something like this occasionally can be surprisingly exciting.

She shook her hair vigorously, and the breeze blowing in her face made her feel even cooler.

Li Wanyan rubbed her eyes as she walked down the stairs, yawning twice incessantly.

"You're down? I thought you were going to sleep a little longer."

"I couldn't fall back asleep after being woken up by Yaoyao."

"Hey—I only shook you because I saw you were having a nightmare!"

Li Wanyan didn't answer, but gently flicked her forehead as she walked past her: "Why are you all soaked? Go and dry yourself off with a towel."

"Wow, watching a torrential downpour from the riverbank feels completely different from being at home."

Li Wanyan glanced at her helplessly: "Alright, go and dry yourself off."

"Received!" Mo Xueyao gave a slightly awkward salute, her stiff body went limp the next second, and then she pushed Li Wanyan's shoulders with both hands and skipped into the bathroom.

……

(two)

After breakfast, the rain was still falling, but it had turned from a downpour into a heavy rain. Mo Xueyao opened the transparent umbrella that was placed in the iron bucket by the door and walked out of the warehouse with a sense of novelty.

The rain was blown crookedly by the wind and landed on her delicate pink toes. On a rainy day like this, wearing sandals was convenient, at least you didn't have to worry about your shoes getting wet.

She strolled over to a small area that had just been fenced off yesterday. The chicks and ducklings huddled together for warmth like balls of yarn. Although it was under a tree, the rain still managed to seep through the leaves after such a heavy downpour. Her father probably couldn't find anything convenient to shelter from the rain, so he simply nailed two planks together. One plank was hammered into the ground, while the other was used as a makeshift roof to keep out the rain.

The chicks and ducklings were hiding under this wooden plank, and as for the effect...

It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Mo Xueyao scratched her head, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She ran back to the warehouse entrance, took a folded, broken umbrella from the bucket, opened it, and jumped down.

The small fence space isn't very big, but once an umbrella is placed inside, it won't be blown around by the wind.

"Tsk tsk, I'm so smart. This way I can completely cover them up!" Mo Xueyao nodded in satisfaction. As soon as she turned her head, she almost bumped into Li Wanyan, who was standing behind her.

"Wow! Wanyan—oh dear, what happened? You scared me..."

What is Yaoyao doing?

"Let's hold an umbrella for them, otherwise they'll all get wet. After all, they're chicks and ducklings, they're probably afraid of water, right?"

"Ah."

"Phew—it feels like there's nothing left to do."

"Go write your exam paper."

"Ugh—I don't want to write." Mo Xueyao twirled the umbrella handle, splashing rainwater everywhere. "Why can't the college entrance exam be held a few days earlier?"

"Isn't it good to give you more time to prepare?"

"It's alright." Mo Xueyao's arms hung limply, her neck gripping the umbrella handle, her head resting on the umbrella. "I should have gone to the early admissions event with Youyou. Maybe I could have gotten a guaranteed admission. No, based on my grades, I definitely could have gotten a guaranteed admission, right? It's just that I might not be able to choose a major I like..."

"Do you want to escape the challenge of the college entrance examination?"

"No, it's just that the waiting time was a little agonizing. Oh, right, why don't we just call Yinyin and the others and invite them over to play?"

"It's raining so hard, and it's in the suburbs, you can't come," Li Wanyan rationally reminded her.

"Go to the fruit shop, and then have them come over when Dad brings lunch!"

"It's too much trouble for others."

"Who says? Maybe Yinyin really wants to come and play..." Mo Xueyao muttered, as if to prove herself, she took out her pink flip phone. As soon as she opened the cover, a call came in. It was Hua Yinyin. She immediately raised an eyebrow and proudly held the phone screen up in front of Li Wanyan, "Look~!"

To this, Li Wanyan could only purse her lips and gently shake her head.

"Hey? Yinyin? What's up? Want to play?"

"Want to come visit me? Food and lodging included! It's a rooftop apartment with panoramic city views!"

"Don't steal my lines! But you, why don't you come over here? My house is a warehouse in the suburbs, it's quite unique!"

"Is there a bus?" Hua Yinyin asked on the other end of the phone, then suddenly there was a sound of something colliding, followed by a distant groan, "Ah..."

What did you do?

"My calf hit the corner of the table... and it cramped up..."

"You're really something!"

"Hiss—let me catch my breath..." Hua Yinyin mumbled, her voice gradually fading until Mo Xueyao thought she had hung up. Suddenly, a very energetic voice came from the other end of the line, "Hello! Are you there, Xiaoyaoyao!"

"...Yes, are you alright?"

"It still hurts a little, but it's okay."

"Uh, let's get back to that topic. Why don't you just go to my family's fruit shop and have my dad bring you over?"

"Great! Can I stay for a few days?"

"...If we squeeze it in, it should be okay."

"OK! I'll call Lele to come along!"

“Four people…” Mo Xueyao imagined for a moment, then cautiously glanced back at Li Wanyan, coughed and nodded, “Hmm… it should be okay, but any more people and it won’t fit.”

"Is the warehouse really that small? Don't worry, it's just me and Lele."

"Hmm...not really, anyway...mainly...okay, you'll see when you get here." Mo Xueyao gave up explaining. "Keep in touch anytime, text or phone."

"Okay! I'll get ready and leave right away!"

……

(three)

The rain kept falling, showing no sign of stopping.

It just rains heavily for a while, then it rains lightly again, and so on, over and over.

Mo Xueyao didn't really want to write the exam paper; she was quite tired, so she took out her draft paper and scribbled on it.

"What's this."

"Ah! Cough... It's nothing..."

"Ok?"

Mo Xueyao awkwardly looked away: "Uh, um...uh...it's...it's Wanyan in a fit of anger..."

In the sketchbook, there was a female demon with horns. Although it was just a doodle, there was a resemblance between her eyebrows and Li Wanyan, especially in terms of her spirit.

"Ha...haha..." She chuckled dryly, quickly closed the notebook, got up, and slid down the ladder in a flash. "I'll go downstairs and see if Yinyin and the others have arrived yet!"