A Young Woman's Heart

In this kind of summer, it's absolutely forbidden to open the screen windows.

Moreover, at night, all kinds of mosquitoes like to fly towards the light.

Especially those flies, although they don't bite much, their constant buzzing around your ears is quite annoying.

However, screens can't keep out all insects. Some very small insects can squeeze through the gaps in the screen and fly in. Most of them will land on the table or crawl into the lampshade, and most of them won't survive until tomorrow.

They'd die if they came in, yet they insisted on flying in, and made the room a complete mess...

Mo Xueyao sprang to her feet with a somersault, but heard a 'crack' sound in her waist, and clutched her waist in pain.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch... I haven't exercised in so long, even this movement is so difficult..." Mo Xueyao grumbled as she walked to her desk and took out mosquito coils and a lighter from the bookshelf.

Disassembling mosquito coils is a hassle.

Mo Xueyao often breaks mosquito coils in half, and doing so always gets her hands covered in dust...

She tried to remain patient, but still accidentally broke the mosquito coil in half.

"Never mind, it's just the little bit inside, if it breaks, it breaks..." Mo Xueyao made excuses for herself, lit the mosquito coil and placed it in the mosquito coil dish.

The smell of burning mosquito coils immediately filled the room.

This also means that the summer I remember has truly arrived.

A summer without mosquito coils and the chirping of insects at night is incomplete.

Mo Xueyao has always firmly believed this.

And she never found summer nights noisy.

After all, there are only two or three nights a year with such vibrant life.

The chirping of crickets echoed throughout the neighborhood, and occasionally, the croaking of frogs could be heard in the neighborhood, which had no pond.

Mo Xueyao leaned comfortably against the wall, feeling a sense of peace.

There were many doodles on the wall next to the bed from her childhood, except for the one next to the headboard.

Well... although that thing is often overlooked, it's actually a pretty bad thing.

I remember that night, Mo Xueyao was arguing with her uncle, who shared a bed with her, about the difference between men and women, and then her uncle drew a male's features.

Although it was only drawn with a pencil, I have to say it looks quite realistic.

Mo Xueyao pondered when she would have to cover it up with stickers or posters, otherwise it would be really strange to have such a drawing on her bedside table as she got older.

But thinking about it carefully, it's actually my uncle who's stranger. Is he a child?!

Mo Xueyao was scribbling on the wall, and he actually did the same! Really…

It was already a little past eight o'clock when Li Wanyan finished taking a shower.

Lying on the bed, Mo Xueyao was already feeling sleepy. The incandescent light bulb, swaying gently in the wind, had a somewhat hypnotic effect.

Incandescent bulbs connected by wires sometimes resemble candles; they share the characteristic that their light can 'sway' in the wind.

The only difference is that incandescent bulbs don't flicker.

Before going to sleep, Mo Xueyao always has a habit of reflecting on the events of the day or the past few days.

Sometimes she feels that her life is quite boring. She goes back and forth between three places and does nothing but study, eat, shower and sleep.

They didn't have the same colorful lives as the children from wealthy families.

That's why she considers traveling around the world a dream.

—After all, only things that are almost impossible can be considered dreams. If a child can travel with their parents frequently from a young age, they probably won't find traveling around the world anything special.

"Yaoyao, are you sleepy?" Li Wanyan asked casually, though it was a question, it lacked the tone of a question.

"Hmm... sleepy." Mo Xueyao stretched her hands under the pillow, yawned widely, and fell asleep as she turned her head to the side.

……

Chapter 285 Arms Around Back

In Mo Xueyao's memory, Duanmu Ji had always been a gloomy and silent boy. He was not a bad person at heart, but he was not good at speaking and probably didn't have many friends in the class.

But what happened on the bus this morning was a huge surprise to her.

Duanmu Ji and the fat guy sat with their arms around each other's shoulders. These two boys, who had fought before, were now as close as brothers.

The fat man was Zheng Qiang, who was talking incessantly to Duanmu Ji, glancing up at Mo Xueyao sitting on the other side every now and then. Duanmu Ji listened attentively, nodding occasionally.

"What on earth are these two doing?" Mo Xueyao tilted her head and looked at them sideways, wondering.

But she wasn't an omniscient or omnipotent god, nor was she particularly well-informed, so at this moment she could only guess what had happened between the two of them, but couldn't truly know what had happened.

"Then I'll be going now!" As he got out of the car, Zheng Qiang patted Duanmu Ji's shoulder hard and ran towards the school with a big laugh.

"She's not a difficult person to get along with... she's just a little too concerned about saving face..." Duanmu Ji muttered to himself, subconsciously stopping in his tracks. He only started moving again when he caught a glimpse of Mo Xueyao's small feet in black sandals stepping onto the platform.

"Hey, Duanmu Ji!" Mo Xueyao called out to him, quickly ran to his side, and put her elbow on his shoulder. "What's going on? You and that guy have actually become friends?"

"Well...actually, he's not that bad."

