A Young Woman's Heart

"Hmm... I should call her aunt?"

"How should I know?" Mo Xueyao didn't want to think about this confusing hierarchy at all; just thinking about it gave her a headache.

Hua Yinyin stopped worrying about it and took out a pair of white cotton slippers from the shoe cabinet, squatting down at Mo Xueyao's feet.

What are you doing?

"Let me help you put on your shoes~"

"Ugh—" Mo Xueyao gritted her teeth and shrank back in disgust. "You're so disgusting."

"What's disgusting about it! Touching a beautiful girl's little feet is one of the most wonderful things in life!"

As Hua Yinyin spoke, she held Mo Xueyao's feet in her hands and stroked them repeatedly as if she were holding a precious treasure.

I just wore leather shoes, aren't you afraid they'll smell bad?

"A beautiful girl's feet won't smell bad, even if they sweat, they'll still smell nice!"

"You're being too idealistic..." Mo Xueyao shook her head helplessly, pressed down Hua Yinyin's head which was leaning closer, and put on her slippers.

"So, you're home alone today?" Mo Xueyao walked to the window and glanced at the empty milk carton on the table.

Hua Yinyin's family seems to be in the milk wholesale business, and they are one of the larger wholesalers in Hangzhou. I wonder if they have any other businesses.

In short, the one thing her family has no shortage of is milk.

Mo Xueyao glanced at the five-cent or one-yuan coins scattered on the table, windowsill, or other places, and muttered to herself—

Besides that, there's no shortage of spare change.

"How about something to drink? Milk or cola?"

"Milk bar..." Mo Xueyao was looking for a place to sit.

Hua Yinyin took a carton of milk from the refrigerator, skillfully tore it open with her hands, and poured it into a clean glass.

"The view is really nice from up here," Mo Xueyao said, looking out the window at the scenery, feeling as if she were overlooking half of the city.

Buildings have been erected one after another on the construction site, but none of them are as tall as the residential buildings here. It looks like that area is a commercial district. Only on the side of the window, there are a few tall buildings that look like they are half completed. That area will probably be another residential area.

Perhaps by next year, this place will be so unrecognizable to her?

The entire city is constantly developing, with new changes every day.

Those workers, who appear as tiny as ants from a distance, may seem insignificant, but without them, this city would likely not have undergone such a transformation.

Mo Xueyao looked away and took a small sip of milk from the glass.

"But it gets old after a while, and I prefer the night view to the daytime view~" Hua Yinyin took out her easel. "Let's go up to the balcony!"

"So, what exactly did you call me here for..." Mo Xueyao picked up her glass. "It wasn't just to watch you paint, was it?"

"No, it's too boring without anyone to keep me company."

“Other painters prefer to create alone, but you prefer others to accompany you. The difference in your levels is too great, isn’t it?” Mo Xueyao shook her head helplessly.

"Little Yaoyao clearly likes chatting with me, but she always pretends not to like it~" Hua Yinyin said narcissistically as she carried her drawing board upstairs.

It's similar to the half-floor apartment of Huang Zhengyang next door, except that the downstairs of her apartment is more spacious, so all the rooms are located downstairs, while the upper half-floor is used as a sunroom.

The balcony for drying clothes is downstairs, and it's generally not used for drying clothes unless there's no more space.

Part of the roof is made of glass, and part of the front also has floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

However, this floor-to-ceiling window doesn't fall directly to the ground; it's separated from the ground by about fifty or sixty centimeters of wall space, just in case.

It also makes people feel safer.

Otherwise, Mo Xueyao probably wouldn't dare to sit directly next to this floor-to-ceiling window.

Even so, when she looked down, she still had the illusion that she was going to fall.

My heart started beating faster.

"Then why don't you go find Xiaoxi?"

"He goes with his brother as soon as he's on vacation, like he can't live without his brother. We can't get him to come here." Hua Yinyin put down the drawing board and then took out a bunch of snacks and several boxes of milk and put them on the ground.

"Is there anything that can help pass the time?"

"I have some comics, would you like to read them?"

"Ugh, your comics? I don't want to read them..."

"Tch, girls are so lovely together!" Hua Yinyin grumbled, sitting down cross-legged.

There are several straw cushions on the floor of the sunroom, which can be used in any season, as they are neither too hot nor too cold.

This sunroom seems to function partly as a study, with several low bookshelves along the walls and a rotating magazine rack nearby.

Mo Xueyao naturally opened a bag of potato chips and started eating, while Hua Yinyin leaned over and opened her small mouth: "Ah—I want some too."

"Can't you take it yourself?"

"I don't want to get my hands dirty." Hua Yinyin looked at Mo Xueyao expectantly, "Little Yaoyao, feed me!"

