A Young Woman's Heart

Mo Xueyao's mother did not object; on the contrary, she welcomed it. In the end, she used some cardboard boxes filled with waste cardboard, waste newspapers, or clothes to piece together a 'small bed' on the side. She placed a wooden board on top, which was about the same height as a wire bed. With this extra space, the three of them could finally sleep comfortably.

If it weren't for Shen Kelin, Mo Xueyao probably wouldn't have remembered so many embarrassing things that happened to her in kindergarten.

At midnight, all the shops on this street had closed. Looking around, only the 24-hour convenience store on the opposite street was still open for business.

Several wads of old newspapers floated in the wind on the slope and rolled into the trash can on their own.

The convenience store emitted a soft yellow light, which mingled with the dim yellow light from the streetlights outside.

From this location, you can see people in work clothes pushing open the door, wriggling around in the empty doorway, and then going back inside.

He was a shop assistant at that store; you could only see him after 9 p.m., as he was the one who worked the night shift.

A beeping sound came from afar, and then a white van sped past and drove into the cancer hospital.

Those who are sent here are mostly suffering from sudden illnesses caused by tumors.

It doesn't happen every day; it only happens occasionally on a few nights.

Most of the time, this street is very quiet at night.

The pitch-black night permeated every corner of the street, and the few lights available could not dispel the boundless darkness.

If someone could paint this scene, it would surely be a very evocative painting.

"So sleepy..." Mo Xueyao yawned again, glancing at the clock hanging in the shop by the moonlight and lamplight—the hour hand had already passed the twelve o'clock position, getting closer to one o'clock.

An old man, carrying a plastic bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) and walking unsteadily, plopped down on the steps in front of the fruit shop.

He reeked of alcohol, and even from several meters away, Mo Xueyao frowned.

In the pitch-black night, his face was not visible; all that could be seen was a bundle that looked like a sack on his back, and an erhu without its bow hanging on him, like a piece of broken wood.

"Ha...haha..." The old man playing the erhu sat on the steps and laughed a few times. He leaned against the roller shutter door, making a 'clattering' sound as it shook.

He looked at the bright moon in the sky and took another big gulp of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor)—although half of it spilled out of his mouth.

"Ah...isn't it closed yet?" The old man suddenly turned around and asked Mo Xueyao.

"Oh...asking me? It's already closed."

"Yes, it's very late, we really have to close up shop." The old man laughed loudly, then slumped down next to the roller shutter as if all his bones had been removed.

Mo Xueyao was a little worried that he would vomit right in front of the fruit shop, but she was also afraid that saying it directly would be too hurtful, so she could only start a conversation by asking, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing much, I just feel... feel melancholy... just melancholy... ha..." The old man's voice was particularly hoarse when he said the word 'melancholy'.

"why?"

"It's a long story... ha..." The old man took another big gulp of wine. "Young... girl, you know, capitalists, right?"

"Capitalists, of course I know." Although I don't like politics, I can still get excellent grades, so I must know a lot by rote memorization, let alone such basic words.

"What do you think... uh..." The old man swallowed and let out a burp, "...of capitalists?"

"How...? What do you mean, how?" Mo Xueyao asked, puzzled.

"Good or bad."

"Everything has two sides, right..."

"So... what do you think... which aspect... is more important?"

"It's more of a positive thing, after all, it provides many job opportunities, promotes social progress, and makes people's lives more and more convenient..."

"Ha, ha!" The old man laughed loudly a few times, "I... I don't think so!"

“Hmm…” Mo Xueyao did not refute, after all, most of her knowledge came from textbooks, and she did not have much knowledge about the real appearance of society.

“Capitalists…forever, forever!” The old man slammed the bundle he was carrying onto the ground. “Rotting blood will always flow from them! That blood is their…money! Have you ever read…Marxist philosophy? Or…Capitalism?”

"No..." In fact, Mo Xueyao hadn't even read much of Mao Zedong's Selected Works.

"Ha... Let me tell you..." The old man paused for a full half minute, looking at the stars in the sky, as if organizing his thoughts, or perhaps recalling something. "Capitalists are always exploiting the lower classes, and then... they concentrate most, even 90%, of the wealth in their own hands! They are ruthless exploitation machines, and they will never stop until they have squeezed every last bit of value out of ordinary people!"

"But this world isn't controlled by capitalists, is it? If it's really like you say, then we won't have any freedom at all?"

“We never had freedom to begin with… Most of the world… haha… is controlled by capital, that is… a few countries… But… uh… capital… capitalists will always be born… Once a capitalist appears… then everything will inevitably lead to… the predetermined demise of the capitalist.”

“But nothing lasts forever, right?” Mo Xueyao pouted. As the daughter of a fruit shop owner, she felt a little mocked.

"Ha, ha... You think you're a capitalist? I wasn't, I wasn't talking about you... Ha... Most businessmen are far from being... capitalists!"

An old man who is drunk talking about those people who stand on clouds is completely unconvincing.

So Mo Xueyao didn't really answer, but just rested her chin on her hand, wondering why Shen Kelin hadn't returned yet.

