A Young Woman's Heart

"Ah."

"Ok."

What is it?

“Wen is paying to take us to the beach! Everyone on this list is checked off, and you’re on it too.”

"Hmm, Wen is so nice."

“You should say that to my face,” Mo Xueyao said jokingly.

"By the way, Wanyan, let's exchange some books today. I've already finished reading the ones I borrowed."

“Okay.” Li Wanyan nodded.

She hadn't finished reading it, or rather, she needed to read it a few more times, but that didn't matter; she could just return the book and borrow it again.

The air conditioning in the library was a bit too cold; after staying inside for a while, you felt like you were about to freeze.

The borrowed books were ice cold; you could use them as ice packs outside.

This time, Mo Xueyao didn't borrow any extracurricular reading materials. Since the final exams were approaching, she specifically borrowed two tutoring books, one for English and one for math.

Although she'll most likely end up in the humanities class, the humanities class still includes math, and... to be honest, Chinese doesn't contribute much to her score, but math is a different story. She still has a lot of room for improvement; with a little effort, she could score five or six points higher, which would help her improve her ranking in the grade.

Many people might think, what's the point of all this effort? The ranking hasn't improved much, and the score hasn't increased much either. Isn't it enough to just get by like before?

For Mo Xueyao, making progress is itself a reward and a very meaningful thing.

After borrowing the book, I headed towards the fruit shop as usual.

The only difference was that Li Wanyan was very close to her today, and their hands seemed to be linked the whole time.

"When Yaoyao was a boy, did he have a girlfriend?" Li Wanyan asked with a slight smile, glancing sideways.

"Huh? That kind of thing... No, I didn't really have any thoughts about it back then, or maybe I did, but I was also afraid of taking on any responsibilities or something?" Mo Xueyao explained incoherently, "Well, back in kindergarten, the girl who lived across from us, um, her name was Yu Shu... she, she said several times that she wanted to be my bride."

"You actually remember."

"Ah, I didn't mean anything by it, it just left a deep impression on me, and now I feel ashamed when I think about it."

"Why did she move out and then move back?"

"I'm not too sure about that either, but I remember she moved out because she had leukemia, and her family sold the house. They probably didn't buy it back, they just rented it now, right? Maybe it's just a coincidence." Mo Xueyao pulled her hand away. "Wanyan, aren't you hot holding me like this?"

"It's alright." Li Wanyan rarely joked. "It's just about experiencing what it feels like to hold hands with a 'boy'."

"Oh dear... that's not the case anymore..." Mo Xueyao muttered guiltily, "Has Wanyan never been in a relationship either?"

"Never."

"Oh... By the way, I think An Ruosu is pretty good, and you seem to like him too?"

"No, I don't think so." Li Wanyan shook her head, not seeming to be lying.

"Hmm... Wanyan, which boy in your class do you like?"

“A boy who is now a girl,” Li Wanyan joked.

"Oh, stop joking..." Mo Xueyao said, a little embarrassed.

"Not at the moment."

"If Wanyan likes girls, why not choose Hua Yinyin?"

"I don't like girls," Li Wanyan denied.

……

Chapter 343 No Need to Be Rounded Up

After having dinner at the fruit shop, Mo Xueyao didn't linger but instead took a car and headed home.

It's just because... the fruit shop had a power outage today.

Business still needs to be done, since using a flashlight as a light is fine, but starting an electric fan is absolutely out of the question.

So, feeling unbearably hot, Mo Xueyao decided to go home and turn on the electric fan.

And we also have a so-called 'air conditioning fan' at home. Although it's not as good as an air conditioner, as long as you put ice cubes in it, at least it blows out cold air instead of hot air...

As she walked up the stairs, she heard people talking in the stairwell. Mo Xueyao subconsciously slowed her pace because she overheard them talking about herself.

"Hey, my daughter told me last time that two girls live next door, there are no boys. Did the Mo family move away before?"

"Where did you move to? You've been living here all along. Oh—you mean this one? Haha, there's a girl who seems to have moved in later, maybe she's a relative's daughter. And there's another girl, Xiaoyao, the one with blue eyes, she's obviously mixed race."

"Huh? Haruka? My memory isn't wrong, is it? I remember Haruka being a boy."

"Haha, he's a tomboy, didn't Old Mo tell you guys?"

"Oh, I thought he was joking."

"Where in the world can you find such a handsome little boy?"

"That's true..."

Upon hearing this conversation, Mo Xueyao stopped and looked at Li Wanyan beside her, giving an awkward smile.

