A Young Woman's Heart

Before hanging up, I could hear my mother's voice.

"clothing?"

Mo Xueyao stood up and saw a large pile of clothes hanging on the balcony. Recently, even Li Wanyan's clothes had been taken home by her mother to be washed.

They said it's because the house is cleaner.

Li Wanyan initially refused, mainly because she was embarrassed to trouble others.

But later, the mother simply took her clothes to wash, just as naturally as if she were washing clothes for her own daughter.

Over time, Li Wanyan got used to it. Of course, she didn't forget her gratitude, but she kept it hidden in her heart.

After bringing in a large pile of clothes from the balcony and doing a quick tidy-up, Mo Xueyao placed a slice of toast with ketchup on a plate, sat in front of the TV, and slowly ate while watching cartoons.

You can have a very leisurely time at home alone.

The main reason is that all the homework has already been completed.

There is actually a very interesting phenomenon: the students with the worst academic performance and the students with the best academic performance both have a lot of free time.

The only difference is that one does nothing, while the other has already done everything that needs to be done.

Students who spend the most time doing homework are often those with average grades.

Although they were very serious, they didn't apply their seriousness in the right way.

That's why some people do their homework until midnight.

Generally speaking, unless it's a senior high school student, teachers control the amount of homework assigned and won't really squeeze out all of the students' free time or even sleep time.

After finishing her toast with ketchup, Mo Xueyao washed up and returned to her room.

My parents usually don't get home until around midnight after closing the shop, and sometimes they don't even get home until 1 a.m.

Thinking about it carefully, my father actually worked very hard.

Because he goes to bed so late every day, but has to get up so early.

Although you can take a nap during your free time at the fruit shop, it's still not as comfortable as a full night's sleep.

The first thing I did when I got back to the bedroom was to close the window, which was ajar, and then I sat down at the table with my legs bare—I had taken off my leggings while washing my feet.

On the table was a coffin, which was Nancy's doll bag—originally named Nanxi, but after thinking about it for a while, Mo Xueyao decided to change the last character to the homophone hope.

Perhaps it signifies hope.

As for what her hopes are, perhaps even she herself is not quite sure.

Open the small coffin, and inside lies a BJD doll lying quietly.

Like a sleeping vampire girl, she possesses a mysterious and eerie allure.

Mo Xueyao picked her up from inside and carefully combed her hair like she would a girlfriend. Then she styled her hair in a few different ways, but unfortunately there was no camera to capture it, so she could only admire it herself.

Actually, she quite liked Nancy.

Although it was just a doll, it had no self-awareness and was not a living being.

But it can be a place to express a small emotion.

Perhaps it was to compensate for Mo Xueyao's regret of never having had a girlfriend.

"If I had known this would happen, I should have accepted the girl's confession back in junior high..." Mo Xueyao thought, tilting her head back. "At least I would have had a complete experience. Hmm... But maybe it's better not to accept, to avoid causing any trouble later."

As darkness fell, she felt increasingly sleepy.

My body felt a little cold.

So she put the doll away and quickly crawled into bed. Before falling asleep, she was still wondering if the class monitor had taken the candy back to the fruit shop.

……

Chapter Thirteen: Duanmu Ji's Dizziness

The snow fell for a whole day and night yesterday without stopping, and today it's snowing even harder.

The snowfall changed from light snow to moderate snow.

There was a lot of snow on the ground, and it made a 'rustling' sound when you stepped on it.

Mo Xueyao walked carefully, staring at the ground, afraid of stepping into a snowdrift and getting her shoes wet.

Fortunately, she left home early, and there weren't many footprints on the snow in the street, which meant that not many people had stepped on it, so it was still soft.

If you go out later, the snow on the streets will be frozen solid, and walking on it will be as slippery as walking on ice, and you might easily slip and fall.

Riding a bicycle in this kind of weather is both dangerous and inconvenient, so Mo Xueyao chose to take the bus.

Most importantly, it's relatively warm inside the bus—at least there's no wind.

As soon as she entered the empty carriage, she saw a student wearing her school uniform. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Duanmu Ji, a member of the club.

Although he was not very talkative and seemed like an insignificant outsider, Mo Xueyao still had a deep impression of him.

Although his rush over on that rainy night didn't achieve anything, his courage is still commendable.

Of course, secretly calling the police might have been more effective back then...

"Good morning, Duanmu Ji." Mo Xueyao waved to him and greeted him cheerfully.

"Hmm..." Duanmu Ji responded softly, his face flushed an unnatural red, his head radiating heat, and he was sitting crookedly, as if he were very uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Mo Xueyao sat down beside him, holding a glass of hot water. "Do you have a fever?"