"Tsk, he was pretty arrogant when he was beating you up." Mo Xueyao curled her lip in disdain. "You weren't threatened, were you?"

"No."

"So what exactly happened? It can't be as simple as just becoming friends after a fight, can it?"

"More or less," Duanmu Ji replied, feigning indifference, but his eyes kept glancing at Mo Xueyao walking beside him.

"Really?" Mo Xueyao was very skeptical.

"Well... I helped him out by telling him something, and after he did it," Duanmu Ji paused slightly, "he got a girlfriend for the first time."

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao muttered, her eyelids drooping. "What girlfriend? A 'girlfriend' from a hair salon?"

"Hair salon" refers to a brothel or sex shop located on the street.

Women with heavy makeup often sit behind the glass door, flirting with men outside. Sometimes, people come out to solicit customers, and they even prey on high school students.

Duanmu Ji was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting Mo Xueyao to say such 'vulgar' words.

Li Wanyan was clearly used to Mo Xueyao's carefree way of speaking, and continued walking forward calmly, almost overtaking the two of them.

“They were classmates.” Duanmu Ji seemed to be thinking about how to explain, but in the end he gave up. “Because of some things, in the end he… played the hero and saved the damsel in distress, um.”

"A hero saves the damsel in distress?" Mo Xueyao raised an eyebrow. "So, you guys hired a few people to play the roles of thugs, and then staged a hero-saves-the-damsel situation in front of the girl he likes?"

“No.” Duanmu Ji shook his head. “It wasn’t a real fight, just verbal. The other person wasn’t a thug, and she was a girl.”

Listening to Duanmu Ji speak is quite a tiring thing.

Mo Xueyao scratched her head, and it took her a few seconds to roughly understand what he meant.

"Oh, so there was a girl who was bullied by other girls, and you found out about it and told that fat guy, who then stood up for the bullied girl, won her favor, and then the two of them got together?"

“Yes.” Duanmu Ji nodded.

"Phew... thank goodness I have a vivid imagination. With your way of expressing yourself, who can understand what you're saying!" Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes in annoyance. "And then because of this, he was very happy and thanked you for the 'information' you provided? So you turned enemies into friends? That's a bit too casual, isn't it?"

"I apologized to him."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault, why are you apologizing?" Mo Xueyao said unhappily. "Can't you have some backbone? Do you think you can get forgiveness by apologizing and becoming someone's lackey? No way, you're such a coward!"

"No, later on, my tires and brakes were damaged, and I thought he did it, but it wasn't him."

"Is this matter related to another thing you mentioned?"

"Ah."

"Huh...? That's really complicated." Mo Xueyao wasn't particularly gossipy and didn't ask any further questions—mainly because listening to Duanmu Ji's explanation was too tiring and had worn away her curiosity.

"Hmm." Duanmu Ji nodded and didn't say anything more. He quickened his pace, as if he wanted to leave Mo Xueyao behind.

"So eager to get to school?" Mo Xueyao released her elbow from his shoulder and walked lazily toward the school.

Mo Xueyao had already changed into a short-sleeved school uniform, and the skirt was naturally a summer style, much shorter than the spring/winter style.

Although there's the risk of your skirt being blown up by the wind, it's also quite cool.

As long as you don't stand in the sun, the breeze will make you feel refreshed.

"Yesterday's weather forecast said it would be 33 degrees today. I hope today's PE class will be at the swimming pool..." Mo Xueyao muttered to herself.

"I was indeed at the swimming pool today."

"Huh?"

Li Wanyan glanced at her and slightly lifted her bangs: "I notified you last Friday, Xiaoyao, have you forgotten?"

"Ha... Did you notify me? Hmm... I think I was sleeping at that time." Mo Xueyao muttered, "Luckily, my mom always washes my swimsuit and puts it in my backpack on weekends, otherwise I would have to go back to get it now."

"The swimming class schedule has been rearranged; all physical education classes this week will be swimming classes."

"I see." Mo Xueyao playfully pinched Li Wanyan's cheek. "Wow, having a class monitor around is really convenient~"

Li Wanyan glanced at her indifferently, without getting angry.

"Huh, you're not angry?"

Why get angry?

"I thought Wanyan didn't like having her cheeks pinched."

"Xiaoyao is fine."

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao said smugly, "So, am I the only one in the class who can openly pinch the class monitor's cheek now?"

"Mm." A smile appeared on Li Wanyan's lips.

"By the way, does Wanyan know when summer vacation starts?"

"It should be late June."

"Hmm... I remember when I was in junior high, summer vacation usually started in early July." Mo Xueyao tilted her head and looked at her. "So is it at the end of the month or the latter half of the month? If it's the latter half, it's probably about seven or eight days earlier?"

"More or less, but I'm not sure about the specifics yet." Li Wanyan, who had attended several class officer meetings, had a general understanding of the situation, but even the higher-ups hadn't confirmed the exact timing, so she naturally didn't know either.