A Young Woman's Heart

The main problem is that my sister doesn't know the market price well; otherwise, she probably could have bargained it down to one dollar a bag of hay.

"Alright, alright, alright, I'll pack it up for you for fifteen yuan and take it with you." The shopkeeper, with an expression of 'I've lost out again,' packed the food for the two of them and handed it over.

"Thank you." Mo Xiaoxiao handed over a few one-yuan and two-yuan bills, as well as a five-yuan bill, and bought the items.

Mo Zhuyou finally jumped for joy with a sigh of relief, "Yay, black rabbit! What should I name it when we get home?"

……

Chapter 178 All Kinds of Things

March 27th, Monday, Yukong High School.

It started raining again at 6:30 in the morning.

The school gate was quiet, with only one student occasionally walking in with an umbrella.

The security guard at the entrance was calling to the stray cat hiding on the eaves, seemingly trying to get it down to avoid the rain.

The principal's office is located on the top floor of the building, which houses a multimedia hall.

The interior has a simple yet spacious decor.

Hanging on the wall is a painting from 1949, depicting the magnificent Tiananmen Square and an elderly man with a mole on his chin speaking into a microphone.

A clean set of purple clay teaware sat on the coffee table, and a black house cat was curled up on the sofa. If Mo Xueyao were here, she would definitely recognize it as 'Cookie,' the pet of Teacher Su from the Medical Affairs Department.

Next to the principal's desk is a bookshelf embedded in the wall, filled with various large books, exuding a sense of historical weight.

On the table sat a framed photograph containing a slightly yellowed color photograph—its color quality was noticeably inferior to that of color photographs from recent years.

In the center of the photo is a younger version of him, while on the left stands a still-childish Su Yuqing, and on the right is a girl with long black hair who looks somewhat like Ai Xiuer. Beside her stands a muscular man with bronze skin, carrying a dead wild boar on his shoulder, and giving the camera a hearty smile.

The background is a somewhat dilapidated village, and at the edge of the photo, you can see several guns placed on boxes and scattered gold bullet casings.

Principal Mo stared blankly at the photo, lost in thought. Raindrops pattered against the window and slid off, blurring the outside world, leaving only faint light and shadow.

"Knock knock." There was a gentle knock on the principal's office door.

"Please come in." Principal Mo shifted his gaze from the old photograph and placed the globe, which had been in the center, onto the pile of books beside it.

"Principal Mo, the list of all scholarships and poverty relief grants from last semester has been released. Please sign to confirm."

"Okay, did you bring their information?"

"Yes." The dean of students pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, stood in front of the principal's desk with a large stack of documents, and then placed the documents in front of him, dividing them into two parts.

"Here is the list, this is the student list directory and information to be distributed."

"Okay." Principal Mo took out a square glasses case from the drawer, took out a gold-plated monocle, carefully wiped it with a glasses cloth, and then put it on his face. "If you have something to do, you can go and do other things first."

"It's nothing," the head of student affairs smiled. "May I have a cup of coffee here?"

“Of course.” Principal Mo did not smile, but his tone carried a friendly smile. “Then you can wait for me on the sofa.”

"Hmm, speaking of which, our school has quite a few students from impoverished backgrounds, especially the freshmen." The head of student affairs turned on the coffee machine and placed a mug at the spout. "You selected the students on the admissions list, didn't you?"

"Hehe." Principal Mo chuckled, neither confirming nor denying.

He only did some simple checks; after all, the head of the teaching department had already completed the detailed review process.

Otherwise, the scholarships and poverty relief grants from last semester wouldn't have been issued only now in this semester.

"It's great that so many students with good grades receive both scholarships and poverty relief subsidies," the head of academic affairs remarked with a smile while sipping his coffee.

“However, there are always those who don’t try.” The principal adjusted his monocle and looked at the name ’Liu Xiaowei’.

……

Indoor lunch break at noon.

Once everyone was seated, Ye Wen, who had already taken her seat on the stage, coughed lightly and stood up.

"We have some good news to announce at noon today. Well, of course, it's good news for some people." Ye Wen coughed lightly. "Students who ranked in the top 30 of the entire grade last semester will receive scholarships according to their rankings."

Mo Xueyao's eyes widened immediately. Although the rankings were not announced during the final exams last semester, she felt that she should be able to get into the top thirty.

Although it may not be much, it's pocket money that belongs entirely to her and she doesn't have to hand it over!

Buy whatever you want with it!

In this way, she can rent the whole set of Gaia DVDs that her godfather couldn't buy at the supermarket!

I just don't know how much the scholarship is.

She rested her chin on her hand, full of anticipation.

Li Wanyan, who was across the aisle, glanced at her and seemed to have seen through what she was thinking.

"Ugh, what kind of good news is this? Anyway, it has nothing to do with us." Liu Xiaowei yawned widely. "I'd better go back to sleep."

"Tsk, why don't you try to be more ambitious? That way you could get a scholarship."

“Learning is something that requires talent…” Liu Xiaowei said, then slumped onto the table as if he had fallen asleep instantly.