"Probably." Duanmu Ji let out a long breath and forced a smile. "He probably caught a cold."

"You have a fever, can you take the day off?" Mo Xueyao asked.

"It's alright, it won't have much of an impact," Duanmu Ji said defiantly. "It's probably just motion sickness."

Indeed, people are more prone to motion sickness when they are sick, and it is normal for their symptoms to be more severe while in the car.

“Looking out the window when you’re carsick will make you feel much better, or you could take a nap?” Mo Xueyao picked up her teacup and took a small sip of hot water. “Phew… I’ll wake you up later.”

"Okay." Duanmu Ji also felt that he couldn't hold on any longer. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the car window.

The drifting snowflakes landed on the windowpane and quickly melted away. Although the window was closed, the cold air that seemed to come from nowhere still made her shiver.

Although the South is not as cold as the North, with the lowest temperature generally around minus three or four degrees Celsius, the problem is that the measures to keep warm in the South are not very good.

Forget about the thin walls and lack of underfloor heating in the houses; even the buses don't have air conditioning...

Some cars, even if they have air conditioning, will not be turned on in order to save fuel.

After all, not turning on the air conditioner in the summer would suffocate you, while not turning it on in the winter would at most make you feel stiff from the cold. And as long as there are many people in the car, it won't be that cold.

But this is tough on passengers taking the first few buses in the morning; if they want to keep warm, they can only shake their legs.

The car swayed and bumped along, and the snow-covered farmland on the roadside slowly receded behind.

The whole world was covered in a blanket of white, and just looking out the window sent a chill down one's spine.

"Glug." Just as Mo Xueyao was holding a hot water bottle and reciting her English text in her mind, she suddenly felt a weight on her shoulder. She turned her head and saw Duanmu Ji leaning against her, his head resting directly on her shoulder.

At such close range, she could already feel the heat emanating from his body, making her feel as if she were burning up.

She reached out and touched his forehead, seriously suspecting that he had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius, otherwise how could he be so hot?

"Huff... hiss... huff..." Duanmu Ji's breathing was heavy, as if something was pressing on his chest, making it hard to breathe.

Since Duanmu Ji was in so much pain, Mo Xueyao wouldn't be so heartless as to push him away. Although the posture was a little strange, she didn't mind too much. After all, the other person was a boy. If it were a girl, it might be a little awkward.

Perhaps because of the snow, the ground was slippery, and the bus was moving slower than usual. This slow, swaying motion made people feel sleepy.

Unfortunately, the train arrived at its destination just as Mo Xueyao was about to fall asleep.

She could only shake her head helplessly, trying to shake off the sleepiness, and then gently patted Duanmu Ji's shoulder: "Duanmu Ji? Duanmu Ji? Get up, get up, we've arrived!"

"Hmm...? Hmm..." Duanmu Ji opened his eyes with difficulty, nodded, and tried his best to stand up, but he swayed and sat down again.

"What's wrong? Can't you stand up?"

"My leg... feels a little numb," Duanmu Ji said, grimacing as he clutched his leg.

At this point, the car door was already open, and if they didn't get out quickly, the car would start moving.

Mo Xueyao put her arm around Duanmu Ji's shoulder and called out to the driver, "Driver, wait a minute!"

Duanmu Ji's body stiffened instantly: "It's alright, I... I can walk by myself..."

"Alright, stop being so stubborn," Mo Xueyao teased. "If you really want to walk by yourself, get off the bus first."

As she spoke, she stood up, helped him slowly off the bus, and then naturally let go of his hand, saying, "Alright, you can walk by yourself now?"

"Hmm." Duanmu Ji carefully took a step with his left leg, then his foot slipped and he lost his balance.

Mo Xueyao quickly stepped forward to support him, but she didn't expect him to be so heavy that she couldn't hold him for a moment.

The snow under her feet made it hard for her to stand, and she lost her balance.

Just as the two were about to fall to the ground, suddenly, a rough and broad hand grabbed her and Duanmu Ji's arms respectively, pulling them both up.

"Ah, thank you!" Although she didn't know who it was, Mo Xueyao quickly thanked them.

"Be careful." A familiar voice came from overheard.

Mo Xueyao looked up and found that it was actually the principal of Yukong High School.

Although I sat behind the principal during the New Year's Day cultural performance, I had never been this close to him before.

He had a smell of tobacco and something else mixed on him, but it wasn't unpleasant. Perhaps that's the scent of a mature man?

Mo Xueyao was a little envious.

It's mainly because she doesn't have it.

"Thank you... Principal," Duanmu Ji said, rubbing his forehead.

"If you're not feeling well, please ask for leave," the principal said calmly to Duanmu Ji.

"It's okay... I can still manage." Duanmu Ji forced a smile.