A Young Woman's Heart

Mo Xueyao really wanted to say that she was exactly the same as a boy in many ways, but she ultimately didn't say it.

After a five-minute silence, Li Wanyan gently patted her shoulder, indicating that she could go home.

The classroom has been cleaned and she is about to lock it.

“Lu Chengyuan is coming home with us today,” Mo Xueyao said to Li Wanyan.

"Okay." Li Wanyan nodded lightly and walked down the stairs without looking to the side.

"Xiao Yao, it's been so long and you're still being so distant, really~" Lu Chengyuan laughed and bumped her body.

Mo Xueyao scratched her head in confusion: "No?"

"Then why do you still call me by my full name?"

"Uh...that's what everyone calls you, right?" Mo Xueyao chuckled and made a gesture. "I pronounce it 'Lu Cheng Yuan'~"

"Oh, Xiaoyao is acting like a boy too. Really, no, I have to call her cutely."

"Then... Xiaoyuan?"

"Hmm... just call me Cheng Yuan, that's what everyone calls me."

"Cheng Yuan?" Mo Xueyao repeated.

“Yes~ let’s call it that~” Lu Chengyuan touched her schoolbag, seemingly intending to take out an umbrella, but after hesitating for a moment, she put the umbrella back.

"What are you doing?" Mo Xueyao asked, puzzled.

"Shall we share an umbrella? You don't mind, do you? I like walking close to my friends."

Why?

"Perhaps they find it fun? Especially when it's raining, they can squeeze in and out."

“Okay…” Mo Xueyao wasn’t good at refusing people.

Fortunately, she and Li Wanyan usually each have their own umbrella and don't have the habit of sharing one.

I used to share an umbrella with my close friends, including Li Gutao. We would not only put our arms around each other's shoulders, but also deliberately touch each other's backs and say things like "pretty girl" to disgust each other.

Different people have different ways of getting along. I don't know if it's because of the difference between girls and boys, or because Mo Xueyao uses two different personalities when dealing with boys and girls.

When she's with her best friends, she likes to tease them on purpose, but when she's with her close female friends, she's usually quiet and tactful, and doesn't make overly inappropriate jokes.

Or perhaps it's not that she has two personalities, but rather that she hasn't fully revealed her inner self.

As I stepped out of the teaching building, rain poured down on my umbrella, making a crisp sound.

Interpersonal relationships can be both simple and complex.

Sometimes it even brings some unexpected changes.

Lu Chengyuan turned out to be the daughter of the fruit shop owner mentioned above, but she was not a difficult person to get along with.

The parents who raised such a daughter must not be the kind of people who are generally disliked...

Mo Xueyao's impression of the other fruit shop owner, whom she had never met before, underwent a subtle change.

She suddenly remembered what her father had said and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Sure enough, she wasn't as magnanimous as her father.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be getting hung up on such a trivial matter.

In fact, the moment she learned about this, the childish thought of breaking off her friendship with Lu Chengyuan even flashed through her mind!

"What's wrong, Xiaoyao? Come here a bit?" Lu Chengyuan grabbed her right arm and pulled her to the right. "Otherwise you'll get wet in the rain."

"Oh, oh..." Mo Xueyao suddenly came to her senses, smiled somewhat embarrassedly, and casually changed the subject, "Speaking of which, Lu Chengyuan, what did your family do before?"

“My parents used to run a night market stall. Later, they made some money and rented a shop to open a store, um... this fruit shop.”

"Then why haven't you come to the fruit shop for so long?"

"Well... I don't really see anything interesting?" Lu Chengyuan tilted her head, letting the strands of hair that were draped over her shoulders fall onto Mo Xueyao's face. "Besides, I go home to do my homework as soon as I get out of school, and I'm too lazy to go out. Plus, my parents were coming home very late during that time, and I was really looking forward to enjoying my time at home alone. When my dad is home, he's even more nagging than my mom."

"Then why have you been going straight to the fruit shop after school lately?"

"Well, it's because I had a classmate who was going home with me. Going there yesterday was an accident. My dad forgot to bring something he left at home, so he asked me to bring it to him. He needs it that day."

"I see."

"Hmm, let's do our homework together later! At my family's shop?"

"No, I don't think so..." Mo Xueyao felt an instinctive resistance.

"Hmm—then let's do it at your shop. Your shop seems to be a little bigger than mine."

“The entrance is quite large,” Mo Xueyao said with a hint of pride.

As they were chatting, a van sped past, splashing Mo Xueyao with water all over her.

"...Damn it! Why are you driving so fast! Driving so fast in the rain, that's so rude!" Mo Xueyao exclaimed indignantly. "I was thinking of taking a shower after dinner!"

"Where does Xiaoyao usually take a bath?"

"Let's go to Grandma Jin's house, the one downstairs that runs the grocery store."

"Can I come along too?"

"It should be okay, right?" Although Mo Xueyao wanted to say that this was her privilege, upon closer reflection, she realized that she had no right to say that it was her privilege. She could only say that it was Grandma Jin's kindness. And Grandma Jin was obviously not a mean person. If Lu Chengyuan also wanted to go for a wash, she would definitely agree.