"I won't feed him."

"Ouch!" Hua Yinyin then bit down on Mo Xueyao's palm, leaving obvious marks on her two sharp little tiger teeth.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch—where did you get those fangs from?"

"It's always been there."

"I didn't notice it normally."

"It's probably become more obvious lately," Hua Yinyin grinned, deliberately touching her canine tooth. "How about it, are you scared?"

"...I'm not afraid." Actually, Mo Xueyao thought Hua Yinyin with her fangs was quite cute, but of course, she couldn't say it out loud, otherwise the latter would definitely take advantage of her.

"potato chips!"

"Okay, okay..." Mo Xueyao helplessly pinched a potato chip and stuffed it into Hua Yinyin's mouth. The latter even deliberately licked her fingertips, as if she was still not satisfied.

"Little Yao Yao's fingers taste good."

"That tastes like potato chip powder, doesn't it..." Mo Xueyao grabbed a few more chips and stuffed them into her mouth, silencing her.

Hua Yinyin picked up a pencil and began sketching on a blank sheet of paper.

What do you want to draw?

“A twisted monster.” Hua Yinyin stared intently at the painting in front of her, her chubby little feet wiggling gently, and the silver bells attached to them jingled.

"Oh... the Cthulhu that Teacher Qianyu occasionally talks about?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously, turning her head to look for it on the low bookshelf next to her.

Hua Yinyin's home is decorated in a European style, with a lot of marble used. Even though the sun is shining brightly today, it still can't dispel the heaviness and coldness of the room.

"more or less."

Why did you suddenly want to draw this?

"Because they can be used to satirize something."

"What are you trying to satirize?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously.

"That depends on what others come to understand."

“Isn’t that the same as saying nothing at all…” Mo Xueyao picked up a novel called “Van Gogh: A Biography”, which seemed to be a biography written by later generations. It contained many illustrations of him, from his youth to the end of his life.

Actually, if you look at the earlier paintings, you'll find that Van Gogh's paintings in his youth were quite good.

It just doesn't have any particularly special features.

Hua Yinyin glanced at the book Mo Xueyao was reading and casually said, "It is said that Van Gogh suffered from mental illness in his later years and eventually died by suicide by gunshot. He was not even forty years old when he died."

"I didn't understand how to appreciate it when I was a child, but now I see that his paintings do have a different kind of artistic conception. He truly deserves to be called an Impressionist painter."

“Many people who know about Cthulhu joke that Van Gogh went mad because he saw something indescribable.” Hua Yinyin pointed to her sketch, which looked like a combination of an octopus and seven or eight other animals and objects. It was neither symmetrical nor in line with body structure. If someone with OCD took a look at it, they would probably feel uncomfortable all over.

“But Van Gogh was destitute when he was alive, yet he became famous after he died. It’s the biggest irony in the world,” Mo Xueyao muttered.

“There are plenty of ironic things in the world.” Hua Yinyin began to outline with a marker.

She didn't intend to paint with oils, but rather with colored pencils.

"Why use colored pencils? Can't we use watercolors or oil pastels?"

"Of course, either is fine, but colored pencils are cleaner, especially paints and such, which can easily make a mess everywhere..." Hua Yinyin muttered. "For me, colored pencils are the best tool. Actually, many times, those who become famous after their deaths are just hyped up; it's just that some people want to make money."

This reminded Mo Xueyao of what the drunken old man had told her a few days ago.

"If they could steal talent, they would definitely steal it too, so they could make more money."

"Fortunately, talent can't be stolen. However, sometimes talent and making money aren't really related." Hua Yinyin sharpened a colored pencil with a pencil sharpener and said with her cheeks puffed out, "As long as you have money, you can change people's aesthetic sense."

"Does having money mean you can do whatever you want?" Mo Xueyao teased.

"Hmm~ Of course you can do whatever you want if you have money!" Hua Yinyin said jokingly.

……

Chapter 250 The Collapsed Building

Today is January 2000, 5.

The clouds in the sky occasionally block out the sun, but there is already a hint of summer in the air. Even without the sun shining, you feel warm all over.

Mo Xueyao was at Hua Yinyin's house at that moment.

The years are quiet.

In those days, it wasn't a word that had been overused.

Hua Yinyin was coloring the distorted monster she was drawing, while Mo Xueyao was flipping through Van Gogh's biography, occasionally glancing up to see how Hua Yinyin's drawing was progressing.

"Why are there so many eyes drawn on the tentacles? Is the background the deep sea?" Mo Xueyao stuffed a potato chip into her mouth and chewed it with a 'crunch crunch' sound.

"Because it looks rather scary."

"Is that all..." Mo Xueyao teased, "What happened to the promised depth?"