"Is success always right?" the old man suddenly asked, though it sounded more like he was talking to himself. "Capitalists are all vampires! They're all parasites! After they've used up all the surplus value, they leave behind a mess, then they just pack up and leave for the next place, until they either perish or are perished by someone else!"

The old man's speech became rapid, leaving Mo Xueyao stunned. Some words were spoken so quickly that she couldn't hear them at all.

"As for the future... is that something they need to consider? No... actually, many capitalists don't think about the future. They want wealth to come as quickly as possible, so they can accumulate more and more for themselves!" The old man angrily slammed his fist on the ground. "But what use is so much money to them?!"

"Uh... so what's wrong with you?" Mo Xueyao was speechless, completely unable to empathize.

"Is music art?" the old man countered.

Of course.

"But those capitalists want to turn music into a commodity... to package a lump of maggot-infested excrement, and then sell it..."

"……don't know."

"Haha, never mind... little girl, you'll understand later." The old man laughed, then suddenly covered his mouth, threw the Erguotou aside, took out a plastic bag from his pocket, and then vomited into it with a "whoosh".

Mo Xueyao quickly looked away, afraid that she would feel nauseous just looking at it.

After hesitating for a moment, she stood up, handed him a few napkins, and poured a glass of cold water into a disposable cup and placed it next to him.

"Thank you."

"Since you hate capitalists so much, do you have a way to change them?"

“Yes, of course!” the old man said passionately. “These are all written in Marxist philosophy—but that kind of social construction ultimately failed. The Soviet Union collapsed, and our country had to change its policies. I’m afraid that kind of society will never come to pass.”

"So, you feel desperate?" Mo Xueyao probably understood a little.

"Yes, isn't it hopeless to be destined to be exploited? You can never kill all capitalists. There will always be countless people to take their place and stand in that position again, and continue... continue to exploit downwards."

"It's just losing a job, it's not that despairing..." Mo Xueyao was speechless.

"Heh, little girl, of course you don't understand. You won't understand now. When you grow up, when you grow up! Maybe then you will understand..." The old man gulped down the water in his cup, kicked the empty bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) across the street, and then staggered to his feet. "I'm just a useless person... All I can do in the end is criticize... But what's the use of criticism? If no one criticizes, wouldn't everyone think it's right? So we still have to criticize, we still have to speak out, we still have to let people know their ugliness..."

He rambled on and on, then staggered away.

Not long after, Shen Kelin returned to the entrance of the fruit shop.

Mo Xueyao had already forgotten all the 'nonsense' the old man had just said.

……

Chapter 248 is a dream

The road is above you, and the sky is below you.

Trees are rooted in the dark sky, and countless skyscrapers hang down like stalactites.

Mo Xueyao stood blankly in the air, looking up at the upside-down buildings and down at the dark night sky.

Suddenly, she saw a moon twinkling in the night sky and excitedly ran towards it.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that this was an artificial moon. While it was indeed large enough, it was far from comparable to the real moon.

Beside this artificial moon, many people with numb eyes come and go.

The back cover of the moon, like the back cover of a battery, was suddenly pushed open, with a long line of people standing next to it.

Those people were less like human beings and more like clay sculptures molded into human form.

After the back cover was pushed open, a person staggered out, looking numb, and was then grabbed by a mechanical arm that extended from a robot that looked like a trash can, and it was unclear where they were being dragged.

The dark night sky was streaked with blood, a horrifying sight, yet no one cared.

Mo Xueyao looked more closely and discovered that under the dim light of the upside-down street lamp, there were even more dark red bloodstains.

This seems to prove that countless people have been dragged through this place.

The night was pitch black, trampled underfoot, and dark red blood was everywhere.

Another person climbed into the artificial moon and then closed the back cover himself.

A sharp, piercing sound came from inside, making Mo Xueyao's scalp tingle.

But the others didn't seem to feel anything, as if it were a perfectly normal thing.

Suddenly, a robot shaped like a trash can looked at her. She felt flustered for some reason and turned to run away.

As a result, more and more robots chased after her.

Wherever she goes, she is surrounded and blocked.

Forced into a corner, she leaped upwards and fell into an upside-down building as if she were plummeting.

This is the first floor of the building, and everyone is in front of a computer with a smile on their face.

They weren't as numb as the people I'd seen on the street before, but the fact that each of these different faces wore the same smile was truly chilling.

Mo Xueyao watched them type on the keyboard, entering the exact same sentence into the computer screen.

Everyone's movements seemed to be synchronized.

She couldn't see the words on the screen clearly, but she instinctively felt that the words were full of insult and provocation.

As Mo Xueyao approached, the people all looked at her in unison, offering a uniform smile as a gesture of 'welcome'.

Outside the window, several streaks of lightning shot out from the ground high overhead, casting several huge human figures.

They were taller than mountains, with different faces, but all wore mysterious smiles.

Those were projections of giants, because they had no physical form, they could pass through houses, through the ground, and through the night sky.

The machines outside seemed to have stopped chasing her, and she cautiously continued upwards.