For some reason, after learning that Lu Chengyuan was the daughter of the fruit shop owner next door, she always wanted to compete with her in every way, even though the other person probably didn't have any such intentions...

He's as naive as a primary school student.

She blushed slightly and made a self-deprecating remark to herself.

Before long, the fruit shop came into view.

"Hey? Yaoyao, what happened? Your clothes are soaked! And the white parts are all dirty."

"It's all because of that van! It splashed dirty water all over me!"

"You need to wash this quickly, otherwise it won't come off easily. If other people's school uniforms are white here, but yours are all dirty, people will think you never change your clothes!" the mother hurriedly said. "I'll get you some clean clothes. You and Wanyan should go take a shower."

"Hello, Auntie~ I'm coming too," Lu Chengyuan said politely.

My mother already knew who she was yesterday, but she still showed great enthusiasm.

The adults don't seem to care about this kind of thing.

Mo Xueyao muttered to herself.

……

Chapter 275 Business rivals can also be friends

After the summer rains stop, the dark clouds don't linger in the sky for long.

The light gray of the clouds faded, turning into a translucent white as if it had changed color.

The slowly setting sun cast its afterglow on the clouds, painting them with a dark red hue.

However, the clouds seemed to vary in thickness, and the shades of red varied in depth, with different shades of red resembling beautiful veins on a stone.

The clouds only covered half of the sky, and the sky in the distance was a clear blue. Looking into the distance from under the clouds felt like standing under the eaves and looking at the sky.

However, the eaves are exceptionally large...

Su Tang had somehow climbed onto the roof of the fruit shop and was perched on the tiles, gazing into the distance.

Because the rain had just stopped, there were few pedestrians and vehicles on the streets, and the whole city was as peaceful as if it had stood still.

Mo Xueyao had just finished showering and came out of Grandma Jin's house, followed by Li Wanyan and Lu Chengyuan.

"It's getting late, I'm going to eat now, I'll come back to your place later." Lu Chengyuan waved to Mo Xueyao, bidding her temporary farewell.

The distance wasn't actually that far; she was just going back to the fruit shop upstairs to have dinner.

The owner of the fruit shop was standing at the door waiting for his daughter to come back. When he noticed that Mo Xueyao's father was looking over at the same time, he smiled at him.

“I haven’t even said hello to you since you opened your shop this year.” Mo Wenli walked over with a cigarette in his mouth, took one out of the pack and handed it to the other person. “What a coincidence, your daughter and my daughter are in the same class.”

"This is fate," the other person said politely, taking the cigarette that Mo Wenli offered and placing it behind his ear without lighting it immediately.

Mo Xueyao had no interest in the adults' pleasantries; she was a little hungry and just waiting for dinner.

And Mother had almost finished cooking; she ladled out the last pot of soup, and then we could start eating.

"Ali, come back for dinner!" The mother stood at the shop entrance, wiped her hands on her apron, and called back her father, who was still chatting with the owner of the fruit shop upstairs.

"Dad, you seem to be having a good chat...aren't you supposed to be competitors?"

"Business rivals aren't necessarily absolute competitors. There are ways to win in competition, and business rivals can become friends." The father poured himself a glass of ice-cold beer and let out a long, satisfying sigh. "Haa—Xiaoyao, do you know the correct understanding of the idiom 'invincible under heaven'?"

"So powerful that there are no rivals."

"No, it should be that you have no enemies and everyone around you is a friend. That's what it means to be invincible."

"Stop twisting idioms, okay?" Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes. "Well... the logic is correct, though."

"How is that girl doing in your class?" her mother asked, placing a piece of ham in Mo Xueyao's bowl.

"It's alright, why are you asking this?"

"Spend more time with classmates who have good grades and avoid those who have poor grades, as you'll be influenced by bad company."

"Mom, here you go again." Mo Xueyao picked up her bowl impatiently and shoveled several mouthfuls in a row. "I get so annoyed every time I hear this. Can you please stop reading it? It's always the same over and over again. And why should we discriminate against people just because they don't get good grades? Some people work hard and their grades are just average."

"If you work hard, you can at least reach an average level. What I mean is, don't hang out with classmates who have poor grades. Poor grades are definitely due to a lack of motivation. Otherwise, even if you have no talent, you can still reach an average level."

"But it's impossible for everyone in the world to be a good student. There will always be those who are at the bottom, right? If all the good students are in one class, then the student who is the worst in the class might only be a few points behind the average student."

"You're always arguing unreasonably," the mother said, clearly displeased.

"Mom always judges others with prejudice. Tch, if Wanyan's grades weren't so good, would you have kicked her out?" Mo Xueyao said angrily, her words coming out without any thought.

She didn't know why she was angry; perhaps she was upset because she felt her mother had insulted her other friends.

For example, Li Gutao and Shi Haiming, his best friends from junior high school, were the kind of classmates his mother described as having poor grades.