A Young Woman's Heart

Mo Xueyao muttered to herself as she turned the page.

Huang Yuxi also cautiously came closer, blinking her big, watery eyes as she looked at her carefully.

Some are standalone drawings, while others are comics with panels.

Several pages inside depict a classic fairy tale—The Little Match Girl.

Mo Xueyao could recite this well-known fairy tale with her eyes closed, but when it was drawn, its desolation became even more profound.

It started off quite normally, but then the style started to look increasingly off.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here? It's good that the little girl was rescued by a kind person, but putting aside the fact that the person who rescued her was drawn so ugly, what's with the pedophile at the end?!" Mo Xueyao slammed her hand on the table and shouted, "This is completely off-topic!!"

"Ahem, of course there's a deeper meaning to that," Hua Yinyin replied seriously. "It's to prove that appearance doesn't reveal a person's inner character. Even an ugly person can have a warm heart!"

"Okay, I'll reluctantly accept this explanation, but what happened next?"

Huang Yuxi, who was standing to the side, blushed slightly as if she understood something, but she was too embarrassed to write it down, so she just kept her head down and pretended that she knew nothing.

"Because I feel that if there had been a pedophile in the original story, the little girl wouldn't have frozen to death, and a world without a pedophile is unrealistic!"

"..." Mo Xueyao was speechless for a moment, of course she knew what "copper smelting" meant.

This is truly both laughable and absurd.

If the story really unfolds that way, and if the pedophile is a real pedophile instead of a fake one, would it be a good thing or a bad thing for the little girl?

Mo Xueyao decided to selectively ignore it, so she turned the page and continued reading.

She discovered that Hua Yinyin's imagination was truly boundless; she could turn ordinary daily life into fantastical stories in her paintings.

For example, she can draw a series of wonderful stories simply by changing the refill of a ballpoint pen.

However, the underlying meanings are mostly rather negative.

So, for Hua Yinyin, the things related to the zither are indeed the greatest motivation for her painting?

"Finished watching? What did you think?"

"It's good." Huang Yuxi shyly held up the whiteboard.

"Your imagination... is truly boundless," Mo Xueyao said with a hint of teasing.

Unexpectedly, Hua Yinyin became smug: "Hmph, that's right, painters are the ones who can add wings of dreams to ordinary life!"

"You're getting all worked up just because I said you're fat." Mo Xueyao covered her forehead helplessly.

Hua Yinyin blinked and tickled the back of her hand with her braided ponytail, teasing her like a tickle: "Speaking of which, Xiao Yaoyao can also write some things, like fantasies about stories in life. Everyday life needs some variety! If you write it down, I can draw it for you!"

Mo Xueyao suddenly felt a little tempted.

Who wouldn't want to draw out their own wonderful ideas?

While written descriptions can be vivid, they are certainly not as intuitive as drawing them out!

However, what stories in real life can be given wings of imagination?

Mo Xueyao didn't have Hua Yinyin's powerful imagination, so she had to start with things that could move.

Oh, right, brittle candy.

Sugar is a funny cat.

If brittle could think like a person, what would it think about?

It also sneaked into the schoolbag twice to follow Mo Xueyao or Li Wanyan to school. What was it thinking at that time?

Did anything interesting happen in between?

If Su Tang had arrived at night that day, would she have found the BJD doll Nancy that hadn't been put away yet on the table?

If Nancy could move too...

Mo Xueyao felt inspiration flood her mind in an instant.

She eagerly took out a blank exercise book, waved her little hand, and wrote the four big characters "Sugar Diary" on it, and then couldn't wait to start writing.

Because she prefers to use a 0.35mm ballpoint pen, her handwriting is still very small, but it is much neater than before. It's not exactly elegant, but it's at least much better than her previous scrawled handwriting. At least it looks clear and clean.

Mo Xueyao wrote a diary in Su Tang's voice, but felt extremely ashamed when she reread it.

Why... does it feel like a story only a teenage girl could write?

Although she is indeed a young girl, she should be a boy at heart.

But the cute, girlish fantasy style in the Sugar Diary made her feel so sweet it was cloying.

"Finished writing?" The bell rang just as get out of class ended, and Hua Yinyin looked at Mo Xueyao, who had looked up, and asked curiously.

"No!" Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes, hurriedly put away the diary, and stuffed it into her schoolbag. She felt that she should buy a diary with a lock so that others could not see her girlish diary.

Others might not think much of it, but for her, it was incredibly shameful, yet she couldn't help but write it...

So, how about writing in a more masculine tone?

But wouldn't that go against reality?