Li Wanyan lowered her voice and teased, "It's all thanks to your dad's love of joking around."

"Who knew a joke would come true..." Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath.

She waited until the conversation upstairs ended before slowly walking up.

"Looks like we don't need to keep up the lie anymore," Mo Xueyao said with a light laugh as she turned to look at Li Wanyan.

"Ah."

As they were talking, they reached the sixth floor and suddenly saw the door next to the stairs open.

Yu Shu was looking down, about to pick up the trash and take it downstairs to throw it away, when she saw the two of them.

Her mother had just returned home and turned around in confusion, asking, "What's wrong? Why didn't you go out when you opened the door halfway?"

"Um...mmm..."

"Oh—" Her mother walked over and glanced at her. "Is that Xiaoyao?"

"Uh... it's me." Mo Xueyao hesitated for a moment before answering frankly.

"Xiao Yao, do you remember? This is Yu Shu."

"Ah..." Mo Xueyao exaggeratedly widened her eyes, "It's her? I didn't recognize her this morning!"

Yu Shu looked at her with a mixture of shyness and curiosity: "Xiao Yao... is she a girl?"

"Ha, you used to be a tomboy." Mo Xueyao glanced at Li Wanyan beside her, deliberately made a rather masculine scratching motion, and casually spread her legs apart, just like when she was a child.

"Yes, that's how it is..." Yu Shu took a deep breath, "We... will still be neighbors from now on."

"You can come out and hang out sometime. By the way, you're much more shy than you used to be," Mo Xueyao joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“My Yu Shu has been like this ever since she recovered from her illness. Xiao Yao, you should spend more time with her and help her become more cheerful, like she was when she was little.”

"Wouldn't it be bad to act like we did when we were kids?" Mo Xueyao's tone was somewhat teasing.

"That's right, just like when she was little, she kept saying she wanted to be your wife, didn't she?" Yu Shu's mother couldn't help but laugh, which made Yu Shu's face turn even redder.

"Haha..." Mo Xueyao could only manage a dry laugh.

"Shu'er, why don't you go play at Xiaoyao's house? If it were a boy, you could say you're too old now, but Xiaoyao is a girl, so it's okay. We'll be staying here for a long time, so you can become good friends with Xiaoyao again."

"Hey...!" Yu Shu ran down the stairs with the trash in her arms, her face flushed. It was unclear whether she had heard what her mother had just said.

Mo Xueyao then bid farewell to Yu Shu's mother and returned to her own home.

"Phew... Looks like I don't even need to cover up the lie myself. What others say is more believable than what I say myself." Back home, Mo Xueyao turned to look at Li Wanyan and said with a light laugh.

"Isn't it fine?" Li Wanyan took off her hair tie, gently shook her head and neck, letting her hair flow naturally. "Yaoyao, would you like to take a shower first?"

"Okay, I'll shower first. Wanyan, why don't you bring out the air conditioner fan? The weather is getting hotter and hotter..."

Just as Mo Xueyao had just started taking a shower, there was a knock on the door.

Li Wanyan put ice cubes from the refrigerator onto the air conditioner fan, and then opened both doors.

Mo Xueyao's house has an outer door and an inner door. The inner door is made of wood, while the outer door is a balustrade-style iron gate. The passageway in the middle is used to store shoes and other miscellaneous items.

So when Li Wanyan pushed open the wooden door, she saw who was standing there.

"Hello," she greeted him.

"Um...you...hello!" She seemed to be bad at socializing, and her face turned red as she managed to manage a greeting.

"Don't be so shy." Li Wanyan opened the iron gate. "Are you here to play with Yaoyao?"

"Um... my mom... asked me to come." She said softly with her head down, but her tone didn't seem reluctant.

"Please come in, my name is Li Wanyan."

“Li Wanyan… um, my name is… Yu Shu… Yu as in Yu Ji, and Shu as in the character for woman.”

Li Wanyan nodded slightly and ushered her into the room, asking her to sit down in front of the television.

"Want to watch TV?"

"Um……"

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.

A shy girl and a girl who is usually quiet with most people seem to have nothing to talk about.

Mo Xueyao was quick at taking a shower—although much slower than when the boys showered, it was still considered fast compared to other girls.

"Ah, Yu Shu is here?"

"Um... Xiaoyao," Yu Shu said with an embarrassed smile, "It's been such a long time."

"Yeah, it has been quite a while... Wanyan, why don't you go take a shower?" Mo Xueyao said, drying her hair as she looked at the two of them.

Li Wanyan didn't say anything, grabbed her clothes, and went into the bathroom.