"Tsk tsk." Ye Wen clicked her tongue and shook her head helplessly. "Alright, the students whose names I'm going to call next, please come up to the podium."

With thirty students in a grade, that's not many when spread across seven classes.

However, as the top classes, Class 1 and Class 2 will have a relatively large number of students.

"First, please welcome Mr. Xue, who ranked first in the entire grade in both the midterm and final exams last semester!" Ye Wen took the initiative to clap, and the others clapped along sparsely.

Mr. Xue walked up with a smile, neither shy nor arrogant, and looked very calm.

"Here you are, Mr. Xue, this is your certificate." Ye Wen handed him a certificate for "Outstanding Student of the Grade - Special Award".

"Thank you, teacher."

"Wait a minute, don't go down yet, we still need to take a group photo later." Ye Wen quickly stopped Mr. Xue when she saw him about to return to his seat. "And then there's Li Wanyan, our class monitor, who got third place in the combined scores of the two exams!"

The class monitor walked up calmly, tilted his head slightly, and accepted his certificate.

Hers was first prize.

"Then comes Mo Xueyao, who came in ninth overall~"

Mo Xueyao ran up happily, like a hopping rabbit.

"Hmm, let me see. And then, it's Cha Li, who came in sixteenth overall." Cha Li got the second prize.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan both won first prize.

"Next up is Yue Tingfeng, who is in nineteenth place," Ye Wen said more concisely.

Then, a slightly chubby boy, a little shorter than Mr. Xue, made a 'victory' sign and excitedly rushed out, almost tripping over his own chair, which caused a burst of laughter.

"And then there's the twenty-third place—Susu~!" Ye Wen laughed as she said this nickname.

An Ruosu walked up with a dark expression on her face and sighed helplessly.

There was no way around it; he had dressed as a woman on stage before, and the nickname suited him so well that it had already spread among the teachers.

"And then there's the last one, Mo Xiaoxiao, who's in 30th place!" Ye Wen put down the list. "Okay, we have seven students in our class who made it into the top 30. There are many other students who were just a few points short, but their rankings dropped a lot. So you can't let any point slip by. If you're only one point short in the college entrance exam, you might be a hundred places behind the person in front of you."

Mo Xiaoxiao and An Ruosu both won third prize, while Le Tingfeng and Cha Li won second prize, Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan won first prize, and the only grand prize went to Mr. Xue.

It should only be awarded to the top student in the entire school, right?

"Alright." Ye Wen snapped her fingers, and art teacher Qiu Yi immediately pushed open the door and walked in with a camera. "Everyone, hold your certificates up to your chests. We're going to take a group photo. Qiu Yi, go to the back to take the picture."

When everyone laid out their certificates, Mo Xueyao finally understood how much scholarship each person had received.

Because the amount is already written on the certificate.

The end of the document contains the sentence: "This scholarship of xxx RMB is hereby awarded as encouragement."

The third prize is 100 yuan, the second prize is 200 yuan, and the first prize is 300 yuan.

The grand prize is five hundred yuan.

Five hundred yuan—in this day and age, many people at the bottom of society might not even earn that much in a month.

A laborer doing manual labor on a construction site earns only twenty yuan a day, and even if he works for thirty days, he only earns six hundred yuan. If he takes a few days off in between, he only earns about five hundred yuan.

"OK, the photos are done. Now comes the most exciting moment~!" Ye Wen smiled playfully and handed the seven students envelopes containing money. The envelopes had pictures of the Yukong High School teaching building, the two big characters "Yukong" and the newly made logo were particularly eye-catching.

Three hundred yuan!

Mo Xueyao was somewhat excited.

Even if I have to give some to my parents, I can still get at least a hundred yuan.

Then what should I buy?

Yeah, right, let's buy some snacks first, and... some sausages, Su Tang especially loves them!

What if she gets to manage all 300 yuan?

If that were the case, Mo Xueyao would probably still choose to save two hundred yuan for a rainy day.

She has a habit of feeling uneasy if she doesn't have savings.

So you have to save some money no matter what, which in a sense is like a squirrel that always likes to hide food...

"Done." Qiu Yi, who was taking photos behind, gave an 'OK' sign after the camera flashed a few times.

"Okay, that works. Everyone should keep their money safe and not lose it," Ye Wen instructed. "Don't put it in your pockets on the way home, otherwise you won't even know if you lose it. Do your best, and I hope you'll all receive scholarships next semester too!"

"I will try my best!" Yue Tingfeng nodded enthusiastically, attracting the attention of others.

This science class representative is so full of youthful energy...

"We'll have self-study next. Class officers, please maintain order. Those whose names I call, please come to my office." Ye Wen glanced down at the list. "Liu Xiaowei, Mo Xiaoxiao, Mo Zhuyou, Zhang Yumeng, Chen Baicheng, um, come into my office one by one in order. Everyone else, please wait at the office door."

As Ye Wen spoke, she walked to the door with the list and a stack of envelopes that looked about the same thickness as the one Mr. Xue had just taken.

……