Even though she was unwilling, she knew very well that it was better not to stubbornly insist on wanting to be a boy.

He might develop a mental breakdown at that point.

Indeed, it's best to let things take their course.

She sighed and saw Li Hongran already standing at the classroom door: "The last period is PE class. Everyone, please gather on the playground before class begins!"

The last period is physical education class.

Mo Xueyao stretched out a big yawn, looking as cute as a lazy cat.

"Ugh, it's the last PE class again, so annoying," Hua Yinyin grumbled unhappily. "I'm all sweaty, and I still have to rush home."

"Could you pack your schoolbag first?" Mo Zhuyou said as she stuffed textbooks and workbooks into her schoolbag.

"Even if we're all packed up, we still have to come up and get it. Besides, that PE teacher just loves to make the students run so many laps during the last PE class! We don't have to run that many laps in other PE classes!"

Mo Xueyao nodded in agreement, feeling somewhat relieved that she didn't have to participate in sports now.

Because that was just too tragic.

The last physical education class is usually not relaxing; instead, it makes your body tired after you've already exhausted your mind.

A track with a 400-meter lap requires ten laps.

Although you can jog or even walk, you can only move around freely after you finish running.

That is a full four thousand meters.

If we were to walk, it would take about a class period to cover the entire distance.

So many people simply gave up and stopped running, instead chatting and walking around the playground until the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class.

Of course, there are also more honest guys who will finish the whole race, like An Ruosu or Li Hongran...

They have good stamina; after running the whole course, they still have the energy to continue playing basketball.

Mo Xueyao thought to herself that she wasn't in a hurry to pack her schoolbag. Anyway, she would have to stay with Li Wanyan after school to supervise others cleaning, so she could pack her own bag later.

……

Chapter 113 Cat's Egg

Hangzhou is a city with a long history.

However, it could not be considered a bustling city—at least not in 2000.

The narrow road can only accommodate two cars side by side, and there are only four lanes in total, including oncoming traffic. This is on the relatively spacious outskirts of the city. In many places in the city center, there are only two lanes even when including oncoming traffic.

Even in those days when there weren't many cars, traffic jams were common there.

The sidewalk wasn't paved with bricks at all; it was just a cement road that was slightly higher than the surrounding terrain.

Not to mention things like tactile paving for the blind.

No matter where you go in the city, you can always hear the 'clanging' sound of hammering.

The setting sun cast its rays upon Mo Xueyao as she looked up into the distance and saw that the urban village slated for demolition had finally been demolished.

Several excavators were 'walking' through the collapsed ruins, while workers nearby were loudly directing them to dump construction waste into trucks parked nearby.

Outside, people were reinforcing the wall—which was actually just a temporary brick wall around the original simple corrugated iron wall.

"There are so many places being demolished lately," Mo Xueyao remarked.

“We need to renovate the city.” Li Wanyan took out a one-cent Coca-Cola candy from her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth. “After all, this is the provincial capital.”

“Yeah, it’s much more run-down than Shanghai next door.” Having been to Shanghai, Mo Xueyao always unconsciously regarded Hangzhou, the provincial capital, as a dilapidated little city.

In fact, no matter what, this is still a second-tier city...

However, Hangzhou is indeed quite small, and the entire city area is not very big. Even by bicycle, it can take most of the day to ride from the south to the north of the city.

If you're driving and the roads aren't congested, it'll be even faster.

"Has Yaoyao ever ridden the subway?"

"Of course!" Mo Xueyao became excited when talking about something new. "It's much more convenient than taking the bus! The arrival time of each bus is basically fixed, unlike when you're waiting for the bus and don't know when it will come."

"In that case, there's no need to worry about being late; we can plan our time accordingly."

"Yes, and it feels similar to a train, except it's underground, and most of the time there are no seats, so you have to stand." Mo Xueyao gestured with her hands to describe it. "Each stop only takes about three minutes, and there's never any traffic jam, which is very convenient. I wonder when Hangzhou will have one?"

"It's still early. Right now, only first-tier cities have these facilities." Li Wanyan smiled faintly. "Perhaps it will be possible in ten years."

"Ah, that's true. Hangzhou hasn't even gotten its ground transportation sorted out yet," Mo Xueyao muttered, jumping over a small pothole in the road.

After passing this construction site, there is a long stretch of road without any shops.

The road is flanked only by driveways and sidewalks, as well as white walls painted with promotional cartoons.

After all, this is on the outskirts of the city, so many facilities are incomplete, and shops are not as densely packed as in the city center. Many roadsides are empty, and you can't even find a place to buy a bottle of water.

Occasionally, people will set up stalls on the roadside to attract passersby.